What Were They Thinking? - Disney's 2004 Rose Parade Float

You can file this post under the heading of, "What Were They Thinking?"   Or maybe put it in a file marked, "Too Soon???"

California Adventure's Tower of Terror attraction opened in May of 2004.  Just four months earlier, Disney featured this very unattractive float, in the New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade.

Even the author of this Los Angeles Times article, asked the question, "What was Disney thinking?"  She felt that Disney's decision to feature this float in the parade, less than 28 months after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, was a bit "too soon."

Here's a close-up shot of the float, by Eric Warren on Flickr:

As stated in the Los Angeles Times advertisement at the top of this post, the float was on display in the park, from January 2nd through January 19th.

The Tower of Terror attraction opened at the park, four months later.  The exterior design of the building was scaled back drastically, from the original version of the attraction at Walt Disney Studios, in Florida.  Personally, I have always thought this version looked very cheap and ugly (just like the float), especially when compared to Walt Disney World's, and Tokyo Disneyland's Tower of Terror attractions.  I was also not a fan of the color choice for the building's exterior.  It reminded me of Disneyland's ugly "brown and gold" Tomorrowland, of 1998.

This artwork of the building was located on a wall in the gift shop, at the exit of the ride.  It was removed in 2017, when the attraction was re-themed to Marvel Studio's Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.

We will wrap up this post with footage of the Tower of Terror parade float, moving down Pasadena's Colorado Boulevard, on New Year's Day.

Here's wishing a very happy New Year, to all!

 

The 1971 Tournament of Roses Parade (Disney, Knott's & More!)

Happy New Year, everyone! Today, we will be taking a look at the Tournament of Roses Parade, from 1971. The theme that year was "Through The Eyes Of A Child."

First up, we have some pages from a pictorial souvenir of the parade.

The Grand Marshal of the parade was Billy Graham.

Here is a sampling of the floats from that year. The "Sesame Street" float was sponsored by the Chrysler Corporation and featured members of the show's cast riding on board. I wonder if that is "Bob" (McGrath) standing at the head of the float? It sure looks like it could be him.

The Hi-C Drinks company sponsored a float titled, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, " which had been a number one song (by B.J. Thomas) on the Billboard charts the previous year. It was also featured in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and had won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

According to a post by Jim Korkis at MousePlanet.com (from January of 2014), "Disney gave permission to the Sunkist Corporation to use characters from the feature film Song of the South on their float titled, "Tales of the Briar Patch."

The "Dolls of Many Lands" float from the Union Oil Company reminds me of "It's A Small World"!

I'm pretty sure Farmer's Insurance didn't need permission from Disney for their float, featuring a "generic" Cinderella riding in her carriage. And the title of the City of Santa Monica's float, "Tweet, Tweet, Tweet", seems ahead of it's time. ;-)

I think it's interesting that the Knott's Berry Farm float had Walter and Cordelia Knott riding on it, but their great-grandchildren were being "portrayed" by other children (including actors, Johnnie Whitaker and Todd Starke.)

I also think it's interesting....and ironic, that the theme of the float was about Walter and Cordelia retelling generations of "family tales" to the children. The float depicted pioneers of the West and their covered wagons, which was very similar to the Covered Wagon Show diorama that was at Knott's for nearly 50 years.

This was the show that told the history of Walter Knott's grandmother and great-grandmother's journey out west in a covered wagon. And it was the same show that was taken out and replaced with a souvenir shop during the time that the Knott's children still owned the park. I'll never understand that. Okay, my mini "Knott's rant" is over!

The City of Anaheim's entry that year was, "Dreams Come True in Anaheim". Note the two children (Angela Dutton and Jimmy Sundali) in the bed with the giant Walt Disney storybook. Scatman Crothers who voiced the character of "Scat Cat" in Disney's animated movie, The Aristocats was riding on the float, along with costumed characters from the film. At the rear of the float, you can see a yellow cat wearing sunglasses. The description below states that Mr. Crothers and his band of cats were "furnishing the crowd with lively music." I'm assuming that they were singing the song, "Everybody Wants To Be A Cat" from the movie.

