Picture-Perfect Rose Parade Floats By

The 107th Rose Parade made its extravagant way through the postcard-bright streets of Pasadena on Monday in the foothill city’s annual affirmation of the notion that you can’t go too far wrong if you go for baroque.

Even the notoriously unpredictable Santa Ana winds fell into line with the rest of the parade. Though they wreaked havoc on power lines, fences and shingles in the surrounding area for much of New Year’s Eve, the winds barely ruffled the pampas grass on the procession’s elaborate floats, which--as tradition and the Tournament of Roses’ rules dictate--may be decorated solely with materials floral and vegetative.

Nearby areas did not fare quite so well. Overnight, the 30-mph to 70-mph gusts left 5,000 Sunland homes without power, and outages were reported not only in Pasadena but also in sections of West Los Angeles, Silver Lake, Palms, Sylmar, Los Feliz and Glendale. To the north, Santa Barbara was particularly hard hit, as early evening winds of up to 60 mph smashed windows and felled trees and power poles.

“A lot of us woke up at 3 a.m., wondering and worrying,” said Rose Parade Vice Chairman Tim Stivers.

But as Monday’s dawn approached in Pasadena, the Santa Anas simply scoured the view of the nearby San Gabriel Mountains and then, as if on cue, subsided. For the million or so people who crowded the 5.5-mile parade route and the 450 million worldwide who watched on television, the result was pretty much what the parade’s founder, Charles F. Holder, had in mind when he first proposed the event to fellow members of Pasadena’s Valley Hunt Club more than a century ago.

“In New York, people are buried in snow,” Holder said. “Here, our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear. Let’s hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise.”

The oranges may be gone and the world may know Southern California’s faults as well as its virtues, but climatological self-satisfaction remains a favorite local pastime and there was ample opportunity to indulge in it Monday.

“The wind wouldn’t dare blow on this parade,” said Bryce Neff, a spectator from West Hills, sweeping his hand at the pre-parade hubbub.

The theme of this year’s parade was “Kids’ Laughter and Dreams,” so many of the 55 flower-decked floats featured animated depictions of traditional tales such as “Alice in Wonderland” and “Cinderella,” as well as contemporary rites of childhood passage such as Halloween and a family camping trip complete with the requisite sport utility vehicle. One float sported a 47-foot floral robot that periodically transformed itself into a 35-foot-wide “action toy.”

On still another entry, a colossal, petal-covered giant pursued a bungee-jumping Jack up and down a towering beanstalk. The award for the best foreign float went to the Thai entry, on which a full-size carousel circled beneath a replica of Bangkok’s royal palace. More than 9,000 pounds of floral material was required to create the display.

“I never realized how much these floats are like artwork,” said Eric Berg, a Northwestern University football fan who came from Plymouth, Minn., with his wife, Astrid, for the Rose Bowl game. “Seeing it on TV just doesn’t do it justice, not at all.”

In keeping not only with the theme but also the spirit of the age, the parade was presided over by its first virtual grand marshal, Kermit the Frog. The only other nonhuman ever singled out for the honor, ventriloquist’s dummy Charlie McCarthy, was forced to share it with his human collaborator, Edgar Bergen. This year, the improbably green frog puppet was perched alone in a burgundy 1948 Lincoln Continental whose backseat had been removed so that the man behind the frog, Steve Whitmire, could manipulate the grand marshal from behind the scenes.

In another touch that was very much of the moment, the avuncular amphibian--a tribute to the profitable possibilities to be found in childhood fantasies--made his way down Colorado Boulevard under the sort of tight security usually reserved for presidential candidates and rock stars.

At least seven Rose Parade officials were assigned to keep onlookers and news photographers away from Kermit and his handler, and those who proved stubborn were physically removed from the scene.

Reactions to the faux frog appeared to split along surprising generational lines.

“Jeez, he’s just a frog,” said Mike Williams, 30, a spectator from Running Springs. “They’re treating him like JFK or something.”

Children, on the other hand, screamed with glee as Kermit passed, waving and talking through a mounted microphone.

“He is a little small, but he is just darling,” said Susie Neff, 62, of West Hills.

