Thanksgiving has gotten a bad rep lately, and for good
reason. This holiday—officially made a
thing by President Lincoln in 1863—has always been considered a day to
celebrate that time that the Native Americans and Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony
came together to share food and set aside their differences to forge friendship
and cooperation. What is typically left
off of this heart-warming tale, is how, shortly thereafter, the Pilgrims and
those that came after killed the Natives either through war or disease, took
their land and relegated them to second class citizens. Once we gave them citizenship, anyway. In
1924. Yeah…. It took until 1924 for
Native Americans to gain full citizenship in the US. Fucked, weren’t we?
However, it is my belief that holidays change with time and
are only accurately described through a contemporary lens. So today, half of Americans are aware of the
degree of fucked that Thanksgiving is really symbolic of, and the other half never knew to begin with, thus the holiday has
become about family (biological and otherwise), togetherness, and—most importantly—food. So it is here that I confess that
Thanksgiving is my most favorite of holidays, shitty history be damned, and I
tell you now that on Thursday morning I will be found in the same place I have
been found on every Thanksgiving since I was eight—wrapped in a blanket on a
couch, turkey in the oven, and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, awaiting
that most iconic of holiday symbols—The Rockettes. What, you thought I was going to say Santa? Seriously?
Call me when a dozen Santas perform eye level leg kicks in unison….
Anyway, while I am far from the only person to glue myself
to the parade on Thanksgiving (an estimated 3.5 million people will turn out to
see it in person, and 50 million more will tune in to the televised broadcast
according to Macy’s and NBC1), I may be one of the few to understand
the historic nature of this American institution.
So, what better way to celebrate than to entertain you all
with TUH’s Thanksgiving Special—The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Here we go:
The Roaring
Twenties and The Great Depression
The Macy’s Parade (originally called the Macy’s Christmas
Parade2) began in 1924 and really was a product of the Roaring
Twenties. The 1920s were considered to
be “roaring” due to a time of great prosperity and change in the United
States. We had just emerged on the
victorious side from World War I—the bloodiest conflict the world had seen to
that point and a conflict that changed the world.
World War I is often overlooked in deference to its more
popular brother—World War II—but World War I left scars on the world that never
truly healed. Europe had been ravaged,
millions had died, those that had survived lived to grapple with psychological
effects that wouldn’t even be named for decades, and the peace treaty that
ended the war served only to incite more war a few decades later. Ended in 1918, by the 1920s the United States
had recovered from the Great War and was experiencing a post-war boom. Further, this boom was often resting on the
backs of immigrants fleeing a war-torn Europe.
See, during the war the nation had industrialized
rapidly. What had begun slowly in the
mid-19th century took on the urgent air of national security during
war time so that, by the 1920s, combined with an influx of immigrants, more people were living and working in cities
rather than on farms for the first time in American history. This led to two new phenomena: urban youth
culture and expendable income.
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| Can we bring back the shift dress, please? |
And Macy’s Department Store was there to help fulfill the
needs of both.
A consumer society swallowed the nation and stores like Macy’s
were suddenly on the cutting edge of a new culture. Unlike before, people weren’t making their
clothes—they were buying them from stores—nor were regions isolated—due to new
technology (like radios) Americans could now be aware of the same music,
fashion, and cultural fads. By 1924 Macy’s
in New York City had expanded to fill an entire city block and had become an
American icon3. It was in
that same year that the store decided to host a Christmas parade for the first
time in order to prepare excited consumers for the holiday shopping season.
The First Christmas
Parade
To show-off the newly expanded store (dubbed “The World’s
Largest Store” by Macy’s) and advertise holiday shopping, Macy’s was looking
for some form of large celebration to kick off the holiday season. Due to the influx of immigrants from Eastern
Europe, many of the employees of Macy’s in the 1920s were European
immigrants. Missing home, yet still
working hard to assimilate into American culture, they began to adapt
celebrations much like those they had experienced in Europe to this very
American holiday. It was these immigrant
employees that took the idea of the first Macy’s parade to the bosses in 19244.
