Entertainment

Alhambra Rose Parade float wins Princess Trophy

WAVE NEWSPAPERS — The city of Alhambra’s float received the Princess Trophy in the Jan. 1 Tournament of Roses Parade for the most outstanding floral presentation among entries less than 35 feet.

Published

5 years ago

January 7, 2019

Pluria

PASADENA — The city of Alhambra’s float received the Princess Trophy in the Jan. 1 Tournament of Roses Parade for the most outstanding floral presentation among entries less than 35 feet.

The float, with a theme “Home to Tweet Home,” was designed and built by Phoenix Float.

For the first time in its 130-year history, the Rose Parade grand marshal — 10-time Grammy Award winner Chaka Khan — entertained along with her grandchildren with a medley of her hits before the parade made its way along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.

The parade began with the “Opening Spectacular” performance featuring Khan, “Dancing with the Stars” champion Jordan Fisher and hundreds of dancers.

The annual event had a brief mishap when the Chinese American Heritage Foundation’s float was disabled by a small fire near the intersection of Orange Grove Boulevard and Green Street and had to be towed along the remainder of the route.

The fire was quickly put out by police officers and parade workers, Lisa Derderian of the Pasadena Fire Department said. The interruption caused a slight delay for the parade progression but no one was injured, Derderian said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

The parade featured 40 floral-covered floats, 18 equestrian groups and 20 marching bands from across the country and around the world, including bands from Japan, Sweden, Costa Rica and Canada.

The marching bands from the University of Washington and Ohio State University — the teams competing in the Rose Bowl game — also took part in the parade.

Sequoyah High School senior and San Marino resident Louise Deser Siskel reigned over the procession as the 101st Rose Queen. She was accompanied by the six members of her Royal Court: Lauren Michele Baydaline, Ashley Symone Hackett, Rucha S. Kadam, Sherry Xiaorui Ma, Micaela Sue McElrath, and Helen Susan Rossi.

The stars of the parade, however, were the brightly colored, animated floats — all covered from top to bottom with flowers or other organic materials.

Universal Pictures make its debut as a float sponsor, teaming up with DreamWorks Animation to present a float heralding the upcoming animated film “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.” The float featured a floral-covered, fire-breathing dragon.

Stella Rosa Wines made its second Rose Parade appearance with a “Taste the Magic” float, ridden by the Grammy-winning band Kool & the Gang, who also performed in a nod to the parade’s Melody of Life theme.

Khan, known for hits including “I Feel for You,” “Through the Fire” and “This is My Night,” was chosen to align with the parade’s “Melody of Life” theme.

Tournament of Roses President Gerald Freeny said the theme has universal appeal, since music touches the lives of people around the world.

“On a personal scale, it gets us through our day, it accompanies us through good times and bad times,” Freeny said. “It is quite literally the soundtrack of our lives. But on a grand scale, it has the ability to heal, to unite, to promote change, to bring joy and harmony and rhythm and happiness.

“Music has a unique power to transcend borders and boundaries, to travel across countries and continents. It speaks to old and young. It represents, enriches and sustains our human existence. It quite simply touches every single life on Earth.”

This article originally appeared in the Wave Newspapers.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

Published

6 days ago

April 19, 2024

Oakland Post

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Entertainment

O.J. Simpson, 76, Dies of Prostate Cancer

Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, who rose to fame as a college football player who went on to the NFL and parlayed his talents in acting and sportscasting, succumbed to prostate cancer on April 10, his family announced.

Published

1 week ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson. Wikipedia photo

By Post Staff

Born and raised in San Francisco, the Galileo High School graduate was recruited by the University of Southern California after he was on a winning Junior College All-American team.

At USC, he gained wide acclaim as a running back leading to him becoming the No. 1 pick in the AFL-NFL draft in 1969 and joining the Buffalo Bills, where he had demanded – and received — the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years. In 1978, the Bills traded Simpson to his hometown team, the San Francisco 49ers, retiring from the game in 1979.

Simpson’s acting career had begun before his pro football career with small parts in 1960s TV (“Dragnet”) before “Roots” and film (“The Klansman,” “The Towering Inferno,” Capricorn One”).

He was also a commentator for “Monday Night Football,” and “The NFL on NBC,” and in the mid-1970s Simpson’s good looks and amiability made him, according to People magazine, “the first b\Black athlete to become a bona fide lovable media superstar.”

The Hertz rent-a-car commercials raised his recognition factor while raising Hertz’s profit by than 50%, making him critical to the company’s bottom line.

It could be said that even more than his success as a football star, the commercials of his running through airports endeared him to the Black community at a time when it was still unusual for a Black person to represent a national, mainstream company.

He remained on Hertz team into the 1990s while also getting income endorsing Pioneer Chicken, Honey Baked Ham and Calistoga water company products and running O.J. Simpson Enterprises, which owned hotels and restaurants.

He married childhood sweetheart Marguerite Whitley when he was 19 and became the father of three children. Before he divorced in 1979, he met waitress and beauty queen Nicole Brown, who he would marry in 1985. A stormy relationship before, during and after their marriage ended, it would lead to a highway car chase as police sought to arrest Simpson for the murder by stabbing of Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.

The pursuit, arrest, and trial of Simpson were among the most widely publicized events in American history, Wikipedia reported.

Characterized as the “Trial of the Century,” he was acquitted by a jury in 1995 but found liable in the amount of $33 million in a civil action filed by the victims’ families three years later.

Simpson would be ensnared in the criminal justice system 12 years later when he was arrested after forcing his way into a Las Vegas hotel room to recover sports memorabilia he believed belonged to him.

In 2008, he received a sentence of 33 years and was paroled nine years later in 2017.

When his death was announced, Simpson’s accomplishments and downfalls were acknowledged.

Sports analyst Christine Brennan said: “… Even if you didn’t love football, you knew O.J. because of his ability to transcend sports and of course become the businessman and the pitchman that he was.

“And then the trial, and the civil trial, the civil case he lost, and the fall from grace that was extraordinary and well-deserved, absolutely self-induced, and a man that would never be seen the same again,” she added.

“OJ Simpson played an important role in exposing the racial divisions in America,” attorney Alan Dershowitz, an adviser on Simpson’s legal “dream team” told the Associated Press by telephone. “His trial also exposed police corruption among some officials in the Los Angeles Police Department. He will leave a mixed legacy. Great athlete. Many people think he was guilty. Some think he was innocent.”

“Cookie and I are praying for O.J. Simpson’s children … and his grandchildren following his passing. I know this is a difficult time,” Magic Johnson said on X.

“I feel that the system failed Nicole Brown Simpson and failed battered women everywhere,” attorney Gloria Allred, who once represented Nicole’s family, told ABC News. “I don’t mourn for O.J. Simpson. I do mourn for Nicole Brown Simpson and her family, and they should be remembered.”

Simpson was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a year ago and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment, according to Pro Football Hall of Fame President Jim Porter. He died in his Las Vegas, Nevada, home with his family at his side.

He is survived by four children: Arnelle and Jason from his first marriage and Sydney and Justin from his second marriage. He was predeceased son, Aaren, who drowned in a family swimming pool in 1979.

Sources for this report include Wikipedia, ABC News, Associated Press, and X.