N.M. Rose Parade float takes shape

Cartoon comes to life: N.M. float takes shape in final hours for New Year's Day Rose Parade

Sue Vorenberg | The New Mexican

12/29/2008 - 12/30/08

A special scent comes to mind when Bob Beardsley thinks of his time volunteering to help build floats for the state of New Mexico at the New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade.

While the mobile creations are always coated with flowers, the scent that triggers the Santa Fean's memory is anything but floral.

"When I think of the Rose Parade, the first thing I think of is the scent of glue," Beardsley said. "You'd be amazed at how many kinds of glue are used in these things."

Beardsley, who works for the New Mexico Human Services Department, this week is in California for the third time in four years to help glue organic matter — such as onion seeds and split peas — to make the state's Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote-themed float look spiffy for the big show in Pasadena.

He spent Monday paving Route 66, the float's version of the famed highway, anyway, and not with traditional asphalt.

"All the black is onion seed," Beardsley said Monday afternoon. "The white parts are another kind of seed, but I can't remember what it is right now."

The Road Runner's beak? That's thousands of orange split peas, he said.

Other parts of the float are covered with thousands of straw flowers, 9,400 roses, 8,500 red carnations and a host of other materials.

"Everything has to be natural," Beardsley said. "You can't have any uncovered surfaces."

The New Mexico Tourism Department has sponsored floats in three Rose Parades so far over the past four years, said Mike Stauffer, a spokesman.

The first, in 2006, was a bit of a jumble of things, he admitted.

Gov. Bill Richardson and his wife, Barbara, rode along on that float, which also had several Spanish dancers, mariachi players, Native Americans and Buffalo Soldiers, among other things.

"It was probably a little bit too much," Stauffer said. "Last year, we decided to go a little bit simpler, and people really remember that one."

The 2008 float featured space aliens and a tribute to Roswell's fame as the scene of a UFO incident. It was called "Passport to our World and Beyond" and it won the Grand Marshal's Trophy for excellence in creative concept and design.

Beardsley said he really enjoyed working on that one, because of its fun, whimsical nature. And this year — with the cool, cartoonish Road Runner and Coyote — should be equally fun and whimsical, he said.

"I think it's going to showcase New Mexico well," Beardsley said.

The float shows mountains, snow-capped trees, desert scenes and the Coyote strapped to a red ACME rocket about to be fired at the Road Runner.

Four towns, whose convention and visitor bureaus helped support the float, have their names listed in a road sign. Those towns are Santa Fe, Red River, Albuquerque and Taos, Stauffer said.

It's called "Hats Off to New Mexico — Beep! Beep!" in honor of the parade's theme of "Hats off to Entertainment" this year.

"The roadrunner is, of course, the state bird, and we have the movie business tie-in here," Stauffer said. "So the idea came together pretty naturally."

The cartoon characters were created 60 years ago by the late Chuck Jones when he was an animation director for Warner Brothers. The float's design was unveiled in October at the Chuck Jones Gallery in downtown Santa Fe.

The Tourism Department spent about $200,000 on the float, but about $40,000 of that was donated by various local sponsors, Stauffer said.

"The money comes out of the advertising program," Stauffer said. "You can liken this to buying ads in Texas Monthly or the Denver Post. California ranks third in the amount of tourist traffic that it drives to New Mexico. It's always Texas, Colorado and California in the top three."

Advertising in California tends to be more expensive, however, so building a parade float is actually a good way to get some bang for the state's buck, Stauffer said.

"About a million people in California come to see the parade, and another 14 million people watch it on TV," Stauffer said. "The first time we did this, we tracked hits to our fulfillment center, where we hand out information about the state, and we had a 27 percent increase in traffic compared with the year before."

Last year, the Roswell UFO festival had one of the largest crowds it had seen since it started in 1997, he added.

About 90 volunteers from around New Mexico came out to help build the float this year, including Beardsley.

The group has been working in two shifts each day this week, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and from 3:30-11 p.m.

"There's a couple families out here that make a vacation out of it," Beardsley said.

Volunteers have to put the final touches on the float sometime tonight — because judges will come around on New Year's Eve to rate the effort.

New Mexico's float will be in the 33rd spot in the parade out of about 90 entries, so those who want to catch a glimpse of it Thursday should start watching early, Beardsley said.

The parade starts at 9 a.m. MST. Live coverage will be broadcast locally on KOB-TV Channel 4 and KOAT-TV Channel 7 as well as on a couple of cable channels, Travel and HGTV.

"It should be a great show," Beardsley said.

Contact Sue Vorenberg at svorenberg@sfnewmexican.com.