"Home Tweet Home", the City of Burbank Tournament of Roses Float - 2017

 

 

"Home Tweet Home", the City of Burbank Tournament of Roses Float

For the past several years, I have attended the unveiling and judging of the City of Burbank Tournament of Roses parade float. Traditionally, the official judging is on New Year’s Eve, just one day before the Rose Parade, in Pasadena, California. Since the Burbank float is one of only a handful of all volunteer efforts, the rollout from the Float Barn is a community event.

Surprisingly, many elements of the 2017 entry; both physical and spiritual, came together this year on January 1 – New Year’s Day. Since New Year’s Day 2017 fell on a Sunday, the parade date shifted to Monday, January 2, 2017. For a moment on New Year’s Day, all activity at the float barn seemed to stop. After a great rush of love and appreciation swept through the open barn door, activities resumed.

It was time to attach the animatronic birds to the frame of the float. With a forklift working as a crane, each large wire-mesh bird received a hydraulic hookup, and then descended toward its slots. With some jiggling and joggling, each bird slid into place. Seemingly out of nowhere, Maria Cady, a florist from nearby Simi Valley and her crew rushed in with half a dozen huge floral displays. Now, the float was complete.

All spectators and nonessential crew cleared the scene, regrouping in the viewing area, at the nearby Burbank - Downtown Station. Like a child who wanted to see his Christmas presents the night before, I hung back and hid in a big blue porta-potty. As I opened the door and started taking pictures, Burbank’s “Home, Tweet Home” float was already on the move.

 


After following the float out to the street, I ran ahead, rejoining the parade as it entered the viewing area. As soon as it stopped, a jaunty jingle of a tune emanated from four large speakers, hidden in the structure of the float. Various animatronic birds started tilting, swiveling, hammering or riding in and out on a giant tape measure.

Then, without warning, the large birdhouse near the back of the float started to rise. At full extension of its hydraulic tower, the float looked unimaginably tall. As it was when I was a child, the float looked like something out of the Jack and the Beanstalk story to me.

The official judging did not result in a trophy for the Burbank 2017 float. Now it is time to look to the future. Soon, the Burbank Tournament of Roses Association will announce the winner of its 2018 public design contest. As of this writing, the smaller birdhouse still stands on the float chassis, but most other components have disappeared.

As much as possible, salvaged materials from the 2017 float will reappear in the 2018 float. Reuse and recycling are hallmarks of all Burbank Rose Parade floats. For instance, in 2017, recycled bed sheets helped stabilize the rigid foam shell of the float. That recycled bedding helped to make the entire float “walkable”, without fear of falling through. After a full tune-up, the custom designed chassis will return to the Float Barn, ready to support next year’s entry.

Many contemporary Rose Parade floats employ hydraulic motors and cylinders to lift or repetitively move various components. Hidden hydraulics provide the motive power to animate the big floats, yet until the 2017 Burbank entry, no medium-sized float had previously employed a “tower lift”. Unseen and unknown to most parade viewers, “Home, Tweet Home” represented a technological breakthrough for a float of its size. For 2018, the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association has initiated a "Crown City Innovator" award. The new trophy will be awarded to the float that features the "Most outstanding use of imagination, innovation and technology". With this new category in mind, the 2018 Burbank Rose Parade Float will surely be in the running.

In February 2016, I installed a live webcam at the City of Burbank Float Barn. Seven days each week, you may view live images of the Float Barn. To access the live webcam, go to the homepage of the Burbank Tournament of Roses official website. You may also view the live webcam on my own BurbankFloat.com tribute website. Early in 2017, most of the work parties are on Wednesday’s and Saturdays, so be sure to tune in and watch the action.

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By James McGillis at 01:05 PM | Technology | Comments (0) | Link

Dedication of Larry L. Maxam Memorial Park - 2009

 

Memorial Day 2009 - Burbank, California

Dedication of Larry L. Maxam Memorial Park

 

On Monday May 25, 2009, we attended a Memorial Day Ceremony at McCambridge Park, in Burbank, California.  The City of Burbank and its Veterans Commemorative Committee jointly sponsored the event, which attracted over five hundred people.  This year, the theme of the event was, “A time of song, word, remembrance and celebration”.

 

After a stirring prelude by the Burbank Community Band, the Condor Squadron, based in Van Nuys, California, conducted a flyover, with a squadron of their fully restored North American AT-6/SNJ World War II vintage aircraft.  A frequent sight over such events in Southern California, the Condor Squadron’s flyover saluted the men and women of our armed forces, and honored the sacrifices they have made.  With their powerful radial engines thrumming a heartfelt beat, the flyover added excitement and drama to the day’s events.

 

Ms. Pat Walmisley then led the crowd in a rendition of “God Bless America” that would have made Kate Smith proud.  Next was the Presentation of Colors, by the Second Battalion 23^rd Marines, a reserve infantry battalion under the command of the 23rd Marine Regiment and the 4th Marine Division.  After the National Anthem, Flag Salute and Invocation, the ceremony paid tribute to every Burbank-related service person that lost their life during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan.  While the crowd listened to the reading of names of those lost in war, we watched the Ceremony of the Rose. 

During the ceremony, a group of Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts placed a single rose for each of the deceased on a monument in that special corner of the park.

 

Following the remarks of the city’s mayor, state and congressional legislators, Mr. Mickey DePalo, the head of the Burbank Veterans Commemorative Committee stepped forward to re-name Pacific Park in honor and memory of United States Marine Corporal Larry L. Maxam, a posthumous recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Corporal Maxam died February 2, 1968, at Cam Lo District, Quang Tri Province, Vietnam. 

