Trail of Roses

Trail of Roses From ostrich races to astronauts, the Rose Parade and accompanying game have had a rich history. A look at the evolution of the parade and game:

1905: First rose queen, Hallie Woods. She was elected by her classmates at Pasadena High. She made her own gown and helped to decorate her own float.

1906: Largest royal court in history of the parade under Queen Elsie Armitage, with 24 princesses.

1913: First queen and king chosen.

1914: Second and last time a king and queen are chosen as officiating royalty.

1930: Holly Halsted is first rose queen chosen under a new selection process emphasizing her interest in the Tournament and local residence, not national prominence.

1981: First Japanese American rose queen, Leslie Kawai.

1985: Kristina Kaye Smith is the Tournament’s first African American rose queen.

1890: First Rose Parade turns a $229.30 profit.

1891: The Monrovia Town Band becomes the first band to perform in the parade.

1894: First reviewing stands are built along the parade route. Organizations enter floats in the parade for the first time.

1895: Tournament of Roses Assn. is formed to produce the festival. Rain falls on the parade for the first time.

1898: East Coast media, including several large newspapers, cover the parade for the first time.

1900: The first motion picture of the parade is produced by the Vitascope Co. It is considered “live” national coverage, even though it is screened days, weeks or months later.

1901: Motorized vehicles are allowed as float entries, but are made to keep to the rear of the parade so as not to scare the horses.

1902: The first Rose Bowl game is played at Tournament Park, now Caltech’s athletic field. Michigan beats Stanford, 49-0. The 1,000 seats are insufficient for the 8,500 people who stampede the field. Because of the stampede and the lopsided score, football is discontinued at the parade until 1916.

1904: First chariot races are staged, inspired partly by the best-seller “Ben-Hur.” They continue until 1915, when they become too expensive and dangerous.

1908: Wires above the parade route are raised to accommodate much larger floats, such as a 41-foot whale spouting perfume 25 feet in the air, an 86-foot orange and a 35-foot-long airship.

1912: Broadcaster C.P. Rogers makes an epic flight from the Atlantic to Pasadena and flies over parade route, dropping rose petals.

1913: First queen and king chosen. First ostrich race. One ostrich throws its rider into the judges’ viewing stand. First and only elephant-camel race. The elephant wins.

1916: Catherine Wright is the first woman to drive a float. Football is reinstated in Tournament Park.

1917: First Rose Bowl win for the West. Oregon beats Pennsylvania 14-0. First international floats are hotels from Yokohama, Japan and Manila.

1920: The end of the horse-drawn era. William L. Leishman is the first parade president to ride in his own car. Salvation Army Band makes its first appearance, and has appeared in every parade since--the longest record of continuous appearance.

1922: The stadium is completed and deeded to the city of Pasadena by the Tournament of Roses Assn. Seats 57,000.

1923: The stadium is named the Rose Bowl and first game is held. USC defeats Penn State, 14-3.

1924: The first sweepstakes prize is awarded to a float--Glendale’s “Fairyland.”

1925: Aimee Semple McPherson’s Angelus Temple float costs $4,000 to construct, the most expensive to date.

1926: First radio broadcast of a Rose Bowl game. One woman falls to her death, a police chief is trampled by horses, and two women die and 256 people are injured when a wooden viewing stand collapses at the corner of Madison Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.

1927: Czechoslovakia’s parade entry is the first by a foreign government.

1929: “Wrong Way Reigels” runs 65 yards the wrong way to his own goal line.

1930: First grand marshal is chosen from outside Pasadena: James “Sunny Jim” Rolph, mayor of San Francisco. Coast-to-coast network radio broadcasts and movie newsreels popularize Pasadena as a major attraction.

1933: Mary Pickford is both the first Hollywood celebrity and the first woman to be grand marshal.

1935: Commercial floats are added for the first time to the parade.

Shirley Temple is grand marshal.

1941: Stanford uses T-formation, a new wide-open offense, to defeat Nebraska.

1942: Parade is canceled after Dec. 7, 1941, when Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. A very small celebration takes place instead.

1943-45: Parade is canceled during WWII.

