Entries tagged with “Thanksgiving” from Patell and Waterman's History of New York

THIS DAY IN NEW YORK HISTORY

Eighty-five years ago today, which happened to be a Thursday and therefore Thanksgiving, Macy's held its first parade. As the ad on the right indicates, it wasn't called the "Thanksgiving Day Parade"; it was, instead, the "Big Christmas Parade, Welcoming Santa Claus to New York!" The parade route started at Convent Avenue and 145th Street, proceeded down 110th Street to Eighth Avenue, where it turned downtown, finally reaching Macy's front door at Broadway and 34th Street.

According to the official Macy's site, the parade was "conceived by Macy's employees, many of whom were European immigrants, [as] a celebration of the Christmas season rooted in the traditional festivals of their homelands." Instead of the gigantic balloons for which the parade is now famous, there were live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo, as well as floats, marching bands, and professional entertainers. According to the Manhattan User's Guide, "The giraffe had to stay home because it wouldn't fit under the elevated tracks."

The next day the New York Times reported that "beautiful floats showed the Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe, Little Miss Muffet and Red Riding Hood. There also were bears. elephants, donkeys and bands, making the procession resemble a circus parade." Santa brought up the rear, as he has every year since: "Santa came in state. The float upon
which he rode was In the form of a sled driven  by reindeer over a mountain of ice. Preceding him were men dressed like the knights of old, their spears shining In the sunlight." Some three hours after the parade began, Santa made his way up to the marquis above the 34th Street entrance, where he was crowned "King of the Kiddies." The Times' account concludes by telling us that "when Santa seated himself on the throne he sounded his trumpet, which
was the signal for the unveiling of the store's Christmas window, showing "The Fairy Frolics of Wondertown," designed and executed by Tony Sarg. The police lines gave way and with a rush the enormous crowd flocked to the windows to see Mother Goose characters as marionettes."

Sarg would go on to design the first balloons used in the parade -- Felix the Cat, a dragon, an elephant, and a toy soldier -- which replaced the troublesome live animals. These first balloons were helium-filled and exploded shortly after being released (the designers having forgotten that helium expands as it rises). The following year, Macy's experimented with a helium-air mixture and safety valves that allowed them to float for a few days. Macy's address was sewn into the balloons, and anyone who returned a fallen balloon  to the store would receive a special reward.

The rest, as they say, is history.

[The Macy's parade site has a timeline and some film footage of the first parade.]

If you've been digging Alex's downtown then-and-now photos, check out these archival images from Harlem -- paired with what's (not) there now. [Harlem Bespoke]

Parks Department calls for volunteers on Saturday to clean up and help preserve the old New York State Pavilion in Queens. Meanwhile, Queens Crap readers raise their eyebrows. [HDC Newsstand; Queens Crap]

Or you can spend the weekend on one or more Brooklyn gallery tours. [Bed-Stuy Blog]

Brooklyn bonus from Brooks! "FYI, there is still room for a few more on the Nov. 29, Thanksgiving weekend walking tour of Carroll Gardens West/Columbia Heights Waterfront District. Please let me know if you'd like to join us." [Lost New York]

Or you can get ready for Thanksgiving by giving thanks with "Native American Circle" on the Harlem River. [Bronx Mama]

And plan ahead for a post-Thanksgiving tour of historic Richmond Town with the Staten Island Historical Society [NYC Arts]

Photo of the old Corn Exchange Building from Harlem Bespoke: "This was the section that was largely visible from the Metro North platform for the last 100 years until the city demolished it in the past six weeks."

This photo, if the folks at Swapatorium are right and it was taken in 1932,  shows Felix the Cat at the ninth annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Felix, the first of the Goodyear-designed oversized balloons that helped make the parade famous, had debuted in 1927. In early years, the balloons were released at the parade's end and the lucky souls who found them deflated days later could bring them to the department store to exchange for a gift.

For more on the parade's history, including more of the Swapatorium photos (which were discovered at an estate sale in Texas a couple years ago), check out the Bowery Boys' Thanksgiving podcast from last year. A bevy of other links on the parade's history (including sneak peaks at 2008 balloons) can be found here. Info and advice on viewing this year's parade here.

The city's Department of Parks and Recreation has several family programs planned for the weekend, some of which will be historically oriented.

For more T-day history flashbacks, check out this clip of the 1984 parade, featuring Tim Conway pimping Cabbage Patch Kids, which had stormed the holiday markets the previous year and would bring in something like $2,000,000  in '84 alone. Warning: this clip may scare small children. Or their parents.



Final tidbit: Did you know New York was the first state to make Thanksgiving an annual holiday? Happened in 1817. Take that, New England! More on T-day general history via the History Channel.