Las Vegas Centennial: Parade participants are ready to play with blocks

Thursday, May 12, 2005 | 9:11 a.m.

It's exhilarating. Breathtaking, really.

Purple metallic sheeting shimmers from its body. Gold palm trees rise from its frame.

A scaled-down version of the rotunda for the original Las Vegas Convention Center serves as its centerpiece. Behind it stands a replica of the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign.

"We wanted something glitzy," Kate Bowers, editorial specialist with the Las Vegas News Bureau, said while looking at the metallic fringe, giant dice and poker chips that add to the float's pizazz.

"This is Vegas -- glitz and glamor."

On Saturday the 19-foot razzle-dazzle of a ride, made by employees of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, will head eight blocks down Fourth Street amid a surreal assortment of marching bands (29 of them), a Viking ship, belly dancers, Gary the Mime and Italian-American clubs.

Add to that members of the Sons of Norway, fiddlers, cloggers, equestrians and Lonnie Hammargren singing "Nighttime in Nevada" on a Tribute to Roy Rogers float, and you have the revival of the Helldorado parade.

"It's really exciting to see it coming back," said Rosemary Tanzen, board member of the Square and Round Dancers Association, which has a vehicular dance floor ready to transport 10 to 12 performing square dancers down the the river of floats and marchers.

For years Tanzen's square-dance group, the Stardusters, were annual parade participants. She kept the group's float in her yard year-round. Its resemblance to a covered wagon was neatly tied to the Western-themed annual event that began in the 1930s and ended in 1999 because of contract problems with the event's sponsor.

This year's parade, crammed into an eight-block stretch of downtown, includes former Helldorado marchers and newcomers. What we won't see -- to the chagrin of Esther Carter, parade coordinator -- are any outlandish and monstrous floats sponsored by Las Vegas' themed casinos.

"We thought when we first started out with this a lot of hotels, a lot of companies would build a float, " Carter said. "You only turn 100 once."

Carter says she's still pleased with the more than 200 parade entries and 5,000 participants, including Ethel M, Anderson Dairy and the Clark County-Las Vegas Library District, which in addition to its float has a book-cart drill team.

Former Nevada Lt. Gov. Hammargren, known for his lavish holiday displays and home attractions (which includes a planetarium and a music room with Liberace's honky-tonk piano, among other goodies), is building four floats for the parade: a space shuttle exhibit honoring late Columbia pilot William McCool, a Howard Hughes memorial, a Mideast memorial and, of course, the tribute to the late Rogers, a former participant in Helldorado who even starred in the movie "Heldorado."

"I plan to ride on the float, with Cheryl Rogers Barnett, as Lonesome Lon the Nevada Balladeer singing Roy Rogers' song 'Nighttime in Nevada,' " Hammargren said (Rogers Barnett is the daughter of Rogers and Evans). "I sang that in my campaign eight years ago. It's a wonderful lullaby, a cowboy lullaby."

A big deal

Native Las Vegan Brenda Williams said she's delighted to see the parade return this year. She has marched in previous Helldorado parades with her junior high drill team and again with family friends in a covered wagon pulled by horses.

"That was so cool," Williams said. "I wanted it to go on forever. I miss it. It was a big deal."

But interest in the weeklong Helldorado was waning. There were money problems and events had been shifted to different locations. One year it was moved from May to August, then canceled along with its carnival.

"I think what happened is that the Western theme fell out of it. We weren't such a cowboy town anymore," said native Las Vegan Jill Englestead, who works with the LVCVA. "We became more of a metropolitan city."

Englestead, who grew up with Helldorado, has her 12-year-old son, Dustin Laub, helping with the LVCVA float that employees have been building for weeks.

The Sons of Norway Vegas Viking Lodge has also been crafting its replica Viking ship float for some time. The ship, built around a fiberglass boat, includes a hand-carved, original-design dragon head for the bow. A hand-carved dragon's tail tops the stern.

Colorful shields, incorporating the Viking imagery of Thor's hammer, along with dragons and snakes, cover the sides of the float's flexible house siding. A steering oar is attached to the rear right of the ship.

"We worked so hard. You have no idea how much work goes into this," said group member Lollo Sievert, who helped master carver Roy Sather with the carvings. In all, roughly 30 of the group's members worked on the ship, which was christened over the weekend with glacier water from Norway.

The ship ties in with Norway's centennial, which celebrates this year the country's independence from Sweden.

Also celebrating cultural pride are Italian-American clubs. Their float pays tribute to Italian-Americans who have contributed to the Las Vegas community. Riders include Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt; Judge Joseph Bonaventure and his son, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure; Sam Butera; Sonny King and Freddy Bell.

The 20 riders on the float include Italian-Americans dressed as chefs to illustrate their prominence in the food and beverage industry. Clubs include Italian-American, Augustus, Club Italia, Sons of Italy, Nevada Society of Italian American Lawyers and La Voce Publishing.

"We've all banded together to do this," said Charles Cocuzza, a member of the Italian-American Club of Southern Nevada. "This is going to be a real extravaganza ... it will give our culture a chance to brag."

Cultures from around the globe will be celebrated by Destination Services Association, which has a float (featuring a large globe) that pays homage to worldwide travelers to Las Vegas and the way in which Las Vegas has changed as a destination city over the years.

"Hopefully, we'll have different costumes to represent the different countries," said Harriet Bernard, from Ladies Day Out, which is collaborating with such companies as A Special Memory Wedding Chapel, Event Designs, Harley-Davidson Cafe, National Reservation Bureau and Premiere Bride, to make the float.

There will be no judging of the floats, but an anticipated crowd of 50,000 will cheer them on.

Tanzen, whose Stardusters won first prize for their float in the 1996 Helldorado parade, said there's no challenge to dancing on a moving float.

"Unless," she said, "there's a large bump or a jolt. We're only going 5 miles per hour."

Pausing, Tanzen added, "I hope there are more Helldorado parades. If not, then at least we have this one."