Shade Is on the South Side of Colorado Blvd.

The migration to Pasadena has already begun. The hardy souls are staking out positions along Colorado Boulevard in anticipation of Thursday’s edition of the traditional New Year’s parade.

But there is one way to tell the connoisseurs from the dilettantes, said Fred W. Soldwedel, president of the 98th Tournament of Roses. They are the ones on the south side of Colorado.

Soldwedel, who has personally sampled the last 27 parades, explained: “First of all, you want to get a good vantage point. And you want to try to get on the shady side of the street--the south side.”

Shade Not Only Advantage

The shade is not the only advantage. “The TV cameras are all on the south side--or the east side on Orange Grove (Avenue)--so the floats have a tendency of addressing that side,” Soldwedel said.

“If you have a panda bear sitting there”--on a float, he meant, not next to you--”the head will be tilting toward the camera rather than away from it.”

Designers are supposed to make the floats address both sides equally, Soldwedel said. But that’s show biz.

The tourney president, whose bias is obvious, insists that the 98th Rose Parade, with the theme “A World of Wonders,” will be not only different but superior to the previous 97 parades.

Some individual floats, he said, may be inferior to those of previous years. But as a general rule, the designs get bigger and more daring, with more animation, he said. The maximum float length is 65 feet; this year, three-quarters of the floats are 50 feet or larger. It is believed to be the largest floral armada in the parade’s history.

Among the designs are a phalanx of sphinxes on the float, “Cleopatra” by Catalina Swimwear; a flock of butterflies on “A Garden Full of Wonders” by the Carnation Company; a rabbit coming out of a hat in “Magical Moments” by the city of Arcadia; some oversized baseball cards (including Fernando Valenzuela) in “A Hit Around the World,” by the City of Los Angeles; an Aztec warrior in “Land of Ancient Wonders,” by Transamerica Life; a menagerie of dinosaurs in “The World of Prehistoric Wonders” by the Community of Irvine; the “Loch Ness Monster” by Baskin-Robbins, and a 34-foot-tall roaring King Kong, holding aloft not Fay Wray or even Jessica Lange, but actress Cezanne Trimble (“Mike Hammer,” “Days of Our Lives”), who will scream appropriately in “King Kong--the Eighth Wonder of the World” by American Honda.

There are many more in keeping with the parade’s international theme, including “The Treasures of China” by First Interstate Bank, with several panda bears.