Quest for Adventure, also referred to as Quest for Safety, is a Jonny Quest parade float that was part of the 108th Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1, 1997 in Pasadena, California, USA.
The float was entered into the parade by the City of Alhambra and built by Phoenix Decorating Company.
A ride on the float was a grand prize for a safety contest.
Overview[]
Official image from the Tournament of Roses Parade archives
The float features Jonny in a jeep being chased by a rampaging elephant. It is styled from art originally done for The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest and included in the series' style guide.
Official description of the Quest for Adventure float from the official 1997 Tournament of Roses Parade program:[2]
The City of Alhambra's 67th Rose Parade entry features Johnny Quest® on another thrilling adventure as he flees from the wrath of a stampeding elephant. Racing along in a jeep decorated with paper bark, seeds and green ti leaves, Johnny Quest finds himself in a reversal of fortune. The elephant is covered with yellow strawflowers, clover seed and sesame seed while the garden areas are adorned with roses, orchids, gerbera daisies, iris and lilies.
The Jeep had green camo "paint" with bales in the back. The elephant was brown with lighter and darker brown stylizations, and brown eyes. The elephant's tusks and front nails were white with purple flair. The elephant chased the Jeep over a field of pink, red, yellow, and purple flowers. The front of the float had the name Quest for Adventure, and both sides read City of Alhambra.[3]
The float had three riders who sat in the Jeep portion. One rider was a person dressed as the Jonny Quest character,[4] who stood in the Jeep with a foot on the windowsill. Jonny wore blue jeans, a black turtleneck, a brown leather jacket with the JQ logo on the sleeve, brown boots, and blue gloves. He also had a face mask and a blond wig. The other two riders were a blond woman, who sat in the middle, and a man in a baseball cap, who was in the driver's seat.[3] The winner of the Quest for Safety contest apparently did not ride in the float.
Safety Contest[]
In 1996, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest was part of a promotional safety contest. First prize included riding on the "Quest for Safety float" in the parade.[5]
Jonny Quest launches safety promo
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest is taking part in promoting safety. The program, which airs weekday afternoons on TBS Superstation, is tied in to the Quest for Safety promotion by the Safe America Foundation, TBS Superstation and Holiday Inn. From October 9 to November 4, children ages eight to 14 are invited to submit essays about how they practise safety or safety issues that they consider important. Chosen by a panel of public safety and community leaders, the ‘Safest Kid in America’ will win a ride on the Quest for Safety float with characters from The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest in the January 1 Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. The winner’s essay will also appear on the TBS Superstation kids programming Web site (www.turner.com/disaster). Second-prize winners will receive bike helmets, T-shirts and Jonny Quest label pins.
The winner was announced to be Stephanie Hagan of Atlanta, Georgia.[6] However, it appears that she did not ride in the float.[3]
Media coverage[]
KTLA 5 had a website documenting the floats, and this was their entry on the Jonny Quest float:
KTLA 5's website for the float
Parade Line Up
#54 FloatCity of Alhambra, California
"Quest for Adventure"FLOAT BUILDER:
Phoenix Decorating CompanyFLOAT DESCRIPTION:
Height: 17 feet 4 inches Width: 18 feet Length: 35 feetThe City of Alhambra's 67th Rose Parade entry features Johnny Quest® on another thrilling adventure as he flees from the wrath of a stampeding elephant. Racing along in a jeep decorated with paper bark, seeds and green ti leaves, Johnny Quest finds himself in a reversal of fortune.
FLOWERING:
Elephant: yellow strawflowers, clover seed, sesame seed. Jeep: paper bark, seeds and green ti leaves. Trees: cotton seed, ming moss and roses.ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
1996 Tournament of Roses Volunteers' Trophy recipientFLOAT RIDERS:
Johnny Quest (character)
Around Alhambra had an article about the float in its December 1996 issue:
Around Alhambra Dec 1996
1996 ROSE PARADE
'QUEST FOR ADVENTURE'The City of Alhambra will be sponsoring its 67th entry in the world famous Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1, 1997. In keeping with this year's parade theme "Life's Shining Moment," the City's float will be titled "Quest for Adventure" and will feature the popular cable cartoon character "Johnny Quest" being chased by a 17-foot-tall elephant.
