Thanksgiving: a day for gratitude, turkey, debates about canned cranberry sauce versus homemade cranberry relish, more pie than one person should reasonably consume is a single day, and the world’s most watched parade. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has been one of the biggest celebrations of the year since 1924 and heralds (get it? Herald Square? Well…I was proud of it, at any rate) the start of the holiday season.
When you watch this year, impress your viewing companions with some excellent bits of parade trivia.
- The first parades were quite different from the spectacle of balloons and Broadway artists that we see today; in fact, it had an entirely different name–The Macy’s Christmas Parade–until 1927. The parade’s entertainment was animals from the Central Park Zoo, including elephants, lions, camels, donkeys, and livestock.
- The now-familiar giant balloons made their debut in 1927 with Felix the Cat, and Macy’s held a contest with them. The helium filled balloons were designed to leak air slowly and allow the balloons to travel through the state and, perhaps, the country. People who found the balloons and returned them to Macy’s would win $100; the contest stopped when a balloon got stuck in the propeller of a plane who was trying to catch it for the reward and nearly caused a crash.
- The balloons are no joke: the pull from the balloon lift could be 300-500 pounds, and each balloon needs 50-100 handlers. There are strict physical requirements to be a balloon handler the day of the parade: anyone interested must be over 18, at least 120 pounds, have strong knees and a good back, and no history of heart problems.
- Macy’s is the second largest consumer of helium in the world–behind only the United States government. A helium shortage during World War II put the parade on hiatus, and the show’s balloons were donated to the armed forces, who used them for over 650 pounds of scrap rubber.
- The balloons have to be transportable–it’s a requirement that the balloons, which can be up to 28 feet wide and 40 feet tall, are capable of being folded into a 12 by 8 foot box so they can be transported from the Macy’s Parade Studio in New Jersey to Manhattan via the Lincoln Tunnel.