The History of Parade Floats
Whether the setting is New Orleans, Disneyland, Pasadena or a small town with a lot of spirit, there is just something about a parade that gets people's attention. When it also includes a rolling display of colorful characters and props that are larger than life, an illusion is created to make onlookers feel like little children all over again.
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Origin
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During the 14th and 15th centuries in Europe, the church mounted elaborate "passion plays" to reinforce the importance of worship by depicting theatrical scenes about the life and death of Jesus. In order to reach as many people as possible, these productions were literally taken on the road in large wagons. Even before the show was set up, curiosity seekers would turn out along the route to catch a glimpse of the sets, actors, and props. The clergy quickly determined that the caravans could be a show in themselves and began scheduling short stops a long the way to deliver the functional equivalent of "teasers" in which the actors would strike a pose, freeze for a few minutes, and then go back to whatever they were doing.
Use of Barges
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Not every destination could be comfortably or safely reached by land, especially given the size of the wagons and the amount of material they were carrying. If there was a narrow, navigable body of water that could take the participants within close proximity to where they wanted to be, the solution was to load everything onto flat barges, attach stout ropes, and have them pulled along by manpower and horsepower on opposite banks. This spectacle often resulted in bystanders jumping in to participate in the tugging. The "float" label probably originated from these early floating displays.
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Mardi Gras
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The notion of festive floats had permanently entrenched itself in New Orleans' French Quarter by the late 18th century. While the carnival concept of Mardi Gras traces its origins to the ancient Romans and Greeks, wasn't not until the arrival of a French adventurer named Sieur d'Iberville in 1699 that the temptations of a final fling before the arrival of Lent each year started bringing out the South's wickedly creative and competitive side. What began as masked pedestrian revelers and flower-decked carriages parading through town turned into a contest to see who could come up with the largest, tallest and most colorful "big heads" in subsequent decades. Groups called krewes were organized to raise money to offset the expense of these floats as well as to recruit volunteers.
Rose Parade
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In the winter of 1889, members of Pasadena's posh Valley Hunt Club decided to celebrate their picture-perfect weather by staging a parade on New Year's that featured carriages festooned with fresh flowers and peopled by local celebrities. The idea of motorized floats took shape with the advent of the car when visionaries realized that as long as there was a front viewing window for a driver to see where he was going, as much infrastructure could be stacked on the top and sides as the vehicle could carry. Today's Rose Parade floats employ high-tech gadgetry and computerized animation, and many of them take a full year to design and construct.
Commercial Floats
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In the 1930's, advertisers began using parade floats to hawk products and underwrite the costs of construction in much the same way the krewes did in New Orleans. Rose Parade entries, for instance, are a mix of corporate-sponsored floats, floats constructed by nonprofits, and community floats celebrating the uniqueness of individual cities. In Disneyland, the float pageantry focuses on Disney characters, products, feature films and animation.
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References
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- Photo Credit Photos by Christina Hamlett
