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A series of designers have constructed Glendale’s floats over the nearly 100 years since the city first entered Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses Parade.

The first floats (beginning in 1911) were last minute affairs. They were often a city vehicle covered with flowers from local gardens. In 1920, L.W. and Georgia Chobe began a nearly 20-year reign. Lewis Stanley took over after World War II, followed by Sam Coleman.

In the months before the 1975 parade, Coleman Enterprises gave way to a new team, Wayne Herrin and Don Preston, who designed floats for the Portland Rose Festival before making their way to Pasadena. They constructed 13 floats for 1975. One was Glendale’s “Roses — Heritage of Beauty,” which garnered a first place in its class for a cantilevered floral arm holding a lighted chandelier. Miss Glendale Tammy Trim and princesses Lisa Loomis, Rita Shermer, Debbie Stone and Deborah Gangi rode on the float.

The next year, our nation’s bicentennial, a newly formed Glendale Rose Parade Committee, led by Kathryn Hobson and Vonnie Rossman, raised $5,000 to supplement the city’s $15,000 budget. The float, “America — Let’s Show Our Colors,” designed by Serrurier-Lofthouse and Associates, bore a statue of an early American patriot carrying a 13-star flag. Miss Glendale Cheri Caron rode on the float, which won the prestigious theme prize.

After the parade, the statue stood in the front yard of John Haedrich’s Kenneth Road home as a Bicentennial symbol. The German-born owner of Tip Top Meats on Central Avenue told the Glendale News-Press on Jan. 21, 1976, that he remembered what Germany was like under Hitler’s reign.

“I am proud to be a German, but I think what I know of life there makes me a much better American,” he said.

For the 1977 parade, the parks and recreation commissioners and the Rose Float committee, now headed by Rossman, narrowed the choice down to two Herrin-Preston designs. One was an old-fashioned family outing, the other an elegant peacock. The final choice was left to the City Council, which leaned toward the family outing. But Councilman Carroll Parcher reminded his colleagues that a peacock-themed float had won before.