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myBurbank Talks
myBurbank Talks
myBurbank Talks Special: Behind the Scenes of Burbank's Rose Parade Magic
What goes into crafting a float that glides down Pasadena's streets on New Year's Day? Join us as we uncover the secrets behind Burbank's cherished tradition of float building with our esteemed guest, Jon Reeves. A veteran of over two decades with the Burbank Tournament of Roses Association, Jon takes us on his remarkable journey from a curious volunteer to a leading figure in engineering these spectacular creations. Learn how a custom-built chassis from 1994 continues to play a pivotal role in construction and how the addition of live flame effects adds excitement to this year's parade showcase.
The heart and soul of Burbank's float-building tradition lie in the community's spirited collaboration. Discover the diverse skills and talents that converge, from welding to sound design, to bring Eric Anderson's vibrant theme of dinosaurs frolicking amidst a volcanic scene to life. Our conversation highlights the incredible contributions from sound effects editor Hudson Miller and composer Ben Canard, whose lively soundtrack enriches the parade experience. Hear about the unsung heroes like Roseanne and Bob Ford, who keep volunteers well-fed and energized, and witness how this multigenerational involvement fosters unity and purpose.
As we anticipate the float's journey to Pasadena, we celebrate the extraordinary teamwork and tradition that make this event truly special. With insights from various community leaders and float builders, we explore how Burbank's inclusive approach allows everyone to play a role, from seasoned veterans to enthusiastic newcomers. The episode wraps up with heartfelt New Year wishes and an invitation to support this beloved community project, underscoring the power of collaboration and the limitless potential for future growth in Burbank.
From deep in the Burbank Media District. It's time for another edition of my Burbank Talks. This podcast is presented by the staff of my Burbank. Now let's see what's on today's agenda as we join our program.
Speaker 2:Hello Burbank, craig Schubert here with you once again and we've got the band back together. Here's Ross Benson.
Speaker 3:I got my hat on.
Speaker 1:You're out of uniform, mister.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, well, my Burbank Talks. I'm ready to do a show. Wow, we got the band back together. We've got Craig. Hi-ho, tally-ho, let's go.
Speaker 1:We've got Craig Dooling with us. Somebody left the gate open. I was able to find my way in. I was able to find my way in, but it's good to be here. This is a great day. I love special events like this.
Speaker 2:It's New Year's Eve here in Burbank and we're on location at the Burbank Tournament Roses barn and we're going to have some guests on today and talk to them. So stand by and Ross is going to take over and he's going to get some great questions and we'll have some great guests for you.
Speaker 3:So we'll talk to you in just a second. Wow, we are going to be talking to probably one of the most important persons that put Burbank's float together, john Reeves. John, how are you today? You getting a little tired. More than a little, yeah.
Speaker 1:Are you sleeping right now? Not quite. Hopefully not yet. Okay, give us a minute.
Speaker 5:I'll sleep on the convoy.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 3:Exactly. People don't understand. You know, burbank is a self-built float. We've been doing it. This is our 75th year of putting floats in the Rose Parade and there's quite a few chairman and people that do certain things. Your job title is float construction super director.
Speaker 5:Chairman. Yeah, super director.
Speaker 3:Chairman yeah, chairman, super director, you've been involved with Burbank Tournament Resort. How many years now, john?
Speaker 5:Over 20.
Speaker 3:Amazing, amazing, and you've seen a lot of winners, yeah, and so forth, yeah.
Speaker 5:And a few others.
Speaker 1:Well, what got you into this 20 years ago? How did they rope you into this and why are you still?
Speaker 5:here, Well, I saw an article in the paper about it and I said that sounds interesting. I moved here from Michigan and I watched the parade growing up and I never thought I'd be able to actually work on the parade. And I saw the article and I said that sounds interesting. I came and I volunteered one day I started out screening a lobster on Bathtime Friends and I got hooked.
Speaker 1:That's great. Now I know there's a lot of welding that goes on. Do you have a welding background or do you have a background in any of this?
Speaker 5:No, I've learned so many things on this project not just this project, but over the years I've learned how to weld, I've learned how to do hydraulics, I've learned how to drive a forklift, I've learned how to use CO2 effects. Yeah, all of these things, and learned one or two things about flowers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and seeds and all that stuff, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:I can manage, but I'm no expert in that stuff.
Speaker 1:So you're more the framework and the building of the float, not so much the decoration of it, absolutely.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I leave that to the deco committee.
Speaker 1:Which is a whole other team. I mean the hustle and bustle around here and it's New Year's Eve and the hustle and bustle in the warehouse here and out around the float, it's still crazy. You can tell it's all those last touches, last looks.
Speaker 3:People don't understand underneath that float, when they see it, it's steel.
Speaker 5:Tons of it.
Speaker 3:There's tons of it Literally and people don't understand that there's a car under there.
Speaker 5:Well, it's a custom-built chassis actually.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and they changed a couple years ago, so people don't understand. You can make the float longer or shorter. It depends on what the design is and so forth.
Speaker 5:This is one of our longest floats. We have extensions in the front and the rear, and they're both at their maximum.
Speaker 1:This is the first time that we've actually had the rear extension out to its full length Is the core motorized and steering portion, that chassis does that get carried on from year to year?
Speaker 5:There's a chassis that was designed by a Cal Poly mechanical engineering student for the 1994 parade, so it was a senior project, and some Burbank people built the chassis and then the Burbank Water and Power team put the engine and the steering and all of the drivetrain into it, and so they are still responsible for maintaining that aspect of the float. And then we're responsible for everything float-specific, all of the animation engine which we replaced a few years back, about maybe 10 years ago.
Speaker 5:And everything that has all the characters and everything, because these have moving parts.
Speaker 1:There are hydraulics involved, there's pyrotechnics involved, there's animation.
Speaker 5:Yeah, unbelievable. Yeah, I mean, I still only know the very basics of pyrotechnics and for this year we actually hired an outside expert because we're doing live flame.
Speaker 1:Well, you've only been here 20 years, you'll get the hang of it eventually. Now, one of my favorite little parts that some people might not be aware of is where the driver sits underneath all that with his little porthole to the front. No, he doesn't have that no porthole. Or is it a camera and monitor? I know there's a hole in the ground, a hole in the floor.
Speaker 5:Yes, he can see through the uh, through the floor. It's uh, it's what we call expanded metal. So it's just an open grid work and he can see the pink line. He needs to see the line. That was where I was going.
Speaker 5:And we actually, we actually have a light that shines down on the ground so he can see the line more easily. Um, so that's how he steers, but that doesn't tell him how fast to go, and so for that he has an observer up front and he's on a headset much like the ones we're wearing, and, yeah, he's telling him, you know, to speed up or slow down. The observer also has a completely independent braking system, so in case somebody dashes in front of the float to grab a flower or something, he can stop on a dime. But you know he only uses that in case of an emergency.
Speaker 1:But in an emergency, rather than the delay of relaying that to the driver. Absolutely, I always found it fascinating that that whole parade, all those floats, follow a line painted down the middle of. Colorado and that's what they're following Like it's a track, like a virtual track, absolutely yeah, that always impressed me.
Speaker 3:John, I know you guys have a ton of work still to do. We are, I guess, about an hour away from the float pulling out for its convoy. Burbank escorts it over via city streets, go flower over to Alameda and up Glen Oaks and down Glen Oaks Is that a secret route?
Speaker 1:I hope it's not.
Speaker 3:It's on our website, oh okay, all right, so you can follow it along, actually.
Speaker 1:You're terrible at keeping secrets. If that's the case.
Speaker 3:This is true, but I used to go and leapfrog all the way over to the Colorado Bridge and watch a float come on. And this year, because Burbank is the seventh float of floats, you guys are getting out of here the earliest you've ever left.
Speaker 5:Well, it's actually not because of that you've ever left. Well, it's actually not because of that. They're trying something new. For the last few years we've been staging on Walnut with not just the self-built but also the convoy coming down from the Rose Bowl. And this year they're going to let the self-built convoy together and then the other Rose Bowl convoy will come separately. So they want to get us out of there and we have to get through there, because they're running a road race at midnight on the parade route.
Speaker 1:I've worked several large scale events over the last several years and it takes up all the resources of a city and a community. They always want to throw a 5K into the middle of it, maybe because they already have the closures or something, but just to throw a wrench in the works, right, they want to throw a road race in the middle of it.
Speaker 5:Yeah they started this last year. Really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, amazing, amazing. Well, john, we're going to let you get back to getting all your stuff together. Congratulations.
Speaker 1:Thank you Great job. We're looking at the float out the door from our direction here. It's fantastic.
Speaker 3:And it's just. People don't realize what it takes to from the drawing.
Speaker 5:They don't realize it's a full year process.
