The Kit-Cat Clock float undergoes preparations for its appearance in Monday's 123rd Rose Parade.Contributed photo
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December 31, 2011 12:00 AM
"; aryZooms[imgCounter] = "javascript: NewWindow(870,625,window.document.location+'&Template=photos&img="+imgCounter+"')";You might not recognize the name, but you'll know one when you see it: the black body with white details, the cheerful, upturned mouth, the jaunty bow tie, the bright, vertical pupils shifting back and forth like a metronome in time with a pendulum-like tail.
It's the Kit-Cat Clock, an American-made cultural icon that is celebrating its 80th birthday with a float in the Pasadena Rose Parade on Monday. And a local vendor of the beloved feline timepiece has been in California since Thursday helping to bring the Kit-Cat Clock float to life.
"It's more than you can imagine. Your senses are just overloaded," said Lisa Bindas, owner of Gotta Have It!, a specialty retail store in Fairhaven.
Along with her partner, Jaci Barnett, she spent hours Thursday and Friday gluing flowers onto the float, which, in accordance with Rose Parade rules, must be completely covered in natural materials such as flowers, leaves and seeds.
They were even there when workers got the hands on three-story-high Kit-Cat's stomach to run like, well, clockwork. It is the centerpiece in a retro-style float with the slogan "Timeless fun for everyone," which also includes a jukebox, a banana split and a skateboard ramp that allows professional skateboarders to actually exit the float and continue riding on the street.
"You just don't even appreciate how much work goes into it until you come here," Bindas said.
Bindas and Barnett were invited to be part of the group of volunteers working on the float because of their enthusiasm for the product, said Kit-Cat Clock spokesman David Milburn.
"They go above and beyond other retailers," he said. "When they expressed an interest in being out here, we jumped on it. ... We just wanted people with their energy level and excitement out here."
Bindas added the clock ? the happy little cat first appeared as a symbol of hope during the Great Depression ? to her retail offerings just before Christmas after learning that for its entire 80-year history, it has been manufactured in the United States. That bit of information also appealed to her customers, who eagerly bought up the products.
"It was definitely one of the most popular items in the store, especially when people found out they were made in the United States," she said.
The "above and beyond" that Milburn referred to was Bindas' construction of a huge Kit-Cat Clock head, which she placed inside a miniature antique "woodie," a wood-bodied car, and displayed outside her store. The feline friends also get prominent coverage on the store's website.
Bindas said she and Barnett have been getting the VIP treatment since their arrival, as seasoned workers showed them the inner workings of many of the 43 floats in the parade. They also received tickets to the Rose Bowl football game, at the 40-yard line. On Friday night, they attended a special reception just for the sponsors of the floats, and, the day after the parade, they will be accompanying the Kit-Cat Clock float to Victory Park ? where all the floats are on display ? to hand out Kit-Cat memorabilia.
From their seats in the grandstand at the beginning of the parade, Bindas and Barnett hope to give a gift back to Kit-Cat. They ordered 1,000 face fans, all bearing the countenance of the jolly Kit-Cat, which they plan to pass out to all of the people in the grandstand. As the float drives by them during the parade, a crowd of Kit-Cat faces will be smiling back.
"When you see the smile of that cat, it's contagious," Bindas said. "Whether times are good or bad, the cat will always have a smile."
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Source: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111231/NEWS05/112310323/-1/rss02
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