Looking back

The Rose Parade is such a fixture of the national New Year’s celebration that we might not stop to wonder about its origins. In fact, the story of the Rose Parade is rooted in the history of Southern California and indeed that of America, and the event and its annual theme often reflect the national zeitgeist.

The parade dates back to 1890 when members of Pasadena’s Valley Hunt Club — an exclusive group of wealthy transplants from the East Coast and Midwest — first staged the event. They wanted to showcase to the nation California’s mild winter weather, which contrasted so starkly with the frigid winters in their former home states. The idea was to invite their former East Coast neighbors to a mid-winter holiday under the warm California sun.

A parade of horse-drawn carriages festooned with flowers illustrated their newfound paradise and inspired the “Tournament of Roses” name. This spectacle, plus polo matches, foot races and tug-of-war games, made up the inaugural event and drew a crowd of around 2,000.

By 1895 the Tournament of Roses Assn. was created by members of the Valley Hunt Club, who felt that the event had grown too large for the Hunt Club to handle. Aided by odd attractions like ostrich races and even a race between an elephant and a camel (which the elephant won), the tournament was beginning to earn national attention. By 1902, a football game was introduced. Though football was replaced with chariot racing the very next year after the University of Michigan’s 49-0 thrashing of Stanford University, it returned for good in 1916.

Motorized floats started to appear in the parade in the early 1900s, though at the time they were kept to the rear of the parade so they wouldn’t spook the horses.

The year 1947 marked the first local telecast of the Rose Parade on W6XYZ — an experimental TV station that later became KTLA. Today the parade is broadcast on multiple American networks (including ABC, Hallmark Channel, HGTV, KTLA, NBC, RFD-TV and Univision) and watched by millions in more than 220 territories and countries worldwide. Today’s Tournament of Roses also boasts a comprehensive, completely redesigned website, which launched on Dec. 5, a live webcast at KTLA.com and the mobile website tofr.mobi. And this year, for the first time, the Viewer’s Choice Award for the best float will largely be determined by text voting. To vote, send the word “float” followed by the entry number to 50649.

Until 1917 the Rose Parade had no themes, but World War I inspired the theme “Patriotism” in 1918 and “Victory Tournament” the following year. Themes disappeared until 1927, when they returned with “Songs in Flowers” and remained similarly lighthearted for years, with “Fairy Tales in Flowers” in 1933 and “Playland Fantasies” in 1938. World War II shifted the tone with themes of “We’re in to Win” in 1943 and “Hold a Victory so Hardly Won” in 1945.

The Rose Parades of the 1950s echoed the era’s optimism with names like 1952’s “Dreams of the Future” and “Daydreams in Flowers” six years later. The “Wonderful World of Adventure” theme for the 1968 parade hinted at the seemingly limitless travel possibilities of the time, with the space race in full flight and the first manned moon landing 18 months away.

The nation’s bicentennial sparked “America, Let’s Celebrate!” in 1976. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union inspired the 1990 theme “A World in Harmony.”

For the 2011 parade, Tournament of Roses president Jeff Throop and his wife, Angel, chose the theme “Building Dreams, Friendships & Memories” as a celebration of the event itself.

“For some, it is a dream to make it to Pasadena on New Year’s Day. Whether it’s as a player in the Rose Bowl Game, as a trumpeter in the Rose Parade or a fan watching from the curbside,” Throop said. “Involvement with this organization leads to building friendships and memories that last a lifetime. The 2011 Tournament of Roses will celebrate the builders who put our parade and game together and the dreams, friendships and memories that ensue from it.”

For the first time in its 122-year history, the Rose Parade will have a new name for 2011. It will be officially known as the 122nd Rose Parade Presented by Honda — part of a new sponsorship deal with American Honda Motor Co.

—Paul Rogers
Custom Publishing Writer