TIL: In 1927 Floats Replaced Live Animals In The Thanksgiving Day Parade

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC was in 1924.., and besides a few balloons (floats) like "Mother Goose", "Little Miss Muffet" and "Little Red Riding Hood" they used real animals (bears, elephants, camels and monkeys) from the Central Park Zoo!



And, it had actually nothing to do with Thanksgiving. It was the "Christmas" parade.., a marketing gimmick to get people all worked up to spend their money at, where else -- Macy's Flagship store.

It started in Harlem and went down 7th ave all the way to Macy's on 34th St. (Herald Square) -- a respectable 6 miles, that was enjoyed by about 250,000 people. Today 3.5 million people attend the parade! But that's not what I learned today…

Today I learned...

In 1927 floats replaced the live animals (they were scaring the children)... The first giant float was "Felix the Cat." And in 1928 they started to fill the giant floats with helium with no plan on how to deflate them… So, they just released them into the air! Eventually they popped and fell to the ground. But in the years to follow they would release the giant helium filled balloons with a return address attached to them.., and whoever found them could return them to Macy's for a prize. It didn't work out to well.

Then in 1942-1944 the parade was cancelled due to the war and the rubber from the balloons were donated to the government in an effort to support the war! In 1946 the parade was televised for the first time, locally. And, the next year it went nationwide.

In 1997 a woman was struck by the "Cat in the Hat" giant balloon and put in a coma for 24 days.

Snoopy the giant balloon, has appeared in more Thanksgiving Day Parades than any other character.

There are:
24 Floats
800 Clowns
11 Marching Bands
11 Giant Character Balloons (Angry Birds, Hello Kitty, etc., etc…)
31 Novelty Balloons




Thanksgiving Day "Security" Parade (Present Day)

And this year there will be more security than ever before… Every side street running the whole length of the parade will be blocked by sand trucks and there will be "vapor dogs" patrolling the route to sniff-out explosives. These are specially trained dogs to work large crowds and only detect explosives. Happy Holidays -- Welcome to New York!

P.S.,
Also, car accidents increase 33% for the holiday.., so be careful out there if you're driving. There's a bunch of psychos out there.., all jacked-up on turkey!


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