Rose Parade 2024: Here are 17 memorable Rose Parade moments
Epic, iconic, splashy or controversial, take your pick from among 135 years of Rose Parade breakout moments. Mostly fun, many emotional, instances that made a splash or impressed the crowds are as numerous as, say, the flowers used on all the floats in a year (3.2 million, thank you very much).
Eagerly anticipated this year is an appearance by the El Segundo Little League on the DirecTV float after the team won the 2023 Little League World Series. And since this year’s theme is all about celebrating music, what about those musical numbers that punctuate the parade? Do images of the famed Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale horses still amble through your brain come New Year’s Day?
More than 130 years of parade history will yield a lot of highlights, and everyone has their favorites, but here are 17 of those bazillion moments that stood stand out:
1. Righting a wrong: Joan Williams was a 27-year-old account clerk in 1957 when someone nominated her to represent Pasadena city employees on its float. Once her African American heritage came to light, Williams was told there were too many floats and her turn on the stage was scrapped. In 2015, 60 years and one official apology later, Williams, age 82, sat in front of the banner float of the 126th Tournament of Roses Parade.
2. The roar of the crowd, the sweetest music: Legendary broadcaster Vin Scully, the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, said he wanted to use his 2014 turn as grand marshal of the 125th Rose Parade to thank his fans. But they lavished love on the then-85-year-old when he and his wife Sandi rode down Colorado Boulevard on a 1950 Olds 98. Scully later told R. Scott Jenkins, that year’s Tournament president, that he had “never, never had a day like this.” Scully died in 2022 at age 94, after 67 summers celebrating all things Dodgers.
Vin Scully treasured the roar of the crowd as grand marshal of Rose Parade, Rose Bowl
3. Saying goodbye — on air: Watching Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards announce the Rose Parade was its own grand tradition for KTLA-5 viewers. The veteran broadcasting team relayed float facts and horse stories for 35 years (38 for Eubanks) and were a New Year’s Day fixture for nearly every year from 1982 to 2016. Edwards was famously sidelined in 2006, reporting in the rain instead of a booth with her longtime co-host, but she returned in 2009. At their final Rose Parade, Edwards said spending so many New Year’s Day Rose Parades with friends from around the world is an adventure that will be hard to top “and I only feel thankful.”
Bob Eubanks, Stephanie Edwards reflect on hosting Rose Parade in their final year
4.The first B-2 flyover: The B-2 stealth bomber first swooshed over Pasadena in 1997, kicking off the 108th Rose Parade to the delight of a worldwide audience. Officials decided against surprising the crowd at the last minute, lest people spill coffee all over themselves with their over-the-top wakeup call. Tracing the path of the Air Force’s sawtooth-edged flying wing has since become an early-morning communal project for area residents, who report the B-2’s progress over local cities on social media. Grounded in 2022 because of safety concerns, the B-2 is expected to return this year, soaring 1,000 feet above Colorado Boulevard for the 135th Rose Parade. (With thanks to the B-1B Lancer bombers that subbed for it last year.)
5. A smoky snafu: Where there’s smoke, there’s a confusing end to the 2019 Rose Parade and a change in safety protocols. A small fire on the Chinese American Heritage Foundation float stopped the floral cavalcade, but the tow truck sent to its rescue broke its tow bar. By the time a second tow arrived, crowds had started to disperse and most TV coverage ended. The Royal Swedish Cadet Band and South Pasadena’s float were among the entries left in the haze of the 130th annual Rose Parade. Parade officials implemented additional safety requirements the next year.
Rose Parade ends in disarray after large train float catches fire, creates confusion, delays
After float catches fire, here’s how the Tournament of Roses is upping its safety measures
6. A controversial Rose Parade wedding: Many people missed the wedding of Danny Leclair and Aubrey Loots atop the AIDS Healthcare Foundation float during the 125th Rose Parade in 2014. That’s because some television networks decided to cut away from the broadcast of the wedding disappointing many on social media. Rose Parade organizers defended holding the first gay wedding to take place during America’s New Year’s Day celebration after complaints and criticism online. After 11 years, AIDS Healthcare Foundation pulled its float for the 135th Rose Parade, citing design conflicts. https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2023/12/08/an-la-group-pulled-its-float-out-of-the-2024-rose-parade-mickey-mouse-is-partly-to-blame/
7. The 101st Tournament of Roses in 1990 drew the ire of AIDS activists, who emerged from the crowd 10 minutes after the parade started, linked themselves together with a 30-foot-chain and unfurled a banner that read: “Emergency. Stop the parade. 70,000 dead of AIDS.” The procession continued less than a minute later, with Pasadena police dragging the 14 protesters off the parade route.
8. No camping out for this royalty: Kristina Smith was a 20-year-old Pasadena City College sophomore when she was crowned the first Black Rose Queen in 1985. Breaking the color barrier in the city of Jackie Robinson, Smith said, “there will be no camping out this year,” when she learned she would preside at the parade, where automaker Lee Iacocca was grand marshal. Smith’s victory came after the first non-White queen was crowned in 1981. That would be Leslie Kawai, who was of Japanese descent. Yasmine Delawari, an Afghan-American, reigned in 1990.
A brief history of the Rose Parade’s Queen of the Tournament of Roses
9. Big wheel keep on turning: Proud Mary and Adele would approve. The 31st Rose Parade was the first to put petal to the metal and exclusively use motor-driven floats. Electric and gasoline engines joined the flower power in 1920, ending the horse-drawn era of an institution that began 30 years before. There was no Rose Queen or parade theme that year, but developer Frank G. Hogan, credited with commissioning the first bungalow court in Pasadena, was grand marshal. William L. Leishman was president. Leishman was responsible for the construction of the Rose Bowl.
