HolyCoast: Need a Rose Parade Fix Today? How About the 1982 Parade?
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Sunday, January 01, 2012

Need a Rose Parade Fix Today? How About the 1982 Parade?

Back in the early days of the Tournament of Roses Parade an agreement was made between the Tournament Committee and local Pasadena churches never to hold the parade on a Sunday.  The big problem - it spooked the parishioners horses.  That tradition continues to this day, so even though this is New Year's Day there won't be a parade in Pasadena until tomorrow morning.

However, you can still watch a Rose Parade today on KTLA Los Angeles channel 5, or streamed on their website, at 9am this morning PST.  In honor of the 30th anniversary of the first broadcast by anchor team Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards the station will be rerunning the 1982 parade.  I believe Eubanks has been on the show every year since, but in 2006 Edwards was relegated to a minor role and ended up sitting in the stands in the pouring rain trying to pretend like she was enjoying herself while a new anchor sat in her place in the booth.  In 2007 she was not on the broadcast at all, but returned in 2008 after viewer outrage motivated the station to return her to the anchor booth.  The 2007 show also featured a bizarre moment in which Eubanks sounded like he was leaving the show.

When I heard they were rerunning 1982 I thought back to what I was doing that morning 30 years ago.  The night before I had taken part in a concert in which the group I was in, The Watchmen Quartet, had recorded a live concert album.  I probably didn't get home until 2 or later that morning and almost certainly didn't watch the parade which started at 8.  Maybe I'll watch it today.  Could be entertaining.

UPDATE: I've been watching and commenting on Twitter:
Grand Marshall of 1982 Rose Parade was Jimmy Stewart. Just watched "It's a Wonderful Life" the other day.

Watching the 1982 Rose Parade broadcast on @ktla and trying to imagine what all these people look like 30 years later.

Funny to think that all the cheerleaders I see in the 1982 Rose Parade on @ktla are now in their 50's.

One of the expensive 1982 Rose Parade floats was sponsored by Western Airlines which went out of business five years later.

I wonder how many of the college kids I'm seeing in the 1982 Rose Parade on @ktla are still paying off student loans?

Iron Eyes Cody in 1982 Rose Parade, described as "most famous Native American". He was born Espera Oscar de Corti - he was Italian.

Just heard a reference to "President Reagan" on the @ktla 1982 Rose Parade broadcast. *sigh* Those were the days....

Float in '82 Rose Parade celebrates 2 flights of Space Shuttle Columbia. 30 years later Shuttle program is dead and Columbia crashed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I missed it! How can I find it to watch after the fact?