Behind the Scenes: Building the Floats for the Inaugural Parade.

Hi my name is Fred Strickland, I'm the executive director of production here at Hargrove, and
you are seeing behind me the 8 floats we're building for the inaugural parade for President
Obama.
It takes approximately 3,000 man hours to build those 8 floats and we're using about
25 specialized skills to do that - from sculptures, artists, welders, carpenters, and you see
all that happening here in our large warehouse.
We started with Truman in 1949 - that was our first one, and we've been involved in
every single one since.
This is the Pennsylvania float and what you see here behind me is the replica of the
liberty bell, which took approximately 150 man-hours to get from zero to what you see
as a finished product.
We are going to look in the metal shop to see them building railings and components
out of aluminum for the floats. We use aluminum almost exclusively because we have to transport
these items and it's very difficult to assemble them out on a street if they weigh what they
used to in the past. In the past we'd have to bring a crane in and lift these pieces
off, now we can do it all by hand.
This aircraft is a two-thirds scale replica of an authentic, P-51 Mustang and has currently
been donated to the Inaugural Parade Committee to be used this year to honor the Tuskegee
Airmen.
The challenges here are really once in a lifetime. Each president gives us a theme for the parade
floats that they want. Whether it's Civil Rights or Tuskegee Airmen, or others, they
are extremely unique honors for Hargrove to be able to provide a custom float and honor
not only those people but the President and his family and we are very excited to be involved
in this years 2013 inaugural.