November 14, 2025 • 36 mins
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is an American tradition. It’s been going since 1924. This year marks the 99th parade (it took three years off during World War II). It’s famous for elaborate floats and huge character balloons that bob above the streets as the parade marches forward. Millions of people watch the parade live in New York City each year, but many many more watch it on TV. And some of you have questions! How do they make such big balloons for the parade and how do they choose which characters to feature? And how do they hold onto the balloons with such tiny strings? And, more generally, how do balloons float? What’s helium got to do with it? But Why visits the Macy’s Studio workshop in New Jersey to see how the magic happens!
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Episode Transcript
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Jane (00:20):
This is But why
Public. I'm Jane Lindholm. Onthis show, we take questions
from curious kids just like you,and we find answers.
Amelia (00:30):
Hi, I'm Amelia. I'm eight years old, and I live in
Portland, Oregon, and I have aquestion about the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade, and myquestion is, how do those big
balloons hold on just a tinystring?
Jane (00:44):
Do you enjoy parades? I do. I love seeing all the people
walking by, often in amazingcostumes. The parade floats are
cool too, where trucks pull atrailer that's been decorated to
look like a boat or a bear or atropical paradise. Sometimes
people ride in the floats, and Iespecially love the marching
bands, usually from nearbyelementary and high schools, and
(01:07):
sometimes professional musiciansas well. One of the biggest
parades in the world is theMacy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
in New York City. It happens asthe name might have given away
on Thanksgiving Day, which isalways the fourth Thursday of
November in the United States.
(01:30):
The New York City governmentsays about three and a half
million people line up along theparade route through the streets
of the city to watch the paradein person, and about 50 million
people watch the parade on TV.That's a lot of people! So when
the folks at Macy's asked ifwe'd like to go behind the
scenes to see what it takes toactually make the parade, we
(01:53):
here it but why we're happy tosay yes. So you know, the parade
happens on Thanksgiving Day.It's about three hours long from
start to finish, wrapping upright around noon. But how long
do you think it takes to work onthe parade so that everything is
ready to go for the millions ofpeople who watch it? Couple of
weeks, a couple of months? Howabout a couple of years? That's
(02:19):
right, it takes almost two yearsto prepare for each parade. That
work is done by a lot ofdifferent people, including
artists, sculptors, carpentersand designers, and the work is
overseen by this guy.
Will Coss (02:34):
I'm Will Coss. I'm the executive producer of the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Jane (02:37):
If you had a group of kids from all over the world, ages
five to 10 sitting in front ofyou crisscross applesauce. How
would you describe an executiveproducer of a parade?
Will Coss (02:47):
Sort of like your teacher? I have an opportunity
to review all of the work thatour very talented team here at
Macy's studios creates and wework together as a community to
execute one of the largest andmost fantastic parades in
(03:08):
America.
Jane (03:09):
The But Why team met up with will cost at the Macy's
studio in Moonachie, New Jersey,just a few miles from New York
City. We pulled up to a prettyboring, looking big building in
an industrial complex with lotsof giant warehouses and big box
stores. From the outside, youprobably wouldn't think anything
all that exciting to you wouldbe going on inside, but once you
(03:33):
open the doors, it's magical.
Will Coss (03:35):
That's the trick. That's intentional. Yes, we're
going to hear a lot of noise injust a few seconds. We're headed
out to our 80,000 square footstudio where all of our
balloons, our floats, and all ofthe other theatrical elements
are designed and made here atMacy's Studios. Let's go.
Jane (03:56):
It is magical and it smells good.
Will Coss (03:58):
It smells good. Yes, there's a variety of things that
are happening right here. Rightnow, we're standing about 25
feet above our ground level, andthis is an opportunity for us to
look over the entire studio,which is broken up, similar to
classrooms in differentsections. So we have our
(04:19):
animation and automation, whichis essentially all of the things
that move. We have our metalshop, which is all of our
internal structure, so we callit the bones of each one of our
floats. Then we have ourcarpentry section, which builds
all of the beautiful elementsaround our floats. And then on
the other side, over here, wehave another very important
(04:42):
department, which is oursculpting team.
Jane (04:45):
I like, I can't even it's so cool to see there's a lot of
styrofoam. There's someStyrofoam pieces that have been
painted, and there's a giantfloat that has a bear and a
moose that are being built on itright now.
Will Coss (05:00):
Yes, so that giant bear and moose that you see
started as one cube ofStyrofoam, and our artists here
at the studio take the designsthat are started on a computer
and transfer them to thebeautiful, giant pieces of art
that you see here.
Jane (05:20):
We were perched high up on a balcony overlooking all the
action. People using weldingmachines that shot sparks into
the air. Other workers usingbelt sanders to smooth out big
pieces of wood. Some people weresculpting those giant pieces of
Styrofoam into recognizablecharacters, and still, others
were spray painting that foam tomake it water resistant and
(05:42):
colorful. Will took us down ontothe main floor to get up close
and personal.
Will Coss (05:47):
Watch your step, Everyone a little, slippery.
Jane (05:49):
There was a lot to see, like puppets.
Will Coss (05:53):
This puppet will be 12 feet tall, so it's going to
be a giant puppet, and it willbe controlled similar to
traditional puppet, but insteadof strings, it'll be metal wires
that'll be connected to somemotors to help us move and
adjust the puppet along theparade route
Jane (06:12):
To make everything for the parade. There are a lot of
tools.
Will Coss (06:16):
This is our carpentry shop, so similar to your
woodworking stations andwoodworking shops at school,
maybe just a little bit bigger,because the things that we built
are a little bit bigger, but allof the similar things you might
have. We have our saws, we haveour drills, we have our tables,
(06:37):
our cutting tables, and this iswhere the carpenters and our
carpentry team start all oftheir work and start to assemble
pieces that then get put ontoour floats.