This parade ran for six and a half miles and included not
only floats, but also animals from the Central Park Zoo, in addition to dancers
and other entertainment, culminating with Santa as the star at the end of the
parade. What Macy’s did not plan on,
however, was a crowd of nearly 10,000 filling in behind Santa and marching with
the parade. But whatever. People had fun. So much fun, in fact, that within a week Macy’s
announced the parade an unparalleled success, and requested a permit to hold
the parade at the same time next year5.
In 1927, the parade included the now famous balloons for the
first time. Originally, these balloons
were released into the sky over New York at parade’s end. Equipped with a return address on each
balloon, those that found and returned the balloons to Macy’s were given a
reward (usually $50). This practice
continued until two pilots nearly crashed—the first in 1931 and the second in
1932—trying to retrieve said balloons.
Apparently, they really need that fifty bucks.
And so the parade continued on, now as the Macy’s
Thanksgiving Parade, throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s, even surviving
the Great Depression.
However, there was one thing that even Macy’s couldn’t
parade through.
World War II
World War II, much like its predecessor, destroyed Europe
and took millions of lives. For their
part, Russia lost the most—around 20 million Russians gave their life defending
the world against fascism. Here in the
United States, we lost around 400,000 American soldiers6, and while
they are remembered by history for their bravery and heroism, it is the
home-front that US history tends to focus on.
No other modern war required as much sacrifice from American citizens at
home than World War II did. There were
drives for everything—aluminum, paper, nylon.
We weaponized libraries. Strict
restrictions were placed on consumer goods so that the war department would
have everything it needed to make the weapons that would be used by American GI’s
and our European allies, alike. People
across the nation grew victory gardens to supplement rationed foodstuffs with
fresh vegetables. It was, indeed, a time
of sacrifice and absence.
Macy’s was no less a part of the home-front. As consumer goods became more and more
scarce, Macy’s adapted. They sold what
they could, and what needed to be commandeered by the war simply wasn’t
available. And unfortunately, that meant
no balloons and no helium.
For the first and only time in history the parade was called
off in 1942 so that Macy’s could donate the 650 pounds of rubber used for the balloons to the
war effort. It would not resume again
until 19457. But when it
came back, it came back with a vengeance.
In 1947 for the first time the parade was televised nationwide thanks to
a contract with NBC. To keep the
television audience engaged, the parade was cut from 6.5 miles to 2.5 miles,
still terminating in Herald Square, though—the original end point.
While the route was shorter, the balloons were getting
bigger—no longer being let go at the end of the parade, and not restricted by
helium or rubber shortages, the balloons began to take on the proportions that
we see now. Further benefiting from yet
another post-war boom after World War II this time, the consumer culture was
giving rise to something new yet again—pop culture. This pop culture was not overlooked by the
ever forward looking Macy’s. Pop culture
icons like Mighty Mouse and Popeye were made into balloon form and flown through
the streets of New York as part of the Thanksgiving Parade.
Into the Present
Day
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| None other than Betty White hosted through the 60s |
The Macy’s parade has seen its ups and downs throughout the end of the 20th century and into the 21st.
Throughout the
turbulent 1960s the parade had to grapple with changing times and American
tragedies. In 1963, for example, the parade was nearly
canceled for the first time since World War II and for only the second time in history
due to the assassination of JFK just one week prior. But the parade went on as scheduled, bringing
happiness and joy to a grateful nation very much in need of normalcy and
happiness. The next year, Macy’s television presence was expanded to 90 minutes
long and was broadcast in color for the first time8.
In 1979 the parade broadcast won its first of twelve Emmy
awards. Throughout the 1980s, Macy’s
worked hard to modernize its parade—adding contemporary characters from video
games and movies, as well as entertainment acts geared toward children and
teenagers. The 1990s saw the vast
expansion of balloons—bigger and better than ever—and, in 1996, the Giant
Balloon Inflation made its appearance.
