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Show Kennedy Inaugural Parade Thirteen Weeks in Production Although the 1961 inaugural parade will run only 2 hours and 25 minutes it will have been 13 weeks in production, according accord-ing to F. Joseph Donohue, chairman chair-man of the inaugural parade committee. His cochariman, Mrs. James Rowe, added that quality, not quantity will be the keynote of the parade. The committee began its project proj-ect by a self education program. Members viewed films of previous pre-vious parades dating back to the Roosevelt era, watching particularly particu-larly for errors. "We saw such horrors as the cowboy who lassoed the President, Presi-dent, the governors who stopped their cars in front of the reviewing review-ing stand to make presentations ol local products, the marching units which held up the parade while they went through complicated com-plicated maneuvers, the children units and senior citizens units that could not keep pace and caused great gaps in the parade. We made up our minds we would learn from the mistakes of the past." One of the first decisions made was to integrate the military , units with the rest of the pa-! pa-! rade. This was not a new idea ; but it required special cooperation coopera-tion of the services which has been willingly given. The sequence of the parade as it now stands is as follows: ! The Presidential escort section, sec-tion, including the Grand Marshal, Mar-shal, Lt. Gen. James M. Gavin, the Presidential and Vice Presi- (Continued on page 8) i u i i i Kenned Inaugural Parade Thirteen Weeks in Production (Continued from page 1) dential parties, will head the parade to bring the President from the Capitol to the reviewing review-ing stand near the White House. Divison 1 will be the Service Academies, Division 2 will be headed by the Army, followed by the District of Columbia unit as host, Massachusetts, the President's Pres-ident's state, and Texas, the Vice President's state, then nine other states in the order of their admission ad-mission to the union. Division 3 will be headed by the Marines, followed by 12 states. Division 4 will be led by the Navy, followed fol-lowed by 11 statesDivision 5 will be headed by the Air Force followed by 11 states. Division 6 will be headed by the Coast Guard, followed by. the Reserve Forces of all the services. The parade route is approximately approxi-mately 14 300 yards long. The parade itself will be nearly 3700 yards long and will move at 120 paces a minute or three miles an hour for autos and floats. Each state section will consist of its governor riding in a new convertible driven by a military driver. Each governor may be accompanied by such members of his family or friends as he wishes. Following the Governor will be one band of not more than 100 members, one float and one marching unit of not more than 200 persons. The selection of the individual units for each state is left to an i inaugural parade coordinator in each state, named by the chair- man of the 1961 inaugural committee, com-mittee, Edward H. Foley. These coordinators are a cross section of Democratic party leaders, some senators, some congressmen, congress-men, some heads of the Citizens for Kennedy-Johnson organization, organiza-tion, some Democratic State chairmen. In chosing the individual units the parade coordinators have been' given guidance by a special sub-committee of band experts who prepared a list of the outstanding out-standing bands of the country. However, the coordinators have a free hand in choosing the band and marching units. Each band and marching unit is responsible for paying all its own expenses to participate in the parade. Float designs must be submitted submit-ted to a special inaugural Float Design Committee for approval. The theme of the parade is of "World Peace Through New Frontiers" and each float must be in keeping with the theme. Members of the float design committee com-mittee are: Herman Williams, Gallery of Art of Washington; David N. Yerkes of Washington; Mrs. Joan Hill of Washington, and Don McLaughlin, Presentation Presenta-tion Associates of Washington. In case two states submit similar simi-lar designs, the first to reach Ihe float design committee will be accepted. In case a state does not wish to send a band or marching unit to Washington, Massachusetts or Texas will be given the privilege of providing a substitute. |