Organizer Urges Doo Dah Parade Changes

Doo Dah Parade organizer Peter Apanel delivered letters to Pasadena city officials and Old Town merchants last week on a tentative plan to turn the 17-year-old parade into a paid festival-style event for 5,000 people at City Hall Plaza.

To the disappointment of some, Apanel said he can no longer control the Old Town crowd of about 40,000 people, some of whom hurl tortillas into the audience, interrupt parade routines and leave behind a mess of Silly String and gobs of sticky marshmallows. Apanel, who runs the parade as his full-time job, also wants to make money.

The revised Doo Dah Parade would be a daylong affair on Nov. 27, with a procession of zany acts, vendor booths and other entertainment. Spectators would pay $5 for admission. That doesn’t mean an end to the wackiness; it only means compressed wackiness, Apanel said.

“All logistics aside, when you talk about the artistic element and the social element that made the parade a success, that will be preserved and, I hope, enhanced by this kind of arrangement,” he said.

Apanel said he plans to meet with city officials early next year to work out details.

Pasadena Mayor Rick Cole said he has not seen Apanel’s letter and could not comment definitively until he reads it. But he said Apanel has floated trial balloons before and he isn’t convinced that this one is for real.

“The reaction has been, ‘Is this for real, or is this some kind of elaborate bluff?’ ” Cole said.

Others are applauding the idea of moving the parade from Old Town.

“When you get 40,000 people in any small area, you’ve got problems with trash, and sometimes you get unruly crowds, and after the parade is over with, it looks like World War III was out there,” said Jack Smith, president of the Old Pasadena Business and Professional Assn.

But former Mutant Queen Jennifer Coile, who has played that role in seven past parades, said she would miss the spontaneity of old Doo Dahs--the impulsive crowd members who held up signs such as “ugly” or “gross” as parade acts marched by, the spectators who set up a curbside viewing area with a small house facade, Astroturf and white picket fence.

“We go around the corner, and we never know what we’re going to see,” said Coile, 38, a Los Angeles resident. “It’s been hilarious.”