Jane (06:49):
Yeah, your class could probably have a dance party in
here. It's a big space.
Will Coss (06:53):
We actually have dance parties here too, but,
yes, very big space. A lot ofwood, a lot of saws, a lot of
tools up on the board on thewall, and everything is very
neatly organized here at thestudio, we want to make sure we
know where everything is so weactually have pictures of our
(07:13):
tools on the wall that remind uswhere to return things when
they're missing.
Jane (07:19):
I love that. Yeah, it's like a almost like a sticker of
the tool itself, so you knowexactly what to put there. You
don't even need to know the nameof the tool. You just need to
match the shape.
Will Coss (07:30):
Yes, we like to keep it simple and easy.
Jane (07:31):
Not everything is made by hand. Will showed us a giant
tool called a CNC machine. CNCstands for Computer Numerical
Control, and the machine isbasically a robot that cuts
wood. The people design theshapes they want, and then the
computer can cut out thoseshapes precisely every time. All
(07:53):
of this work in the carpentryshop and the welding area and
the sculpting area eventuallybecomes a scene or a display
that goes onto a float. Willwalked us over to a float bed.
Without anything on it a floatbed is just a flat trailer that
gets hitched onto a car ortruck, but when the team builds
a whole design on top of thatflat bed, it becomes something
(08:16):
really cool. But why is itcalled a float?
Will Coss (08:19):
Call them floats because they give you the
impression, or we try to pretendthat there are these stages that
are actually floating down thestreets of New York City. We
build them 30 feet tall, butalso we cover the wheels with
what we call skirts, which isessentially different types of
(08:40):
fabric that float in the wind,and gives you the the impression
that the floats are actually,literally floating down the
street, but there's some wheelsunderneath there.
Jane (08:52):
Now you have to make sure that they will fit on a street
so they can't be too wide. Andthen some streets have power
lines and other things. How doyou make sure that they're not
so tall, and how do you get themto New York City from where we
are in New Jersey?
Will Coss (09:06):
That is a great question. Each one of the floats
that we design will fold downlike a transformer to about nine
feet by 12 feet. If you thinkabout your school bus,
everything in the parade foldsdown to about that size. And we
take all of our floats from NewJersey through the Lincoln
(09:26):
Tunnel, up the highway in NewYork City and up to Central
Park, and that's where wereassemble everything. So we use
giant cranes to pick up all ofthe pieces and put them back
together, sort of like a Legopuzzle right on the streets the
day before parade.
Jane (09:44):
So if I was driving along through the Lincoln Tunnel with
my family the day beforeThanksgiving, I might just drive
by this whole long line offolded up parade floats.
Will Coss (09:55):
Yes, there's over 75 units that come from New Jersey
all the way to New York City,and we're out in the streets,
and everyone gives us a big waveand cheers us on. It's our own
little mini parade before theparade.
Jane (10:09):
That would be almost as fun as seeing a parade. Yes,
yeah, absolutely. Next we headedover to the paint studio.
Remember, all of these areas arein one giant, 80,000 square foot
warehouse, you could fit myhouse that I live in into that
space more than 50 times. Soit's really big. That's how they
can fit in all the variousmaterials that are needed for a
(10:32):
giant, three hour long parade.
Will Coss (10:35):
We use over 2,000 gallons of paint every year for
the Macy's Thanksgiving DayParade, we have every color
imaginable, and then our team ofprofessional painters also
custom mix colors to get theperfect shade depending on the
project that we're working on.We have a team of painters who
(10:56):
are painting different elementsright now. This is sort of like
a sunburst. It's going to bewhat we're calling a little bit
of a dream catcher for one ofour floats. So that'll have a
couple of layers that will spinand give you this nice dreamy
effect.
Jane (11:13):
We are now in a sea of white foam. Hi, I'm Jane.
Cameron (11:18):
My name is Cameron Carnevale, the lead sculptor
here, and we are working onseveral projects, Pop Mart being
one of them. That's whateveryone's on right now, each
doing an individual character.We've got a little bit of
Netflix, Stranger Things.
Jane (11:37):
This is the monster behind you.
Cameron (11:39):
It's behind me, isn't it? Yes, it is, yes, all 10 feet
tall of it.
Jane (11:45):
How do you carve foam?
Cameron (11:47):
We used a bunch of things, from kitchen knives to
sort of a hot wire that will cutthrough the foam.
Jane (11:54):
And then you have to coat it and paint it so that if it's
a little bit rainy, it's notgoing to disintegrate. It'll
stand up to any kind of weather.
Cameron (12:03):
That's right. So it gets, we call it a candy
coating, like an M & M on thesoft shell, and, yeah, protects
it from from everything, and itgets painted all pretty.
Jane (12:15):
So if somebody ever dents one, are you like, Oh my God.
Oh, that work!
Cameron (12:20):
No, it's okay, because we can fix that. We can patch it
up. Nope, no problem.
Jane (12:27):
We wanted to get a better look at the monster behind Cami.
It was a scary character from aTV show called Stranger Things
that's very popular with adultsand older teenagers.
Will Coss (12:37):
So we're walking up to the Demogorgon, which our
sculptor, Justin has expertlysculpted. He's 12 feet tall. And
then we had to take it allapart, put all of the armatures,
which are the pieces of metal,which is essentially like our
bone, like our skeleton. We madea skeleton, and then we added
(12:58):
the character back to it. AndJustin, right now is putting all
the pieces on it and putting allof the latex which will give it
an actual realistic finish. Sothe legs will move up and down,
the head will open and close. Soafter Justin is done putting all
(13:19):
of the latex finish on it. It'llgo over to our paint team to
become the actual puppet. It wasdesigned to be.
Jane (13:25):
Right? It's not going to look too scary or too real, it's
just white styrofoam.