This will be the 108th Rose Parade and will be viewed by an estimated 425 million people in more than 100 countries. The Alhambra Chamber of Commerce will again be cooperating with the Safe America Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes child transportation safety, and Hanna-Barbera which produces the Johnny Quest cartoon show. Over the past several months, viewers of the show have been sending essays on child safety. The winner of the contest will be riding on the float.
The float was designed by Phoenix Decorating, the same company who designed Alhambra's spectacular entry and winner of the -- "1996 Volunteers Trophy." The float's framework was completed in August and the flower petals and other natural materials will be added to the float by more than 400 volunteers between now and Dec. 31.
The float was again documented by Around Alhambra in its January 1997 issue:
Around Alhambra Jan 1997
'Quest' Preview Was an Adventure
The Alhambra Tournament of Roses Association and the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce hosted a preview of the City's 1997 entry, "Quest for Adventure," Dec. 27.
Nearly 150 volunteers and friends braced the rain and were treated to an interesting and entertaining evening at the Phoenix Decorating Company in Pasadena. In addition to the personal-guided tours of the more than a dozen floats under construction, everyone enjoyed the appearance of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters Jonny Quest and George Jetson and his friendly dog Astro.
Councilman Mark Paulson, who is also the association's president, and Safe America Foundation president, Len Pagano, announced the winner of the national child safety essay contest -- Stephanie Hagan of Atlanta, Georgia.
The Safe America Foundation, a national non-profit organization that promotes child transportation safety received 1,300 application essays from children in 20 states, all vying for the opportunity to ride on the Alhambra float on New Year's Day.
A special award was also presented to Joe Barbera, co-founder of Hanna-Barbera, creators of Jonny Quest, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, and other familiar cartoon characters. Hanna-Barbera, which now operates under the Warner Bros. corporate banner, together with Holiday Inn Pasadena helped promote this year's child safety contest.
Gallery[]
Notes/trivia[]
- The float was the 54th in march order in the parade. It was after The Congress of Fancy Range Riders from the Roy Rogers & Dale Evans Museum, and it was followed by the Pickerington Tiger Marching Band from Pickerington, Ohio.[2]
- The Jeep's driver's seat is on the left side, unlike in the episode which has the driver's seat on the right.[3]
- Despite an eye-witness account reporting that one of the Jonny Quest voice actors, either J.D. Roth or Quinton Flynn, also rode in the float,[7] neither actor was present in the CBS coverage of the parade.[3]
- Some sources note with the Quest for Adventure float description that it's the winner of the 1996 Tournament of Roses Volunteers' Trophy,[1][2] but this is in reference to the City of Alhambra, who entered the float, not the Quest for Adventure float itself. The City of Alhambra won the Volunteers' Trophy for their float "Easter Egg Hunt" in the previous year's Tournament of Roses Parade.[8] The 1997 Tournament of Roses Parade's Volunteers' Trophy went to the city of South Pasadena for their float "A Honey of a Day."[9]
External links[]
- Tournament of Roses official website: TournamentOfRoses.com
- Phoenix Decorating Company official website: phoenixdeco.com
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 KTLA: archived page
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 1997 Tournament of Roses Parade program, page 75. Note: The program misspells his name as "Johnny" instead of "Jonny".
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 CBS's coverage of the 108th Tournament of Roses Parade. January 1, 1997.
- ↑ KTLA 5's website page for the float lists "Jonny Quest (character)" as a float rider.
- ↑ Kidscreen, "News Briefs" by Kidscreen Staff, November 1, 1996. Retrieved April 8, 2021. Archived at QuestFan.com.
- ↑ Around Alhambra, January 1997, 'Quest' Preview Was an Adventure.
- ↑ Per fan Questina the Water Elf on the JQML (Jonny Quest Mailing List), who saw the float. Her accounts are documented on Questfan.com.
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, Rose Parade Trophy Given to Wrong Float, March 2, 1995. Also archived on ProQuest (accessible with some library cards). Excerpt: "So within a week, judges recrunched their numbers and came up with the true winner, Alhambra's "Easter Egg Hunt" float. The trophy was awarded to Alhambra last Monday."
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "THE 1997 TOURNAMENT OF ROSES; The Winners" (paywall), January 2, 1997. Also archived on ProQuest (accessible with some library cards).