Speaker 1:How many people are involved? I know we're trying to wrap.
Speaker 5:We have to get you doing what you need to do, so we'll have 300 people or more come through in a day during this week, what we call Deco Week. Between Christmas and New Year's, the year-round construction crew is maybe about 20 or so. We've got about six or eight of us that are retired and come in two or three days a week, and then there's a larger contingent that comes in on Saturdays.
Speaker 1:And after this is dismantled, after the events this year, how long of a break do you get before you have to start on next year Break Break. Ah, there you go.
Speaker 5:Yeah, no, we're doing something year-round. I mean, if we're not taking this one apart or cleaning up the steel that we're going to reuse from it, because on the rack behind you you can see some of the steel that we've salvaged from previous years floats. You know, it's a little bit thin this year, of course, right now, because obviously a lot of it's in the float Right. But yeah, so you know we'll, it's going to take us at least a couple of months to get, you know, to get all of that, all of the deconstruction completed, and then we're we're working on, you know, um, and then we're we're working on, you know, finalizing the design of the next float, which our design contest is already open. Uh-huh, um, and and yeah, so you know people think, oh, the parade's over, so you've got lots of time.
Speaker 5:No it's January and February are actually two of our busiest months, because not only Well, yeah, you've got the parade. You've got the post parade in Pasadena, you've got the post parade here in Burbank, you've got the deconstruction which we do January 11th. We need lots of people to help with that. We're going to be here all day and we'll feed you lunch.
Speaker 1:Hey, now we've got to post a website or something where people can sign up for that.
Speaker 5:Burbankrosefloatcom. You don't have to sign up in advance, you just have to come here. You heard it here, yeah, and then our design contest ends in late January, and then the board has to get together and narrow the designs down to the top six or eight, and then the membership has to rank those and then we go to Pasadena with the designs and somewhere in there we have our annual elections. Yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:Non-stop. There's a smoke coming out of the volcano over there. You might want to tend to that Good good, I'm glad to hear that. That's a good thing, then.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it wasn't coming out very much before. Okay, great, so I'm glad that they got it going.
Speaker 3:Well, john, again congratulations on a fantastic. I mean thank you again as a lifelong Burbank citizen that what you guys do to these floats is just amazing and I've gotten to see so much of it up close. People don't realize. Thank you and thank you.
Speaker 5:People just do not realize how much is involved in a float.
Speaker 3:We appreciate it. We hope, when this goes on air, that we'll see it in Pasadena with a banner in front. That's what we hope for those are the prizes that you win. And yep, you know the highest is sweepstakes. We've won that in the past. We've won the mayor's trophy. Hopefully you're going to be.
Speaker 1:We know we'll be bringing something can't wait to see it tomorrow morning.
Speaker 3:Yep same here. Thank you very good. Thank you, john. Yep, oh, I'm sorry, I'm just still looking over my notes. We have a new guest Too late to write your Christmas list?
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 3:Well, I wanted to make sure I say we are going to be talking now, steve Edwards. Steve and I have known each other for how long have you been working on the floats, Steve?
Speaker 13:Probably around. I've been building floats for 37 years.
Speaker 1:Now they're jeez, have any of them sunk or have they just floated? Most of them have floated.
Speaker 3:You know, steve, it's getting late, steve has been involved in Burbank Turner Morozes for many years. His title is actually vice president of operations, and everything people see, he has it tucked away in that brain of his. Yes, I mean from the hydraulics to the pyro, to the music, to the wheels turning on everything.
Speaker 13:Got my hands in everything.
Speaker 3:And you know what, steve, I got to applaud you. You have done a fantastic job. I know you used to work over at that place called WB. Yes, you were there for many, many years and you have a brain for technology. And I tell you, the hydraulics you brought that to Burbank. And what do you think?
Speaker 1:All the moving pieces and parts Tell me everything.
Speaker 13:Well, let's go over this float here. So, as you may have heard, the theme of the Rose Parade is Best Day Ever and this float it's much smaller in person than I thought it would be. And this particular float has about a dozen baby dinosaurs and they are having a lava fun. This is the title of the float. See what you did there.
Speaker 13:Yes, and we start off at the front of the float, this big guy here with a long neck. He's going to have a couple fish hanging out of his mouth that are hanging on with deer life onto some kelp and he's going to twist it back and forth and they're just going to have so much fun swinging around. We have two more dinosaurs to the side here, on the right side, what we call the camera side of the float, and they're going to be running, so they're going to be bouncing back and forth here playing, and we have found two more dinosaurs. They found a big rock that happens to teeter-totter seesaw back and forth.
Speaker 13:So these two are going to have so much fun. Two more dinosaurs, one on each side, the camera side and what we call the off-camera side. They just popped out of their shells, their eggs here and they're spinning around. And we've got a couple pterodactyls. We got one in its nest, one flying off to the side here. That's not animated, by the way, but it is hanging off the side of the float here.
Speaker 13:They're hovering, they're hovering, sailing even, and you can see. Once you see the characters, you can see how happy they are. They're having so much fun. Except there's one, one way in the back, this poor T-Rex. He's got a really pouty face and that is because all the other dinos put him in a timeout for biting.
Speaker 1:Oh, you don't want that. Well, we know those T-Rexes yeah, Short arms but big teeth.
Speaker 3:Yes, people, steve, real quickly. They don't realize that float is being built here in Burbank. Yes, it's got to get to Pasadena.
Speaker 13:That's what we're about getting ready to do right now.
Speaker 3:And people don't realize that volcano won't fit under underpasses and won't go everywhere.
Speaker 1:If you go fast enough.
Speaker 13:Let's talk about that real quick, if you don't mind. The float is 46 feet long, 18 feet wide and the volcano is 23 feet tall. Now we build in a building that has a door that's at 15 feet 10 inches. That's a problem. Even our dinosaur, our front dinosaur head, is also over 16 feet. So we have a couple of problems with this float. It can't get out of the building and to do that we use a variety of hydraulics. The front dinosaur's head, the whole neck, will tilt down and the volcano is actually in two sections and at elevators it sucks into itself.
Speaker 1:Oh so we're just seeing the bottom half of it right now, right now, yes, you're only seeing the bottom half.
Speaker 13:It's going to raise up much higher. So, like I said, up to 23 feet. There's literally a forklift mast inside and that's the mechanism that we use to raise and lower it like a forklift, like an elevator. Amazing, the mad elevator Amazing.
Speaker 1:The mad scientist.
Speaker 3:Yes, he is. He wears a white robe or a white jumpsuit.
Speaker 1:So did Doc in Back to the Future.
Speaker 3:And it just go ahead.
Speaker 1:One thing you mentioned that I didn't want to let fly by too quick. Is you mentioned camera side? Yes, Now somebody's looking at this model. This is an early model of it. The actual one is all flowered up and very colorful now. But when you say camera side, what do you mean for everybody listening?
Speaker 13:Yes, so the right side of the float is considered camera side. And why am I using these terms, these float terms, here? That's because, as the parade starts down Orange Grove Boulevard and makes its famous right-hand turn onto Colorado, on the right-hand side are the big grandstands, and at the top of the grandstands that's where you find all your broadcasters and their TV cameras. So we always call this the camera side.
Speaker 1:Everybody watching it at home the parade on New Year's Day. They're going to see the right side of this float.
Speaker 13:They only get to see one side of a float.
Speaker 1:There's still stuff on the left side for the crowd watching.
Speaker 13:There's a lot going on on the off-camera side Part of the tournament says, even though for cameras it's really a one-sided float, but there's almost a million people watching it live down that five-and-a-half-mile parade route. We want to give both sides a great show, absolutely well, steve, I'm real quick during.
Speaker 3:I know you get the float from burbank to pasadena come six o'clock. The judging comes out come eight o'clock. You guys are moving. Where are you doing this whole operation?
Speaker 1:well, I know some people are taking naps because it's the only chance to get to, but I have a feeling you're going to be busy.
Speaker 13:I will be busy, but I am going to take a little bit more of a backseat. Literally so we have our own parade that goes from Burbank to Pasadena. This is a anyone who's seen this float move. It's quite the show. It starts off in the beginning with a pilot truck and a dump truck literally a dump truck where we have to have people inside the dump truck, on the bed of it, looking forward and backward for trees. We don't want to hit anything. Then, of course, the float itself.
Speaker 13:This float does not tow like a regular trailer. It does not track. So we literally have somebody sitting in the float with the engine on. So they have this power steering and the power brakes to steer the float in conjunction with our dump truck. Then we have another pilot vehicle, then we have a support vehicle behind that Circling. All of that is about seven to eight of our Burbank's finest PD motors keeping us safe and making sure everyone stays away from the float. I will be following right behind that official convoy. Hopefully I get to take it easy for a little bit in a nice comfy seat and stay warm until I get to Pasadena.