The Aristocats had just been released in theaters one week earlier.

I have never been to the Rose Parade, even though I was born and raised in Southern California (literally a half-hour's drive from the parade route!) However, my family did go to see the floats after the parade a few times. It is tradition for the floats to be out on display for a couple days following the parade and this was one of the years that my family went to see them. I am including the photos from that trip, below. I should also mention that my brother took all of these snapshots.

Here again, is the City of Anaheim's float titled, "Dreams Come True in Anaheim". Note Dumbo and Timothy Mouse on top of the float and the floral "fireworks" above the castle. This was the parade's "Theme Prize" winner.

Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket were at the rear of the float. Right behind them was the area where the costumed characters from "The Aristocats" performed during the parade.

A floral Mad Hatter could be found in a giant-sized tea cup. The large ice cream sundae in the background was part of a separate float.

The City of Glendale's float won the "Grand Marshall's Trophy" and featured "Punch and Judy".

Cal Poly's entry was the very first float in the parade and was titled, "Once Upon A Dream." It won the "Judge's Trophy" that year.

Below, is some very brief professional footage of that float, along with some commentary.




And once again, here is the "Sesame Street" float. During the actual parade, Oscar The Grouch's head popped up and down out of his trash can. Big Bird is just out of frame on the right, and you can see the stools that the children were sitting on as the float went down the parade route.

The character below, is Roosevelt Franklin, Sesame Street's first black-influenced Muppet. He was on the show from Season 1 through Season 7 and was voiced by Matt Robinson. Robinson also played the part of "Gordon" on the show, and had worked very closely with Jim Henson on creating Roosevelt Franklin.

Incidentally, I received a Roosevelt Franklin puppet for my birthday the following year! I still have the puppet and the box that the puppet came in. I plan to post pics of both of those in the future but for now, here is a professional shot of the lesser-known Sesame Street character.

The footage below shows the Rose Parade floats on display after the parade. A few of the floats still have their animation running. I don't think they leave the animation going on any of the parked floats today. Unfortunately, there isn't any footage here of Anaheim's Disneyland float. Also, at about the 4:20 mark, the float footage ends and switches to Chinatown in Los Angeles.



If anyone is interested in watching more footage of the actual parade, here is some pretty good quality home movie footage of the parade going down Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena. The Disneyland float is shown here, but it is at the very end of the footage.





I want to wish everyone out there, a happy and healthy 2017!!!

The 1966 Rose Parade - Part 7

What happened to Part 1 through 6 did you ask? Well, I posted a six part series last year covering the 1966 Rose Parade. Walt Disney was the grand marshal and the parade's theme was "It's A Small World." I had withheld some of the parade photos for one reason or another, but I am going to go ahead and post those today....one year later. Better late than never! Before we get to the floats, here is the official program for the parade.

The first entry for today is entitled, "Big Sky Country" and is from the State of Montana.

This float is for American Field Service and is from the City of San Gabriel, California.


Here is Kern County's entry, "California's Golden Empire."

The next float has a very long title...."St. Paul Winter Carnival - Land of Blue Sky Waters Salutes Sao Paulo."

This entry from the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West is entitled, "It's The Small Things That Count" and features Smokey The Bear.

And what about the bands? Well, here's the UCLA band......

...and here's a close up of Michigan State's band. UCLA and Michigan were playing in the Rose Bowl that year.

Last up from this series is a shot of the Long Beach Mounted Police.

If you would like to view the rest of the 1966 Rose Parade, including photos of Walt Disney as Grand Marshal, Fess Parker as Davy Crockett, and the Walt Disney Studios/Burbank float, click here: (Link)

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Happy 2010 to everyone!