Will Coss (13:30):
Yes, yeah. So we've talked a lot about floats and
all of the work that goes intoit. Now we're going to walk over
to the other favorite part ofour studio, which is our balloon
studio, and that's where we makeall of the giant character
balloons that you see in theMacy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Jane (13:50):
That's right, we're going to be talking balloons next.
This parade is perhaps mostfamous for the giant helium
balloons that float high abovethe city streets as the parade
marches through New York City.We're going to learn all about
how they're made, and yes,answer your questions about
balloons That's coming right up.
This is But Why. I'm JaneLindholm, and today we're on a
(14:13):
field trip behind the scenes atthe creative studio in
Moonachie, New Jersey, whereartists, designers, carpenters,
welders and a whole team ofother people work year round to
get ready for one of the biggestparades in the United States,
the Macy's Thanksgiving DayParade. I love seeing how things
are made, so I am always up fora factory tour. The Macy's
(14:35):
Parade is really well known forhaving giant balloons that float
through the streets. And when Isay giant, I mean really, really
giant. Some of the balloons inthe almost 100 year history of
this parade have been more than100 feet tall or 100 feet long.
Your school bus is maybe 35 or40 feet long. So imagine how big
(14:57):
those balloons are. We wanted tosee how they are made and answer
the questions you've sent us. Sowe asked our guide, Will Coss,
executive producer of theparade, to take us inside the
balloon making part of thewarehouse.
Will Coss (15:09):
Okay, so we're standing outside of two double
doors that we're going to pushthrough and see the wonderful
balloon studio here at Macy'sStudios.
Jane (15:19):
You're making it sound very exciting.
Will Coss (15:23):
Here we are.
Jane (15:23):
And it is.
Will Coss (15:24):
We are now in the iconic Macy's balloon studio,
and in this facility, we designand we put together all of the
pieces that make up every one ofour balloons. Right now we have
Super Mario.
Jane (15:41):
So if you were standing here with me, you would see a
giant head of Mario himself, buthis nose is not inflated, and
neither is his mustache.
Will Coss (15:52):
Correct. Yes, we we inflate and deflate certain
areas of the balloon to help uswork on certain specific spaces.
Right now we were painting theeyes, so we deflated the nose,
and then we'll re inflate itonce we're done,
Jane (16:09):
I feel like he's staring at us.
Will Coss (16:11):
Might be.
Jane (16:12):
He's following us with his eyes. It's like the Mona Lisa.
You know, while we're here inthe balloon studio, we have a
lot of questions about balloons,specifically including, how do
you make balloons?
Molly (16:26):
Hi, my name is Molly. I'm four years old. I'm from
Henniker, New Hampshire, and Iwanted to know how are balloons
made.
Sage (16:35):
My name is Sage, and I'm five years old, and I live in
London, and my question is, howare balloons made?
Ari (16:49):
My name is Ari. I am from Castleton, New York, and my
question is, how do you makeballoons?
Cora (17:01):
Hello. My name is Cora, and I am six, and my question
we're from Wisconsin, and myquestion is, how do you make
balloons?
Jane (17:16):
Basic ground party balloons that you blow up with
your mouth are made in a factorywhere balloon molds are dipped
into liquid latex that dries andgets rubberized and sometimes is
stamped with designs. Themetallic balloons that sometimes
come in fun shapes and getfilled up with helium are
usually made with a materialcalled mylar. They are made by
(17:38):
having a front and a backsidethat are exactly the same shape,
and then the two pieces aremelted together and blown up.
But the balloons made for theMacy's Parade are so huge they
have to be made by hand, one ata time, from a different
material.
Will Coss (17:55):
The Macy's balloons are made from a very special
material that's designedspecifically for the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Jane (18:03):
And what is that material called? Or can you not tell me,
Will Coss (18:06):
it's magic material for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day
Parade balloons.
Jane (18:11):
That's code speak for I'm not going to tell you.
Will Coss (18:14):
Yes, it's a special fabric that is proprietary or
designed specifically for Macy'sand our balloon fabrication.
Jane (18:22):
So the fabric feels kind of like a tarp that you might
put down over a lawnmower or onyour picnic table, but maybe a
little bit thicker,
Will Coss (18:33):
Yes, and it has a similar sound when it crunches
up together.
Jane (18:37):
Well, it makes sense that you need your own kind of
material, because you're makingenormous balloons. If you've
ever seen the parade, these areballoons that float high above.
They look like they're floatingin the sky, but they don't float
away, because people hold on tothem. But they are giant, way
bigger than you or me, and theyare made specifically to look
(18:57):
like a special character orsomething famous that you know,
like maybe Snoopy or Mario, andso they have to be able to have
this material that can makesomething in that shape and
size, and be able to withstandNew York City, November, wind
and rain and maybe snow.
Will Coss (19:16):
Yes, the material is an important part of making
these balloons and making themsuccessfully. The size depends
on the type of character thatwe're doing. Our largest balloon
right now is Spider Man, whichis almost 70 feet long, many.
Jane (19:32):
How many school busses is that?
Will Coss (19:34):
That's probably two school busses long, two and a
half school busses long. MinnieMouse is one of our tallest
balloons at over 60 feet tall.So these are giant. When we say
giant, they are giant. We'restanding here next to Mario
right now, and from the floor wejust come up to about his ear,
and that's his hea. is the onlything that's inflated. So
(19:55):
they're quite big. Some of ourballoons have over 200 pieces
that get melted together to makeour giant balloons, and that's
what the team over here is doingright now on the heat sealers.
Jane (20:06):
The heat sealing machines look kind of like giant sewing
machines, except instead ofhaving a needle and thread to
attach the various pieces offabric, the heat sealing machine
melts the pieces together.
Jen (20:19):
My name is Jen, and I'm a balloon fabricator at the Macy's
Parade studio.
Jane (20:23):
You've got a ton of fabric here. It looks like you're
making a dress for Cinderella orsomething.