Speaker 1:Hopefully.
Speaker 13:That's the plan. That's the plan. But if there's anything that's wrong, I'm right there and we jump in.
Speaker 3:Well, most people don't realize that the float does get there early. Yes, If you have, you know, hitting those road bumps. I know Burbank streets are pretty well paved, but when you get into some of the other going up Colorado.
Speaker 1:It's not a straight line, that's for sure.
Speaker 3:That's right. Things fall off. Yes, Things move. So you guys pick them up, put them in the dump truck and there, when you were in Pasadena prior to the parade, you guys are doing.
Speaker 13:Doing repairs, doing repairs. So that's kind of why we're behind. We follow the float and then we scan the street as we're going along, because every now and then you know something, maybe a little bit bigger. Sometimes a little flower will fall off, sometimes something bigger than a flower will fall off, and then we have to collect it, hopefully no wheels or anything like that.
Speaker 1:How long of a trip is this, if it all goes smoothly? It?
Speaker 13:will so our route. We can tell it. It's on your website. It's on our website.
Speaker 1:You hinted to it last interview.
Speaker 13:So we are going to hook up here on Flower Street, the corner of Flower and Olive, and then we're going to proceed down Flower to Western, from Western to San Fernando, san Fernando to Colorado. Colorado will take us all the way through Glendale, eagle Rock, over that famous Colorado Bridge to Orange Grove, that famous corner, orange Grove in Colorado. But instead of turning right or going straight, we have to go away from that. We're going to go left on Orange Grove to Walnut. There, at Walnut, we have to wait for the Cal Poly, la Cunada and Sierra Madre convoys and once all four of us are there, then they're going to allow us to proceed down Walnut to Fair Oaks. Fair Oaks, we're going to cut in at California, california to Orange Grove, and that's where we'll disconnect and we'll drive the float up to our parking spot where we'll spend the night.
Speaker 13:So it's parade time. So are you parked in order? All floats are parked in order. So what they do. So you're asking about timing. It will take us approximately two hours 15 minutes to get from Burbank to Walnut Street. Then there's an unknown amount of time that we have to wait for all the other floats to arrive and to get the clearance that we can cross Fair Oaks and over Colorado Boulevard.
Speaker 1:No distractions here, but there are flames shooting out of the top of the float. The volcano's working Knock on wood. We'll have to get some footage of that before they go.
Speaker 13:I'm glad that's planned flames, by the way, just planned flames this time this time.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to see it tomorrow.
Speaker 13:I'm really hopeful that I'm in our parking spot before midnight. Last few years it's been after midnight and then we start our repairs and checks and hopefully get a few hours of sleep before we have to get ready in the morning yeah, the earlier you get into place, the earlier you can maybe uh in a few hours have a long blink well, I know you have a float to move out momentarily, steve I, I want to thank you for joining us today and congratulations, uh, you know you said you've worked on them for so many years.
Speaker 3:I know you, we've had a good relationship and you have put together a fantastic float. Thank, you.
Speaker 13:I'm very hopeful on this float. It's looking spectacular.
Speaker 3:I know the judges were here earlier judging. There were a lot of smiles on those four judges.
Speaker 1:How could you not? Even if you're supposed to be impartial like a judge? I mean, you can't not smile looking at this float.
Speaker 13:Unfortunately I was inside the float so I did not get to see them. I was making sure everything was running properly. They were smiling. They were smiling. That's good. I like to hear that.
Speaker 3:They were rather impressed.
Speaker 13:So just to wrap it up here, we have at 6 am tomorrow morning on the front steps of the Wrigley Mansion, which is also referred to as Tournament House. The president of the Tournament of Roses will come out that front door with a piece of paper in his hand. We really hope our name is on that piece of paper.
Speaker 3:Yes, well, I'm pretty sure, looking at this float, we'll be on that piece of paper somewhere. Again, thank you very much, steve. Thank you, thank you for the energy and everything that you put out to do this every year. I mean, I know you lose a lot of sleep. You're here weird hours, weekends, oh yeah, certain days.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you Well done and best of luck tomorrow.
Speaker 13:Thank you very much, appreciate it. Thanks, steve. Thank you.
Speaker 3:Wow, we happen to have the president, burbank Turtle and Roses Linda Kazakos. Linda and I go back to the 70s. We worked on the float together. I was a board member, I was vice president at one time. You have been doing this for your whole life.
Speaker 8:I have. I've been doing it now. This year will be 50 years. I'm 62 years old, so I started at 12 years old.
Speaker 3:Wow and, as most people might be able to tell, you've lost your voice, which is pretty common. The last week of the year you know it's just the flu runs rapid, the colds run rapid and our weather's been crazy. Linda, I know the president has some special duties to do, but before that I want to say you designed a couple of floats, one back in 2016, and we came home with an award. Your son, brian, designed a float in 2019, and we came home with an award. You know we've won a lot of awards. That I know. And what do you think of today's float?
Speaker 8:I think today's float is spectacular. I'm 99.9% positive that we are going to bring home an award. It's just what award that we bring home? Always keep in mind that the award is just the icing on the top of the cake.
Speaker 3:Correct. People don't realize it's a year-round operation for you and I mean the details and choosing a float and everything that goes along with getting this float into Pasadena. I mean there's tons of meetings that you do, you represent Burbank and so forth, and I notice people don't realize these floats get prejudged. There was a judging yesterday looking at certain things. Today there was a judging. I was there for that and I think we'll probably insert a picture or two. There were some smiling judges there.
Speaker 8:There was. There was Yesterday when they came around. They were very intrigued with a few things. We wanted to give them the wow factor today, with the volcano, the critters and other elements that we added and I think we really stepped up our game and with the floral displays that we had this year, I believe that we really stepped up the game and they were very pleased with what they saw today.
Speaker 3:Well, people don't realize the animatronics, everything that worked together when they were here. That'll be going on five miles down, or at least down Camero, as the float makes its turn. As Steve said, once you come off of Orange Grove down Colorado, it's pretty impressive and you have been around this. Like I said, when the judges were here, they were just it was nice to see them so happy and you hope that translates you are, we're judged differently. There's, you know, people don't realize those commercial floats being done by for Rotary or for the Boys and Girls Club. Those are commercially done floats that have half a million a million dollars to do them. Burbank is self-built floats that half a million a million dollars to do them. Yep, Burbank is self-built. Burbank has self-built our own float for many years.
Speaker 3:This is a community event. I mean you have we've talked to some people that, like yourself, that have been doing this for years come, you know, deco Week, what we call Deco Week, but this is a family operation, kind of. Look at yourself today Got a picture of you, your son and your new grandson. You know I'm three generations there that have worked on Burbank Float and I know we're kind of rushed this year. Some of the jobs that you're in charge of being president. Give us a, you know, kind of a round, because I know you do a lot.
Speaker 8:I do answer to the city for different events. I hold different events outside a national night out and other events that are needed. I run the board meeting once a month, the general meeting once a month. I help answer emails. I help take care of questions and answers from Pasadena Tournament of Roses, answer media questions, general email questions and help keep the crew calm and collected, and so there's nothing going on during Dacko Week with all of our volunteers.
Speaker 3:And that's a big thing, people you know, if you've ever been in an organization, you always have power pulls and so forth, and it starts with the youngest all the way up to you know everybody, and that just happens. But the bottom line is that float. I was next to our city manager, justin Hess, and Courtney Padgett. They were in awe and they both said this has to come back winter. I think we you and.
Speaker 3:I look at them every year. This does you know? I think it should be one of the top things If people wanted to get involved. You guys start in a week.
Speaker 8:Actually, technically, we started last September with our 2026 Parade Design and Float Contest.
Speaker 3:Wow, and that people can go online. I thought.
Speaker 8:People can go online. The rules are very simple. It's no bigger than 11 by 17 black and white drawing. 11, no bigger than 11 by 17 black and white drawing. The form is in an envelope in the back with no name, only on the registration form, so nobody knows who's drawn what. And that is submitted, I believe, the second or third week in January, and then the theme for 2026 is announced and in January the board will narrow it down to the top six or eight selections and in February we'll select our float that we would like to design for 2026 and present it to Pasadena.
Speaker 3:And you and I have seen and I'm not exaggerating designs on napkins from restaurants. Yes, I mean, if you have an idea and a Sharpie or a pen and you're at a restaurant and you want to be part of this, you can enter a design. If you've seen the parade, if you know, like you say on the website, the rules and regulations of what you have to do. It's a community affair and I know the city donates some. Your drivers like when we were talking to Steve, the driver is a city employee, the water and power supplies you guys to help build the train, the drive train, you get it over there. You have city employees. So that's how the city is involved quite a bit. So that's how the city is involved quite a bit.
