Beverly Hills Easter Parade (1959)

In an early photograph of the Miracle Mile Easter Parade traffic seen heading west along Wilshire Boulevard at Kenmore Avenue, Easter Sunday, April 13, 1941. On Easter Sunday 1949 The Jack Benny Radio show has Jack and Mary strolling down Wilshire singing 'Happy Easter' to everyone along the Beverly Hills Parade. March 29, 1959 with only seven channels to choose from serving the greater Los Angeles area, the only Easter programming was in the daytime, and with only the independent station, Channel 11 KTTV telecast of the Easter Sunrise Services at the Hollywood Bowl from 4:50am to 6:10am, then signed off until 11am. KNXT (CBS Channel 2) carried Easter Mass from Boston at 7am then an Episcopal service from the National Cathedral in Washington at 8am. At 11 am came "Easter With the Stars" on KABC (ABC Channel 7). KTTV telecast the Beverly Hills Easter Parade at 1pm, with anchor Bill Welch. The parade departed from the Beverly Hilton hotel on Wilshire Boulevard and on down Rodeo Drive, lead by the Huntington Park Youth Band, stopping along the route to break into dance steps, entertaining the crowds. Motion picture and television stars sat upon Lincoln Continetal convertibles, waving and signing autographs. The Grand Marshall was Art Linkletter joined with actors, Steve McQueen, Ty Harding, Pat O'Brien, Joe E. Brown, Chill Wills, Juli Redding and Barbara Billingsley. After the parade celebrities would return to the Hilton ballroom and 'The Beaver,' Jerry Matthers remembers sitting at the table with the Hilton family. Equestrian riders in Spanish costumes brought the early tradition of horses that once flourished in the hills above the then former rancho named El Rodeo de las Aguas ( Gathering of the Waters ), once the site of legendary streams. Delevoper Burton Green opened the subdivision of Beverly Hills in 1907, following the City was Incorporated in 1914. Actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks launched the migration of movie stars from Hollywood when they purchased an old hunting lodge and built their legendary home, Pickfair, in 1919. Beverly Hills has long been the epicenter of wealth and glamour in Southern California.