Jen (20:27):
I's not Cinderella, but I'm sure you guys do know who I'm
making which I'm not sure if Ican say I can. And it's Derpy
from KPop Demon Hunter. So veryexciting. I'm most pumped about
this balloon. I know we're notsupposed to pick favorites, but
I might have one. And yes, I'msitting at what's called a heat
sealer. So we use really highheat to melt the pieces of the
(20:50):
balloon together before we goand clean and paint it. So it's
really exciting and quite fun.
Jane (20:56):
How do you know where to melt the pieces together?
Jen (21:00):
I have a really wonderful team here that works on the
computer to mark out the piecesfor us. So we have digital
markings that allow us to matchit up like, almost like a puzzle
piece. And we attach the puzzlepieces together so that we get
from hundreds and hundreds oflittle parts one big, awesome
balloon.
Jane (21:17):
And then on this fabric itself, there are lines and
there are numbers, so you'refollowing those directions when
you're using your machine.
Jen (21:26):
Absolutely. Thank goodness I learned how to count, because
if not, we would not have a cat,but maybe some other animal. So
yeah, we use a series of lettersand numbers as codes to go ahead
and build and we also havereally fun little miniature
models of the balloons that alsohelp us put the pieces together.
And I use it as a guide toensure that I'm doing the right
(21:48):
thing.
Jane (21:49):
It looks like you're holding an arm.
Jen (21:50):
It is. This is derpy's Sweet little arm, and we're
currently working on buildingout his limbs. And last bit is
his body. So we're moving alongreally well.
Jane (22:00):
Every balloon starts out white and then gets painted by
hand after it's all puttogether. The paint really
brings the balloons to life andlets you know exactly what
character is floating up therein the sky. And we got a
question from one kid who feelslike a certain favorite
character is being unfairlyoverlooked by the parade.
Mary (22:19):
My name is Mary. I live in UK. My question is, why didn't
Minnie Mouse get brought out inthe Macy's Parade, and why
didn't Daisy Duck get broughtout in the Macy's Parade?
Because they're the boy'sgirlfriends.
Jane (22:38):
Mary, I think, doesn't know that Minnie Mouse was
debuted in the parade last year,I believe. So Minnie is here,
but not Daisy.
Will Coss (22:46):
Minnie is here. We were excited to bring Minnie to
the parade last year. Everyyear, we try to find a
collection of characters thatare known and loved, and our
team sits around a table andtalks about all of the most
exciting characters to includein any one parade, and last year
was Minnie. We've got somespecial surprises this year.
Jane (23:06):
Are there any that you can tell us about that we don't have
to that we don't reveal untilour episode comes out on
November 14?
Will Coss (23:12):
So we have Mario, who will be joining the parade this
year. Shrek will be returning tothe parade this year. We have
Pac Man, who is a legendaryvideo game character that we're
really excited and be Pac Man'sfirst time in the parade this
year, and the one and only BuzzLightyear will be returning to
(23:35):
the parade this year,celebrating Toy Story. So super
excited to see Buzz.
Jane (23:41):
You talk about them like they're alive when you put them
away after the parade, do youlike say goodbye to them and
tell them to have a nice sleep.Are you like see you next year
or maybe in 10 years?
Will Coss (23:52):
Yes, we do. We we treat all of our characters as
our family. We spend a lot oftime with all of our characters.
So after parade, we do takegreat care and making sure that
we fold them in a very specificway, and then we we store them
in what we call our hampers. Soif you think about your hamper
at home, where you put yourdirty laundry, a giant version
(24:13):
of that is where all of ourballoons get rolled up and
folded into, we cover them, andthen we store them at one of our
storage facilities until thenext parade.
Ezra (24:23):
Hi, I am Ezra. I'm four years old. I live in Pittsburgh,
and my question is, why doballoons float inside the sky?
Henry (24:37):
Hi, my name is Henry, and I live in Los Angeles,
California. I'm five and a halfyears old, and my question is,
why do balloons float?
Tom (24:51):
Hello. My name is Tom. I'm six years old. I live in
Potomac, Maryland. My questionis how do balloons float on air?
Becks (25:02):
Hi, my name is Becks. I'm six years old, and I'm from
Canada, Alberta. And my questionis, why do balloons float, if
gravity is pushing down?
Arthur (25:17):
My name is Arthur. I am four years old. I live in
Auckland, New Zealand. Myquestion is, why do balloons
float?
Tyler (25:25):
Hi, my name is Tyler, and I'm five, and I live in
Sunnyvale, California. And myquestion is, how do balloons
float?
Gabby (25:36):
How does the balloon stay up? My name is Gabby, five South
Burlington.
Evelyn (25:43):
Hi. I'm Evelyn from Hinesburg, Vermont, and I'm
four, and I want to know howsome balloons fly and some
don't.
Tilda (25:52):
My name is Tilda, and I'm seven years old, and I live in
Sydney, Australia, and myquestion is, why do balloons
float up with helium inside, butnot without helium, like with
your breath and things likethat?
Riley (26:10):
Hi. My name is Riley. I am nine years old, and I live in
Auckland, New Zealand. Myquestion is, why, when you blow
up a balloon with air, it sinksto the bottom, but when you fill
it up with helium, it floats?
Jane (26:23):
What makes balloons float?
Will Coss (26:26):
Our Macy's Parade balloons float because we put
something called helium insideof the balloon. It's a gas
that's lighter than air, so oncewe put enough of that helium,
similar to your party balloonsthat you'll see on on anyone's
party or celebration. We just dothem in a giant form. So there's
(26:47):
a lot of helium, a lot of gasthat goes into the balloon,
which allows it to float up inthe air. And then once we're
done with the parade, we releasethe helium, we fold it back
down, and we store them for thenext parade.
