Bill Lomas, that generated the Hollywood Christmas Parade for 42 years, passed away Friday of cancer cells at his home in Lakewood, The golden state, press agent Steve Moyer revealed. He was 88.
Nicknamed “The Parade King,” Lomas headed Spectacle Productions and generated thousands of ceremonies in your area and throughout the state of The golden state starting in 1963. He additionally arranged Irish fairs and Celtic songs events around the Southland in addition to occasions in Hawaii and Arizona.
Lomas assisted the Hollywood Christmas Parade with 2023; he was unwell however figured out to function in 2014’s occasion, Moyer stated. The parade, initially kept in 1928, works on the Sunday after Thanksgiving over a three-mile course and is telecasted.
He and his late 2nd other half, Ronnie, “live and breathe parades,” supervisor Larry Harman informed the Los Angeles Times in 1991.“They are a unique couple. Whatever you want, they’ll get it, whether it is a camel, an elephant, anything. They’re your one-stop shopping for parades.”
William Frederick Lomas was birthed in Toronto on May 25, 1935. Quickly after senior high school, he functioned as a grease monkey and as a solution supervisor at a Pontiac dealer, after that relocated 1960 to Lynwood, The golden state, where he landed at the Goodyear Tire Co. and Canada Dry.
With the soda business, Lomas produced neighborhood promos. One project had him accompanying Los Angeles Dodgers gamers Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Maury Wills and Fight It Out Snyder around the city for in-store check outs.
After Lomas and organization companion Mort Pollock produced Golden State Trophies in Timberland Hills in 1965, they got in touch with chamber of business workplaces in The golden state seeking to offer prizes to them. That obtained them provides to generate neighborhood ceremonies.
Lomas split means with Pollack and introduced Spectacle Productions in 1969 in Lynwood in a structure that as soon as worked as a governmental project workplace for Robert F. Kennedy. Ronnie, that passed away in 2009, produced the business’s motto,“I Love a Parade.”
Lomas was a buddy and associate of Johnny Give, the late honorary mayorof Hollywood They usually vacationed with each other.
Survivors include his friend, Nancy, whom he satisfied in 2010; his youngsters, Steven and Cent; and his stepchildren, Linell Pe’a, Richard and Kathy.