Salute to Santa Claus Parade

A LOOK BACK

Time has flown by. It is already November -- and you know what

happens in November. That’s right, time for the city and chamber of

commerce sponsored Santa Claus Parade and Band Review.

The celebration of the Christmas season would begin here with a

parade down Main Street in which the big man himself would make an

appearance. The Santa Claus parade started as a traditional event in

1947. This week, we’ll travel back to look at how the Huntington

Beach Chamber of Commerce put together the second annual Salute to

Santa Claus, in 1948.

In October of that year, the chamber directors were putting the

finishing touches on the city’s holiday treat. In those days the

chamber was under the leadership of its well-known secretary, William

Gallienne, and it was left to him to get the bands and see to it that

the man in the red suit would be here to hand out candy to the

children.

But first, the M.E. Taylor Company had to install the Christmas

lights across Main Street in the first four blocks. This year, there

were garlands with silver-lighted red bells and a modernistic star in

the center of each garland.

The garlands were strung between our lamp posts and gave the

street a fairyland look. Vic Terry and his Christmas retail promotion

committee were responsible for seeing that the merchants helped by

decorating their store windows and seeing that the Christmas lights

were up for the parade.

Lew Kinney’s committee saw to it that Kris Kringle and his

reindeer were made welcome in Huntington Beach. Gallienne picked

Tuesday evening, Nov. 23, for the start of the holiday season’s big

parade and band review along Main Street. A beauty contest was held

to find which girl would become Miss Merri Christmas for 1948.

After reviewing the contestants, the judges chose Phyllis

Applegate as queen of this year’s parade. As the 7 p.m. starting time

neared, the colored lights were switched on and their reflections

echoed in the windows of the decorated stores along Main Street, each

merchant’s windows personally decorated. I do miss that on Main

Street today.

When I was 5 or 6 years old, I remember seeing the windows of

shops all decorated and the best for me were the displays that moved

or did something.

As the parade day neared, the chamber installed a public address

system and prevailed on Verne Nelson to announce the parade with his

golden voice.

Our Salute to Santa Claus assembled in front of the chamber’s

office and proceeded to Main and 6th streets for the march down to

Pacific Coast Highway.

There were many marching bands from junior and senior high schools

and college in this year’s Yuletide event and this brought a warm

Christmas feeling to the crowds that lined both sides of Main Street.

Major General Louis E. Woods from El Toro Marine base, Lt. Commander

Clarke Ingrham from Los Alamitos Air base and Santa Ana Air base’s

commanding officer J.B. Dawley were invited to sit in the reviewing

stand at Main Street and Walnut Avenue.

Orange Coast College’s “Pirate” Band from Costa Mesa took first

place in the junior college division. Miss Merri Christmas rode in

Richard Beeson’s brand new red Plymouth as she waved to the crowd.

The Anaheim High School Band received a first place in the high

school division. The ever-popular U.S. Marine Corps Band came down

and were a hit with the kids. Willowbrook Junior High from Compton

got their first place in the junior high division. Bill Gallienne’s

Junior Orange County Majorette Team took a prize, as did Sybil Ring’s

Majorettes.

I’ll bet you have never seen a band composed of accordions

marching down Main Street. Well, in 1948, we had one -- the Milton

Mann Accordion Band of Santa Ana.

The VFW Post 1680’s Drum & Bugle Corps came marching into view.

After the parade ended, all the members of the bands and majorettes

headed to the Pav-a-lon’s ballroom for a chamber-sponsored dance. Ann

Minnie of our chamber of commerce vividly remembers these wonderful

Santa Claus parades on Main Street and wishes sometimes that we could

still have them.

* 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.