While looking forward to the 126th Tournament of Roses Parade this year, which will feature corporate-sponsored high-tech animated floats festooned with exotic natural materials from around the world, some costing upwards of a quarter million dollars, I was reminded of a museum exhibit presented by Altadena Historical Society ten years ago that featured photos of floats from the community’s seventy-year participation in the New Year’s Day event.
The grassroots appeal of homemade entries, high school marching bands, local equestrians, and neighborhood boosterism typified the Parade’s small-town charm in the first decades of the 20th century. Since the first Parade on January 1, 1890, from South Pasadena to La Canada, Burbank, Sierra Madre, and Altadena, volunteers made float entries with locally raised funds, flowers courtesy of neighborhood gardens, with labor provided by students who were managed by harried parents and teachers.
Here is a look at some of the earliest hometown entries, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society. All the images featured in this article are from the AHS collection archived at the Altadena Community Center, where the public can see a vast array of unique historical material about the people, places, and events that have shaped the Altadena community.
Early participation since before 1890
Altadena was involved in the New Year’s Day fete even before the first Parade in 1890. In 1888, a group of sophisticated hunting and horse enthusiasts formed The Valley Hunt Club while partying at an Altadena mansion on Mariposa Street hosted by millionaires Baynard Smith and Mr. and Mrs. Andrew McNally, who owned Rand McNally Publishing.
The Club’s initial idea was to celebrate the abundance of Southern California’s natural beauty and mild winter climate, highlighting the region’s charm with athletic competitions and floral displays. As newspapers began covering the event, they showcased sun-drenched Pasadena on front pages from Chicago to New York, offering a stark contrast to readers buried in snowdrifts. Not coincidentally, many Valley Hunt Club members were invested in real estate and viewed the Parade as an opportunity for free advertising.
In 1905, the idea of a royal court was introduced, and high school girls were chosen by student vote. Altadenan Hallie Woods was elected the first queen. She rode on a car-turned-queen’s couch that she and her classmates decorated with ropes of red geraniums.
The early floats were usually school projects, flowers were donated by locals, and lucky students marched alongside entries. A note in the Pasadena Daily News of January 1, 1908, indicated that Mrs. Olive Schuman, one of Altadena’s founder families and P.T.A. president, was the visionary and was apparently one tired lady when she finished supervising not only students but the accumulation of flowers and their placement on the 1908 float.
Today, the Tournament of Roses Association selects a theme a year before the event, but originally, ideas were up to the community sponsoring the entry.
Mock medieval athletic contests and chariot races followed the Parade. They were played on a vacant lot at the southeast corner of California Street and Wilson Avenue, which is now part of Caltech’s athletic facilities. You can still see remnants of the original Tournament Park if you enter off South Wilson, where a playground and picnic area still exist. The Rose Bowl Stadium was completed in 1922, and the games were moved there in 1923, after which Caltech took over the Tournament Park grounds.
National Coverage
Beginning in the 1920s, the event was covered nationally in newspapers throughout the United States, and things took a more professional turn for the cameras. The 1924 Tournament of Roses program, published by the Pasadena Star-News, featured the football game on the cover. The new stadium in the Arroyo Seco, along with Pasadena’s majestic Colorado Street Bridge, is in the background. The Washington Huskies and the United States Naval Academy Midshipmen game ended in a 14-14 tie.
Egyptian Revival was a modern aesthetic fueled by the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922, sparking a widespread fascination with Egyptian culture. The silent romantic drama film The Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres and Adolphe Menjou, sparked a series of box office sequels that, in turn, inspired Altadena’s Chamber of Commerce.
Posing for the Cameras
Until 1933, when actor Mary Pickford was selected to be Grand Marshal, the special honor was awarded to local elites, politicians, and heroes. The year 1939 marked the 50th year of the event, and the Tournament Association theme was “Golden Memories.” Eleven-year-old Shirley Temple, the number one box office draw from 1933 to 1938, was Grand Marshal, and her cherubic face was featured on the program cover.
The event was aired locally on television station W6XAO Los Angeles. The Altadena Chamber of Commerce, which by the 1930s had taken over management of Altadena’s entries, went all out. On the 1939 float, according to Chamber documents archived at AHS, flowers included 2,500 heather sprays, 500 red hot-house roses, 7,500 delphiniums and cornflowers, 10,000 white pom-pom chrysanthemums, 18,000 white narcissus, maidenhair fern and other greens, 5,000 sweet pea flowers, 5,000 mums and Lily o’ the Valley as funds allowed.
As the Second World War darkened the skies, float themes reflected the mood of the nation. Altadena’s 1941 entry was no different. This is how the Chamber of Commerce described it: “On an oval base 24 feet long and 12 feet wide, all in solid heather, will be placed a large shield with an open center, topped by a beautiful golden eagle with seven-foot wing spread. Directly below the eagle is a gorgeous flower ribbon bearing the words “Lest we Forget.” The Chamber noted that the total cost was $16,000.
The first nationwide television coverage of the Parade was on January 1, 1954, on NBC. Glamor with a Hollywood vibe replaced many of the traditional small-town float themes. Altadena shared costs by partnering with various corporate sponsors, such as Metro Goldwyn Mayer or Warner Brothers Films.
Altadena high school girls were still selected to represent local royalty and ride on the float. Community volunteers continued to provide labor decorating the floats, but the floats themselves had a more commercial appeal. The “Rose Tattoo” was a 1955 Paramount Pictures film adaption of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tennessee William, starring Burt Lancaster.
The Tournament of Roses Program described the entry as follows, “The float depicts the ancient religious and romantic practice heralded in its theme. Featured here is a tremendous rose with Miss Altadena seated inside of it while her four princesses sit around it. In front, a girl is placing the rose tattoo on the chest of a floral replica of Burt Lancaster.”
Although float concepts changed dramatically over the seven decades that Altadena was involved in the Parade, all of them reflected the events and sentiments of their time.
This quality is particularly evident in Altadena’s last three entries during the Vietnam War: 1966 “Hope,” 1967 “Peace,” and their last entry in 1968, a float honoring the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
To read more about Altadena’s participation in the Tournament of Roses Parade, check out Altadena Historical Society website. Or visit the archives at the Altadena Community Center, 750 E. Altadena Drive.
