From grand marshal Miss America (a.k.a. Katie Stam) to the Santa Ana Winds Youth Band, the 2009 Americanism Parade swept through town Saturday and, in its wake, left smiles on the faces of thousands lining Via de la Paz and Sunset Boulevard. Prior to the parade, Palisadian Chloe Donovan, 8, met Stam before riding as a special guest in her horse-drawn carriage. ‘She’s nice and pretty and fun,’ Donovan said of the reigning Miss America. ‘She’s very engaging,’ added Bill Prachar, who, as the parade’s longtime official clown, gets to wear as much makeup as he wants. ‘She wanted to know what my real clown name was.’ Along the parade route, Steven List, with wife Heidi and daughter Evita, 2, saw the Patriotic Pups brigade as the perfect opportunity to proudly walk their dogs, Bernie the St. Bernard and Doc the Australian shepherd. ‘We crashed the parade,’ List joked. This year’s Mr. and Ms. Palisades, Wyn Delano and Sabrina Giglio, rode by in separate cars, while last year’s Mr. Palisades, Chris Alexakis, participated as a photographer, documenting the day digitally. At Sunset and Drummond, he snapped Ava Horowitz, 5, who was holding her miniature poodle, Prince, while full-sized poodle Precious rode alongside as her dad and driver Seth Horowitz, general manager of the Luxe Hotel Sunset Boulevard, drove a truck in the procession. Along Sunset, local Laurie Hudson has seen the parade numerous times during her 15 years in the Palisades. But this year, she was accompanied by her daughter, Hope, 3. Hope’s personal highlight: ‘When the water came from the fire trucks!’ Local residents Brett and Alison Duffy staked out their seats along Sunset with daughter Carly, 9, and their Maltese, Lucky. This year, they brought a special guest, Vernonica Victor of Connecticut, who is interning at VH-1 for the summer. The University of Colorado student jumped right into the Palisades holiday spirit by participating earlier that morning in the Will Rogers 5K/10K Run. Standing in front of Pharmaca with 9-month-old Madison on his shoulders, Mark Lorentzen said, ‘The parade is the best this year.’ His family has long been active with Troop 223. ‘My friend is riding with the Cub Scouts,’ said Lorentzen’s son, Chris Hannah, 11. ‘I liked when the firetrucks came by.’ Palisadian pals Guy Byington and Dr. Steve Krems brought a group of friends from the Valley to the Swarthmore intersection. Among that group was Lisa Ende, who saw the parade for the first time with her kids, Samuel, 7, and Abby, 5. ‘It’s awesome!’ Ende said, mere minutes after the skydivers had landed just up Sunset. Nearby were David Moore and Helen Chuang, who came all the way from Pasadena. ‘We thought the skydiving was pretty awesome,’ Moore said. Over on Via, Theresa Corcoran experienced her first parade with her daughter, Audrey, 1, just a month after moving here from Brentwood. ‘Next year, we’re going to have her be in the parade,’ Audrey’s proud mom promised. Several prominent Hollywood players were also out with their families enjoying the festivities. Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment at Fox Broadcasting Company, has lived in the Palisades for 15 years. He told the Palisadian-Post that for years he had spent the holiday taking in a parade in the Valley, where a friend lives. ‘I never knew what I was missing,’ said Reilly, who was pleased that one of the floats had played the version of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin,” sung by the cast of Fox’s breakout show, ‘Glee.’ Close by lounged Pat Kingsley, founder of the reigning Hollywood PR firm PMK/HBH, reclining comfortably on a sidewalk chair next to her family”daughter Janice Scott, son-in-law Christopher Scott, and grandson Ethan, 6. From underneath her sun-blocking hat, Kingsley told the Post that she has enjoyed watching the parade for some 30 years. The Post also encountered one conspicuous Hollywood wannabe, hamming it up in what was probably his big impromptu audition: the giant Quizno beverage cup. The guy inside the costume found the parade crowd ‘high energy,’ and he joked that he had effectively swayed hungry pedestrians away from cross-town rival Subway. For the past nine years, Jim Buerge and wife Colleen have made an annual tradition of throwing a party at their Toyopa Street home during the last leg of the parade. But this year’s Buerge barbecue was a particularly poignant event, as the Buerge family has put its house up for sale and will relocate to another part of town. ‘We bought six kegs and we burned through all of them, so it’s one of the biggest parties I’ve thrown,’ said Buerge, who admitted experiencing some relief that his house parties are coming to a close. ‘It’s a lot of work, but people know to come to the Buerges’ house.’ Dan Johnson and Perry Richards attended all nine Buerge parties. Richards said he will miss ‘the social setting, seeing old friends and counting on coming every year.’ ‘Every time an old tradition ends, a new one begins,’ Johnson commented. Sure enough, across the street at the Gilhooly residence, people were already partying at the family’s inaugural party. ‘Pat Gilhooly built this house and this is his first parade,’ said Palisades native Jimmy Klein, announcing next year’s post-parade party destination. ‘Everyone just show up!’ Heather Gilhooly’s reaction: ‘Surprised!’ she said, laughing. Next door to the Gilhooly residence, Jim and Vicki Mercer hosted a celebration on their front lawn, where guests included Larry Bridges, an editor on several of Michael Jackson’s classic videos, including ‘Beat It,’ ‘Dirty Diana’ and ‘The Way You Make Me Feel.’ He was hands-on, Bridges said, remembering Jackson. ‘When we were in the studio for ‘Beat It,’ we got nothing done because all day long, people were filing into the studio to view the video footage.’ It transcended the ‘Billie Jean’ video because it saved MTV.’ Outside the Mercer home was Phillip Parks, better known as the Westside Rentals guy, who enjoyed his third year on the route. Dressed this year in Mickey Mouse ears and gloves, Parks paid his own tribute to Jackson by moon-walking during the parade on Sunset at Drummond. Theatre Palisades’ Andrew Frew opened up his Sunset home for his annual party, which included such guests as Theater Palisades’ regulars Sherman Way, Martha Hunter and Rebecca Silberman, and a rooftop view of PaliHi’s fireworks show. Another guest was Frew’s brother, James, an aerospace inspector for Honeywell who flew in from his home in Phoenix, as he has done for 15 years. And don’t think Andrew didn’t make his older brother earn his stay. ‘I like riding in the parade and waving to the folks from the Theatre Palisades float, and I like the tradition, the small-town feel,’ James said, before helping Andrew out collecting admissions at the pre-fireworks concert. Craig Hunter, Martha’s husband, experienced the parade for the first time and enjoyed ‘a neat variety of different bands, kids and dogs. It’s a nice slice of life.’ And Dr. Nikita Bezrukov, who works at UCLA Medical Center, shared his parade highlight: an improvised jam between the First Marine Division Band from Camp Pendleton and the New Orleans Traditional Dixieland Band before the parade began. Also ushering in a new annual party tradition was artist Gaby Gottlieb, a longtime Palisadian who had just moved into her new home on El Medio. Among Gottlieb’s guests were actor and Palisades Honorary Mayor Gavin MacLeod, his son, Drew, daughter-in-law Jill, and grandchildren Shelby, 13, and Jade, 10; Palisades Film Festival organizer Bob Sharka and his wife, Debbie; longtime Amy Soufo, whose daughter, Christina Soufo, was at PaliHi where the band she manages, The Elevaters, were closing the concert; and Gottlieb’s mom, Laurie Gottlieb, a former writer for the Los Angeles Times’ innovative Home magazine. The party culminated on the front lawn, where rows of chairs were set up to view the fireworks display. ‘I’m so grateful to have my home in the Palisades and a great view of the fireworks,’ Gottlieb said. ‘This is my favorite holiday, and I felt it was my civic duty to have a party. I also love bringing old and new friends together.’ One might say the same thing of the annual Independence Day parade.
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