Please step this way for a brief retrospective on a few of Walt Disney and Disneyland’s official Tournament of Roses Parade entries, as well as a few entries inspired by Walt Disney’s cast of characters. Please “pardon our pixie dust” as we continue to refurbish this open (but incomplete) gallery, and veritable procession of parade units and floats.

This c. 1938 Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade Souvenir postcard book featured a look at the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs float and Walt Disney’s “come to life” characters atop!

The entry featured perhaps the first “come to life” incarnations of Walt Disney’s Seven Dwarfs - the same ones seen at the premier of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Carthay Circle Theater.

During the 59th Tournament of Roses Parade (held on January 1, 1948), Franilla Ice Cream by Balian Ice Cream sponsored a float featuring Walt Disney’s Donald Duck. This float was sanctioned by Walt Disney, as the character of Donald Duck was licensed to Balian Ice Cream at the time.

During the 1930s, a number of licensed Disney characters made appearances in association with Ice Cream.

Ward Kimball wore this special “Firehouse Five Plus Two” Helmet, during the band’s appearance in the 1951 Tournament of Roses Parade! Many years later (in January of 1979), Ward Kimball would get the old Dixieland band back together and they would preform at the head of the Rose Bowl Parade.

On January 1, 1954 (more than a year before Disneyland opened to the public), the theme of the Tournament of Roses Parade was “Famous Books in Flowers”! Companies sponsored floats, like Sees Candy Shops’ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs float. Though not sponsored or affiliated with Walt Disney, the float appears to have been influenced by designs and character color palettes featured in Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (of 1938). You may recollect that the Tournament of Roses Parade (held January 1, 1938) did indeed feature an official Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs float (with actors fulfilling the roles of the Seven Dwarfs).

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs weren’t the only Walt Disney licensed characters to make an appearance during 1954. One Tournament of Roses Float entry honored the stars of Walt Disney’s Bambi.

This was not Walt Disney’s first foray into the Tournament of Roses Parade, and it would certainly not be his last. But this was certainly one of (if not) the most memorable Disneyland-related entries in a Tournament of Roses Parade! Celebrants of the 66th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade were treated to a special preview of Disneyland.

“There Is A Good Time Coming” was the appropriate title of a colorful float presented by sponsor Helm’s Bakeries (renown locally for their doughnuts). The three-dimensional representation of Disneyland was decorated with 7,000 pink roses, covering the forms of two iconic attractions in-the-making - Flying Dumbos and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle! The pink color of the flying elephants was based on early Disneyland concept drawings by Walt Disney Studio artist Bruce Bushman. A hot air balloon (influenced by Herbert Ryman’s “Aerial View Over Disneyland” so-called “brownline” drawings) hovered over the float. Finally, to top things off, the float was spearheaded by the future Ambassador of Disneyland - none other than Mickey Mouse! The float was so impressive that it won the “Judges Special Award” in the 1955 tournament.

Helm’s Olympic Bakeries (Southern California bakers of the Bread of Champions) present this 1955 Pasadena Tournament of Roses float, which was awarded the “Judge’s Special Award” - a design featuring the new Disneyland! This image graced promotional postcards (like the one pictured above), printed circa 1954 to 1955.

More than two decades before Disneyland existed, the Oak Rubber Company produced a variety of Mickey Mouse Balloons, manufactured by special permission of Walt Disney. For decades to come, they continued to be sold as souvenirs at Tournament of Roses Parades, Ice Capades, and other events that also featured Walt Disney characters by special permission.

As we are on the subject of roses, I would like to share the following “sidelight”. An East-coast flower distributor (Jackson & Perkins Co.) published “The Parade of Modern Roses and Perennials”, a catalogue offering unique rose seed and stock. During the Spring of 1955, a few pages of the periodical featured the Pinocchio family of Roses, Jiminy Cricket Floribunda (the Top 1955 All America Award Winner), Papa Gepetto’s Marionette, and Figaro’s Red Pinocchio alongside graphics of Walt Disney’s copyrighted characters from his feature-length theatrical film! All of these Roses and perennials were “based (characters featured in)…Walt Disney’s technicolor movie ‘Pinocchio’”.

We wonder if any charitable organizations, corporations, or other sponsors of Walt Disney themed Tournament of Roses floats ever utilized any of these Walt Disney-themed roses or perennials over the years.

