This color film documents the construction of the 1960 Lutheran Hour Float for the Pasadena Tournament of Rose New Year’s Day Parade. It was produced by the Lutheran Laymen’s League in Southern California. Finished, it will be 20’x40’x17’. To begin the float, men weld a set of four truck steering dollies under the front end before lowering a truck engine into the chassis as floats are driven from the rear (1:10-3:20). The float is started for the first time and inspected by the float committee (3:21-4:15). A compressor is used to run a pneumatic hog ring gun to fasten wire mesh over the steel (4:16-6:50). The figures of Christ and the angels are fabricated in the woodshop (6:51-7:35). The head, hands, and feet are carved out of Styrofoam before being attached to the steel frame (7:36-8:43). The figures are then covered with paper soaked in water and coated in a weak paste. Two coats of this Paper Mache is added (8:44-10:45). The wire mesh is sprayed with a cocooning substance developed in WWII for ships. The liquid is blown at high pressure to form a spiderweb film that hardens and is fireproof (10:46-12:10). The figures are mounted onto the float base (12:11-14:17), and the clouds at the base are cocooned (14:18-14:55). Flowers arrive three days before the parade and are unloaded. This float will have 44,000 flowers on it. The flowers are taken off their stems and sorted by color (14:56-15:57). Floral glue is applied and each flower is put into place using a slight twisting motion. The hard-to-reach areas are done first. Scaffolding lets a larger number of people simultaneously work on the float as it is worked on from the top down (15:58-17:45). The figures have individual petals applied, as does the lettering (17:46-19:26). Roses are the last flower to be applied. They are stored in individual vials until the last day, allowing them to open before being applied by piercing the stem through the cocooning (19:27-20:00). Azaleas in pots surround the base of the cross (20:01-20:30). More flowers are pasted on (30:31-20:50). The float is judged from the second day on until moved to the parade grounds (20:51-21:24). The scaffolding is removed (21:25-21:45). The float is shown on its way out of the tent, outside being blessed, and in the parade (21:46-23:52).
Lutheran Hour Ministries (LHM) is a Christian outreach ministry affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, Lutheran Church – Canada and Lutheran Women in Mission (LWML). Its mission is “Bringing Christ to the Nations—and the Nations to the Church”. LHM’s flagship radio program, The Lutheran Hour, is one of the longest-running Christian radio broadcasts, was at one time the most-syndicated, and the speakers have been some of the most-heard preachers of the 20th century.[2] The supporters of The Lutheran Hour helped its founding organization, the Lutheran Laymen’s League, become a multimillion-dollar Christian missionary foundation.
Today, Lutheran Hour Ministries produces Christian radio and TV programming for broadcast, as well as Internet and print communications, dramas, music, and outreach materials. It has ministry centers in dozens of countries around the world.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