Jane (26:58):
And you said something very important, which is that
helium is lighter than air, sothe helium rises and the balloon
is pretty light, even thoughit's big, so the balloon, which
is holding all that helium in,rises along with that gas.
Will Coss (27:11):
That's correct. Yes, they're actually heavier than we
might think. They're a couple of100 pounds, with all of the
fabric and the paint. But at 70feet long, we have a lot of
space for helium, and once wefill that with helium, the
balloons rise, and then ourballoon handlers grab onto what
(27:32):
we call bones and hold them andwalk them down the parade route.
Jane (27:36):
Yeah. Amelia wants to know about that.
Amelia (27:39):
I'm eight years old, and I live in Portland, Oregon, and
I have a question about theMacy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
And my question is, how do thosebig balloons hold on just a tiny
string?
Eleanor (27:51):
Hi, my name is Eleanor. I'm four years old. I'm in
California. My question is, howmany people take to hold one
float.
Jane (28:02):
How are those big balloons held on such tiny strings? And
Eleanor is wondering about howmany people it takes.
Will Coss (28:11):
We have over 90 tiny strings on any one giant balloon
which covers the entirety of thecharacter. And each one of those
strings gets held by a personwhich walks the balloon down the
parade route, and each one ofthe strings is fastened to the
balloon itself in a very secureway. We actually design and
(28:35):
engineer the balloon with aspecial material to reinforce
the handle, what we callhandling lines. So it's if you
think about a piece of clothing,and you've got a label stitched
into the clothing, you've got alittle design stitched in. It's
sort of an extra layer ofstitching that goes into these
lines to make sure that they'restrong enough to hold.
Jane (28:58):
And I think you said some of the balloons have 90 of those
strings. Are there 90 people onthe ground holding each balloon?
Will Coss (29:05):
There's at least 90 people on our giant balloons.
Everyone holds one string, whichis attached to a bone, which
they'll hold in their hand. Andin addition to the 90 people on
our giant balloons, we actuallyhave little carts that also help
to keep it safe and secure onthe ground.
Jane (29:25):
Because otherwise it would float away.
Will Coss (29:27):
Otherwise it could potentially float away if
everyone released it. So ifeveryone, if there was big wind
gusts, and everyone decided tolet go, we still hold our
balloons to the ground usingwhat we call a vehicle patch.
Jane (29:40):
You know, it's really interesting, because not only do
you have people here who areartists and engineers and
carpenters, but you also have tohave people who understand
things like weather and windgusts, and not just, well, it's
going to be cloudy and a littlebit windy, but like, it's going
to be cloudy and a little bitmore windy on this part, or when
we. Go around this building,you're going to get a wind gust,
(30:02):
and you have to take that intoaccount when you're building
these things. And then on theday of the parade, you need to
know, because you've got thesehuge balloons and floats and all
of these things that really youneed to be able to control with
the weather conditions.
Will Coss (30:19):
On each one of our balloons, we have what are
called pilots and flightmanagers. So that's the team
that walks out in front of theballoon to help us understand,
okay, this corner is going tohave a big cross wind, so we
might want to bring the balloondown a little bit so we have a
little bit more control over it.
Jane (30:37):
So some people are talking constantly during the parade to
each other to make sure it goessmoothly.
Will Coss (30:41):
The entire team is talking. We encourage the team
to continue to talk and to makesure that the people who are
leading the balloon arecommunicating with all of the
team that are holding theballoon so they know exactly how
high to fly the balloon if theyneed to bring it down, if they
need to move to one side of thestreet or the other side,
depending on the weather.
Jane (30:59):
Do they yell at each other, or do they have headsets?
They yell?
Will Coss (31:04):
We've tried headsets. We've tried a variety of
communication devices. Justprojecting and raising your
voice seems to be the mosteffective way to get the get the
communication across. So there'syelling, there's hand signals,
there's also whistles that weuse at certain points to help
people understand where theyneed to be and where they need
to move.
Jane (31:24):
Can you tell us a whistle signal so that if we are ever
watching the parade, we caninterpret.
Will Coss (31:29):
We use single whistles if we're raising a
balloon or lowering the balloon,so you'll hear it. And that's
one two, and that's how manyessentially rotations we'll use
to make a balloon go from theground to 20 feet in the air,
and then there's a three chirpwhistle that'll be a stop
(31:50):
signal.
Jane (31:53):
What about turn left?
Will Coss (31:55):
Turn left is just a hand signal.
Jane (31:57):
So now you'll know if you ever overhear a whistle or a
three chirp whistle what's aboutto happen with those big
balloons. It's a massiveundertaking to put this parade
together. Will told us there aremore than 5000 people who are
part of the parade each year.There are lots of performers
dancing and singing and playinginstruments, plus all those
people who hold the balloons orstand and wave on the floats.
(32:20):
Will took us up to the thirdfloor to look at the costume
room, and it was massive, too,and filled with everything from
bowling pin to cherry piecostumes to cupcakes to clouds
with propellers to outfits thatmatch the Spider Man balloon and
on and on, rows and rows ofcostumes. Now it's not that easy
(32:40):
to get a job in the parade. Inorder to be a balloon handler,
for example, you have to meetcertain height and weight
requirements so that you'restrong enough to hold down the
balloon. Remember, it's filledwith a lot of helium. And all
the volunteers are people whowork at Macy's, or are the
friends and family members ofpeople who work at Macy's. As
(33:00):
for Will Coss, he's not holdinga balloon or marching in the
parade during the event itself.He's in a TV production truck.
Will Coss (33:08):
Which is where the producers, the director and all
of our technical crew look atall the cameras and select all
of the different shots that yousee on your television screen.
Jane (33:18):
So you might be telling a camera operator. Quick, go down
and show one of the handlers.They look great in their
costume, and they're holdingthat bone and that string really
well. So quick, let's get a shotof them. Now, zoom up and let's
see the face of Mario, becausehis mustache and his nose is
inflated now.