Speaker 3:But a lot of the hands-on, the literally separating leaves or gluing on. If people see the sign that says City of Burbank, those are individual peas that are literally glued on with tweezers and you've got to have a lot of patience. We're at the float barn, which is under the olive overpass. Um, I remember years ago we had a lot bigger room and then they kind of gave this. You know this is where it's a year-round operation. You have an upstairs and a downstairs and people are literally separating different things, um of what goes on the float and it just people don't realize it all has to be natural. You know everything in it. There's nothing you know and it just it's a.
Speaker 8:I'm in awe every year and they are mung beans that are on the city of burbank. Sign really green mung beans are on that city of burbank.
Speaker 3:Sign that's the secret that not everybody will know. Watching that float.
Speaker 8:And nothing artificial, nothing dyed. You can't change its natural state. So you cannot spray something with water and put it in the sun to alter its natural state.
Speaker 3:Yeah, see all the rules you can blend it?
Speaker 8:Yep. The only exception to the rule is coffee. They do allow roast coffee on the float, and that is the only exception to the rule, because many years ago a coffee maker had a float the parade and of course they wanted to feature what they did best coffee. And it stayed in the rule book ever since.
Speaker 3:Wow, see those. And there's a lot of rules that pass it in and not just anybody can enter a float. I mean it's a lot of rules at Pasadena and not just anybody can enter a float. I mean it's a big process. This is our 75th year, which is amazing in itself. I think for every year to continue to do it, I know I look out the barn door and they're wrapping up cords and they're getting stuff ready to this convoy. It's leaving a little early this year. This is the first year that it's left this early. But if people want to come after the parade, if you haven't got, if you're a Burbank resident Olive and Glen Oaks at the parking lot there the electric parking lot the float will be on display, you can get pictures with it, you can ask. Quite a few of the decorators will be there and so forth, and people can stop by buy some souvenirs to have fun next year.
Speaker 8:Buy some souvenirs, possibly some leftover flowers. Yep, it will be coming in Friday evening and leaving Monday morning.
Speaker 3:So, as we've just been told that they're going to run a show right now, get all the animation going. There's a good several hundred people here that make it a New Year's tradition to come out and take a look at the float before it's in the parade. Linda, congratulations, thank you so much. I know I will be seeing you the next couple of days. Hopefully you'll get that voice totally back. Hopefully you'll get some sleep.
Speaker 8:Well, I'm doing a live interview. I'm going convoy over tonight. I will be staying over. I will be doing the live interview between, I believe, 7.15 and 7.30 tomorrow morning. I will also be walking with the float to designate when it's time for those flames to be shot and then protect our float with a fire extinguisher. Heaven forbid something happened.
Speaker 3:Yeah, people don't realize that you guys have had fire drills. Yes, I mean they, everything. There's no stone unturned. You know, if the float breaks down, they require you to be able to hook up and keep that float moving. It's a very I know they because the satellites they pay for a lot of satellite time, which is very expensive. So we're going to let you go and go out there and talk to the people with what you have left of a voice and thank you very much for joining us and, as a lifelong Burbank citizen, thank you.
Speaker 8:Thank you and Happy New Year to a lifelong Burbank citizen. Thank you, thank you and happy new year to all of Burbank residents. We really appreciate your support and have a wonderful time and come down and volunteer.
Speaker 3:I agree, thank you very much. Happy new year. Thank you. Wow, I am so fortunate. We are so fortunate, would you believe, craig, we have the creator, the designer of this year's float, eric Anderson.
Speaker 1:Here I am, creative mind behind this amazing float.
Speaker 3:Eric, you and I have known each other for many, many years.
Speaker 1:Many years Right here. I don't know if he's never not said that to somebody we've interviewed. That's true.
Speaker 11:He is the man of Burbank. Oh, what's going on? Stuff's happening. I think the float is going to go boom.
Speaker 1:He is the man of Burbank. Oh, what's going on?
Speaker 11:Stuff's happening. I think the float is going to go boom. All right, you want to keep rolling or we're stopping? No, we'll keep rolling. Why don't we keep going? I'm going to turn around and look at this. See if they raise the volcano up.
Speaker 1:He said they're not going to fire it off, maybe they'll raise it up.
Speaker 3:No, they should raise it up. No, they should fire it, I hope. Oh, he said he wasn't going to you. Oh, two minutes. We have a two minute, all right, so let's get a question in we can get a question amy eric, um you've been, you're also the historian. Historian, yeah or uh? You've been involved with herb. I term roses for how many years?
Speaker 4:43 you're not that old dude has it been going on that long? I didn't, we are was going on that long.
Speaker 11:We are celebrating our 75th anniversary this year. So yes, but it is shocking to think I've been around longer than half of that.
Speaker 3:Isn't that amazing.
Speaker 11:Yeah, it's a little daunting. Actually, You've grown up with it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have.
Speaker 11:I was 14 when I started.
Speaker 3:There you go Well. Well, you know, as I introduced you, I said the designer this is your float. Yeah, it is. This is your concept, this is your idea.
Speaker 1:He said he wants his model back. I don't want to give it back.
Speaker 11:Half-inch model that I built for construction.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, tell us, Eric, where did this come from in your mind? And you've seen every float for years. You've seen what others the city, other self-built do. This is an amazing float.
Speaker 11:Oh, thank you guys.
Speaker 3:I'll tell you it.
Speaker 4:Just seeing it earlier you heard that, huh, they're going to start the engine. Oh, all, right, we got to get an answer out of them before we yeah.
Speaker 11:I know I was headed to a really good question there.
Speaker 1:Ask them a question oh, where did this call come from? What is the genesis of? The year my mind. It came from my mind.
Speaker 11:Now you know, being in the association for 43 years every year, you know they ask the public to submit ideas and I designed this 34 years ago for fun and games. So if you look at the float and you look at the theme of the Rose Parade for that year fun and games what are the dinosaurs doing? They're playing and having fun and games. I think how I came up with it was I've always been inspired by Disney and the railway. When you go into the past and you see all the dinosaurs. So if you look at the barosaurus at the front, instead of chewing on seaweed or something from the train ride, I said, well, wouldn't it be cute if he's giving these two fish a ride of their you know life? And actually they are getting right of their life. Man, those things are flapping all around up there.
Speaker 11:That's kind of cute oh, the volcano is going up there, it goes wow so hopefully they'll fire the fire, because I've only seen the fire go off twice out of the funds and there goes the animation, the dinosaur's turning.
Speaker 4:Everything's moving now. Yeah, so you can see the fish in the front there. Hopefully you can see a little bit of that on the camera. I really think those fish are not going to make it through the parade. They just need to make it by the cameras, right?
Speaker 11:Well, that's normally the tradition of Burbank is just make it by camera row. Who cares what happens afterwards?
Speaker 11:But boy that fish in the front. Okay, here comes our sound design. Sound design was done by Hudson Miller, who is actually a visual effects I'm sorry, a sound effects editor in the business and he's actually standing right there filming and listening to his own thing. Oh, that's the music we're hearing, actually from ben canard, a composer who has done six uh songs for us for the floats, a really talented guy and, uh, we work together I um on the music for it.
Speaker 11:Um, I always, uh, you know, uh, I always wanted to betempo and have marching band elements in it, because that's who we're competing against in the parade and, as you can hear if you listen to it, that's what it has. That does sound like a marching band, yeah, exactly, and it could, totally they could take this and be a marching band, yeah. So I always wanted to be up-tempo and something you could dance to or move to, and it's exciting to see the uh, the people who gather around and start tapping their toes and stuff, because that's exactly what it's about is. It's giving you that energy. And then also, you hear in the theme right now, uh, the child like uh elements. You know the in the theme, um, and you'll hear the theme will transition into kind of a playful running, like a let's hear it again, because it's like every time I hear it, you know. So this is like a running. You know running playing part of the score, you know, you know they're just having fun. Basically, the paras in the front, the parasaurus, the running dinosaurs, you know this feels like their theme right here.
Speaker 11:Uh, on that, um. So even in the music and design and flow, I'm very involved, very involved in the sound effects. You know, uh, the, with hudson making the sounds that'll rumble and the volcano will go off. This is, this is a soaring theme. You know, kind of them playing and and uh achieving their goals in a way, you know, because it just gives you that that, uh like, they're trying to reach for something with playing together. Coming up with the design, too, is that all these dinosaurs are different species but yet they can play in harmony together and I think it's kind of a world message that we can all get along. That's what I came up with when I designed it.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, again, putting all those elements together, you have created a masterpiece. Very nice of you to say how fine.
Speaker 1:A tip does your say have on this float down to the flowers that are used, or is it more of a color palette choice?
