Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-11-24
Southern California
Opens Winter-Lonq
Sun Festival
Hollywood Girl, IS,
To Preside Over 300
Events on Calendar

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 23.-Joan
Leslie, 15-year-old Hollywood girl,
has been chosen Southern Cali
fornia's sun goddess to preside over
the sil-winter Sun Festival.
Miss Leslie will preside at many
of the 300 fiestas, flower festivals,
athletic games and other events OF
the festival, which opened on No
vember and last until April !.
The events range from the gor-
geous Tournament of Roses in Pasa-
dena to the date fiesta out on the
desert, scattered all over Southern
California, from the Pacific Ocean
to the desert banks of the Colorado
River, and from Old Mexico to the
high Sierras.
Out on the desert, with its forests
of queer-jointed cacti, sweeping
sand dunes and piles of bright-col-
ored rock, there are here and there
bright green GASES of date palms.
And in mid-February one of the
biggest GASES, Indio, holds its date
fiesta. Visitors may walk amid the
palm groves and eat freshly picked,
juicy, ripe dates.
Swank Oasis in Desert.
Visitors to Indio have near at
hand Death Valley, weird bare
trough with Americas lowest spot
(279.6 feet below sea leveD, and also
the swank oasis spa of Palm Springs,
with its white-walled homes and
sunny swimming pools.
Through miles of sparkling crystal
tunnels visitors will tour the Ryan
borax mine, coming out onto high
trestles and a gorgeous panorama
OF the haze-colored desert and bare
mountains. Death Valley Scotty'S
$2,000,000 castle" is open; visitors
may view the objects of art and
perhaps chat with the famous desert
character.
Winter time is flower time in
Southern California. Roses brighten
frort yards and climb up over the
caves; faring red poinsettias grow to
the roofs, while in all gardens
myriads of other varieties turn the
year topsy-turvy.
LII IllC I'LL OdlllllCN
NUNS are abloom, the prize ones
big as your head. In Sierra Madre
there is an unSual exhibit of cas-
cade chrysanthemums trained in
waterfall effects, upright sheets and
ground carpets.
All November the tuberous be-
gonias are in bloom at the Bern
heimer Oriental Gardens, perched
on cliff edge of Pacific Palisades,
and are followed by the primrose.
The Hollywood Scenic Gardens hold
a winter primrose show from
Christmas until February /.
Tournament of Roses January l.
Roses, red, pink, yellow, white,
bloom all winter, and are the theme
of PaSadena'S gorgeous Tournament
of Roses January l.
From late February the worlds
biggest wistaria vine -tints half a
block purple for about month in
Sierra Madre.
Fresh flowers by the carload are
rushed into town the afternoon and
night before the Rose Tournament.
Some gardens are even especially
planted for the purpose In big
warehouses and circus tents, heavy
with the perfume of flowers, visitors
can watch hundreds of workers
fastening the blossoms to floats all
night long. Next morning in the
warm sunshine the procession of 60
floats moves through town between
the stacked rows of more than a
million onlookers. There are birds,
castles, men made of fresh flowers,
vying for the prizes. At night the
floats are on exhibit in a park and
another 100000 visitors and South
ern California residents win long
glimpse at the flower fairy lands.
Living Christmas trees, towering
over the housetops and aglitter with
hundreds of red, green and other
colored electric lights, feature
Southern CALIFORNIA; outdoor cele-
bration of the Yuletide.
Altadena Spectacular.
Most famous of the Christmas
tree lanes is in Altadena, double
line of majestic Himalayan deodars
leading for a mile down from the
mountains. During the week from
Christmas to New Year the go to
80 foot trees are strung with multi
colored lights. Long lines of autos,
headlights dimmed, and occupants
in hushed awe drive slowly down
the lighted lane.
Hollywood turns its Hollywood
boulevard, main street" to the
movie stars. into Santa Claus lane