Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloons (1927-1969)

Early history

In 1924, store employees marched to Macy's Herald Square, the flagship store on 34th Street, dressed in vibrant costumes. There were floats, professional bands and live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo. At the end of that first parade, Santa Claus was welcomed into Herald Square.

At this first parade, Santa was enthroned on the Macy's balcony at the 34th Street store entrance, where he was then crowned "King of the Kiddies". With an audience of over 250,000 people, the parade was such a success that Macy's declared it would become an annual event, despite media reports only barely covering the first parade.

The Macy's parade was enough of a success to push Ragamuffin Day, the typical children's Thanksgiving Day activity from 1870 into the 1920s, into obscurity. Ragamuffin Day featured children going around and performing a primitive version of trick-or-treating, a practice that by the 1920s had come to annoy most adults. The public backlash against such begging in the 1930s (when most Americans were struggling in the midst of the Great Depression) led to promotion of alternatives, including Macy's parade. While ragamuffin parades that competed with Macy's would continue into the 1930s, the competition from Macy's would overwhelm the practice, and the last ragamuffin parade in New York City would take place in 1956.

Anthony "Tony" Frederick Sarg loved to work with marionettes from an early age. After moving to London to start his own marionette business, Sarg moved to New York City to perform with his puppets on the street. Macy's heard about Sarg's talents and asked him to design a window display of a parade for the store.

Through the 1930s, the parade continued to grow, with crowds of over one million people lining the parade route in 1933. The first Mickey Mouse balloon entered the parade in 1934. The annual festivities were broadcast on local radio stations in New York City from 1932 to 1941 and resumed in 1945, running through 1951.

The parade was suspended from 1942 to 1944 as a result of World War II because rubber and helium were needed for the war effort. The parade resumed in 1945 and became known nationwide shortly afterwards, having been prominently featured in the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street, which included footage of the 1946 festivities. The event had its first broadcast on network television in 1948 (see Television coverage). From 1984 to 2019, the balloons were made by Raven Industries of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, through its Raven Aerostar division.

Since 1985, the parade was traditionally led by the New York City Police Department Highway Patrol. In 2019, the cast of Sesame Street led the parade in honor of the show's 50th anniversary.

Music:
Red Barn (restaurants) presents:
"A Traditional Christmas" Album
Produced by George Garabedian.
"Happy Holidays", "Christmas Sleigh Bells", and "The Christmas Waltz"

[Sabrinamusicchannel]

Thanks for sharing old time pictures and song 🎧. Good job Heidi. 🌹👍

[SusanMillard]

Thanks so much for the look back Heidi. That was interesting how the balloons got more and more realistic and polished in their appearance as the years went on. I was happy to see Bullwinkle show up for my birthday (1961) although I was born just prior to the parade I think. It is amazing how much money Macy's put into the parade and advertisements and everything...and it paid off handsomely I am sure! Great video 😁👍 I give it a HUGE thumbs up. I am slowly catching up on your videos too. 😉

[megsmysteries]

I love this we were always so excited to see the Macys parade . on tv in black and white. Then color was amazing. This brings back so many memories. Thanks

[NatureThroughOurEyes]

Wow, this brought back a few memories. Thank you Heidi for the holiday cheer

[megsmysteries]

Some of the old balloons looked mad maybe they were cold. Lol

[SuperVstech]

I bet a lot of those early characters with the star on their chest were inspiration for Pixar’s characters…

[IanYGath]

Thank you for these wonderful memories. I wonder what ever happened to them all. Perhaps they are stored in a ware house just waiting to be rediscovered! 🙂🙏🏻💕

[handicappedtraveler]

A lot ofthese are even before I can remember Thanks Heidi

[NatureThroughOurEyes]

Thanks Heidi for keeping the spirit alive!!

[MrChubbyHubby.]

Neat! thank you for showing us these classics Heidi's Here & There.

[IndianHemlock]

Boy that’s some old days gone by !! Very neat Heidi, thanks for sharing !!

[JerryAndJulieMusic]

My hubby use to go to these parades. It is my favorite thing to watch on Thanksgiving 🙂

[TOMGARVEYtheKETOCOOK]

From Popeye on. That brought me back to a great time...

[ketoMike]

Very cool, a lot of history in that parade.

[Worm_man]

Some of these balloons turned into ghostbusters 3 like the dragon from 1934 the Pinocchio from 1937 and the acrobats from 1938

[NicholasPowers]

Great pictures I wasn't born those years When Giant Balloons were inflated from a decades past years my favorite past Giant Balloon is the Tin man and Pinocchio I was born in January 2nd 1992

[bobpourri]

The apex of the parade was during the Bullwinkle years.

[rheneastheorangetankengine]

My history of famous cartoon characters in macy's thanksgiving parade (1927-2004):
Felix the cat (1927)
Mickey mouse (1934)
Donald duck (1935)
Mighty mouse (1951)
Popeye (1957)
Bullwinkle (1961)
Underdog (1965)
Snoopy (1968)
Woody woodpecker (1982)
Garfield (1984)
Betty boop (1985)
Pink panther (1988)
Bugs bunny (1989)
Pikachu (2001)
Charlie brown (2002)
Spongebob squarepants (2004)

[Oddwordfan]

6:23 year when imelda rivera died in her early 70s

[Oddwordfan]

5 years before imelda riveras death:linus the lionhearted balloon 5:55