Will Coss (33:36):
Exactly, exactly, yes.
Jane (33:39):
What's your favorite part of the parade?
Will Coss (33:41):
My favorite part of the parade has to be what we
call step off, which is themoment we say 3-2-1, confetti
blows, and it's the officialstart to the parade. There's
just an excitement and an energyup on the Upper West Side. We've
spent the last 18 to 24 monthsbuilding to that moment, and
it's the moment where weofficially start the parade and
(34:05):
begin the celebration for all ofNew York City in America.
Jane (34:09):
I bet that is a pretty exciting moment for the
thousands of people in theparade, not to mention the
millions who are watching. Formany people watching the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade is anannual tradition. What
traditions do you have duringthe holidays that make you feel
happy and connected to yourfamily or your community? For
me, on Thanksgiving, I like togather with my aunts and uncles
(34:31):
and cousins and all of theirkids in Maine for a big family
get together. Some of us like torun in a race in the morning
called a turkey trot, and we alllike to contribute to making the
meal that we share in theafternoon. If you celebrate
Thanksgiving, I hope you have agood one. Thanks to Christine
Nealon and Will Coss at Macy'sfor helping us understand all
(34:53):
the stuff that goes into makingthe Thanksgiving Day Parade. I
always love a chance to getbehind the scenes at some place
cool and learn about all thework that goes into it and all
the different kinds of peoplewho have jobs making interesting
things. That's it for today. Ourshow is produced by Sarah Baik,
Melody Bodette and me, JaneLindholm at Vermont Public and
(35:13):
distributed by PRX. Our thememusic is by Luke Reynolds. Joey
Palumbo is our video producer,and you can see a lot of what we
talked about in this episode onour But Why Kids YouTube
channel. If you like our show,please have your adults help you
give us a thumbs up or a reviewon whatever app you use to
listen to us. And as always,send us your questions about
(35:35):
whatever makes you curious. Havean adult record you and then
send the file toquestions@butwhykids.org We'll
be back in two weeks with an allnew episode until then, stay
curious.
This is But why
Public. I'm Jane Lindholm. Onthis show, we take questions
from curious kids just like you,and we find answers.
Amelia (00:30):
Hi, I'm Amelia. I'm eight years old, and I live in
Portland, Oregon, and I have aquestion about the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade, and myquestion is, how do those big
balloons hold on just a tinystring?
Jane (00:44):
Do you enjoy parades? I do. I love seeing all the people
walking by, often in amazingcostumes. The parade floats are
cool too, where trucks pull atrailer that's been decorated to
look like a boat or a bear or atropical paradise. Sometimes
people ride in the floats, and Iespecially love the marching
bands, usually from nearbyelementary and high schools, and
(01:07):
sometimes professional musiciansas well. One of the biggest
parades in the world is theMacy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
in New York City. It happens asthe name might have given away
on Thanksgiving Day, which isalways the fourth Thursday of
November in the United States.
(01:30):
The New York City governmentsays about three and a half
million people line up along theparade route through the streets
of the city to watch the paradein person, and about 50 million
people watch the parade on TV.That's a lot of people! So when
the folks at Macy's asked ifwe'd like to go behind the
scenes to see what it takes toactually make the parade, we
(01:53):
here it but why we're happy tosay yes. So you know, the parade
happens on Thanksgiving Day.It's about three hours long from
start to finish, wrapping upright around noon. But how long
do you think it takes to work onthe parade so that everything is
ready to go for the millions ofpeople who watch it? Couple of
weeks, a couple of months? Howabout a couple of years? That's
(02:19):
right, it takes almost two yearsto prepare for each parade. That
work is done by a lot ofdifferent people, including
artists, sculptors, carpentersand designers, and the work is
overseen by this guy.
Will Coss (02:34):
I'm Will Coss. I'm the executive producer of the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Jane (02:37):
If you had a group of kids from all over the world, ages
five to 10 sitting in front ofyou crisscross applesauce. How
would you describe an executiveproducer of a parade?
Will Coss (02:47):
Sort of like your teacher? I have an opportunity
to review all of the work thatour very talented team here at
Macy's studios creates and wework together as a community to
execute one of the largest andmost fantastic parades in
(03:08):
America.
Jane (03:09):
The But Why team met up with will cost at the Macy's
studio in Moonachie, New Jersey,just a few miles from New York
City. We pulled up to a prettyboring, looking big building in
an industrial complex with lotsof giant warehouses and big box
stores. From the outside, youprobably wouldn't think anything
all that exciting to you wouldbe going on inside, but once you
(03:33):
open the doors, it's magical.
Will Coss (03:35):
That's the trick. That's intentional. Yes, we're
going to hear a lot of noise injust a few seconds. We're headed
out to our 80,000 square footstudio where all of our
balloons, our floats, and all ofthe other theatrical elements
are designed and made here atMacy's Studios. Let's go.
Jane (03:56):
It is magical and it smells good.
Will Coss (03:58):
It smells good. Yes, there's a variety of things that
are happening right here. Rightnow, we're standing about 25
feet above our ground level, andthis is an opportunity for us to
look over the entire studio,which is broken up, similar to
classrooms in differentsections. So we have our
(04:19):
animation and automation, whichis essentially all of the things
that move. We have our metalshop, which is all of our
internal structure, so we callit the bones of each one of our
floats. Then we have ourcarpentry section, which builds
all of the beautiful elementsaround our floats. And then on
the other side, over here, wehave another very important
(04:42):
department, which is oursculpting team.
Jane (04:45):
I like, I can't even it's so cool to see there's a lot of
styrofoam. There's someStyrofoam pieces that have been
painted, and there's a giantfloat that has a bear and a
moose that are being built on itright now.