The 1966 Rose Parade - Part 6

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! Well, we have finally come to the end of this series.....and the beginning of the parade. This is the 1966 Rose Parade and below, is the official grand marshal of the parade, Walt Disney.

Following Walt Disney was the City of Burbank's float entitled, "Our Small World Of Make Believe." Note Mary Poppins and the penguin waiters on the table in front of her. "Mary Poppins" would have had it's Los Angeles premiere just 16 months prior to this.

I've included three publicity shots below. The first photo is of the 1966 Rose Queen, Carole Cota. I wonder what she's doing these days?

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The next photo was labeled, "1966 Theme - It's A Small World." (Once again, at that time, the "It's A Small World" attraction had already been seen by millions of visitors to the 1964/65 New York World's Fair, but it wasn't going to have it's grand opening at Disneyland until later that year.) I think the lady on the left is Carole Cota....at least it looks like her and she is holding the larger of the two bouquets. Anyone out there happen to know who the lady on the right might have been?

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This last photo wasn't labled at all and it was the most faded of all of them. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do too much with the color. I don't think either one of these ladies is Carole Cota, but I can't be sure. Any ideas? The two ladies actually look like they might be twins. The two headlines on the prop newspaper read, "Pasadena Is Home Of Roses" and "Millions Enjoy Sunshine (last word not legible)". I leave you for now with this strange, faded, confusing photo! I hope everyone has enjoyed this series!

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The 1966 Rose Parade - Part 5

We have been working our way backwards through the 1966 Rose Parade. This is the second to the last post in the series. Tomorrow's post will include Walt Disney himself, Mickey Mouse, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Pinocchio, Mary Poppins and the Disney version of Cinderella (see the second photo below for the non-Disney version.)

First up today is, the 1966 Rose Parade Queen and her royal court.


Next....a non-Disney version of Cinderella riding inside of the Huntington-Sheraton Hotel's float entitled, "Cinderella Returning From The Ball."


Below, is San Francisco's float entitled, "Osaka - Sister City."

Next we have an Apollo space capsule that appears to have just landed on an alien planet. This entry belonged to the City of South Pasadena and was entitled, "It IS A Small World."

Last up today, is Dr. Pepper's float, "The Land Of Oz."

The 1966 Rose Parade - Part 4

This is Part 4 in a 6 part series on the 1966 Rose Parade. Once again, the theme was "It's A Small World" and the grand marshal that year was Walt Disney. Check back on New Year's Day for a photo of Walt and Mickey riding in the parade.

First up today....Cal. State Poly's float, "It's A Child's World."


Next we have the City of Los Angeles' float entitled, "June in January."

Below, is the Union Oil Co.'s float, "The Old Swiss Clock" Note the large fork and knife and the plate of Swiss cheese with a rat poking it's head out through one of the holes. Weird!

The City of Long Beach, California sponsored this float entitled, "Marco Polo Returns From The City of Cathay."

And last up today is British Columbia's float, "A Royal Welcome - Centennial 1966."

Stay tuned....only 2 more days of the parade remaining. Tomorrow's floats will include The Land of Oz, Cinderella, and a visit to an alien planet via an Apollo space capsule.....after all, it was 1966!

The 1966 Rose Parade - Part 3

We continue with our next installment of the 1966 Rose Parade. The theme: "It's a Small World." The grand marshal: Walt Disney.

The first float is from the City of Alhambra, California and is entitled, "Gator-A-Go-Go." Groooovy!

Next, we have floral butterflies on the front and back of the Chevy/Division of GM float. This one is entitled, "World Of Roses."

Below, is the Occidental Life Insurance Company's float entitled, "Boys Day in Japan." For more information on what Boys Day was (it is now called Children's Day), click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodomo_no_hi


The Florist's Transworld Delivery Association's float was called, "Gift to the World."

And the last one for today, is the Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union float with the title, "A Small World of Sugar and Spice."