Thanks to that event, people can now watch the parade balloons being
inflated in Manhattan9.
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| Macy's parade, 2001 |
As the new millennium dawned, Macy’s, once again, faced the
prospect of a canceled parade in the wake of the terror attacks of September
2001. Macy’s decided that the parade
would, as in 1963, go on as scheduled.
What ensued that November was a star-studded parade that celebrated not
only the holiday season, but American culture.
Those that lost their lives in the terror attacks were honored. Tom the Turkey gave up his primo first float
placement to the Statue of Liberty, and multitudes of New Yorkers—happy to have
survived—were treated to an amazing rendition of America the Beautiful10.
Icons
The Rockettes
Making their first appearance in the 1950s—The Rockettes.
Shameful confession—I LOVE
the Rockettes. I have since childhood
wherein I had the misguided dream of running away to New York City to become a
Rockette. It wasn’t until I was a
teenager that I realized I enjoyed food too much to ever live up to Rockette
measurement standards and also I could not dance to save my life.
Created in St Louis in 1925, the Missouri Rockets, now known
as the Rockettes, moved to their current home at Radio City Music Hall, NYC in
1932. While they perform nearly year
round now, their starring performance is always that couple minute routine
during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade that began in 1957. Dancing girls were nothing new, but THAT KICK
LINE! That kick line entranced audiences
and the Rockettes danced their way into American collective conscious, where
they have remained ever since.
Felix The Cat
Felix the Cat was the first character balloon to be
introduced into the Macy’s parade in 1927.
A famous strip comic icon throughout the 1920s, Felix’s origins are hotly
disputed. An Australian cartoonist
claims, along with his former American lead animator, to be the originator of
Felix. Whatever his origins, Felix
disappeared from American pop culture in 1932 due to the advent of cartoons
with sound. In 1953 the cartoon was
resurrected and lives to this day.
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse appeared in the 1930s in the now famous “Steamboat
Willy” cartoon and icon status was conferred on him in 1934 when he was
featured as a Macy’s parade balloon. This
also marks the first collaboration of Macy’s with Disney—a relationship we can
all be happy survives into the present day.
Snoopy
Snoopy made his appearance at the Macy’s parade in 1968 as
Aviator Snoopy—you know him—the dude with the killer scarf and shades. Very Cold War. Very cool.
Snoopy is officially the character with the most balloons in history according
to Macy’s11. This year the
Snoopy we see will be the seventh Snoopy balloon in the parade.
So that’s it. That’s
the history of an American institution-- the Macy’s Parade. This year millions will watch the parade,
thousands will volunteer to take part, and my holiday will be complete. I don’t often advertise for anyone through my
blogs, but I highly suggest tuning in this year if you can—the parade kicks
ass.
Sources:
1.) Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day Parade: Parade History. Retrieved from social.macy’s.com
2.) History Channel. The First Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Video
File. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/news/the-first-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade
3.) Macy’s Inc. Macy’s, Inc. History. Retrieved from: http://macysinc.com/about-us/macysinc-history/overview/default.aspx
4.) Grippo, R. & Hoskins, C. 2004. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. San Franciso, CA: Arcadia
Publishing.
5.) History Channel. The First Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Video
File. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/news/the-first-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade
6.) Dykman, JT. The
Soviet Experience in World War II. The Eisenhower Institute. Retrieved
from: http://www.eisenhowerinstitute.org/about/living_history/wwii_soviet_experience.dot
7.) Neary, K. 2007. The Ultimate Guide To The Macy’s Thanksgiving
Day Parade. How Stuff Works.
Retrieved from: http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/holidays-other/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade1.htm
8.) Grippo, R. & Hoskins, C. 2004. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. San Franciso, CA: Arcadia
Publishing.
9.) Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day Parade: Parade History. Retrieved from social.macy’s.com
10.) Grippo, R. & Hoskins, C. 2004. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. San Franciso, CA: Arcadia
Publishing.
11.) Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day Parade: Parade History. Retrieved from social.macy’s.com
