Farce and Fanfare

Everything needed to amuse 9-year-old Gabriel Moran was marching down Colorado Boulevard in Old Pasadena on Sunday.

The West Hollywood Cheerleaders, decked out in pink skirts, blond wigs and sporting 5 o’clock shadows, had just passed the Highland Park resident’s perch. The next entrants in the 21st annual Doo Dah parade, a bevy of people dressed as animals, marched by as Gabriel broke out into a huge grin.

“It’s not what you expect. It’s so wild,” giggled Gabriel, a Doo Dah rookie. “You think there’s going to be floats and regular stuff. Instead there’s people on motorcycles wearing pig’s noses, cheerleaders and--look, houses!”

On came the synchronized Housing Drill Team, downtown Los Angeles architects wearing cardboard houses on their heads and weaving formations familiar to any Angeleno: Running in a circle for the cul-de-sac, bunching together for the condominium.

A counterpoint to the more sedate Rose Parade, the annual Doo Dah parade mixes entries from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the satirical to the scatological through a nearly mile-long stretch of Old Pasadena.

This year’s parade drew about 30,000 onlookers to gawk and guffaw at the likes of the Hibachi Grill Team (which hurled hot dogs into the crowd) and a seemingly endless supply of Elvis impersonators and cross-dressers.

With more than 1,000 participants, organizers said it was the largest procession in Doo Dah history.

Elsewhere, the Fabulous Holiday Christmas Lane Parade in Huntington Park had a much more traditional feel. It also drew big crowds Sunday, with recording artist Marisela as grand marshal. The contrast with Doo Dah was strong: The grand marshal of the Pasadena parade was an Altadena folk artist whose float was wheeled by cross-dressers.

“The Doo Dah accepts people who aren’t of Rose Parade level and status and stature,” said Dennis Miller, a 49-year-old self-described homeless man and environmental activist who dressed up as El Nino.

Miller’s costume, complete with scuba gear and a flowing cape with weather warnings spray-painted on it, was, he said, an “environmental, philosophical and humorous statement.”

He wasn’t the only Doo Daher with a statement to make. Just behind him were the Sanchez Strafers, an Orange County businesswoman’s association whose members wore cardboard airplane wings and fired squirt guns at a man dressed as ousted Orange County Rep. Bob Dornan.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), whose defeat of Dornan in last year’s elections is being contested by Dornan because of alleged voter fraud, is a member of the group and wished them well, said Susan Staub, a Laguna Niguel banking consultant.

But the Sanchez strafers weren’t only interested in politics. “This is a nice counterpoint to the serious demeanor we have most of the time,” said Sandra Holstedt, 57, as she adjusted her squirt gun.

The participant who drew some of the heartiest cheers would not have normally stood out in a crowd. Claude Hobge, 80, wore a simple gray suit as he walked down the boulevard next to a cart carrying the ashes of his late wife, Lily.

Lily Hobge had always wanted to walk in the Doo Dah parade, and her husband entered her to be this year’s Doo Dah Queen. Though they chose someone else, this year’s organizers created a new title for Lily Hobge: Her Royal Highness of the Hereafter.

Claude Hobge explained why he and his wife so treasured the parade: “It’s nice. Everybody’s dressed like they want to be. Better than having to wear a uniform.”