1959 Festival of Dussehra

Mayor's Trophy

Source:1959 Official Tournament of Roses Parade Souvenir Program

1959’s festival of Dussehra” was one of the most exciting floats entered-for all the wrong reasons. Not that the float, depicting a life-sized elephant, was uninteresting: it housed a eleven-person crew inside, nine of its members animating the float as its driver steered blindly down the route using directions radioed from the mahout above. But the 130 degrees heat in the cockpit caused the driver to pass out, and he had to be lowered into the animation room and revived while the backup driver took over. It looked like disaster was spared, until the mahout started to feel a little warm, and became engulfed in smoke. All animation ceased for a few blocks as the crew tried to put out a fire that erupted in the electrical generator. Despite the white elephant appearing to turn into, well, a white elephant her crew was victorious, and float managed to finish the Parade, winning the Mayor’s Trophy for the most outstanding city entry.

Excerpt from The SouthPas Float Story-2006 Official Souvenir “a History of Doing it Ourselves“ by Jim Taveres