This wasn’t the first time that Walt Disney allowed the names of his licensed characters to be associated with special varieties of flowers. As far back as 1938, Allsweet Oleomargarine (in a special arrangement between Walt Disney, Allsweet Oleomargarine, and Swift & Company) offered seed assortments of “dwarf varieties of Calhopsis, Godetia, Marigold, Nasturtium, Dianthus, Aster, [and] Phlox” - each of them “christened by Walt Disney for one of the characters in his fascinating movie of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’”!

A year prior (on January 1st, 1965), Disneyland had some involvement in the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day. The Disneyland National Marching Band Contest had judged a high school marching band of Durand, Michigan “best in the land.” They appeared, performing a selection of songs from Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins in addition to other Disney music.

A few moths later (in July of 1965), Hildy Crawford (reporter for Palm Springs Life magazine) announced at the end of her article “King of Fantasy” : “Next New Years Day, he will join a select group who have been similarly honored, serving as Grand Marshall of the 77th Tournament of Roses Parade, a parade which will be themed to his own It’s A Small World.” Walt Disney had previously served as the Grand Marshall of his own “Christmas of Many Lands” parades held at Disneyland from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s. However, this was Walt’s first time as Grand Marshall of the 77th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1, 1966. Now (with Mickey at his side), in the role of Grand Marshall, he would lead “63 floats, 22 bands and 12,000,000 blossoms” of the Tournament of Roses Parade.

The theme of the entire parade was “its a small world” (in advance of the attraction opening that summer), and the pinnacle of the procession was the City of Burbank’s themed float entitled “Our Small World of Make Believe” heralding the new Disneyland attraction its a small world!
Bill Justice had been instrumental in many Disneyland Character designs a few years prior. The float Our Small World of Make Believe (designed with the help of Bill Justice) featured “an open book, a musical clef, and an artist’s palette, representing the three important elements of Disney legend : the story, the music, and the creative artwork”. Yes, Walt Disney Studios designed a float (featured near the lead of the parade), which advanced down the route with a cavalcade of Walt Disney’s “come-to-life” character creations cavorting alongside it.

Bill recalled how a search commenced to find girls to “represent Snow white, Cinderella, Mary Poppins and Alice in Wonderland. A beauty contest was held to select the girls. The winners were flown from Burbank to the Orange County Airport in our company plane and driven by limo to Disneyland to be fitted for their costumes. Burbank's float is always constructed by city employees from the water and power plants. Flowers are added in the days before the parade by volunteers.”

From the banner of the opening unit, other floats carried the same theme and message of “its a small world”, whatever locale they represented!

Walt Disney serves as Grand Marshall, alongside Mickey Mouse and a cast of characters representing “Our Small World of Make Believe”! Paul Castle (after more than 23 years of appearances as Mickey Mouse), reminisced upon his retirement (in 1986) : “It’s always a thrill to see children’s faces brighten up when they see Mickey. But my biggest thrill was the 1961 Tournament of Roses Parade. Walt was the Grand Marshall and for four hours, it was just Walt and I in the back of that car. All along the route, kids would shout out, ‘Hi Walt! Hi Mickey!’ It was really a great day.”

Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse and an entourage of Disneyland characters ride ahead of the first float.

For four hours, Walt, Mickey Mouse, (and close friend Paul Castle) rode along the parade route, waving at the kids!

We are actively searching for any information on the following (c. 1967 - 1971) Tournament of Roses parade floats. Here’s what we can gather from the photographs :

These images were processed during approximately during December of 1967. Businesses in the photograph prove that this was in fact the Tournament of Roses Parade of Pasadena, California.

Walt Disney’s Jungle Book characters in their Disneyland incarnations (which first debuted during November of 1967) appear on the float, along with Disneyland incarnations of Walt Disney’s Seven Dwarfs that appeared a few years prior at the 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair (and were retired during 1971).

We also have reason to believe that the Float was sponsored by Helm’s Bakeries, who sponsored Disneyland’s first Tournament of Roses appearance, perhaps more than a decade prior.

Lastly, we believe that the float may have been associated with one of the Park’s anniversaries (perhaps the 15th, celebrated in 1970), given the cake portion of the float.

If you have any information or observations about this Tournament of Roses Parade Float, we would love to hear from you. Feel free to contact our Online Museum Curators at disneyhistory101@gmail.com.

It is unclear if this float was even created for the Tournament of Roses Parade, but any help in identifying this float is greatly appreciated!

