Rose Parade’s ‘turning crew’ captain is the unsung hero of event’s famous ‘TV corner’

On a past New Year’s Day, a teammate of Jim Gruettner’s on the Rose Parade’s “turning crew” handed out pairs of red gloves.

At the time, it was just a nice gesture from a colleague, who had spotted the accessories while shopping for an upcoming ski trip. And the bright-colored gloves contrasted nicely with the crew members all-white suits.

Gruettner, a nearly 50-year veteran volunteer with the Tournament of Roses, has transformed his pair of red gloves into something of a trademark.

Like he has every year since 2011, come this Jan. 1, Gruettner will be at his post, the corner of Orange Grove Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard, fitted with his trusty red gloves and ready to guide the first of 39 floats through TV corner.

Gruettner, 82, is a key member of the team – who you may never see on TV – that makes the parade go.

“You have a front row seat for everything,” Gruettner said.

Gruettner, who spent most of his professional career working on the business side at ARCO gas company before taking an early retirement to work for several local nonprofits until 2010, has been part of the Tournament of Roses since 1977. If you count the years by grand marshals and parade themes, that year Roy Rogers and Dale Evans presided, and the theme was “The Good Life.”

Yup. Gruettner has come along way to 2026, when basketball legend Earvin Magic Johnson will preside over a parade dedicated to “The Magic in Teamwork.”

He is now an auxiliary member, a designation set aside for volunteers older than 70 years old. From failed brakes, floats catching fire and nearly walking backwards into the path of a pooper scooper, Gruettner has just about seen it all on his corner.

He joked that for “old-timers” like him, becoming an auxiliary member is akin to getting a pink slip, “but you can still hang around.”

Gruettner joined the turning crew in 2011 after a friend of his on the parade operations committee asked if he’d like to be part of one of the parade’s two turning crews.

“For some reason they keep asking me back,” Gruettner said.

Brian Yingling, current vice chair of the the operations committee is responsible for managing the logistics of the parade’s timing. One of several spinning plates included in those logistics is selecting the turning crew.

“He’s exactly the guy that we want to be the captain of the turning crew year in and year out,” Yingling said of Gruettner. “Not just because of the knowledge that he has, but because of his unique ability to train the other turning crew members that are assigned for any given year.”

You gotta know your floats

Yingling, who himself worked on past turning crews said preparation and studying up on every aspect of each float.

That process begins as early as May when the first float inspections begin. Turning crew members are encouraged to attend throughout the year to meet the float driver and observer and learn about any animations or peculiarities.

The in-person preparation is then combined with the turning crew “bible,” or turning book, a binder with the specifications of every float. Length, width, location of driver and observer, and crucially, the location of a float’s axles.

Yingling said a 55-foot float with the front axle in the middle of the chassis turns differently than one that’s 35 feet long with its axle at the very front of the chassis.

Yingling described the preparation as essential for when a turning crew member finds themself in the unique vantage point of seeing every float coming toward them and looking down Colorado Boulevard at the daunting sight of thousands of spectators lining the street.

“If you’re not completely familiar with these floats then it could be easy for certain people to get overwhelmed by that situation and then forget the job at hand, which is to turn this giant, massive, beautiful float perfectly on TV,” Yingling said.

A team of about four takes turns guiding a float through the right turn onto Colorado Boulevard walking backwards directly in front of the float while using hand signals to help float drivers and and observers maneuver the turn safely.

Near the end of the 5.5-mile parade route, a second turning crew does the same work as floats turn from Colorado onto Sierra Madre Boulevard.

The turning crew member continues guiding the float until it straightens out onto Colorado. By the time one float has made the turn, another crew member begins taking the next float through and so the process continues for the next two hours.

“The parade is kind of like water, where you turn your faucet on and water comes out, but you have no idea where the water came from or what it takes for that water to get to you,” Tournament of Roses Vice President Jim Ciampa said.

‘In my DNA’

In addition to his crucial role on the Tournament of Roses big day, Gruettner spends the rest of the year as one of the tour guide’s at Tournament House — a historic building and headquarters.

An approximately 90-minute tour of the historic Wrigley Mansion showcased Gruettner’s treasure trove of knowledge of not just facts about the building’s history, design and evolution over the years, but stories about past occupants and the Rose Parade’s connection to the building.

From room to room, Gruettner transitioned from describing the type of wood used to make pocket doors to a story about President Dwight D. Eisenhower getting stuck in a first floor bathroom right before serving as grand marshal of the 1964 Rose Parade.

Then there’s the one about parking at the first Rose Bowl game being $1 for horse drawn carriages and 50 cents for horseless carriages that did not need to be cleaned up after.

“It’s people like Jim that have the experience and also the personality that not only make the turning crew work, but that really make the whole Tournament of Roses organization function as a whole,” Yingling said.

The Pasadena High School Class of 1961 grad was born and raised in Pasadena.

Gruettner’s love for his hometown and its most famous tradition could be easily spotted in the delight on his face while talking about the mansion’s history or sharing an old story.

“I’m born and raised in Pasadena. This is in my DNA,” Gruettner said. “I’m very proud of all this, what the Tournament does, the Rose Bowl does, what the city does and it’s just wonderful to be a part of all of this.”