10. Fauxcasts, recent history: Funny or Die’s parody of bad TV presenters became the best way to greet 2019 when Cord Hosenbeck and Tish Cattigan, also known as Will Farrell and Molly Shannon “hosted” the parade. The reunited “Saturday Night Live” alums livestreamed a hilarious commentary when a Rose Parade float stopped moving and then started smoking. The pair were, it must be said, on fire. Hosenbeck (the Cord stands for “Corduroy,” it’s a family name) deadpanned: “That’s why the parade is so dynamic, year in and year out. Someone better call Triple A.” The comedy duo’s first livecast in 2018 confused some viewers but delighted those in the know. For the first comedy event of the new year, the show was a spectacle in itself.
No comical Rose Parade livecast in 2020 for ‘Cord and Tish,’ Funny or Die announces
10a. Fauxcasts, “Fraze among the roses”: Radio personality Frazer Smith’s satirical take on the Rose Parade instructed KTLA-5 viewers to turn down the volume on Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards’ telecast and listen to their off-the-cuff, irreverent commentary instead. Smith moved the rosecast from station to station over the years and the alternate audio critique was cheeky, snotty and very Fraze. One year, Smith reported his ex-wives made up the Rose Court (“they’ll wave alimony checks as they go by”). Considered a radio legend, Smith, 68, is still a broadcast host, as well as a podcaster, actor and comedian.
10b. Fauxcasts, pioneering parody: Long before Cord & Trish, a team of sketch comics took pokes at the parade with a mix of prerecorded audio bits and live commentary. The Credibility Gap may not be a household name, but members of the now-mythic L.A. grew into big names on their own, including Michael McKean and David Lander (Lenny and Sqiggy of TV’s Laverne and Shirley fame) and writer-performer Harry Shearer. They created original characters for their broadcasters and cast them in two hours of programming that intersected with the live parade. One of those characters evolved into Shearer’s put-upon preacher Rev. Lovejoy on “The Simpsons.”
11. A doggy wave pool on wheels: In an event that sets a lot of firsts, the 128th Tournament of Roses Parade featured surfing dogs on a float that set the world record for the longest and heaviest float in Tournament of Roses history in 2017. The Lucy Pet’s Gnarly Crankin’ K-9 Wave Maker float weighed 74 tons and was 126 feet long. The record for the longest float in Rose Parade history stood until the 2024 parade, when the 150-foot-long float for the city of Newport Beach snatched the distinction. But surfing dogs on a float is a Rose Parade memory that keeps on giving.
12. These are not the floats you are looking for: The full power of the Force was with the 118th annual Rose Parade because, hello, the grand marshal was none other than filmmaker George Lucas. He invited superfans to accompany him on the five-and-a-half mile walk down Colorado Boulevard, all 200 of them dressed as stormtroopers. Lucas also had two “Star Wars” themed floats in the lineup, with four Ewoks on the Forest Moon of Endor float, and Queens of Naboo and their Jedi protectors on the Naboo: Garden Planet float.
13. Locked in the moment: The year was 1964 when the grand marshal, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, made a stop in the Tournament House bathroom before the parade. Sure enough, the doorknob came off in his hand, and the start of the parade, as Star-News columnist Pat Diroll re-told it in a 2019 column, “had to be delayed until the WWII Supreme Allied Commander was liberated from the loo.” To this day, she wrote in her column, that small powder room below the stairs is known as “Ike’s bathroom.”
14. Rain on the Justices’ parades: It’s no secret that it rarely rains on the Rose Parade. In fact, it has reportedly happened only 10 times in parade history, according to archivists. If you’re keeping score, that’s 1895, 1899, 1906, 1910, 1916, 1922, 1934, 1937, 1955 and 2006. Strangely, in those last two years, ’55 and ’06, a Supreme Court justice was grand marshal. That’s right. In 1955, Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren – who had been California’s governor just a few years before — was also Rose Parade grand marshal, dispensing justice with every wave. Fast forward to 2006, and thousands of poncho-clad spectators watched as then former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor made her way aboard a 1934 Packard, expressing her awe at the persistence of the “die-hard, enthusiastic Rose Paraders” who stuck around amid the elements.
15. Bands are not the only ones who march: Pasadena police have lots of experience dealing with protesters drawn to the worldwide audience attracted by the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl. Noisy but peaceful, several thousand Occupy Wall Street demonstrators followed the two-hour parade, marching for a little over a mile in 2012 and chanting “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out.” A rally at nearby City Hall followed, where the anti-Wall Street crowd held a 250-foot-long banner that read “We the People.”
16. When you can’t ride, walk: Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo and actor Danny Trejo’s 1907 Autcar malfunctioned in the 134th Rose Parade in 2023. But fear not. The pair got out with a smile to trek at least a bit of the 5.5-mile procession down Colorado Boulevard on Monday, Jan. 2.
17. X marks the spot: Nearing the end of Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1, 2022, attention turned from colorful floats and marching bands to the sky. But things got a little dicey. Four Golden Knights U.S. Army parachuters dropped from a plane, to the sounds of oohs and aahs from an awe-struck crowd, in person and on TV. But what TV viewers and many on social media was different from what was seen on the ground. As the parachuters descended, social media caught on, and concern emerged that at least one of them might have flown into a tree. But one by one, with high precision, they each landed right smack at the corner of Orange Grove and Colorado boulevard, right on the mark set up for them just feet away from cheering spectators.
Rose Parade 2022: Don’t worry, fans – Golden Knights parachuters landed just fine
Do you have a memorable Rose Parade moment? We want to know about it? Send us an email, with your name and hometown, and we’ll look to publish a list of reader moments. Email to Ryan Carter, city editor, at rcarter@scng.com.