Portland Rose Festival

Most Rose Festival events resumed in 1919. A Victory and Industry Parade occurred on Wednesday, June 11 and a Military Parade on June 12 that emphasized victory. An interesting letter to the editor of the Oregon Journal appeared on June 12. It read: “Smoking at the dining tables in hotels and restaurants ought to be prohibited. It’s very repulsive, annoying, and even insulting to a refined clear person.” (Courtesy Oregon Historical Society; OHSFile1910.)

The 1920 Rose Festival was moved later to June 21 through June 26, due to a national Shriners convention. The parade was held under cloudy skies. The Oregonian reported on June 21: “Shrine weather all week.” That was not to be the case, however. The two Grand Electric parades on Tuesday and Friday escaped the rain. (Courtesy Portland Rose Festival Foundation.)

The Grand Floral Parade was not so lucky. As the parade began at 3:00 p.m., rain started to fall, and before a half-mile of the route had been traveled, every participant was drenched by pouring rain. The day’s high temperature rose to only 59 degrees. After the shower in 1919 and the rain in 1920, pessimists were beginning to associate rain with the Rose Festival. Decades of history would prove this wrong. (Courtesy Portland Rose Festival Foundation.)

The queen’s Coronation was held in Laurelhurst Park in 1921. It enjoyed sunny skies and warm temperatures. And to dress appropriately for that occasion, striped and pleated skirts were selling for $12.50 at Lipman Wolfe & Co., while men’s ties were being advertised three for $4.75. (Courtesy Portland Rose Festival Foundation.)

The Grand Floral Parade was gaining attention from the celebrated event held on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, another all-floral extravaganza. That city entered a float in the Rose Festival’s premier parade, as did various organizations and cities from around Oregon. The festival was once again a success and could be said to have gone out with a bang (or a crash). On Sunday, June 12, crowds at the Rose City Speedway were thrilled by the head-on crash of two locomotives traveling at speeds of 18 to 20 miles an hour. The operators jumped from their respective cabs just as they began converging on the track. (Courtesy Portland Rose Festival Foundation.)

In 1922, an Army-Navy Parade and a Grand Floral Parade were held. A replica of the battleship Oregon appeared gaily covered in a plethora of roses. It was a sunny 81 degrees for the Grand Floral Parade. It had been a dry month, with only 0.14 inches of rain, which evidently prompted the erection of several moonshine stills around the area. A 100-gallon still was found along Still Creek near Estacada, and another was discovered just south of the Vista House, east of Portland, as well as in the hills above Scappoose on Scappoose Creek. (Courtesy Portland Rose Festival Foundation.)

Once again, the 1923 Coronation ceremonies were held in Laurelhurst Park. Adm. Hillary P. Jones, commander in chief of the US fleet, approaches the throne with an escort of flower girls. (Courtesy Portland Rose Festival Foundation.)

The Rosebud Parade was such a great success in 1923 that it was scheduled to be repeated when President Harding visited the city on July 4. For those who missed attending in person, three Portland theaters—The Peoples, Columbia, and Blue Mouse—would follow every important move of the Rose Festival in motion pictures. For those interested in other entertainment, Romance Land, starring Tom Mix, was playing at the Hippodrome movie theater and She Shock, starring Lon Chaney, at the Columbia. (Courtesy Portland Rose Festival Foundation.)

It had been a very dry spring in the Pacific Northwest in 1924. Several forest fires were burning in the area and it was reported that 57 were burning in the national forests of Washington and Oregon. Sunny skies greeted the floats in the Grand Floral Parade on Thursday, June 12. The float in the photograph belonged to Eric Hanson. (Courtesy Portland Rose Festival Foundation.)

The queen and her court were given a royal welcome when they visited the official Rose Gardens in Washington Park. From left to right are Vineta Hedman, Trena Heerdt, Genevieve George, Queen Edith Dailey, Prime Minister Dr. E.A. Pierce, Doris Joy, Louise Hacker, and Margaret Sullivan. (Courtesy Oregon Historical Society; OrHi72005.)

The 1925 Rose Festival offered five performances of the pageant Rosaria. It featured a stage 200 feet wide erected on Multnomah Field. The pageant included a cast of 6,000 and a chorus of 2,000, according to the June 16, 1925, Sunday issue of the Oregon Journal. It told the “story of the civilizing influence of the rose.” Not a drop of rain fell on the pageant, and the fire marshal advised people not to smoke during the performances. The Rose Festival found itself in financial straits trying to pay for the extravagant pageant, so for the first time, it decided to sell advance tickets to make up the difference. (Courtesy Portland Rose Festival Foundation.)

In 1925, Ole Jupiter Pluvius worked overtime during the first 13 days of June as rain fell on 11 of them. Then, he took a snooze and for the extent of the Rose Festival, June 14–20, not a drop of moisture was recorded. The Grand Floral Parade enjoyed sunny skies and 74 degrees. (Courtesy Portland Rose Festival Foundation.)

In 1926, the Rose Festival would be without a Grand Floral Parade due to the construction of Civic or Multnomah Stadium. There was one event, however, that was not affected by the construction. It had been a part of Rose Festival activities in the past and would become a permanent feature in years to come. That was the Rose City Park Children’s Parade (later called the Rose Festival Junior Parade) that marched along East Fifty-seventh Street to East Forty-second Street. (Courtesy Oregon Historical Society; OrHi66390.)