County Enjoys a Yankee Doodle Dandy Fourth

County residents celebrated the Fourth of July in grand fashion Monday, from a miniature parade along a neighborhood street near Placentia to a golden oldies concert in Santa Ana to a spectacular procession in Huntington Beach that drew more than 100,000 visitors.

Fireworks--ranging from the modest to the very elaborate --and picnics in parks added to the holiday hoopla. Then there were traffic jams, crowded beaches and drunk-driving arrests--the less glamorous side effects of the holiday weekend.

Police estimated that more than 100,000 people lined up along Main Street in Huntington Beach to watch the city’s 84th annual Independence Day Parade. Led by grand marshals Zsa Zsa Gabor and Los Angeles Lakers guard Byron Scott, the parade featured more than 100 floats, marching bands, clowns and other entertainers.

Hundreds of people waved American flags and clutched red, white and blue balloons as they cheered the parade along. Some had arrived hours before the parade started at 10 a.m. to position their lawn chairs and blankets near the grandstand at Civic Center.

“Huntington Beach’s Fourth of July parade is better than the Rose Bowl, and Zsa Zsa Gabor looked great,” said parade watcher Davin Palitz, 23, of Huntington Beach, who was with his brother, Adam, 10.

“I come every year and I get here a few hours early so I can get a good seat (at the grandstand) right by the announcer,” he said.

Like many bystanders, Ginny Ellson of Huntington Beach was dressed from head to toe in red, white and blue. The parade was a good way for her and her 7-year-old son, who was marching with a Cub Scout unit, to show their patriotism, she said.

“When I lived in a small town, we always took part in the Independence Day parade. It’s a good way to show what our country is all about,” Ellson said as she worked her way through the crowd to take a snapshot.

“If my son weren’t marching in the parade, I would have brought him here to see it.”

James Ross--with his wife, Debbie, and their 1-year-old son, Joey, in tow--thought the parade was fun.

But the Huntington Beach man admitted he would rather have been at the beach: “We usually have parties at the beach, and around this time I would have been waiting in line to get to the beach. This year, we were too poor (to throw a big party). We came (to the parade) because we thought our son would enjoy it.”

Meanwhile, in an unincorporated area surrounded by the city of Placentia, about 150 residents turned out for the neighborhood’s 25th annual parade. What it may have lacked in grandeur, it made up in patriotic fervor.

Neighborhood Parade

Elaborate floats were replaced by baby strollers, skateboards and wagons covered with ribbons and bows. Substituting for marching bands were dogs and cats decorated in red, white and blue costumes. An Alf doll was made up to look like the Statute of Liberty.

“Our parade was started by a family 25 years ago as another way of celebrating the Fourth of July, basically on our street and the street next to it,” said Meri McGuire, one of the organizers.

“People who have moved away from the block come back, and kids that grew up here bring back their children now,” McGuire said. “We had people here with their kids who were in the first parade 25 years ago. It’s just a small-town neighborhood parade like people used to have.”

After the parade, everybody was treated to free ice cream cones, followed by a community picnic.

Golden Oldies Show

In Santa Ana, about 3,000 people enjoyed an afternoon Golden Oldies show at Eddie West Field, where live music from the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s wafted out of the stadium and concert-goers enjoyed plenty of free food and games. The show featured Mary Wells, the Del Vikings, Robert & Johnny, Chuck Rio and the Champs, and Little Caesar & the Romans. As the sun went down, people were still streaming “from all directions” into the 10,000-seat stadium for a grand finale fireworks display, Santa Ana Police Lt. Greg Cooper said.

By midday, most of the beaches in the county were packed. Crowd estimates ranged from about 10,000 at San Clemente State Park to 100,000 in Newport Beach, but lifeguards reported just two or three minor rescues of people who had drifted out too far in the water.

“We probably have 2,000 to 3,000 people milling around the sidewalk on the oceanfront,” said Gordon Reed, a lifeguard supervisor in Newport Beach. “About one-eighth (of the sun-worshipers) are in the water, and the rest are lying on the beach or playing volleyball.”

At San Clemente State Park, the crowd was not as big. But there were a few minor problems with people breaking rules, lifeguard Erin Porter said. No arrests were made, however.

“There were a lot of people shooting off fireworks, and it’s not allowed on the beach,” Porter said. “And there’s one area of the beach where no alcohol is allowed at all, and we’ve had some under-age drinking there.”

Drunk-Driving Enforcement

Police had announced that there would be stepped-up enforcement and special sobriety checkpoints set up during the long holiday weekend to curb drunk driving. While the numbers of arrests and citations were not available late Monday, a spokesman for the Orange County Jail said there had been no significant increase in the usual weekend number of booked drunk-driving suspects.

In Laguna Beach, where crowds have flocked to this year’s Sawdust Festival in Laguna Canyon, police said traffic had been bumper to bumper most of Sunday. By Fourth of July Monday, however, traffic had eased considerably.

“I guess a lot of people decided it would be better to stay home today,” Laguna Beach Police watch commander Don Barney said.

Times staff writer Jerry Hicks contributed to this article.