1946: First full parade after WWII, themed “Victory, Unity and Peace.”

1950: First bowl game to have 100,000 spectators.

1951: First network telecast of the parade. It is transmitted by KTTV via microwave to KPIX, San Francisco. It has to be condensed into a one-hour telecast.

1959: William Wrigley Jr. family gives Wrigley Mansion and gardens to the city of Pasadena for Rose Parade headquarters.

1962: First Rose Bowl game to be televised in color.

1967: Thanat Khoman, Thailand’s minister of foreign affairs, is first foreign national to be named grand marshal.

1968: First live international satellite feed of the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game. O.J. Simpson wins the game for the Trojans.

1973: John Wayne is grand marshal.

1974: Charles Schulz, creator of “Peanuts,” is grand marshal. Nancy Barone, who was born in Catania, Italy, is first rose queen not born in North America.

1980: Frank Sinatra is grand marshal with his wife, Barbara. Heismann Trophy winner Charles White sets Rose Bowl record for most yards gained, 247.

1982: Jimmy Stewart is grand marshal.

1985: Ohio State’s Rich Spangler makes the longest field goal in Rose Bowl history, 52 yards.

1986: The tallest float ever to appear in the Rose Parade is the American Honda entry, which has a clown made of carnations doing handstands on a teeter-totter. Its full height is 62 feet. City of Pasadena celebrates its 100th birthday.

1988: First live network broadcast of the Rose Bowl game in Spanish. First live broadcast of the Rose Parade to luxury cruise ships. First live radio broadcast of the Rose Parade from atop a moving float by radio personalities Ken and Bob of KABC-AM.

1991: Rose Parade and edited clips of the game are broadcast for the first time in Russia. 1992: His Grace Cristobol Colon, a direct descendant of Christopher Columbus, is named grand marshal. U.S. Rep. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a northern Cheyenne Indian, is added as co-grand marshal after protests from Native Americans.

1994: 105th Tournament of Roses parade is broadcast to People’s Republic of China.

1999: First quadruple grand marshals in Rose Parade history. Actress/diplomat Shirley Temple Black, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, sports legend Jackie Robinson (posthumously represented by his lifelong friend, Ray Bartlett) and film producer/documentarian David L. Wolper are chosen to collectively represent the 20th century. Shirley Temple Black is the only grand marshal to serve both as a child and an adult.

2000: Roy E. Disney, Walt Disney’s nephew, is grand marshal, making him and his uncle the first and only grand marshals in the same family.

THE FIRST FLOATS

On Jan. 1, 1890, the members of the Valley Hunt Club voted to present a flower-decorated horse-and-buggy parade and an afternoon of public games on the ‘town lot’ east of Los Robles Avenue at Colorado Boulevard. The parade was inspired by the Mediterranean festival of roses. The goal was to become “The Mediterranean of the West.”

After the parade, a competition was held which included foot races, tugs of war, jousts and a “tourney of rings,” which was an old Spanish sport involving mounted horsemen galloping at full speed, each carrying a 12-foot lance, trying to spear three rings hung about thirty feet apart. The tourney of rings combined with the floral decorations caused professor Charles F. Holder, the first president, to say, ‘Now we have the name we want--the Tournament of Roses.’ More than 2,000 people attended the first Tournament.

Rose Queens

Each year about 900 young women between 17 and 21 compete for the queen or princess role in the parade. A panel of judges, members of the Tournament selection committee, selects the queen and her court in a series of eliminations. Eligible candidates must be unmarried high school seniors or full-time students with at least a “C” average in any accredited school or college in the Pasadena Area Community College District.

The Queen of Innovation

Isabella Coleman is a legend among those who make a career of float-making. She began designing floats in 1909 and is credited with several innovations. Among them was pasting just the petals to the float, not the entire flower. This allowed for more elaborate designs. She was also the first to place flowers in vials.

“A float is a stage. You can do anything. The future is unlimited.” -- Isabella Coleman.

Researched by LESLIE CARLSON / Los Angeles Times

Sources: “Tournament of Roses” by Joe Hendrickson; www.tournamentofroses.com; Adrienne Graves, Public Relations Department, Tournament of Roses