ORANGE COUNTY ALMANAC : Boat Parade Started Small
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The annual December Festival of Lights boat parade in Newport Beach began with a single gondola in 1908.
Venetian gondolier Giovanni Scarpa, brought from Italy to promote the new community of Venice, Calif., paddled his gondola to Newport Harbor.
There he promoted a parade of small, illuminated boats that eventually grew into today’s yacht event.
Source: “Orange County: Indians to Industry,” by C.E. and Marilyn Parker
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