FLOAT JUDGES TOLD TO GO WITH GUT FEELINGS; TRIO FACE DIFFICULT TASK IN PASADENA.

Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer

Surrounded by 10 parade floats and hundreds of frenzied decorators, Huell Howser glimpsed the difficulty of the task before him.

Howser, host of a public television show on California history, had been named one of three float judges for the Tournament of Roses parade. And in the final days before the event, all 54 floats would come under his scrutiny.

Now, as the judges made their first rounds, Howser wondered how he could ever get the job done.

The floats nearing completion in an immense Pasadena warehouse all were beautiful, intricate - and overwhelming. So how could he possibly pick the best? What criteria could rank one group's labor of love over another's?

``I'm going to see this float, this thing people have poured their heart and soul into for a year, and it will be wonderful,'' Howser said. ``Then I'll go to the next float, and it will be the same thing. How do you make a judgment?''

The answer, parade officials told Howser, ultimately would have to come from his own tastes, his gut feelings.

He and the other judges would rank floats based on a system that has been honed over years and scheduled down to the minute. They would use a list of 12 criteria, including how well floats use roses for decoration, and how well they reflect the parade's theme.

But in the end, picking winners would remain a matter of personal taste. You look, think, and then wing it, they told him.

``My idea of art is Italian renaissance - for others it's French impressionist,'' judging committee Chairman Tony Phillips told his judges during an orientation session. ``It's up to you to decide.''

To reach that decision, judges must draw on their own fields of expertise. Their backgrounds were, in fact, one of the main reasons these particular judges were picked by the tournament's float judging committee.

Rose Parade judges typically have experience in art, media, parades or floral design, said committee Vice Chairman Steve Caine. On this year's panel of judges, Howser represents the media.

Gilbert Lebigre represents the arts. A sculptor from a small Italian town near Florence, Lebigre also has judged and built floats for parades throughout Europe.

Pauline Runkle, meanwhile, brings to the group an understanding of flowers. She has written and lectured on gardening, runs a floral design business in Manchester, Mass., and has decorated museums and concert stages.

On Monday, the three judges met with Phillips in a Pasadena hotel to receive their instructions. Each judge must rank each float on criteria hammered out by tournament officials. Categories include creativity, humor, artistic merit and how well a float reflects life in America.

Judges will evaluate the floats in three quick takes, first on Tuesday, then today, with the final judgments made starting at 3:30 a.m. Thursday. Winners will be announced around 6 a.m. Thursday, just two hours before the parade begins.

On each day, judges will have 3-1/2 minutes to stare at a float. Then, Caine will ring a bell, and the group must move on. Amount of time for scribbling scores and walking to the next float: 1-1/2 minutes.

The group must not fall behind schedule. Judging started at 7 a.m. Tuesday and today into the evening, with a brief break for lunch. If they dally, there is no place in the schedule to make up lost time.

Other instructions: Discuss floats, but don't try to influence each other's scores. Watch what you say in front of float builders, who have nearly a year of effort riding on what you think. For that matter, watch your body language, too.

``Even if it's the ugliest thing you've ever seen, try not to say it with your body language,'' Phillips said. ``All eyes will be on you while you're looking at the float.''

With a final admonition to the judges to have fun, Phillips and other committee members took the group into the field.

Runkle was enchanted. Countless flowers scented the vast, float-filled warehouse in Pasadena. Crews scuttled over the giant shapes of a polar bear, a bus and Noah's ark.

`` `Impressed' is not the right word,'' Runkle said. ``I find it deeply moving.''

On Monday, before the real judging began, Runkle wanted to examine what the floats looked like before the final layers of decoration were added.

``I'm looking for attention to detail, which you can see really well today because you're seeing it from the inside,'' she said.

Lebigre wanted basic first impressions. ``I'm just receiving, getting the feel of the thing,'' he said.

He had already noticed, however, some differences between European and American floats. There, paper-mache dominates, and flowers are just decorative frills. Here, shapes are made from chicken wire and sometimes covered with flower petals for color and texture.

``I don't want to take any ideas, but of course it's very inspiring,'' Lebigre said, as the judges strolled a float-assembly tent near the Rose Bowl. ``Who knows, maybe one day I'll build a flower float.''

As they circled immense animals and studied the petaled side of a space shuttle, the three judges began to compare notes and questions, large and small. This breed of rose, Runkle noted, pointing at a pink bunch sitting in a pail, will open its petals more than other, less expensive kinds. But will anyone watching the parade on television notice? Howser wondered.

``That's a very important thing,'' Lebigre said. ``The parades of the world are meant to be lived in the street, not on the TV.''

After the afternoon's final float tour ended, Howser said Lebigre's comments had helped him approach the job of judging. He hoped that when the real work began, early Tuesday morning, it wouldn't prove as difficult as it looked.

``They say it'll fall together, that it will suddenly make sense,'' he said. ``I don't know.''

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PHOTO Float judges Gilbert Lebigre, second from left, Huell Howser, rear, and Pauline Runkle view an entry.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News