 

It pleased us when Mr. DePalo read some of the words that we and other classmates had composed in memory of our classmate and friend, Larry Maxam.  However, the moment of greatest drama came when Staff Sergeant Rosal, of the Second Battalion 23^rd Marines stepped forward to read Corporal Maxam’s Medal of Honor citation, attributed to then President Richard M. Nixon. 

 

As we listened in rapt attention, Larry Maxam’s spiritual brother-in-arms read the full text of the citation.  Sergeant Rosal’s voice did not falter as he described how Corporal Maxam singlehandedly protected his unit from enemy fire.  Attendees who did not already know the full story, learned that Corporal Maxam succumbed to his wounds on the battlefield.  As he departed the podium, Sergeant Rosal’s military bearing was in keeping with the respect and honor he bestowed upon his fellow Marine.  Only his eyes betrayed his emotions.

 

In fitting honor of his service to the United States of America, the City of Burbank then rededicated old Pacific Park as the new Larry L. Maxam Memorial Park.  In Larry's honor, the City of Burbank included $25,000 in its 2009-2010 capital budget for installation of appropriate memorial signage and landscaping. 

 

We hope that Larry Maxam, the man and the soldier will live on in the memories of all who cherish freedom and love these United States.  If good planning and good fortune prevail, we hope to attend festivities associated with the park’s official opening on Veteran’s Day, 2009.

 

After recent publicity about the Larry Maxam story, two more of Larry's classmates at Burbank High School have stepped forward.  Here are their thoughts about Larry Maxam.

 

Classmate Deanne Adams said, "I knew Larry Maxam very well.  In fact, he took it upon himself to be sure I was safe.  He went to the same church as I did and whenever we had a dance, he was close by to be sure the young men treated me kindly.  He was always kind to me and made me feel very special.  I felt badly that I was not more attentive to him, as a friend.  He was just a good person.  When I read about his heroic deeds during the Vietnam War, I was so proud of him.  He had a big heart and cared deeply about other people."

 

Classmate Eddie Morton added an air of mystery to the events surrounding Larry’s death, when he said, "I knew Larry had been killed in action because I had read about it in the Burbank Review back in '68.  It happened around Tet of '68.  About ten years ago, I was in Washington, D.C. and read in something at the Library of Congress that he (Larry Maxam) died at "Monkey Mountain", a little west of Da Nang.  I spent time in both places.  I'm glad he's getting the recognition he deserves."

 

Recently, we asked a former classmate, “Is it a cliché to say that they just don't make heroes like Larry Maxam anymore?  Rather than encouraging our children to adulate the next comic book sensation, would we not be better served by honoring real people, both living and dead, who served our country and sacrificed on our behalf?”

• Updated Comment - July 1, 2009 - By Eddie Morton, BHS Class of '66
  
  
  • I recently returned to the Viet Nam Memorial and rechecked the info on Larry Maxam. It said that he died at Cam Lo, which is west of Dong Ha and near the DMZ. I went back to the Library of Congress to try and locate whatever it was I read back in ’99, but could not find it. Whatever it was I read back then, it was wrong or I am remembering it wrong.
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By James McGillis at 01:35 PM | Personal Articles | Comments (1) | Link

The Lost Mosaic Mural of the late Artist Denis O'Connor hides at JPMorgan Chase Bank, Burbank, California - 2008

The Lost Mosaic Murals of the late Artist Denis O'Connor

According to an obituary in the February 21, 2008 edition of the Los Angeles Times, the famed muralist Denis O’Connor died on December 26, 2007, although his family did not announce his death until last week.

 

By clicking on the word obituary, here or above, you can read the interesting story of his life and art.  For anyone living in Los Angeles in the 1960s or 1970s, Denis’s public art was the visible mainstay of the often-ornate Home Savings & Loan buildings constructed at that time.

 

Although Home Savings sold out to Washington Mutual (WAMU) in 1998, during the heyday of the 1960’s, H.F. Ahmanson & Co., then headed by Howard F. Ahmanson, Sr. (1906-1968) was Home Saving’s owner.  Ahmanson made his fortune during the Great Depression selling fire insurance for property under foreclosure and in the post-war home construction and real estate boom around Los Angeles.

 

The Home Savings branches built during that time featured gold leaf trim and Italian marble fascia, supplied by Ahmanson’s own marble quarry.  Eat your heart out Getty Trust.

 

With his recent death, there is new interest in the nearly eighty murals that O’Connor created for the company.  As time passed, and the company changed hands, several of the murals disappeared during renovation or the destruction of old Home Savings buildings. 

 

Since only in death does an artist receive full appreciation for his or her work, it behooves us all to find, catalog and preserve the amazing public legacy that Denis O’Connor left to us.  I hereby challenge WAMU (JP Morgan Chace) to step away from their idiotic television and print ad campaigns in favor of discovering, preserving and promoting their own under-appreciated public art collection.

 

I will start the ball rolling by telling everyone that one of Denis O’Connor’s best works lies intact, but long hidden behind a false wall in the main room of Chase Bank's Burbank, California branch, located at the corner of Burbank Blvd. and San Fernando Road.

Author's Note - February 2021: The great mural on the front of the former Santa Monica Branch of Home Savings (Wilshire Blvd. at 26th Street) was destroyed and plastered over in the year 2020. You could attribute that act to corporate vandalism, a lack of civic pride or just plain ignorance.

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By James McGillis at 06:55 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | Link