Will Coss (05:00):
Yes, so that giant bear and moose that you see
started as one cube ofStyrofoam, and our artists here
at the studio take the designsthat are started on a computer
and transfer them to thebeautiful, giant pieces of art
that you see here.
Jane (05:20):
We were perched high up on a balcony overlooking all the
action. People using weldingmachines that shot sparks into
the air. Other workers usingbelt sanders to smooth out big
pieces of wood. Some people weresculpting those giant pieces of
Styrofoam into recognizablecharacters, and still, others
were spray painting that foam tomake it water resistant and
(05:42):
colorful. Will took us down ontothe main floor to get up close
and personal.
Will Coss (05:47):
Watch your step, Everyone a little, slippery.
Jane (05:49):
There was a lot to see, like puppets.
Will Coss (05:53):
This puppet will be 12 feet tall, so it's going to
be a giant puppet, and it willbe controlled similar to
traditional puppet, but insteadof strings, it'll be metal wires
that'll be connected to somemotors to help us move and
adjust the puppet along theparade route
Jane (06:12):
To make everything for the parade. There are a lot of
tools.
Will Coss (06:16):
This is our carpentry shop, so similar to your
woodworking stations andwoodworking shops at school,
maybe just a little bit bigger,because the things that we built
are a little bit bigger, but allof the similar things you might
have. We have our saws, we haveour drills, we have our tables,
(06:37):
our cutting tables, and this iswhere the carpenters and our
carpentry team start all oftheir work and start to assemble
pieces that then get put ontoour floats.
Jane (06:49):
Yeah, your class could probably have a dance party in
here. It's a big space.
Will Coss (06:53):
We actually have dance parties here too, but,
yes, very big space. A lot ofwood, a lot of saws, a lot of
tools up on the board on thewall, and everything is very
neatly organized here at thestudio, we want to make sure we
know where everything is so weactually have pictures of our
(07:13):
tools on the wall that remind uswhere to return things when
they're missing.
Jane (07:19):
I love that. Yeah, it's like a almost like a sticker of
the tool itself, so you knowexactly what to put there. You
don't even need to know the nameof the tool. You just need to
match the shape.
Will Coss (07:30):
Yes, we like to keep it simple and easy.
Jane (07:31):
Not everything is made by hand. Will showed us a giant
tool called a CNC machine. CNCstands for Computer Numerical
Control, and the machine isbasically a robot that cuts
wood. The people design theshapes they want, and then the
computer can cut out thoseshapes precisely every time. All
(07:53):
of this work in the carpentryshop and the welding area and
the sculpting area eventuallybecomes a scene or a display
that goes onto a float. Willwalked us over to a float bed.
Without anything on it a floatbed is just a flat trailer that
gets hitched onto a car ortruck, but when the team builds
a whole design on top of thatflat bed, it becomes something
(08:16):
really cool. But why is itcalled a float?
Will Coss (08:19):
Call them floats because they give you the
impression, or we try to pretendthat there are these stages that
are actually floating down thestreets of New York City. We
build them 30 feet tall, butalso we cover the wheels with
what we call skirts, which isessentially different types of
(08:40):
fabric that float in the wind,and gives you the the impression
that the floats are actually,literally floating down the
street, but there's some wheelsunderneath there.
Jane (08:52):
Now you have to make sure that they will fit on a street
so they can't be too wide. Andthen some streets have power
lines and other things. How doyou make sure that they're not
so tall, and how do you get themto New York City from where we
are in New Jersey?
Will Coss (09:06):
That is a great question. Each one of the floats
that we design will fold downlike a transformer to about nine
feet by 12 feet. If you thinkabout your school bus,
everything in the parade foldsdown to about that size. And we
take all of our floats from NewJersey through the Lincoln
(09:26):
Tunnel, up the highway in NewYork City and up to Central
Park, and that's where wereassemble everything. So we use
giant cranes to pick up all ofthe pieces and put them back
together, sort of like a Legopuzzle right on the streets the
day before parade.
Jane (09:44):
So if I was driving along through the Lincoln Tunnel with
my family the day beforeThanksgiving, I might just drive
by this whole long line offolded up parade floats.
Will Coss (09:55):
Yes, there's over 75 units that come from New Jersey
all the way to New York City,and we're out in the streets,
and everyone gives us a big waveand cheers us on. It's our own
little mini parade before theparade.
Jane (10:09):
That would be almost as fun as seeing a parade. Yes,
yeah, absolutely. Next we headedover to the paint studio.
Remember, all of these areas arein one giant, 80,000 square foot
warehouse, you could fit myhouse that I live in into that
space more than 50 times. Soit's really big. That's how they
can fit in all the variousmaterials that are needed for a
(10:32):
giant, three hour long parade.
Will Coss (10:35):
We use over 2,000 gallons of paint every year for
the Macy's Thanksgiving DayParade, we have every color
imaginable, and then our team ofprofessional painters also
custom mix colors to get theperfect shade depending on the
project that we're working on.We have a team of painters who
(10:56):
are painting different elementsright now. This is sort of like
a sunburst. It's going to bewhat we're calling a little bit
of a dream catcher for one ofour floats. So that'll have a
couple of layers that will spinand give you this nice dreamy
effect.
Jane (11:13):
We are now in a sea of white foam. Hi, I'm Jane.
Cameron (11:18):
My name is Cameron Carnevale, the lead sculptor
here, and we are working onseveral projects, Pop Mart being
one of them. That's whateveryone's on right now, each
doing an individual character.We've got a little bit of
Netflix, Stranger Things.
Jane (11:37):
This is the monster behind you.
Cameron (11:39):
It's behind me, isn't it? Yes, it is, yes, all 10 feet
tall of it.
Jane (11:45):
How do you carve foam?
Cameron (11:47):
We used a bunch of things, from kitchen knives to
sort of a hot wire that will cutthrough the foam.
