FLOWERS TO GO! FLOAT-MAKING COMPANIES SAY ROSE PARADE IS THE BIG ONE.

Byline: Andy Samuelson Staff Writer

PASADENA - They turn ideas into giant, 50-foot dreams, then disassemble them and start all over again.

For the two largest float-making companies in the Rose Parade, Phoenix Decorating Co. and Fiesta Parade Floats, building a float is a yearlong process. They each employ about 30 full-time people and the week before the parade have more than 17,000 volunteers to help decorate.

Each float is one-of-a-kind, something that started in someone's imagination in late winter or early spring and then was turned into a fire-breathing dragon or a dancing white elephant.

``We build everything from scratch. It's not like we are buying a product that has already been assembled,'' said Tim Estes, owner of Fiesta Parade Floats. ``Every float is a prototype.''

Estes and Bill Lofthouse, who owns Phoenix Decorating Co., have deep roots in the parade, starting when they were kids sticking flowers in floats.

They remember the style changes that influenced the industry - like when builders went away from the box-style floats and started making elaborate ones with animated characters in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Or when sound systems were introduced on floats in the late 1980s.

``It's a parade where the floats have become giant pieces of equipment where you put flowers,'' Lofthouse said.

The name of the game is making clients' floats noticeable, he said.

``They aren't doing this because they love the parade,'' he said of sponsors. ``They are doing it for the exposure.''

Phoenix will build 24 floats this year, while Fiesta will make 14, constructing 38 of this year's 54 floats between the two.

Other builders are Festival Artists Inc., Charisma Floats, Studio Concepts, and Ride & Show Engineering Inc. These companies, unlike the big two, do not rely on the Rose Parades for the bulk of their revenue.

Estes said Fiesta generates 80 percent of its business from the Rose Parade. The company also builds floats for the Hollywood Christmas Parade and the Boise River Festival in Boise, Idaho.

All of Phoenix's business is generated from the Rose Parade, and Lofthouse said he had to turn clients away this year because he has too much work.

In the past, Phoenix had made floats for the Orange Parade in Florida and the Fiesta Parade in Arizona.

``I've gone to more parades and seen functions in more parts of the country than almost anyone,'' Lofthouse said. ``There is nothing that compares to the scope and size of the Rose Parade.''

Lofthouse said the difference is the size of the floats, which are bigger than in any other parade.

They range in price from $60,0000 to $300,000. They will weigh as much as 50,000 pounds, will be weighed down by 125 gallons of glue and stand as high as 60 feet.

This year, Fiesta has built a float for Countrywide Home Loans, ``Time Machine - Journey to Tomorrow'' that has 50 movable parts and shows the sequence of two kids traveling through time.

Phoenix built a float for AT&T that has a 60-foot-high grandfather clock, ``Now is the Time . . . to Celebrate.''

``I love the creativity we are able to put into a float and giving an element of enjoyment and satisfaction for people watching the parade,'' Estes said.

To build these large floats, the companies have warehouses. Phoenix has two locations in Pasadena, while Fiesta's operation is in Duarte.

The building process takes all year and occasionally can be longer, said Larry Palmer, spokesman for Phoenix. Already, the company is working on designs for the 2001 Rose Parade, he said.

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Girl Scout Cadettes and Seniors from the San Fernando Valley decorate the City of Hope's float.

Raul Roa/Staff Photographer