The 107th edition of Southern California’s premier pop cultural spectacle amply filled its traditional quota of unself-conscious Americana. For example, among the 33 equestrian units were the Buffalo Soldiers, a group of horseman who reenact the exploits of an all-African American cavalry unit. They were led by a rider mounted on an actual bison. Among the 23 marching bands was a Salvation Army contingent preceded by a drill team that performed synchronized tambourine routines.

But as Holder predicted, people flock to Pasadena for the flowers and, as usual, they were a source of delight for the spectators who patiently crowded the parade route.

“We had tears rolling down our faces when it started,” said Jeff Sceranka, a computer specialist from Rancho Cucamonga who spent the night on the parade route with his family. “It was just incredible.”

Shirley Griffin of Pomona has lived in Los Angeles for more than 25 years but had never been to the parade. Spending the night on the street to see it in person was exhausting but well worth it, she said.

“I just feel like a child looking at all this,” she said, jumping up on tiptoes to see the FTD float, which won the prize as the parade’s most beautiful entry. “Look what I’ve been missing.”

Fifteen Carmelite nuns in brown-and-white habits left their Duarte convent at 4:30 a.m. so they could get a spot at parade headquarters and videotape the Rose Queen for the sisters who remained behind.

“This is a big event for us,” said Sister Teresita, smiling sheepishly. “It’s so nice to get a behind-the-scenes look at all this stuff.”

Among the sights that the sisters saw was Rose Parade Princess Sarah Clinton, 17, who braved the cool Pasadena morning in long thermal underwear and white fuzzy slippers beneath her green lace and satin ball gown. “I’m going to be comfortable on this ride,” she said with a shrug.

Five miles down the parade route and hours later, Jack Liu held up his 4 1/2-year-old son Michael, who arrived in the United States from China just a month ago. The two had walked over from their nearby home just as the parade started.

Michael jiggled with joy as the first team of horses trotted by him, then stared at the huge, yellow chrysanthemum-covered “Fantasy Factory” that followed. He whispered to his father in Chinese, “It’s beautiful.”

However, not every young child was prepared for the onslaught of towering floral characters and thundering band music. Two-year-old Nicholas Rannis of Monrovia found each new float an assault on his overloaded senses. “I [gulp] go [gulp] home,” he sobbed to his mother.

Nicholas and his extended family had set up camp toward the end of the route, where Allen Avenue intersects Colorado Boulevard. And there, the audience sees a very different parade, a parade that did not even offer its pace car until 9:02 a.m., a full hour after the official start time.

This is a parade past its prime, caught just when the wilting--of float flowers and float riders’ smiles--becomes evident, when the exuberant waves of the Rose Queen and her court give way to stiff-handed salutations.

Gaps between the floats widened as breakdowns multiplied. Bands ran out of steam and wind, with only their drummers keeping the march beat.

“We get the drums,” said Julie Kealey, 29, who comes every year to join the New Year’s Day party inside her father’s television repair business.

The end of the parade route lacks television cameras and the cheerful stoicism that they engender. Seasoned spectators keep tabs on which parade participants--human, animal or floral--fail to finish.

For example, one of the nine Pasadena City College trumpeters who heralded the arrival of the Rose Queen became too woozy to continue trumpeting and had to be marched off the route. Meanwhile, a tiny cart-pulling pony, known as a Wee Wheeler, stopped in mid-street, refusing to continue. It took five adults, each twice his size, to coax him out of the way of the oncoming Monache High School Marauder Marching Band. The giant’s six-foot spoon toppled off the “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fun” float and was hastily dragged to the side of the road, where it remained.

Three floats arrived out of order, pulled by tow trucks. One of them was sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service.

La Canada’s float featured a hot pink serpent whose movable eyes were tightly closed by the time it crossed the finish line.

The sight led one mother to reassure her worried child, “Maybe he’s just sleeping.”

Times staff writers Tim Rutten and Lorenza Munoz contributed to this story.

* PARADE PICTURES: A3-A5

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Last Chance to See Floats

The floats may become compost fodder, but not before they get one last hurrah.

They can be viewed today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at a Pasadena staging area. Entrances are on Sierra Madre Boulevard between Washington Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue and on Washington Boulevard between Sierra Madre Boulevard and Woodlyn Road.

Admission is $1 per person.

Senior citizens and those who need help getting around can view the floats from 7 to 9 a.m. today.