Veterans Day parade of 1923

JERRY PERSON

When my dad was a young man, one of the biggest events in his town

was the Veterans Day Parade. Only in his time it was called the

Armistice Day parade and he would recount of how many neighboring

towns would be entered in it.

I noticed that only Fullerton held a large parade in Orange County

and I didn’t hear of anyone from Huntington Beach participating in

it.

That was sure not the case when the city of Orange held its

two-hour parade on Monday, Nov. 12, 1923.

In that historic parade were more than 80 floats alone, of which

six were from Huntington Beach along with several cars and the

Huntington Beach Municipal Band, which was designated the official

band for the parade.

This week we’ll look at the six groups that planned, built and

participated in that event.

The boys and girls from our elementary school constructed their

prize- winning float, The Mayflower Pact, with the help of the school

faculty. Harry Holdridge was a big help in both designing the float

and helping the students in building it. Helping Holdridge in this

endeavor were Winnie Mae Mackey, Pearl Mackey, Elsie Chambers, H.C.

Reid and Howard Morse.

Standard Oil Co. loaned a large truck to the students to build

their masterpiece on.

The boys and girls spent many hours painting the float to

represent the ship that brought the Pilgrims to the New World. George

Wardwell gave the students very helpful tips in painting and

decorating the ship.

A costume committee was formed that included Pearl Mackey, Muriel

Curtis, Barbara Parker, Irene Loose, Harriet Reynolds, Maxwell

Williams, Virgil Johns and Oran Buck.

As you can see this was by no means a small challenge for the

students. The costumes were true to the period even including the

wigs that were worn by the students in the parade.

The students wanted to depict the pilgrims watching the signing of

the first constitutional document in the New World.

Others depicted the pilgrims in prayer and sailors watching from

the ship’s rigging.

Riding in the Mayflower were Robert Hinkle as Miles Standish and

Virgil Johns as John Alden. Also riding were Edward Sommers, Douglas

McAdams, Carl Whitefield, Roscoe Henley, Dean Wright, George Herron,

Carlton Conrad, Elizabeth Wardwell, Frances Greathouse, Marie Terril,

Juanita Wallace and Delitha Ellis.

All the many hours of work paid off for the students as they took

first prize in the parade, a big honor for the student and their

school.

The American Legion’s float was built to resemble a World War I

“Field Kitchen in France” and was built by the members of that

organization that included Claude Fulwider, Grandville Dalzell, R.C.

Reynolds and others. It depicted how our soldiers ate their meager

meals and thinking that this could be their last one.

The Huntington Beach Lions Club float “Early California” showed

the hard life of the early pioneers to our state. James Morris

chaired the committee that oversaw the construction of its beautiful

float.

Not to be out-done, the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce

entered an exact copy of Robert Fulton’s steamboat Claremont -- or as

the chamber titled it, “Fulton’s Folly” -- with huge side-wheels,

smokestack and deck. It delighted the spectators who lined the parade

route.

The Boys Scouts of Huntington Beach entered its float, “Lewis and

Clark’s Expedition” and included Scouts dressed in fur coats and caps

of the period.

George Washington, taking the oath as president of our great

United States with an American eagle in the background, was the float

entered by the students of Huntington High. It won sixth place. It

depicted our first president and was constructed by the boys in the

manual arts department and was painted by the girls and boys in the

school’s art department.

Harold Riley assumed the role of George Washington with Virgil

Elliott as Alexander Hamilton, Ernest Searom as Robert Livington and

Allison Kenter as John Adams.

The Huntington Beach Camp Fire Girls rode in one of the most

beautifully decorated cars in the parade. And in one of the other one

hundred cars entered in that parade was our Mayor Richard Drew and

the City Council.

As the parade neared its end, the spectators caught sight of Louis

Gates in his spotless uniform leading the members of the Huntington

Beach Municipal Band.

Of the 40,000 who attended that day, hundreds were from Huntington

Beach who came to watch this wonderful event and to remember and

thank all those who fought for this country.

* 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.