OUR LAGUNA: Pageant marks 75 years of mastery

Festival of Arts members marched through town Saturday to mark 75 years of standing still.

The Pageant of the Masters is celebrating its Diamond Jubilee this year. Created in desperate times as a publicity stunt to draw attention to the second-ever street exhibit by local artists, the pageant has grown into a theatrical experience combining art, mime and music in brilliantly-staged “tableaux vivants” — life imitating art.

Parade participants met early Saturday morning, some to get into pageant costumes, some to pick up props that included balloons, noise makers and signs that included hand-held frames with pictures of “Blue Boy,” “Pinkie” and “Mona Lisa” — the center cut out for marchers’ faces.

Another sign read “Still standing still after 75 years,” not to mention still standing up after the morning trek on a hot August day.

The parade route wound its way through downtown, with stops at sites where the festival camped out before it found a permanent home at the Irvine Bowl.

Festival Board President Wayne Baglin, pageant director Diane “Dee” Challis Davy and the costumed cast of the “Last Supper” led the parade, followed by other board members, cast, crew and festival members, some wearing blue felt berets decorated with a yellow paint brush.

“I dug the berets out of storage,” Challis Davy said. “They are vintage 1960s, worn by ushers and staff.”

The parade began at the Laguna Art Museum, site of the 1935 festival; made its way down the highway to Ocean Avenue, the festival’s site in 1934; to the Hotel Laguna, near El Paseo, where the festival was held in 1932, 1933 and 1936; back-tracked to Forest Avenue and then to City Hall, where the festival was held from 1937 to 1940. The festival moved into the Irvine Bowl Park in 1941, but the pageant was dark in the next few years due to World War II.

Once on the grounds, marchers took a load off their feet, partook of refreshments catered by Gina’s Pizza and waited for presentations in honor of the anniversary.

Challis Davy served as the master of ceremonies — few better qualified. She is a child of the festival. It was her playground when her father, gallery owner Richard Challis, was on the board. The festival nurtured the talented youngster by awarding her a scholarship to study costume design and hired as her as pageant director in 1996.

She thanked the parade marchers and the audience who came to the grounds for the celebration.

“We went to the original site of the pageant and retraced its history,” Challis Davy said. “To use an Olympic metaphor, it has been a 75-year marathon and I like to think of the volunteers as carrying the torch.”

Volunteers play a major role backstage and onstage in the pageant’s success.

An estimated 150,000 people will see the pageant this year. “May you to continue to reside and thrive in Laguna, and bring folks to our town,” Mayor Jane Egly said.

When the “Spirit of the Master’s Pageant” debuted in 1933, an estimated 2,000 people lined the highway to watch, according to local newspaper accounts. The show was held in a rolling wagon, not much larger than a telephone booth. There were no painted backdrops and the daytime performance precluded the lighting that flattens the live models into two- dimensional art.

The first tableau in 1933 was “The Girl of the Golden West,” a painting by Louis Betts, lent authenticity by poser Josie Derkum Rice, who had been the original model for the painting 18 years earlier. William Griffith’s daughter, Jane, was a last minute substitute as “Sistine Madonna,” Carol Schwankovsky was the babe in arms, later replaced by a doll that didn’t violate the pageant premise of still life.

There is also some historical evidence that living pictures were performed in Laguna even earlier than 1933: at a benefit for the Laguna Beach Art Assn. in 1920, and a “Summer Fiesta,” produced by J. Howard Sheridan in 1926. However, it was the late Roy Ropp’s vision that began the transformation of the pageant into a show stopper in 1935.

Fifth District Supervisor Pat Bates was among those who paid tribute to the pageant’s history.

“What an honor it is to stand here,” Bates said at the celebration. “You are not getting older, you are getting better.

“The pageant is known throughout the world. When you travel and say you are from Laguna Beach, people say ‘Oh, the Pageant of the Masters.’

“I am pleased to present a proclamation that chronicles the 75 years that have brought us to today.”

Bates presented the proclamation to Baglin.

“It is framed in wood,” Bates said. “If it was from the state, it would have been cardboard.”

Baglin accepted the proclamation on behalf of the board and the close to 7,000 festival members.

“This a great day,” he said. “We have almost 7,000 members, over 500 volunteers and 154 exhibitors — 40 of them new to the grounds.”

Baglin introduced board members that included John Hoover, Steven Dicterow, Ann Webster, Tom Lamb, Pat Kollenda and Anita Mangels, 75th Anniversary chair.

“It’s my job to make the speechifying short,” Mangels said. “This is the second year of the Diamond Jubilee. Last year we honored the exhibitors. I am happy they joined us this year.

“The theme of the pageant this year is ‘All the world is a stage.’ For 75 years, the beautiful city of Laguna Beach as set the stage for the pageant.”

Mangels invited everyone on the green to sign the giant birthday card and share the birthday cupcakes.

Kollenda concluded the ceremony by leading the crowd in a chorus of “Happy Birthday.”

Saturday was also Membership Day and the members met at 8:30 to hear board candidates speak. The 2008 festival and pageant season will end Sunday, Aug. 30.

Oh, Pooh!

The Animal Shelter support group that was originally named Pet Owners Obligation to the Public and later changed to Pet Responsibility Committee did not recently change its name to Protecting Our Pets, as published in Our Laguna last week.

The new name is Protecting Unwanted Pets. Despite the acronym PUP, the group helps raise funds for all animals.

OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, 92652; hand-deliver to Suite 22 in the Lumberyard, 384 Forest Ave.; call (949) 494-4321 or fax (949) 494-8979 or e-mail [email protected].