Speaker 11:That's a tricky question for me because I don't know if I want to say anything yet, but I don't know. Oh, I'll say this the Burbank Tournament of Roses, when I joined it was very designer heavy, meaning that the designer was top of the pyramid. That is no longer the structure of our association and it's a now power dynamic on that structure of our association and it's a now power dynamic on that. So it was very hard for me this year to push this design through and and achieve this vision which you are currently watching. I think there were a lot of headwinds against me on it, um, but uh, somehow I just persevered and took one for the team to show that this is the type of float these guys can build, and the reason they can build it is because the talent is amazing in this association.
Speaker 11:I mean we have a lot of members that have been here for over 20 years. You know what I mean in terms of building, decorating, our decorating team, the people that come here every year have been doing it over probably 30 years, most of them. So we have a lot like. Once we got through construction I saw the bones of the float. I just said, well, we got it Because Deco always brings it through and you can see they really brought it through, you know, and construction to give such a great foundation this year. It's just all successful.
Speaker 11:And my personal goal in this association always has been because, going back when I joined the association, it was dying Because, you know, you had an old team and they were trying to bring in young talent and I was one of them but they couldn't bring in enough because kids, you know who wants to build a float or be involved in the association for so long. And when Pasadena Tournament of R roses almost kicked us out of the parade in 87, when I was vice president of the association, you know we went into city council and we fought to keep what was created by esther klein back in 1949. Her vision of this could be a community built float sponsored by the community, meaning bringing in the whole community, getting the flowers from the community, getting the money from the community, because even back then the float was cancelled. They had entered, you know, the war had ended and they came back into the parade Burbank did and the city in 1947, was Isabel Coleman actually designed our float and built it? She's a legend in the Rose Parade world and then I'm trying to figure out what the next year, if it was her company again that built it. But the fact is that the city came back into the parade as having a professionally built float. Then, of course, pass Street above Magnolia needed a sewer line that was over budget and they canceled the budget for the Rose Parade. They said let's take that two grand and roll it into that sewer line. So every time I drive on Pass now I crack up that it almost killed Burbank being in the Rose Parade, that one sewer line that we all use now.
Speaker 11:But luckily, like I said, esther Klein came in and she had this vision that still persists today with our association and that is it is a community effort. Everybody is involved. We reach out to the community and this float represents that this year, because I really relied on the community to pull this float off with our Orchid. You know, our great Orchid fundraiser is a great example and I was able to raise $3,000 to get the orchids that you currently see on the float. And it was really nice to see the public coming in yesterday to place their orchid on the float and also the support that I got through my friends and family this year on that. They really rallied around and helped me Because they all knew this was a heavy lift for this association and I really believe when I did design this float, that it could not have been built back then, and that was an interesting question.
Speaker 11:When I did win, it sat in the drawer and when the theme was announced the best day ever, it's like, oh, this design is perfect for that. The dinosaurs are having their best day ever. It's like, oh, this design is perfect for that.
Speaker 11:The dinosaurs are having their best day ever, right, except for the t-rex who's having a time out at the back of the float, you know, for biting, of course, um, and that's he's looking very sad yeah, he's looking very sad, but what's really funny is that's um designing it back then I had him snapping at the the uh pterodactyl flying around, you know, because he was supposed to fly around at the top of the volcano. Well, now I know that was impossible, because it was impossible for us to do that kind of thing today. But with that I thought, well, what would happen if a T-Rex was doing a child? T-rex was doing that. Of course he'd be placing a timeout and I really believe that's what pushed this design into the winning column just that one little, you know he's having a timeout for biting, because that's just so typical of any child to get.
Speaker 1:I'm glad this concept was finally born.
Speaker 4:And we're all going to get to enjoy it in the parade tomorrow. Yes, now that it's done, right.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited to see how the public reacts to it and, judging by what I've seen so far from the judges to the public, I think it's going to be a real crowd pleaser and personally I congratulate you and thank you for your your years of service with this project, and certainly not without its bumps, bruises, hoops and and hurdles and growing pains, but certainly a labor of love, I would say right, yeah thank you again.
Speaker 3:I echo what Craig just said. You and I've been around many, many, many years and I know what you've gone through and I was on that board once and, yes, we were dealing with some people that were pretty set in their ways. I mean, you did it their way, or goodbye it is, it hasn't changed, funny enough but I'll tell you, looking at the judges today, as I said to Linda, who were laughing and smiling, yes, they enjoyed looking at this float.
Speaker 3:They really did. I think that will transcend tomorrow when the judges come out with their award winning.
Speaker 11:I knew when we had the float built that we had an award winner because, like I said, deco brings their A game. So if the bones of the float are that strong, you know? Look at the animation on it.
Speaker 4:It's just amazing as we watch the volcano come back down, come back down to get under the Sierra Madre.
Speaker 1:Bridge has to do it, to get out of the building here.
Speaker 11:Well, that's what's great about our building is, if we can get out of the building, we can be in the parade Because all floats have to lower to that requirement. All floats have to lower to that requirement. But you know a self-goal of me and being in the association, what I was trying to get at with rebuilding this association when I was vice president is that watching the parade through the years shrink because of the economy or budgets or corporate sponsors not wanting to spend the money that they used to, the parade is definitely shrinking. They're looking to restructure the way the parade is run. You'll notice this year that it'll be more Macy's-like, with much more entertainment on the floats. I'm kind of curious to see how that works out for them. No giant balloons though.
Speaker 11:No giant balloons yet. You'll never see them in the Rose Parade because well, you did see one, superman way back I think in the 80s or early 90s, which was a balloon back then, but that was the closest they came to the Macy's parade on that one. But the fact being is I always thought this association could build a not only award-winning float but the top award, and we have done it before, I think 1961 and 1956. Remember that one no, page one.
Speaker 11:Well, you know, if you lived in Burbank all your life, you might you know.
Speaker 1:That's Burbank history, Right exactly.
Speaker 11:So the fact that Burbank has won sweepstakes because I did hear another self-pilots say, oh, self-pilots have never won I'm like, uh, burbank has. But I've always thought and will again Well, from your lips you know, because I always felt we had the talent in this association to do it. And I think this float represents that talent, with all the people that brought their A game to this oh yeah ah they're putting the convoy together being ready to roll the float to pasadena big move just in time yeah well, eric.
Speaker 3:Again, as a lifelong burbank resident, I want to thank you not only for your friendship, but also for your energy, your concept, your ideas. Keep it up, stick around, please. You know, I know the float when it comes back to Burbank in a couple of days. It'll be on display, but you, hopefully, will be there.
Speaker 11:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Burbank citizens come out and thank you personally.
Speaker 11:This is a little bit of a love letter to Burbank too. I love this city and that's why I'm in this association is to give back to the city. I love the people that come here, I love interacting with them and I I love interacting with them and I enjoy everybody. And you owe me that photo that you took of me in, I think, 1984, of me decorating a star.
Speaker 1:You got this perfect photo he knows what box it's in.
Speaker 11:Yeah exactly, I'm still waiting for the original print of that photo instead of the newspaper print, because I think that would complement.
Speaker 1:Well, we're talking about the float here. We're talking about the float, you know on our table here, eric, we have.
Speaker 3:You know, I'm going to let you hold up one of these roses, you know, and then cheers, cheers, to a great 2025.
Speaker 11:I think the Explorer Rose, I think that one is.
Speaker 3:And people don't realize. With these, vials get filled with water. Yes, there's water in them. They get not only filled with water, but each vial gets cleaned after the float and reused.
Speaker 1:Yes, or do they have to sanitize it? I?
Speaker 11:think this vial is from when I first joined the association. To tell you the truth, oh really, these things are old.
Speaker 1:Stories this vial could tell Exactly.
Speaker 11:How many parades?
Speaker 3:Right. You know, yeah, but again, thank you. Thank you, eric. Tomorrow I will be there shooting pictures of it. I look forward to seeing a banner in front of it that says sweepstakes.
Speaker 1:And I'm going to be watching it at home in my jammies. Yeah, there you go, if we don't achieve sweepstakes, you know.
Speaker 11:At least, we reached for it at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:I certainly deserving of it in my humble opinion. So good luck tomorrow. Thank you very much.
Speaker 11:Fingers crossed.
Speaker 3:There you go, thank you, thank you. We have with us Roseanne and Bob Ford. They are probably two of the most important people that are around.
Speaker 1:Look at these desserts they made for us. We even have a close-up of one of them. Are you behind these? They're staring at us right now.
Speaker 12:Those, were a surprise to us. Oh really, that's great. Those were two of our people that have been here all week. They ran home and baked them and brought them back, and we were delighted. No, kidding.
