Book Review: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

My next book review takes us to a tradition as grand as turkey, pumpkin pie, and football on Thanksgiving.  I'm talking of course about The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Written by Robert M Grippo and Christopher Hoskins, this book's goal is to give a detailed history on this famous parade.

While not entirely cartoon related, the Macy's Parade over the years gave beautiful full colored giant balloons of many cartoon characters.  Many characters have come and gone due to popularity.  Characters such as Bullwinkle and Underdog dominated the 60's, while Barney, Rugrats, and Dexter would have most popularity in the 90's.  And today's era would have Adventure Time, Spongebob Squarepants, and Pikachu.   Some characters such as Mickey Mouse and Snoopy however, would have the most staying power.  And with Snoopy, he holds the record of seven different designs.

This book is filled with not just information, but also some great pictures of Macy's Parades past.  You may recall this will be the 90th parade this year.  Some may think that it's the 90th Anniversary and debuted in 1927.  While that was the year of the first balloons, that's NOT the first parade.  It was the Macy's Christmas Parade back in 1924.  Ok...so then I originally thought that since the balloons debuted in 27, so was the change to become the Thanksgiving Day parade.  This book proves you wrong.  Even in 27, it was still called the Macy's Christmas Parade up until the 1930's (at one point being called the Macy's Santa Claus Parade).  Where does the 90 number come in then?  This is the 90th parade, not the 90th year.  During WWII, helium and rubber was needed, and wartime restrictions forced Macy's not to have their parade.  Subtract those years, and that's where the number 90 comes in.

You know, reading this book and looking at the pictures, it is like a time capsule really.  You are taken back to days of old when different stars and celebrities took the streets.  Stars like Ed Wynn and Eddie Cantor were in the parade.  Now compare that to today with stars like Miley Cirus and Idena Menzel.  And even as I said with cartoon characters over the years.  Mickey Mouse was huge in the 30's.  Bullwinkle and Underdog were a staple of 1960's TV animation.  It took a little while for some of the characters to become giant balloons however.  Bugs Bunny was never a giant balloon until around his 50th birthday despite his popularity during his hey day.  Olive Oyl made her debut in the 80's as did Yogi Bear and Woody Woodpecker.  This sometimes showed that no matter what the era, some characters stood the tests of time.  However, most of the classic characters were sided for more modern day stars like Adventure Time and such, but Snoopy and Charlie Brown still fly as of late.

This episode of Linus the Lionhearted promotes the new Linus balloon for the Macy's Parade

Some of the most popular balloons include the first Mickey Mouse balloon in the 1930's.  Many Superman balloons were also popular being some of the biggest balloons ever made.  Others include Woody Woodpecker, The Cat in the Hat, Charlie Brown, Big Bird, Barney, and Snoopy.  Contrary to popular belief, there was NO Stewie Griffin balloon (sorry Family Guy fans), and Underdog has also been one of the most popular balloons and one of the first to be angled vertically giving the illusion that he is flying.

The book does have its flaws though, and its biggest one we could blame Macy's for (not the authors).  They claim that Felix the Cat was the first balloon to grace the skies of the parade.  While there was a Felix balloon in the 30's, the photos from 27 that we actually see are from another parade across the state boarder in New Jersey.  I believe that the same balloon even flew here in Wheeling, WV making me believe this was a cooperate made balloon not specific to Macy's.  This was according to research found out on a later date many years after this book has written, as one of the authors is fighting to get this history fixed.  Who knows what other lies have been found about the history by Macy's if that mistake happened, or worse, in general.  Still, gathering up everything known about the parade, this is THE BOOK to own.

Anybody interested in history will indeed enjoy this book.  Memories of old may come flooding back to some and may make some wish to go back to when nothing needed a major gimmick like today to force the magic onto us.....the balloons, the bands, the floats, and just seeing Santa alone makes the magic happen naturally.  Well worth owning in my opinion.