I Love Three Parades
I have a small batch of scans featuring various parades, and thought it might be fun to share some of them today.
This first one is from the 1950s (I believe), from Long Beach, California. A bathing beauty waves to an appreciative crowd, from a float pushed by a sailor (or two?). I wonder what occasion merited a parade? In the background we can see a restaurant called the "Dinner House"....
I found an old matchbook cover on eBay, which helped with an address. 701 E. Ocean Boulevard.
The area is unrecognizable today!
Next is a scan from April, 1963, from a parade in Indio, California. Two children appear to have been dubbed King and Queen for the day. If they hit you with their scepters, there's not a darn thing you can do about it.
And finally, here's another parade that I believe was in the 1950s. The float says "Hillsborough County", which is in the Tampa area of Florida. It looks like it was a beautiful day; patriotic bunting might mean the 4th of July, Memorial Day, or... well, it could be anything.
4 comments:
Major-
I'm thinking the first image is from the "Miss International Beauty Parade".
Scepters but no dates... Indio must be slipping-!
The float in the final parade is being pulled by a 1955 Chevrolet station wagon, [probably] in Neptune Green with a Seamist Green roof. Fancy.
Thanks, Major.
Most of the crowd is looking toward the next float in line behind the sailor-powered bathing beauty, who is Miss Korea. The banner hanging from the roof of the restaurant in the background says "Miss Universe Pageant". So I guess that's what's going on here.
In the King & Queen photo, the background is kind of blurry and grainy and a slightly different color palette, which makes it look like a rear projection on a screen behind the royal couple.
In the last photo, a lady on the right edge of the pic is wearing a 'coolie hat'. Apparently those were somewhat popular then, even outside of Disneyland. And in the lower left corner we can see a couple of young members of the Stripy Shirt Guild.
Nanook, is it "International" or "Universe"?
Thanks for the parades, Major. You gave us some front-row seats!
It looks like the bathing beauty in that first pic was maybe "sponsored" by The Captain's Inn. I looked that up and it was a waterfront restaurant in the Alamitos Bay section of Long Beach, CA. They opened in 1957 and closed in 2012.
I hate what they have done to Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach! They have torn down almost everything and replaced it with ugly modern towers. There are only 3 exceptions that I can think of. They ruin everything, I tell ya!
I wonder if the Indio parade did have something to do with their annual Date Festival, as Nanook hinted at? What else did Indio have going for it? (Sorry, Indio!)
Thanks for the parade pics, Major! Just like the Kids of the Kingdom, I Love A Parade!
The 1963 Date Festival in Indio took place February 15 - 24th, so maybe that pic was taken then, but the photographer waited a little over a month to develop the film. Again, why else would they have been in Indio? ;-)
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