A Look Back

Jerry Person

Well, our great Fourth of July parade is now part of history.

The other day a friend of mine, Craig Woods, and I were at the

Huntington Beach Civic Center on business and ran into Chris Cole. Cole

is one of those unsung heroes who spent many hours in the media

department putting the finishing touches together for our parade.

He told us that he watched some taped footage of the parade when it

turned onto Main Street from Pacific Coast Highway. He said that he had

never seen a more beautiful backdrop with the blue Pacific, Pier Plaza

and the Huntington Beach Pier together and wished that same scene could

have been seen across the nation.

This got me to thinking of the time when our parade was first seen

from the Pacific to the Atlantic shores.

The year was 1976 and America was celebrating its bicentennial with

great fanfare, and what better way to celebrate than by watching the

oldest Fourth of July parade west of the Mississippi.

And watch it they did.

From coast to coast people watched it on NBC.

What had once only been seen by locals from their front porches would

now be seen by millions.

The parade began at 1:30 p.m. by traveling south on Lake Street from

11th Street. It traveled down Lake Street to Orange Avenue and then to

Fifth Street where it turned north to Main Street (that part is no longer

there), it then went up Main to Yorktown Avenue where it circled our new

civic center. The parade then turned onto Lake Street again and traveled

south to Lake Park where it disbanded.

But during the parade New Yorkers got a firsthand look at our Mayor

Harriett Wieder in all her splendor.

The California legislature had proclaimed by official act that our

1976 parade was to be the “Official State of California July Fourth

Parade.”

What an honor for our city.

Western TV star Earle Holliman served as grand marshal. The parade’s

theme was “Let Freedom Ring” and featured as honorary grand marshal,

Major General Robert E. Johnson of the 40th Infantry division of the

California National Guards. But it was newsman George Putnam riding his

horse King that was the most popular for local TV fans.

Also in the parade that year was comedienne Martha Raye and Huntington

Beach’s own Layne Neugart.

Huntington Beach’s float recreated the firing on Fort Sumpter. and the

float carried the city queens. Westminster’s float was in the form of the

Statue of Liberty. And what is a parade with out the Shriners in their

colorful outfits and in this parade were many in their miniature cars.

Over 250,000 people lined our streets to watch that parade go by and

several million sat watching in their living rooms -- all four hours of

it.

Since that first national exposure using the eye of the television

camera, the media has come to share the very best of the Huntington Beach

Fourth of July parade.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.