The 2010 Hollywood Christmas Parade.
First presented in 1928 when it was known as
The Santa Clause Lane Parade, this fun tradition has had an increasingly troubled history.
Though local kids love it, local celebrities find little publicity value in it and the parade struggles to find celebrities younger than Mickey Rooney to appear in it each year.
77 year-old Larry King was 2010's Grand Marshall. Enuf said.
Personally, I think it would be great if the parade featured Hollywood vets and legends, but the demands of television sponshorship require a young (money spending) viewership, thus making it necessary for the parade to include a plethora of unrecognizable, interchangable non-stars from music, motion pictures and the Disney Channel clone factory. The parade of young and old /famous and forgotten has the comical effect of having the marching bands nearly drowned out by shouts of "Who the hell is that?" echoing along the parade route.
2010 marked the first appearance of Macy's-style balloons, and the newly cleaned-up Hollywood Blvd certainly puts on its best face for the event.
