chuckography

I Love A Parade...

Hey, we've started the countdown to Christmas and you know what that means! Yes! A week later is the Rose Bowl and the big parade!

One year, back in 1970, Universal Studios decided to enter a float in the New Year's Day Rose Parade over in Pasadena.

I had watched the Tournament of Roses event for years on television and this year - since I now worked for the fairly new Studio Tour - I was told I would be the official liaison between the Studio and the Parade Committee.

Well, actually, what they meant was that SOMEONE had to get up long before dawn and coordinate lots of details in the cold crisp morning. I had been selected to be responsible for the expensive float and the care and comfort of the talent who would ride and walk beside it for 5.5 miles up Orange Grove and then right on Colorado Boulevard.

At 3:30am on New Years Day, the studio sent a long, shiny, black stretch limo to my modest house in Glendale to pick me up but of course all of my neighbors were asleep, my kids and then-wife dozed and everyone missed seeing my limousine moment.

I just read that Universal, for the first time since 1970, will have a 5-story "Cat in the Hat" float in the 2008 Parade. It's the 4Th float up at the head of the line so maybe I'll watch it on tv.

Some poor guy will have a limo pick him up early. Hope there's a thermos of hot coffee in the back. I took my own.

Labels: Cat in the Hat, Count Dracula, Frankenstein Monster, limousine, Pasadena Tournament of Roses, Rose Parade, studio float

posted by chucker @ 7:00 PM