By Joe Piasecki
Pasadena Sun
For an event that eschews tradition, the Pasadena Doo Dah Parade marches knee-deep in it — if only because of the loyalty Doo Dah has inspired among a lineage of artists, barflies, bohemians, exhibitionists and so-called normals craving a chance to let their freak flags fly.
Born Jan. 1, 1978 as a spoof on formalities of the Rose Parade, the countercultural creative happening turns 36 — times, not years, due to erratic scheduling — when it steps off Saturday at the corner of East Colorado Boulevard and Vinedo Avenue.
Doo Dah spectacles of the recent past have been populated by entries such as Dead Robert Palmer Girls, Benzedrine Monks, a fleet of motorized Kinetic Pastry Science Mobile Muffins, members of the UFO-based Raelian movement, a Flying Baby Street Racing and Stroller Cross competition, sword swallowers, kilted bagpipers, belly dancers, cross-dressers, steam punks, a bell-bottomed disco drill squad, hula hoopers, a completely hairless Uncle Fester, a massive robotic cat, a troupe of baguette-wielding French stereotypes, Hare Krishna, Hairy Krishna, a drawling Howdy Krishna, the L.A. Derby Dolls, a pedal-powered movable feast and costumed paparazzi pestering parade-goers.
Many faithfully return year after year to toss tortillas at spectators and be pelted in turn.
But perhaps no figure of parades past has left more of a mark on the Doo Dah milieu than the late artist Jiryar "Jerry" Zorthian, whose son, architect Alan Zorthian, reigns this year as parade grand marshal, a title bestowed on the elder Zorthian 16 years ago.
Jerry Zorthian's sprawling 40-plus-acre ranch in the Altadena foothills — then home to a menagerie of creative types and farm animals and a property that became littered with art objects, assorted junk and domiciles constructed from found objects — for years hosted raucous Doo Dah Queen selection ceremonies to kick off parade season before Zorthian's death in 2004 at 92.
