By Ruth ANSON SOWBY

When I was 19 I was a “Hollywood princess” in what was then called the Hollywood Lane Christmas Parade. Today I’m 81 … you figure out the math.  

The 2025 version of the parade took place on Sunday, Nov. 30. It was not broadcast locally as my 1964 parade was.(Organizers promise the 2025 parade will run on the CW Network sometime this month.)

  Like mine, this year’s parade makes a 3.2 trek starting at Orange Street and Hollywood Boulevard. The hosts are Erik Estrada from the old CHIPS TV series and Laura McKenzie, host of the Traveler TV series. My parade’s host was Johnny Grant. In the 1960s, he was honorary mayor of Hollywood and now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Legendary celebrity hosts were Gene Autry, Jimmy Stewart and Mary Pickford … and then there was me—a mini, mini celebrity. I had just been hired as a teenage reporter for ABC TV Channel 7 News. (Smart parade organizers figured out the parade would get Channel 7 coverage if they put me on a float.) And here I thought it was my charm and charisma that got me on the float!  

  Floats and marching bands were the order of the day for both parades. My fellow channel teenage reporter David Monsees interviewed me for the local news on my float. 

I guess I gushed, “It’s an honor to be in the parade.” 

Today, I would quote Bob Hope: “Thanks for the memories.”