Newport Beach’s ‘Jingle on the Waves’ float wins top award in Rose Parade

For those riding on it and for those who saw it in person, Newport Beach’s float in this year’s Rose Parade — the city’s first entry in 18 years — was extraordinary.

This year’s Pasadena Tournament of Roses judges, Heather de Kok, Judith K. Nakamura and Richard Schulhof, agreed. They reviewed each float during the decorating stages and honored “Jingle on the Waves,� with its five-float procession that totaled 165 feet in length, as the most extraordinary float.

Visit Newport Beach, the city’s tourist bureau, entered the float, and Phoenix Decorating Co. constructed it in Irwindale. The float, the longest in the storied parade’s 135-year history, represented some of Newport Beach’s most iconic features, including the Balboa Fun Zone, the Balboa Pavilion and the city’s Christmas Boat Parade.

A finished section of the “Jingle on the Waves� float pays homage to the Balboa Pavilion.

(Courtesy of Newport Beach and Co.)

It also featured four former Rose Queens: Nancy Thorne Skinner, Anne Martin Wortmann, Ann Mossberg Hall and Robin Carr Sanders.

Visit Newport Beach chief executive officer and president Gary Sherwin said members of his team had their eyes on the Mayor award, which is usually given to the most outstanding float entered by a city. Winning the Extraordinaire award hadn’t been on his mind when the float was being judged on New Year’s Eve.

“There were about 14 floats in the warehouse we were [staged in] ... and you don’t really know what happens until New Year’s morning. We kept our fingers crossed that we’d win an award.�

He explained that just before it was time to climb onto the float, the four former Rose Queens visited Tournament House on Pasadena’s Orange Grove Boulevard. “As soon as they saw the former Rose Queens, they welcomed them in and went up to visit the current Rose Queen, Naomi [Stillitano],� Sherwin said.

“While we were at the Tournament House, we started asking around and found that we had won the Extraordinaire award, which had just been announced a half an hour earlier by the president of the tournament [Alex Aghajanian]. I was with Ashley Johnson, [Visit Newport Beach’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer], and we were jumping up and down like little kids. It was a magical moment for sure.�

Four former Rose Queens wave from one of the Visit Newport Beach floats in the Rose Parade on New Years’ Day.

(Courtesy of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses)

The float required seven people to operate it, including the driver, navigator and five brakemen to make the turns around Pasadena. As they made the turn from Orange Grove onto Colorado Boulevard, also known by parade insiders as “TV Corner,� Sherwin described the feeling as “entering the center of the universe.�

“Literally, thousands of people are watching you and millions of others watching on TV,� he said, “All the broadcast news … they were telling the Newport Beach story and it was just a remarkable, remarkable experience.�

Sherwin, along with Johnson, were two of the other individuals riding the float in addition to the four former Rose Queens. They were joined by three other private individuals who are Visit Newport Beach clients.

The float is estimated to have cost around $300,000, split between the Newport Beach Tourism Business Improvement District and the transient occupancy tax received by Visit Newport Beach.

Sherwin said that as of Tuesday it hadn’t been decided whether or not the city will participate in next year’s Rose Parade. He said that decision would likely be made in the spring.

“It’s just a joyous event. In today’s world, there’s so many reasons to be unhappy. Everyone was happy and thrilled throughout the entire event. All ages, all ethnicities — it was a very happy, life-affirming experience,� he said.

Pictured from left to right are Judi McLaughlin, Ashley Johnson, Anne Martin Wortmann, Gary Sherwin, Robin Carr Sanders, Nancy Thorne Skinner, Ann Mossberg Hall, Alexis Aldridge and Mandy Archer, posed behind the banner announcing that Newport Beach’s float won the Extraordinaire award.

(Courtesy of Newport Beach and Co.)