The theme of the 82nd Tournament of Roses Parade was “Through the Eyes of a Child”. The City of Anaheim’s entry in the 82nd Annual Tournament of Roses Parade celebrated the fact that Walt Disney’s (and Disneyland’s guests’ “Dreams Come True in Anaheim”, California, as Mickey, Snow White, and other Walt Disney characters come to life atop the imaginative creation!

Contemporaneous and official guides describe the City of Anaheim’s entry this way :

“Thousands of red and yellow roses and maiden hair fern make up the base of this entry. Central figure is Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, about which, 23 of Walt Disney’s most noted characters congregate. Electronic animation brings them to action. Scatman Crothers and the Scatcats furnish the crowd with lively music. Figures are covered with gladiolas, seeds, chrysanthemums and bark. More than 100 varieties of flowers were used. In over-sized bed Angela Dutton and Jimmy Sundali read ‘Walt Disney Presents’. . .”

“Dreams Come True in Anaheim” wasn't the only Disney-related entry among the 82nd Tournament of Roses Parade’s units. Disneyland sponsor (of one decade) Sunkist sponsored their own tribute entitled “Song of the South”. Within a little over a year (during 1972), the film would be re-released for a second time, for Walt Disney Productions 50 year celebration!

Disneyland’s entry into the 84th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade was a tribute to the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney Productions! The Disneyland Entertainment Schedule read:

“TOURNAMENT OF ROSES PARADE - JANUARY Parade Theme: “Movie Memories.” A special non-competitive Disney entry entitled ‘50 HAPPY YEARS OF FANTASY’ to be special feature of 1973 Parade.”

According to contemporaneous and official 1973 Tournament of Roses Parade souvenir guides :

“This unique and special entry in the 1973 Rose Parade honors the 50th Anniversary of Walt Disney Productions. A block-long cavalcade of more than 100 famous Disney characters promenade in a fanciful atmosphere of make-believe to recreate the most celebrated memories from Walt Disney’s film classics.

Movies represented are Cinderella, Snow White, Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, Jungle Book, Song of the South, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Love Bug, and other famous Disney characters.”

Clearly (by this particular description alone) this large procession of units included one of the largest casts of Walt Disney’s characters to ever be featured in a Tournament of Roses Parade! As you peruse the following Vintage Views, note the cast of Disneyland’s “Fantasy on Parade” - Casey Junior, the Pearly Band, the King of Hearts, Herbie the Love Bug, the newest incarnations of Walt Disney’s Seven Dwarfs (who debuted during 1971), and even Monster the Whale, among the characters that formed Disneyland’s entry into the 84th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade.

Due to the Park's Rose Bowl Parade participation there was not a “Fantasy On Parade” at Disneyland on Monday, January 1, 1973. The last “Fantasy On Parade” performance of the year occurred at 2 p.m. on Sunday, December 31, 1972.

A portion of the parade debuted as the opening unit of the 91st Annual Tournament of Roses Parade, on January 1st, 1980 (months in advance of the Park’s official celebration)! The Disneyland 25th Parade Float also made appearances at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, in order to celebrate Disneyland’s “silver anniversary.”

Then-Disneyland sponsor of the Casa de Mexicana (in Frontierland) sponsored this entry into the 100th Tournament of Roses Parade during January of 1986! The float - a magical horse carriage - was entitled “Happily Ever After”!

The official description on the back of the postcard describes their entry into the 100th Tournament of Roses Parade this way :

“Lawry’s 1986 Rose Parade float celebrates laughter with Mickey & Minnie Mouse as Prince Charming and Cinderella. Their magnificent coach is drawn by dramatic snow-white horse prancing over a carpet of more than 18,000 Town Crier and Magic Moment roses. The fantasy forest includes over 28,000 brilliant blue Dutch irises, thousands of cattleya orchids, delicate white camellias and fragrant Enchantment Lilies.”

In 1992, Mickey Mouse (dressed as the sorcerer’s apprentice) appeared atop the City of Glendale’s float in the Tournament of Roses Parade. Above, the 1992 Rose Queen Tannis Turrentine and her court enjoyed the combined sounds of the University of Michigan and University of Washington Marching Bands in a first-ever concert on Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. Just days before their respective football teams clash in Pasadena’s Rose Bowl game, the two bands joined together in the Magic Kingdom for a dazzling performance of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” performed by some 500 musicians.