A Holiday Glow in Griffith Park

City workers plan to go to great lengths--5,280 feet, in fact--to brighten the upcoming holiday season in Los Angeles.

Workers will plug in nearly 1 million electric bulbs to create a mile-long series of seasonal scenes in Griffith Park from Dec. 7 to Dec. 24, officials said.

The first-ever Los Angeles “Festival of Lights” will be the largest display of its type ever staged in California, parks administrators and professional lighting designers say.

Scenes including 15-foot toy soldiers, animated animals and an 84-foot riverboat piloted by an electric Santa Claus will be among 20 exhibits of lights placed along Crystal Springs Drive between the Los Angeles Zoo and the park merry-go-round area.

The $310,000 cost of the lights and displays is being donated by the city’s Department of Water and Power in exchange for the inclusion of some of its own promotional scenes in the show.

For their part, park operators hope that the free display will spotlight Griffith’s Park’s 100th anniversary, which is Dec. 16.

“There are going to be lots of oohs and aahs out here,” said Eric Peterson, a lighting designer who is helping create the displays. “There are going to be a lot of U-turns from drivers wanting to see it twice.”

Spectators will drive through tunnels of light at both ends of the road to enter the display area, officials said. A walking path illuminated by thousands of twinkling bulbs will be open for those who want to look at the scenes in a more leisurely fashion.

Officials said the festival idea came from a parks panel that spent months thinking of ways to celebrate the centennial of the donation of Griffith Park to the city by the landowner, Col. Griffith J. Griffith. Newspaper accounts at the time characterized the five-square-mile donation as “a Christmas gift to the city.”

Because of that, “we thought this would be an appropriate way” to observe the anniversary, said Linda Barth, a parks department management analyst who served on the panel.

Said Jackie Tatum, the parks department’s general manager: “We’ve had some dark times in this city in the last few years with things like the earthquake. We’re going to light up the lives of citizens of the community.”

Officials plan to switch on the lights and the park’s traditional 30-foot Christmas tree during a 5 p.m. ceremony Dec. 7 near the zoo. The lights will be on from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. nightly after that.

Peterson, a 34-year-old Long Beach resident who designs lighting displays for Dekra-Lite Co. of Santa Ana, said the show will be a challenge. Officials did not award the design contract to him until Oct. 28--well after 290 shopping centers had hired his firm this year to do holiday decorating.

“This is a huge palette to work with,” Peterson said. Displays will be seasonally themed but nonreligious. They will include:

* “Holiday Fantasy,” with toy soldiers, a giant toy soldier guardhouse, an animated Santa Express train, four elves, a 12-foot waving Santa and an animated carriage drawn by four horses.

* “Ice Castle,” with a 25-foot castle, silhouetted carolers, lanterns and 15 trees wrapped with blue and teal lights.

* “Holidays of the Future,” with Santa flying overhead in a rocket beaming packages down to futuristic houses.

* “Snowflake Forest,” with 50 twinkling snowflakes hung on both sides of the road and over a 15-foot, three-dimensional snowman.

* “Holidays of the Past,” with Indians and cowboys, an animated campfire and a stagecoach drawn by two horses.

* “Zoo,” with light-sculptured animals including an elephant with an animated trunk spraying water, lions, a giraffe, a bear, monkeys and parrots in trees and an animated crocodile in simulated water.

There also will be an exhibit recognizing the contemporary African American observance of Kwanzaa and two DWP scenes, including a large house connected to a mock power pole that is programmed to light up in sequence.

Because the city is buying the lights, parks leaders hope to make the holiday show an annual event, possibly expanding it each year, Tatum said.

Power officials said cash for the lights came from their department’s advertising budget. The DWP has launched a promotion campaign aimed at retaining customers when the electric utility industry in the state is deregulated, starting in 1998.

“The DWP has an 80-year history in Los Angeles. We think this is an excellent opportunity to let people know we plan to be here providing reliable service in the future,” said Lucia Alvelais, an aide to DWP General Manager Bill McCarley.

Peterson said the displays will be framed by eucalyptus trees that line Crystal Springs Drive.

“The trees will add to the surprise element for spectators when they come up on the scenes,” said Peterson, of Santa Ana. The park’s location--shielded from city lights by nearby hills--also will enhance the display.

“One of the key features is that this area is pitch-black at night,” Peterson said.

Don Burgess, production manager for the exhibit, said traffic control officers will help motorists queue up at the zoo parking lot for the 15-minute drive past the exhibits. To give everybody a good view, buses will be banned from the area.

There will be parking for up to 8,000 cars for those wanting to view the lights on foot, he said.