Toyland Parade

By Christy Scannell

It was a parade all right — but not quite what organizer Patrick Edwards had envisioned.

Seeking to revive North Park’s Toyland Parade in 1985 after a 20-year hiatus, Edwards had sought assistance from high school pal Joan Embery of the San Diego Zoo.

“Could you bring an animal?” he’d asked.

Could she ever. Embery arrived at the parade site on Lincoln Avenue with an elephant. But as the giant animal was being removed from the truck, it decided to get the procession started a bit early.

“It took off up the alley by the tennis courts with all the trainers chasing it,” said Edwards, who was horrified the elephant would harm people or their property.

The trainers soon cornered the beast, however, and Embery, that year’s grand marshal, rode it majestically down University Avenue.

Planners of the 46th Annual Toyland Parade on Dec. 5 aren’t anticipating runaway elephants, but they do expect the event to turn some heads toward North Park and what it has to offer.

“We hope it’s an opportunity for people who don’t typically spend much time in the business district to re-engage and see the fantastic improvements in the area,” said Elizabeth Studebaker, executive director of North Park Main Street, the neighborhood’s business improvement district (BID).

The need to shine a light on North Park businesses is what caused Edwards, who has owned Antique Refinishers on Utah Street since 1969, to resume the parade in the ’80s along with his wife, Kristen.

“In 1984 I found out about the BID law in California and organized people in North Park to create the business district,” said Edwards, now president of the Main Street board of directors. “As part of that, my wife and I decided there were a couple of things we should restore: the (North Park) sign and the parade.”

Begun in 1936, the Toyland Parade reached its heyday in the ’50s and early ’60s when floats, inflated balloon figures and beauty queens glided down University Avenue for nearly three hours. Hollywood celebrities served as grand marshals.
“At one time it was larger than the Rose Bowl parade,” Studebaker said.
But the parade was suspended in 1968 due to construction of Interstate 805, followed by the creation of a new American pastime: the shopping mall.

“All the economic energy was sucked out of North Park when Mission Valley was built,” Edwards said. “Businesses just quit and at the same time we lost the parade.”

(Interestingly, the North Park sign also disappeared about this time when it was removed for repair and never returned. Where it went is a neighborhood mystery, although Edwards suspects it ended up in a landfill. A replica was installed in 1993.)

Even after Edwards encouraged North Park businesses to re-establish the parade in the ’80s, it continued to struggle. In the ’90s the North Park Lions Club gave the event some stability by assuming its operation and renaming it the North Park Lions Club Holiday Parade. The club turned over management to North Park Main Street in 2008.

“The Lions have a specific focus,” Studebaker said, “and that is to help the blind. The parade really didn’t fit into their mission so they thought it best for the community to take it over.”

The Lions are still active in the Toyland Parade, Studebaker emphasized. In addition to raising money (the parade costs about $15,000 to produce), the Lions provide use of their Utah Street building for equipment storage the weekend of the event.

“This is incredibly helpful, otherwise we’d be at a severe disadvantage and end up spending a lot of money (on storage),” Studebaker said.

The 2009 parade is dedicated to the memory of longtime Lions member Wilma Knott, who along with her husband, Jim, was an avid supporter of it. Wilma died just days after the 2008 parade.

“She was a wonderful, dedicated volunteer,” Studebaker said.
This year’s edition, which steps off at 11 a.m. (rain or shine) from the corner of University Avenue and Utah Street and continues to Iowa Street, will have close to 100 entrants, including eight marching bands, several historic car clubs and participants as diverse as a Rottweiler club. District 3 Councilmember Todd Gloria will be grand marshal.
Perhaps one of the more entertaining groups in the parade will be the staff from Bar Pink on 30th Street. Last year they performed a drill-team routine while twirling giant foam olives on sticks. This year, they are going for a Polynesian feel.
“We will be twirling parasols to Bing Crosby’s version of ‘Mele Kalikimaka,’ ” said Dang Nguyen, the bar’s co-owner. His wife, Robin Chiki, choreographs their moves and leads the group in Saturday rehearsals for weeks before the parade.

“All of us who work (at Bar Pink) live in and around North Park and a lot of us have kids,” Nguyen said. “We all had a lot of fun last year marching in the parade with the kids — it’s just a fun time all around.”

And that’s exactly what Edwards imagined — bounding elephants aside — when he persuaded his colleagues to embrace the parade again back in 1985.

“This parade is a party for the neighborhood,” he said. “There are no rules. If you want, you can come and walk in the parade, just you and your kid — it’s free, casual and low key, and just a chance to see your friends. It’s all part of making North Park a neighborhood where you know business owners and they ask about you and your family.
“I think we’ve really achieved that sense of community.”

Christy Scannell is a freelance writer and editor who lives in North Park.