Speaker 1:Well, they're handing them out and we can't wait to dig into it.
Speaker 3:Well, what? You guys, the listening public that sees this great float go down Colorado Boulevard, don't realize the days of feeding all the people that put those flowers on it. You guys are in charge of the kitchen. There's a whole kitchen. We're in the kitchen. There's a whole kitchen.
Speaker 1:We're in a warehouse. There's a whole kitchen back here.
Speaker 12:Well, not a full kitchen. It's a break area.
Speaker 3:Right, right, Well, during the normal part of the year, but it takes a lot. Many years ago, when I was part of the board, I would make vats of chili and we would have the smokehouse give us loaves and loaves of garlic bread and people all night long. That's when we used to work all night long, working on float, and it's changed quite a bit. But you guys run the kitchen here and I was here the other day. People are enjoying the food, enjoying the nourishment.
Speaker 1:They need it. People are working some long hours here, you need to keep the energy up.
Speaker 10:It's what you've got to do, and it's thanks to all the different restaurants in town that donated that make it all possible.
Speaker 3:Well, that's what we hear and people when they think of a community effort. You guys are very fortunate to have some restaurants here in town that go beyond.
Speaker 12:It's the generosity of these restaurants. We have Barragans, Micho Mas, Lancer's, Martino's, Western Bagel. Chick-fil-a. Chick-fil-a. Raising Cane's. Yeah, he goes and gets it every day.
Speaker 1:I'm the gopher. Are you the quality control guy? Yeah, you have to do all the testing.
Speaker 3:Well, it's funny you say that because I was talking. We have a new bagel place in town. Yes, oh, bagel Boss, and they are one of our advertisers and I spoke to the owner the other day. They normally close at 3. And I spoke to the owner the other day. They normally close at 3, and when they're done during the normal year, the schools come and get their extra bagels.
Speaker 1:So I talked to the owner. This is a big moment. Sorry to interrupt, but the float is pulling out.
Speaker 3:It's moving, it's rolling.
Speaker 1:Ever so slowly. It's starting to pull out. It's going to start its journey to Pasadena for the parade tomorrow.
Speaker 3:And I talked to the owner and you know there's no school.
Speaker 12:So he has bagels for you guys.
Speaker 3:I'm going to hit him up, he said he would be glad to help you out.
Speaker 12:We have. The restaurants have been just so generous, and Handy Market and Coral Cafe and they're just so. They realize the need that we have and they realize the importance of float and all the volunteers and we feed about between 95 to 125.
Speaker 1:We fed 141 today and it's the perfect way for these businesses to give back yes, don't.
Speaker 12:And other than monetarily, yes, with their wonderful food and I have like um claudine at chili john's, I get a call from her. If I don't call her and she doesn't get a letter, she calls me well, that's what we're.
Speaker 3:You know people will be listening to our podcasts and next year if you own a restaurant we have quite a few you'll put that food to use. They need you, we need you. It continues that community and when you're out shopping or when you go to those restaurants, you can mention that you heard on the podcast at the Float that you guys donated and give them a thanks.
Speaker 12:We put their name on a board and we tell the people as they go through the line where it's from. And please, if you go there, tell them. Thank you for donating.
Speaker 3:Well, you know what? If you supply me that list, we'll run it through on the credits when we finish our show Definitely. Because they need a pat and a thank you.
Speaker 12:And I also have a family that came down and donated a meal for us on Sunday, and that was so appreciated.
Speaker 3:Well, we want to thank you. I know the float, the convoy is getting moving. Yep, you guys have kitchen to clean up and wrap up because it's going to be a little quiet in here for the next Until the 11th, and then we're going to tear it all apart and start over.
Speaker 1:You are two people, lovely people, that no one on this team here, the hundreds of people involved in this whole process, can do without.
Speaker 3:So you serve a very important role here and you just kind of clued it off. If people want to work on the float what they call take it apart, right, you will feed them on the 11th.
Speaker 12:Yes, we will, we'll be here.
Speaker 1:And they just show up on the 11th.
Speaker 12:They can show up and fill out a form and sign in.
Speaker 3:Suggest you bring your own gloves, definitely. Wear some dirty clothes, because you'll get dirty and you know what, maybe a bottle of water.
Speaker 1:You'll get dirty, and you know what? Maybe a bottle of water or a reusable? Water bottle or something Proper, shoes, this is where it starts.
Speaker 12:It is a work environment. It is a work environment and if they want to get involved all year. There are things to do all year long.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's what we learned tonight. At least I learned tonight. This is a never-ending process. Put it together or breaking it down? Are you putting it?
Speaker 10:together or breaking it down. For us it's about a 13 or 14-month process because we're working right now on the design, getting the design going.
Speaker 1:So you work a 14-month year? Yeah, you work a 14-month year, right.
Speaker 3:Well, roseanne and Bob, I want to thank you so much. Thank you, like I said, the people that and everybody I've heard from people were eating burritos and everything else that I saw. You always have coffee going, I wish I showed up more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's hot chocolate back there. I'm going to bust open a cup of that in a minute. It's starting to get a little chilly in here.
Speaker 12:And we do have wiener schnitzel and Taco Bell that are very generous to us. So you know, go get a hot dog and a taco.
Speaker 1:You don't have to tell me twice.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you, happy New Year's. Yes, I know you will like us look forward to seeing a banner in front of our float tomorrow with an award, and I know we will come back with an award.
Speaker 1:And hopefully you can enjoy the fruits of your labor and watch the parade tomorrow.
Speaker 12:Oh, yeah, yes.
Speaker 3:In a warm house. Set up in the barn.
Speaker 12:Fireplace on there you go.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Well again. Thank you and Happy New Year.
Speaker 12:Thank you so much. Happy New Year. Happy New Year.
Speaker 3:We have one of our last interviews because the barn is getting empty. Last but not least, convoy has headed taken the float. I want to introduce James Combs. Now, if you're around Burbank, annie, james Combs wears a couple of different hats in the city and that's where it shows that this is a community affair, community event. James is also chairman of our Burbank Police Commission. He works for LA County, has his normal 9-to-5 job. A couple years ago he got involved with the Turnaround Roses. He will say that he's the head bottle washer in the room.
Speaker 1:Well, when he walked up, he said I just push a broom around here. I don't believe him.
Speaker 9:Not even the head bottle washer.
Speaker 3:But, james, you've been around.
Speaker 1:Your contribution, your wife's contribution, I mean it's a family process and I just want to share what have you got there in that pail?
Speaker 9:Oh, this is a box of rice and it's. So I'm not and I just want to share. What have you got there in that pail? Oh, this is a box of rice and so I'm not detailed into the deco stuff. So I kind of make stuff up and everything and I know there's like a gazillion different types of rice and somebody can talk to you about like the texture of rice and grinding rice down and the different colors and if you age it and whatever. It's a box of rice but you don't want to eat this rice because it's probably been sitting there for a while.
Speaker 1:Now, just to clarify. You didn't bring that to the interview. You happened to be walking by with it when we grabbed you.
Speaker 9:I was walking by and you asked me to stop because I was about to take that away.
Speaker 3:Well, you know it's. Well you know, james. Like I said, it goes to show people that on a Wednesday you could be sitting at a police commission meeting, yeah, and on Saturday you put your gloves on in your jumpsuit, yep, and you're pushing a room around the float barn.
Speaker 1:Hopefully you haven't brought a box of rice to the commission meeting. No, no, Used to cross the wires there.
Speaker 9:You know what? We could try that See if anybody notices. I wouldn't have a problem with that at all. Try that See if anybody notices.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't have a problem with that at all. Well, I know our producer and director, Craig Sherwood, wants to do a podcast. We will do that, a little different one about the police commission and so forth. I know you're quite well suited for that one, thank you being the chairman, and you've been reelected, thank you. But you know, are you amazed to look into that float today?
Speaker 9:It's an amazing process seeing everything come together. There's so many different people that are involved in this. We're involved in this year round During Deco Week. We get upwards of 1,500 volunteers plus coming through this space to be able to do the last minute touches. And there are folks that have been doing this for 30, 40 years that just come in during Deco Week. And then there's folks that just started this year that they're working year-round. We've got folks that are engineers and doctors.
Speaker 9:There are people that actually travel from across the country to come stay in Burbank for a week, then literally walk across the Olive Bridge from the hotel to come work on the float for 12, 16 hours a day, four or five days straight right after Christmas, and then they're flying home today just to go catch a red eye, go back home and everything, and this is just what they do. There are folks that are experienced developmental delays, that are involved in doing what they can to do the work and they're welcomed into the community. There's young kids that are involved. I'm not going to say that people lie about their age so they can get involved in certain projects on the float, but maybe that happens. Um, there are folks that are well into well into retirement that are, they're looking to be part of something bigger than them and it's just.
