I'm a New Yorker...of Course I Knew That

NovMon 2009 Filed in: I'm a New Yorker! I Knew That

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

10 Facts:

1. The first parade in 1924 was called the "Macy's Christmas Day Parade" although it took place on Thanksgiving Day.
2. Live animals including camels, goats, elephants, and donkeys, were a part of the parade that inaugural year.
3. The floats were pulled by horses. In the first parade a white steed that was to aid in the Ben-Hur float disappeared at the last minute before the start of the parade.
4. The parade was cancelled in 1942, 1943, and 1944 due to World War II
5. In 1977, the "Parade Lady" Jean McFaddin takes the helm of the parade, which she leads for the next 24 years.
6. In 1989, the parade marches on through its very first snowstorm.
7. The 1990s saw the parade balloons adding new characters from the internet, video games, and contemporary cartoons. Sonic the Hedgehog, Ask Jeeves, and the Rugrats were just a few of these balloons.
8. Macy’s is the world's second largest consumer of helium. The United States government is the first.
If you laid every parade balloon since 1927 end to end they would stretch from Battery Park City to the Cloisters.
9. 2001 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade celebrates 75 years of making magic for the holidays!
10. 2009 Mayor Bloomberg announces new route for the Macy's Parade, avoiding Broadway altogether.

SOURCE: socialmacys.com

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