Southland Tops Off Its Holiday Weekend With Three Parades
The Thanksgiving holiday weekend--a four-day procession of feast, furlough, football and shopping--ended Sunday with parades featuring fantasy, farce and long tradition.
An estimated 30,000 spectators lined Whittier and Atlantic boulevards for the 14th annual Christmas Fantasy Parade in East Los Angeles.
Grand marshal was Jaime Escalante, the Garfield High School master math teacher made famous by the movie “Stand and Deliver.”
In downtown Pasadena, the star attractions in the 12th annual Doo Dah Parade included a trash queen--adorned in plastic bags--who rode atop a dumpster; a flasher drill team and the “Mouseketeers of the Living Dead.”
A barely organized, gleeful mob of about 3,500 participants strutted down Fair Oaks Avenue as an estimated 100,000 people looked on.
“It’s better than the Rose Parade,” said visiting ex-Pasadena native Gwilym Parry about the Tournament of Roses parody. “There’s more local participation. It’s not as long, not as commercial--and more fun.”
Later Sunday, tens of thousands of spectators were expected to line Hollywood sidewalks for the 57th annual Hollywood Christmas Parade.
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