Speaker 3:it's just a cool space where everybody comes together well, you know, I'd like to say I'm sorry, craig, then jump in there. My son's in-laws are originally from Canada. They're now from Vancouver. She is one of those people.
Speaker 3:They are literally. They came out here this week. They are staying in my son's backyard. They're from Canada. This is warm weather. They're living in a tent in the backyard. They have come out here and she's working on the float sheet. This has been on her bucket list her whole life and tomorrow she's going to go to the parade with me Awesome and see the whole work. So cool, it's so true where people come out here and we will take anybody to volunteer Anyone, anyone.
Speaker 1:Well, the rest of the world watches this parade in 70 degrees and sunshine and they wish they were here. But what you had just said I keyed in on the part about this is almost a pilgrimage for some. Yeah, to come, whether it's an annual thing or a one-time bucket list thing. But you went on to say how many different people can be involved in this, and we'll find something for you to do. We'll give you a role. Anybody can participate.
Speaker 9:Yep, the trick is is to be wanting to be involved. And so when we first started this is my I think this is my seventh year working on floats, sixth float, because we had the year where the float, the year that wasn't. Basically so we we my, my spouse and I you met Terry earlier. We thought we were just doing a little project and would come in for a day or two and work on it. It felt like working on like a kindergarten art project Our fingers hurt, we were getting a little slap, happy, but we were spending time together, kind of a thing. And then it led to getting involved, doing a couple things throughout the year and next thing, you know, it's like we're here year round.
Speaker 3:Well, it's addictive, it's addictive. It's addictive. It's addictive. I understand you were on the board of the nominating committee Yep, and that goes to show you how it's totally involved. Yeah, where you're now.
Speaker 9:Yep, and what we're trying to do with the nominating committee and hopefully folks have explained, kind of how the structure works and everything. There's a board of directors, there's an executive board, that's in there. There's a nominating committee. There's a board of directors, there's an executive board, that's in there. There's a nominating committee. There's a deco committee, there's a design committee. There's a bunch of it's all. It's all, it's all.
Speaker 9:What's the word I'm looking for? It's a democratic process where we want people's voices, we want people's participation in this, and it's by consensus and it's by we vote on things and everything. The nominating committee is kind of cool because what we're looking to do is we're looking to try to build leadership, not only for what we're doing now, but what does the organization want to look like years from now, for both sustainability and for inclusion, and it's kind of fun to be able to work with folks that are interested in really serving on the board. I can't go into the details of who's been nominated for this year because that still has to be announced and everything. I was just about to do that. I'm tired. I almost messed that up, but I didn't Darn it.
Speaker 3:You almost got the scoop, got the scoop.
Speaker 9:You almost got the scoop. But what we're looking to do is we're looking to identify folks that do want to lean in and do want to get involved and it's cool to see that energy, hear that energy and try to be a part of something. So, even though I'm not involved in the board, being involved in a subcommittee that's helping nominate and identify people for leadership roles and everything, that's another way of kind of helping build and contribute to the systems that we're working in.
Speaker 1:And it sounds like something you mentioned is every year is a new opportunity to maybe steer a little bit. Take the whole organization, Because when you're talking about that structure it's just Burbank, Every float has this structure and all that. But every year, if you're involved, you have an opportunity to take it maybe a different direction or make some adjustments for the future.
Speaker 9:I've never worked on other float organizations, but the structures are a little bit different though. We're one of six self-built floats You've heard the story about that. It's all community driven. A lot of the float builders they're corporations or they're being hired by corporations to do the work and everything. So there's a lot.
Speaker 9:I was just talking with some friends today who they go in and they basically told you're going to go do this, you're going to do this, as opposed to come on in and let's get you involved in something that you want to be involved in. Let's help you build that sense of community. There's a collective sense of ownership here, which is kind of cool when you don't have that giant corporate structure. The community's already here, the community's here, and the community's not just here in Burbank. The community is here. It's Southern California, actually it's the nation in that sense.
Speaker 9:I was just talking with some folks that work on the husband. He works for Imagineering out of Florida. This is his third year here and what they do is they fly out, they spend their Christmas vacation, they fly out, they work on the float together. They go see the parade and then they go to Disneyland and then they go home, and they did it just as a bucket list thing their first year. This is the third year where they're spending time, money, resources and family time together doing this. It's really kind of cool what?
Speaker 1:a valuable experience that they've found for themselves, and a very unique one, exactly Very unique.
Speaker 3:You know, I see off camera his wife.
Speaker 9:I'm supposed to talk about the different types of rice.
Speaker 1:She can join you right next to me.
Speaker 9:They're talking about rice, proper technique on how to put rice on the float. And what floral glue versus the industrial Elmer's glue, all that.
Speaker 3:Well, what I'd like to say is you know, it's a family. Now you guys do it as a family. I mean, a couple years ago this was totally something different.
Speaker 1:I'm going to give her my hits. Okay, there you go, we can have a.
Speaker 9:Oh, we want you to speak, there you go.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll introduce.
Speaker 3:Terry and again thank you very, very much for your participation. I know he is involved, I know you're quite involved. You were with those judges today and I've asked almost everybody that has been interviewed today. You say the reaction to those judges were pretty happy.
Speaker 7:Oh yes, From the first judging yesterday they were coming in. They're like, wow, this is pretty cool on Sprint. And then they came in today and they're like oh, this is amazing, it's spectacular. I mean, they just said oh, wow, and they had huge smiles, Eyes were really wide, so we knew we had hit a really high mark with that.
Speaker 3:Yep, I saw that today and that's the things you look for. Tomorrow we'll find out what they thought because they have a lot of floats to check. But again from my Burbank crew, thank you for your participation. Thank you.
Speaker 1:And all the roles you play.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's definitely all volunteer, but it's a collaborative effort and I appreciate all my supervisors who said yes to taking on character, either one or more than one, all my new supervisors this year. I had some who were veterans and I had some who were first-time supervisors this year and they stepped up and I was very proud of them and I appreciated every minute of their time and effort, dedication, staying late, making sure that all the details were there, asking me time and time again hey, I don't think this works, let's change it. And together we would go in and we would change it, we'd pull new material, we'd create our own out of what we had and we actually made it work. And with all of our dinosaurs, to all those volunteers out there who donated to get those dinosaurs named, we appreciate every one of them and we're very happy to send them down the parade route this year with new names.
Speaker 1:Definitely a team effort. Definitely a team effort. Now, it's probably a never-ending process every year of new people coming in, learning the different jobs and those that have been here teaching them. So what a great sharing environment of knowledge and expertise and useful talents here too. Yeah pushing a broom. Pushing a broom identifying rice yes, but welding, yeah, decorating, creative arts, all that stuff.
Speaker 3:Mechanics? Well, people don't know. Besides being a police commissioner, your 9-to-5 job with LA County Health?
Speaker 9:Yep, LA County Department of Mental Health.
Speaker 3:And we bring everybody I mean together, everybody's here. Yeah, it's nice to see you.
Speaker 1:And you could probably exercise those muscles sometimes.
Speaker 9:I try not to but they come in every once in a while.
Speaker 7:It helps me get through.
Speaker 1:My big question for you is when are you going to get to sleep and for how?
Speaker 7:long, hopefully. After a little celebration with our friends from Montana this evening who have flown in, drove in and came in and they actually brought their grandchildren this afternoon to see it. They were ecstatic Well fantastic. And we're going to go celebrate with them and then, hopefully, I will be sleeping for possibly 10 hours or more.
Speaker 1:You're not going to the parade.
Speaker 9:You're going to watch it with everybody else I have to be over at the stadium at 830. I'm actually working the game tomorrow. He does another job, oh, no kidding.
Speaker 7:He does another?
Speaker 3:job, he does another job. Let's hear that voice.
Speaker 1:Come on, these are two people that can do voiceover we need to put you to work, we need to get you busy. Well, what he does is backup.
Speaker 3:Come on, give me that.
Speaker 1:We're going to know everything about you by the end of this. No, it's crazy.
Speaker 9:I think this is my 18th year as the announcer for the UCLA Marching Band. I've been doing that for a minute.
Speaker 1:We have to talk. You've got one of my dream jobs.
Speaker 9:It's all volunteer, it's not a job, so I'm not retiring on it or anything.
Speaker 1:I say job because it's an easy word to say.
Speaker 9:Okay, that works out.
Speaker 1:It's a gig.
Speaker 9:We'll call it a gig. But the other thing that was an accident that happened is I got the honor. About six years ago I showed up at the UCLA OU game. About six years ago I showed up at the UCLA OU game and one of the roles in the press box is something called a spotter and what they do is they call the game for the in-stadium announcer. They wear a headset like this, they pay attention to the stats booth and then they're literally calling the game play-by-play who's got the ball, how many yards, who got the tackle All that kind of stuff, keeping stats and notes and everything. Calling it out for the in-statement announcer. Six years ago I showed up and I'm like where's Doug? And they're like Doug's not here, sit down.
