Here we have a gorgeously vibrant photo of the annual New Year’s Day Rose Parade (aka Tournament of Roses) as it makes its way along Colorado Blvd, Pasadena. I don’t know if attendance is still this big, but look at those crowds. The float in the center appears to be dinosaurs standing under palm trees. I love the huge NBC TV camera up on the platform – these days our cell phone could take a much better footage. In the background, we can see signs for Valiant Chrysler/Plymouth, and next to it Peter Satori Rolls-Royce at 285 West Colorado Blvd. which was on the corner of De Lacey Ave. So this shot was taken near the start of the parade.
Here’s a closer view of the Flintstones-themed float in the 1962 Rose Parade:
Here is the 1962 Rose Parade pictorial guide:
Ah, the good old days when safety was not a paramount concern. Note there’s nothing protecting the intrepid NBC cameraman, no guard rail, tether, nothing. Just had to remember not to take a step back, I guess.
If he was dumb enough to take a step backward, that was on him.
It’s The Flintstones. Barney’s up above. Betty can be spotted down by the house at the float’s front. We can just read “See’s” and “Shops” so it should all have read See’s Candy Shops. Maybe they were sponsoring the show or partnering somehow? And notice the KHJ TV sign below the NBC crane on the side of the grandstands area. Ernie Porter’s Chevrolet is just next to the Triumph signage here on auto row back then.
The Flintstones! That makes perfect sense
That was Wilma by the house. Betty’s in the next shot and Fred is in a hammock…hard day at the rock quarry.
I do think the parade still draws attendance like this!
The photo is interesting to me in that the crowd on the left side of the photo is looking at the float. The crowd on the right side of the photo is looking at what’s next.
Although the temperature seems mild (some men on the right are in shirt sleeves) in three weeks the last reported snowfall in downtown Los Angeles will be recorded. It was a lot heavier in the valley. (When I looked up the exact date I read this: And no one was caught more unprepared than Richard Nixon, then campaigning for Governor, who that day appeared in Sunland-Tujunga’s March of Dimes parade. Sitting in an open car in his light summery suit, Nixon waved to thinning crowds as sometimes-heavy snowfall chilled the parade route.)
Although most times the Grand Marshal of the Rose Parade is known to the parade goers, the 1962 Grand Marshal was Albert Dean Rosellini. (?) He was an American politician who served as the 15th governor of Washington from 1957 to 1965 and was both the first Italian-American and Roman Catholic governor elected west of the Mississippi River. I know that each year’s Tournament of Roses Association President gets to choose the parade them and the Grand Marshal, but I could not find out why he was chosen that year. The theme that year seems rather obvious, “Around the World in Flowers.” It’s that every year, heh!
They were having the World’s Fair in Washington that year and the world themes must have aligned. Rosellini lived to a ripe old age.
Looks like a grand time had by all!