John Golden; Costume Firm Chief, Holiday Parade Booster

John F. Golden, the longtime head of Western Costume Co. who was instrumental in reviving the annual Hollywood Christmas Parade, has died.

Golden was 85 and died Tuesday at his Hancock Park home.

For 39 years until his retirement in the late 1980s, Golden was president and director of Western Costume, an 88-year-old company considered to have the world’s largest collection of costumes.

Located for decades near Paramount Studios until moving to North Hollywood in 1990, it dressed cowboys and Indians in the first one-reel Westerns and went on to outfit the casts of countless legendary films, including “Gone With the Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Ben Hur” and “Cleopatra.”

Golden, a native of Hartshorne, Okla., joined the costume company in 1949 as controller after working in business administration in the aircraft industry and the Lucky supermarket chain. He rose to president several years later and became one of Hollywood’s most vigorous boosters.

Restored Glamour to Hollywood Parade

He headed the Hollywood parade for two decades. Along with Johnny Grant, the honorary mayor of Hollywood and longtime KTLA personality, he was credited with restoring the popularity of the star-studded event that signals the opening of the holiday season for millions of viewers around the country.

Founded in 1928 to attract shoppers to Hollywood Boulevard, the parade by the late 1960s had lost its luster and could not attract crowds or prominent celebrities.

Golden was recruited in 1978 by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to head the parade and restore glamour to the event. Described by associates as a crusty and irascible figure who always had a cigar in hand, he used Grant’s criticism of the parade to rope him into the project.

“I told John that parade was the worst thing I’ve ever seen. It was a disaster,” Grant recalled. “The next thing I know, I got a call from him saying, ‘Let’s see what you can do.’ ”

It was Golden’s idea to change the parade’s name. From its inception it had been called the Santa Claus Lane Parade, but he saw an opportunity to turn the event into a marketing tool for Hollywood and Southern California.

“We decided if we could make this parade go and have a positive image for Hollywood, then we should have Hollywood in the name of it,” Golden said in an interview some years ago. “That’s when it became the Hollywood Christmas Parade.”

After three months of lobbying by Grant, Bob Hope agreed to serve as grand marshal that year. His presence lured other big stars.

Grant’s boss, KTLA owner Gene Autry, was a parade veteran with a special tie to the event. He was riding his horse Champion in it in the mid-1940s when he was inspired by the shouts of children along the parade route to write a song: “Here Comes Santa Claus.” Under Grant and Golden’s leadership, Autry became a major sponsor and hosted a lavish party for participants in the studio’s green room. Other television stations around the country signed on and the 1978 parade was the first to be seen by a national audience.

During Golden’s two decades as volunteer chairman of the parade, it was broadcast on more than 130 television stations covering 80% of the country, according to Leron Gubler, president of the Hollywood chamber. He noted that, since Golden stepped down as chairman a few years ago, the number of stations has declined to about 100.

Golden, the costumer, left his mark on the parade in other ways as well.

“We probably had the best Santa suits of any parade in the world,” Grant said.

Golden is survived by his wife of 40 years, Stefania; two sons, Gary and Wingate; and four grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held at 8:30 a.m. today at Forest Lawn, Hollywood, in the Old North Church. A reception will follow at 10 a.m. at Wilshire Country Club, where Golden was a longtime member and former president.

Donations may be made to the Lupus Foundation or the American Cancer Society.