Speaker 1:Doug's not here, man, yeah, so I basically dropped in, and so six years later.
Speaker 9:I've been volunteering and I'm actually on staff now. I'm in my second year on staff I'm sorry, my first year on staff at UCLA and I'm now doing my. I think he needs a protege.
Speaker 3:Well.
Speaker 1:We'll talk after the show. We'll talk later. We'll talk later.
Speaker 3:Craig has his own studio in his apartment. He has done, he does voiceover, he does our intro. He one day did a Dodgers intro. Yeah, dream job, I want Todd license.
Speaker 9:Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's goofy and you just fall into this stuff sometimes too, so it's just I'm hoping.
Speaker 1:I'm hoping to find a hole to fall into. Here we go.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, you guys got to talk. Well, that's it Again. I know your face is going to be seen not only on Channel 6 or the TV of Burbank Police Commission, but we hope to get you for a podcast with Craig.
Speaker 9:Sounds good.
Speaker 3:Talking about Burbank.
Speaker 9:Talking about whatever you want to talk about.
Speaker 3:Everything. Happy New Year's. I've got to say that You're going places kids. I've got to say thank you, thank you, as a lifelong Burbank resident, thank you.
Speaker 7:Thank you very much. We appreciate your support.
Speaker 1:Much appreciated. All the effort goes into this.
Speaker 9:I think did they already get the thing? I think she's two years shy of being a lifelong resident in Burbank. I think you were two when you moved here, Not?
Speaker 7:two in the middle, not two in the middle. Okay, at the beginning, at the beginning of two.
Speaker 3:I think that counts. I go back six some odd years.
Speaker 1:Well, you see all these dinosaurs everywhere.
Speaker 9:You're not about to ask her how long ago. Okay, I know that's the deal.
Speaker 3:Don't go there. When I was growing up my mother.
Speaker 9:He's a big guy, not for me, I know.
Speaker 3:When I was growing up I lived down toward Palooka Park Drive off of Pass when they were building the 134 freeway and my mother used to say, go play on the freeway, and I did. I used to get on those big tractors.
Speaker 1:Now we say it to them.
Speaker 3:I remember before that Vons was there or any of those apartments Craig, our producer, he's lived here all his life and I remember them filming movies out there. I worked at Warner Brothers, at the ranch and so forth.
Speaker 1:But what do you know about rice?
Speaker 7:I know you can push a broom, but yeah, we actually do have a few different types of rice on that float.
Speaker 1:And he did his best. He held his own.
Speaker 9:So come on down, She'll tell you everything you need to know about rice and I will show you how to lift and store it.
Speaker 7:That sounds great Super.
Speaker 9:Team effort Going to put us to work.
Speaker 7:Not only rice, but the roses. Did you talk about the roses? Because it is a rose parade and we did manage to get over 12 different kinds of roses on our float this year, so I mean we're excited about that.
Speaker 1:We just learned moments ago that these little containers they're in have been reused for decades.
Speaker 7:Yes, that is correct, there's history in here. There is. There are a lot of history in some of those vials and caps.
Speaker 9:These are the things you learn when you come down here Did you talk about the naming of the float this year.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 7:There's a list that went around with our with our meeting, with our general meeting, with all of our members. It was open to our members and we elicited any, any suggestions for our float. And one of them was in there and, being a school teacher, I looked at it and I'm like, okay, let's do a pun on something. I looked at one of the names. I'm like, well, that's kind of okay, so I tweaked it just a little bit. They all voted and the one that got chosen having a lot of fun, was the one that I tweaked.
Speaker 9:Mine didn't get picked.
Speaker 7:I'm so sorry it didn't. Maybe next year.
Speaker 3:That's a good part. You can say well, we are all six hours away from next year, to be exact when we were recording this. So next year it could happen. It could happen, and as we've talked to Erica, we've talked to other people, you know, you never know. You might find it happening A kid can dream.
Speaker 9:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 7:Actually, that is correct, yep, so we're looking forward to our next design for 2026 get through this one and we appreciate everything you do.
Speaker 9:Excellent. Thank you all. Thank you for having us today.
Speaker 3:Thank you, happy New Year. Happy New Year, get some sleep, get a little bit of sleep.
Speaker 1:Don't sleep through the parade. You can catch the rerun if you want.
Speaker 7:Exactly that's what we think we want. 6 am judging and we want to figure out what we've got because we're hoping for a big one.
Speaker 1:And then we want to stay up as long as the. You know for the first what half a dozen or so yeah, we're the seventh float.
Speaker 7:We're the seventh float, they are the 13th entry, yeah then you can go to bed. Exactly Sounds good. Enjoy and best of luck for tomorrow. Thank you so much. Thank you, appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thanks everybody. That's about it for our podcast on location at the Burbank Truman Roses Barn. We had some great guests. We got to see the float a little bit in action. So, ross, I want to thank you for the great podcast today. You did a great job. Why don't you give us your reflections on this?
Speaker 3:You know, Craig, I'm so happy that we got to do this podcast. We got to talk to the designer of the Burbank float, Eric Anderson. We talked to the president, Linda Kazakos. We talked to the float construction. We even talked to the people that feed all these people.
Speaker 1:And the guy that pushes the broom.
Speaker 3:The guy that pushes the broom. The float is on its way to Pasadena. It's on a convoy, as you had heard in the podcast. It's rolling out here. We're in an empty barn. That's getting real cold. Craig, I can say Happy New Year's.
Speaker 1:I was about to time this airs. A Happy New Year everybody. I hope you enjoyed the parade and we hope that the Burbank float won some major awards Well-deserving. And I dare say that the warehouse is empty now that the float has left, but there's still probably two dozen people here doing work. It never ends, it never seems to end. But you know, I think back on the days where I worked for a police department in the San Gabriel Valley and in the middle of the night all of the floats coming from the east came down right through the middle. That whole convoy came through the middle of town in the middle of the night. What a great thing to watch. And we'd go down on the freeway and see all the horses set up and stuff like that. It was just a great experience. I've never been able to attend the parade, always watched it on television, which is really kind of, you know, minus the energy of being there in person. It's a great way to watch it.
Speaker 3:Well, this was a good way to smell the flowers.
Speaker 1:This was great. And I have covered the parade for many, many years and it's important to know for the people in the area that they can come see this float. Talk to the people that were involved in building it and it's different presentation areas, right. After the parade and then here in Burbank they can see it, and it's different presentation areas right After the parade and then here in Burbank they can see it when it comes back from Pasadena from Float Fest in a couple of days.
Speaker 3:I think I read that they're extending Float Fest an extra day. It's going to come back to the parking lot at Olive and Glen Oaks. The convoy will bring it back and then it'll be on display for four or five days. Usually through the weekend People can buy some flowers from the float, take pictures in front of it.
Speaker 2:And I'm really grateful. And they'll turn their animation on too every couple hours to show people, yep.
Speaker 1:And hopefully everybody is able to see this episode, this podcast, before it's all over. So hopefully we're not talking about something that's happened in the past for you, but the podcast will live forever.
Speaker 3:but this float won't. Well, you know, I'm real grateful they presented us, gave us some roses that were left over, that are backups, and the cool part is look at this they brought us dinosaur cookies.
Speaker 1:I got a hot chocolate. Now it's 60 degrees, not like the rest of the country, but it's cold for Southern California, so I'm enjoying my hot chocolate.
Speaker 3:Well, again, wrapping up this podcast, I wish both of you a very happy 2025. I always like to throw in there we have tons of other podcasts. Right now, the Burger Dude has a show going. If you want to talk about the best burgers in Burbank, listen to that podcast, and if you, there's that one, and we have a whole slew of shows.
Speaker 1:Always working on new stuff. Well, thanks for letting me stop in on the show today. It's always a good time, good to have you back.
Speaker 3:Good to have you back, good to have you back. Thank you, happy New Year Thank you.
Speaker 1:Happy New Year to everybody.
Speaker 3:God, we're all healthy and let's go into 2025. You're going to see my Burbank blossom, like you will.
Speaker 1:It's going to be a good year everybody.
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 1:Happy. New Year everybody. Happy New Year. Happy New Year.
Speaker 3:Bob Eubanks I, I'm going to go ahead and do that.
Speaker 6:Thank you. Thank you for watching the latest MyBurbank video. If you have it in your heart, please consider helping us by clicking on the super thanks down below. Or, even better, go to our channel and consider a membership. Your support is what keeps MyBurbank going strong.