The behind-the-scenes stories of the annual Tournament of Roses Parade are too numerous to count. But because Monrovia/Duarte horse rancher Merle Little saved his family's photo album and paper ephemera, we have some examples of just how connected the local equestrian community was to the Parade, in the years before and after World War II.
On the backs of three snapshots, Merle wrote "R. P. 1948" in pencil.
Merle rode his Morgan stallion, Senor Morgan (standing next to the horse van) in an equestrian unit in the Fifth Division of the parade.
And Merle saved a photograph of his handmade stagecoach, decorated with flowers and bearing the logo of the Weber Bread company, which was based in what we now call Southeast Los Angeles.
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This video on YouTube shows the Weber's Bread entry decorated in white, yellow, and red flowers, in the 1948 Rose Parade, staring at 12:03:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84fgOI0IAT0
We can also see Merle's stagecoach in this ad that Weber's Bread took out in the January 16, 1948 editions of the Los Angeles Times and Pasadena Independent.
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| Los Angeles Times, January 16, 1948 |
Merle Little and Montie Montana were good friends, and took part in many Southern California equestrian activities together over the years.
The captions tell us the names of the humans (though unfortunately not the Pinto horses) that took part in the parade. On the left of the group shot, we see the members of the 1940s-50s iteration of the cowboy singing group Riders of the Purple Sage and their leader, Foy Willing. (This Western singing group was founded in 1942, as opposed to the New Riders of the Purple Sage, founded in 1969 and featuring members of the Grateful Dead.)
The people on horseback were Montie and Louise Montana and two executives from Weber's Bread, Vee Bear and Roy Nafziger. The larger, main photo in the ad shows Nafziger, rodeo performer Jess Kell, who drove the stagecoach, and Montie Montana.
Merle Little would have been up ahead in the parade, aboard Senor Morgan.
Here's Merle's stagecoach without the flowers. In this photo, Merle and his wife, Edna May, and their daughters Donnette and Marlene. The stagecoach is drawn, as it usually was when Merle drove it, by Merle's Morgan mares Santa Ynez (with the blaze) and Anita Belle Gift (with the star).
The story of how Merle came by his stagecoach is worthy of its own blog post, which I'll share soon.
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Here's the Historic Los Angeles page for Weber's Bread:
https://hpla.lacity.org/report/aca422f3-bc22-47f5-aacf-69e0f52a05fb
The newspaper ad noted that Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage had a radio program on KNX. You can hear a selection songs by Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZqAcjn87yU
And here's their Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riders_of_the_Purple_Sage_(band)
