The first-ever Macy's Day Parade actually took place on Christmas of 1924. Macy's employees dressed as clowns, cowboys, and other fun costumes, and traveled with Central Park zoo animals and creative floats a lengthy six miles from Herald Square to Harlem in Manhattan

The parade was meant to draw attention to the Macy's store in NYC, and the gimmick worked - more than 250,000 people attended the inaugural Macy's Day Parade. It was decided that this NYC parade would become an annual NY event in Manhattan.

In 1927, Felix the Cat became the first giant balloon to ever take part in the Macy's Day Parade. In 1928, Felix was inflated with helium, and without a plan to deflate this massive balloon, NYC parade organizers simply let Felix fly off into the sky. Unfortunately, he popped soon thereafter.

The Macy's Day Parade continued to let the balloons fly off in subsequent years, only these balloons would have a return address written on them, and whoever found the balloon could return the balloon for a prize from Macy's. However, the results of this experiment weren't exactly successful.

 

Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade

It started with a text message from Joe Kenton "Got the parade tickets. VIP!!!

Kate's house in Connecticut, it took us one hour door-to-door. The traffic was surprisingly light, and by 8:00 o'clock we were already parked at the Museum of Natural History and having our first coffee and pastry. The photos below were mostly taken on the steps of the Natural History museum, but we also took other photos while still on the museum property.

On the Roll Again by Homewood Suites.These were the actors who eventually donned "duck" costumes.

Miss USA 2012 Olivia Culpo. She would occassionally 'escape' back into the hat.

These photos were taken along 79th street. Heavy duty nets held the balloons down prior to the balloon handlers arriving.

Papa Smurf the first of the balloon lineup.

Balloon handlers near the museum.

More balloon handlers. Ballons are along white building in back (79th st.)

"Mount Rushmore's American Pride." This was the float around 8 a.m. in the morning. It was nice in the city with winds around 2 mph.

Don McLean came later. He looks like an aging "rocker"...He could have easily fit in at a table full of farmers.

Don McLean on South Dakota float. Joe and I couldn't recognize him, but were telling people around us, "it wouldn't surprise us if it was Don McLean...South Dakotans love him." And to our surprise... it turned out to be the guy we were goofing on...

Inside the museum of Natural History. They had coffee and pastries waiting for us.

Sonic the Hedgehog. One of the better balloons. Ronald McDonald, for example, is pretty "beat up" with patches, etc.

Joe with South Dakota float in background

Joe, Terry and Buzz LightYear

Pika chu and floats in front of the Museum. On our right there must have been 200 young ladies waiting to join the parade - they were Santa's cheerleaders.

Santa Clause float. When we saw the float we thought, "the parade is ending." Santa passed by us at 10:40. Santa passed by Macys on 34th Street at noon.

This was before parade launch. People were lining up...marching bands moving into place...only one group performed for us...dancers

Trace Adkins. Everyone commented on his gawdy long coat. He looked like someone from the James Gang...not the singers but the bank robbers...

 

Final Thoughts about the Event

It was nice to have a place to park...and have a place to use the bathroom facilities. It allowed us to get "up close and personal" to the floats and the balloon handlers. It was also nice to have our portion of the parade end at 10:40 which gave us an extra hour and a half to beat the traffic home.

The negative has to be that you didn't see everything. We didn't see any marching bands pass by, although we saw the bands make their way south on the sidewalks to get positioned in the parade. We also didn't see all the floats or balloons...no we didn't see Spiderman, the balloon clown or Charlie Brown. We did see many politicians, including Congressman Crowley whom Joe introduced me to. Did we see any entertainers? Aside from those we saw on the floats, we probably bumped into a few, but didn't realize it. The only one we did recognize as she passed by was Tina Fey. She was also one of the guests of the museum.

It was something I've wanted to do since coming to New Jersey 17 years ago. It is something I will remember and is something that should be on everyone's Top 50 list of things to do.

 

Copyright: IrishJohnSmith.com