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This Month in Business History

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

Color photograph of a parade float resembling Santa's sleigh being pulled by reindeer. Inside are people dressed as Santa Claus and his elves.
tweber1, photographer. Santa Claus arrives. At the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. External Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ External

Originally known as the Macy’s Christmas Parade, Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1924 was the beginning of an annual tradition. In an effort to boost holiday sales and highlight Macy’s new store, employees organized the parade and animals from the Central Park Zoo were featured.1

Balloons were introduced in 1927 with Felix the Cat having the honor of being the first parade balloon. With no way to deflate the balloons after the parade, they were released into the air where they popped as they ascended. The following year valves were put in the balloons that allowed the helium to escape slowly when they were released at the end of the parade. A return address was provided and a reward was offered in hopes that the balloons would be returned. Not all balloons made it back, one landed in the East River and another drifted out to sea. In 1932 one stray balloon wrapped itself around an airplane’s wing sending it into a tailspin. No balloons were released from that point on.2

More history, fun and games can be found on the Macy’s External official site for parade information.3 Here are a few highlights:

  • Mickey Mouse first appeared in the parade in 1934.
  • The parade was first televised nationally in 1947.
  • The parade has received 9 Emmy Awards since 1979 for outstanding achievement.
  • Snoopy is the character with the most balloons in parade history.

The history of Macy’s is quite interesting as well and the website for Macy’s Inc. presents a timeline External of events.4 Highlights include:

  • R.H. Macy & Co. was opened in 1858 as a dry goods store in New York City. First day sales totaled $11.06.
  • Macy’s moved to Herald Square in New York City in 1902.
  • The Herald Square store becomes the largest in the world in 1924, and of course, the first parade was this year.
  • In 1929 Federated Department Stores, Inc. was formed (now known as Macy’s, Inc.) and included Macy’s, May Department Stores Company, Shillitos, and others. Bloomingdale’s joined the group in 1930.
  • In 1939 the Thanksgiving holiday was moved from the last Thursday of November to the fourth Thursday by President Franklin Roosevelt. This change was solidified by a 1941 Act of Congress.5

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