Jane (11:54):
And then you have to coat it and paint it so that if it's
a little bit rainy, it's notgoing to disintegrate. It'll
stand up to any kind of weather.
Cameron (12:03):
That's right. So it gets, we call it a candy
coating, like an M & M on thesoft shell, and, yeah, protects
it from from everything, and itgets painted all pretty.
Jane (12:15):
So if somebody ever dents one, are you like, Oh my God.
Oh, that work!
Cameron (12:20):
No, it's okay, because we can fix that. We can patch it
up. Nope, no problem.
Jane (12:27):
We wanted to get a better look at the monster behind Cami.
It was a scary character from aTV show called Stranger Things
that's very popular with adultsand older teenagers.
Will Coss (12:37):
So we're walking up to the Demogorgon, which our
sculptor, Justin has expertlysculpted. He's 12 feet tall. And
then we had to take it allapart, put all of the armatures,
which are the pieces of metal,which is essentially like our
bone, like our skeleton. We madea skeleton, and then we added
(12:58):
the character back to it. AndJustin, right now is putting all
the pieces on it and putting allof the latex which will give it
an actual realistic finish. Sothe legs will move up and down,
the head will open and close. Soafter Justin is done putting all
(13:19):
of the latex finish on it. It'llgo over to our paint team to
become the actual puppet. It wasdesigned to be.
Jane (13:25):
Right? It's not going to look too scary or too real, it's
just white styrofoam.
Will Coss (13:30):
Yes, yeah. So we've talked a lot about floats and
all of the work that goes intoit. Now we're going to walk over
to the other favorite part ofour studio, which is our balloon
studio, and that's where we makeall of the giant character
balloons that you see in theMacy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Jane (13:50):
That's right, we're going to be talking balloons next.
This parade is perhaps mostfamous for the giant helium
balloons that float high abovethe city streets as the parade
marches through New York City.We're going to learn all about
how they're made, and yes,answer your questions about
balloons That's coming right up.
This is But Why. I'm JaneLindholm, and today we're on a
(14:13):
field trip behind the scenes atthe creative studio in
Moonachie, New Jersey, whereartists, designers, carpenters,
welders and a whole team ofother people work year round to
get ready for one of the biggestparades in the United States,
the Macy's Thanksgiving DayParade. I love seeing how things
are made, so I am always up fora factory tour. The Macy's
(14:35):
Parade is really well known forhaving giant balloons that float
through the streets. And when Isay giant, I mean really, really
giant. Some of the balloons inthe almost 100 year history of
this parade have been more than100 feet tall or 100 feet long.
Your school bus is maybe 35 or40 feet long. So imagine how big
(14:57):
those balloons are. We wanted tosee how they are made and answer
the questions you've sent us. Sowe asked our guide, Will Coss,
executive producer of theparade, to take us inside the
balloon making part of thewarehouse.
Will Coss (15:09):
Okay, so we're standing outside of two double
doors that we're going to pushthrough and see the wonderful
balloon studio here at Macy'sStudios.
Jane (15:19):
You're making it sound very exciting.
Will Coss (15:23):
Here we are.
Jane (15:23):
And it is.
Will Coss (15:24):
We are now in the iconic Macy's balloon studio,
and in this facility, we designand we put together all of the
pieces that make up every one ofour balloons. Right now we have
Super Mario.
Jane (15:41):
So if you were standing here with me, you would see a
giant head of Mario himself, buthis nose is not inflated, and
neither is his mustache.
Will Coss (15:52):
Correct. Yes, we we inflate and deflate certain
areas of the balloon to help uswork on certain specific spaces.
Right now we were painting theeyes, so we deflated the nose,
and then we'll re inflate itonce we're done,
Jane (16:09):
I feel like he's staring at us.
Will Coss (16:11):
Might be.
Jane (16:12):
He's following us with his eyes. It's like the Mona Lisa.
You know, while we're here inthe balloon studio, we have a
lot of questions about balloons,specifically including, how do
you make balloons?
Molly (16:26):
Hi, my name is Molly. I'm four years old. I'm from
Henniker, New Hampshire, and Iwanted to know how are balloons
made.
Sage (16:35):
My name is Sage, and I'm five years old, and I live in
London, and my question is, howare balloons made?
Ari (16:49):
My name is Ari. I am from Castleton, New York, and my
question is, how do you makeballoons?
Cora (17:01):
Hello. My name is Cora, and I am six, and my question
we're from Wisconsin, and myquestion is, how do you make
balloons?
Jane (17:16):
Basic ground party balloons that you blow up with
your mouth are made in a factorywhere balloon molds are dipped
into liquid latex that dries andgets rubberized and sometimes is
stamped with designs. Themetallic balloons that sometimes
come in fun shapes and getfilled up with helium are
usually made with a materialcalled mylar. They are made by
(17:38):
having a front and a backsidethat are exactly the same shape,
and then the two pieces aremelted together and blown up.
But the balloons made for theMacy's Parade are so huge they
have to be made by hand, one ata time, from a different
material.
Will Coss (17:55):
The Macy's balloons are made from a very special
material that's designedspecifically for the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Jane (18:03):
And what is that material called? Or can you not tell me,
Will Coss (18:06):
it's magic material for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day
Parade balloons.
Jane (18:11):
That's code speak for I'm not going to tell you.
Will Coss (18:14):
Yes, it's a special fabric that is proprietary or
designed specifically for Macy'sand our balloon fabrication.
Jane (18:22):
So the fabric feels kind of like a tarp that you might
put down over a lawnmower or onyour picnic table, but maybe a
little bit thicker,
Will Coss (18:33):
Yes, and it has a similar sound when it crunches
up together.
Jane (18:37):
Well, it makes sense that you need your own kind of
material, because you're makingenormous balloons. If you've
ever seen the parade, these areballoons that float high above.
They look like they're floatingin the sky, but they don't float
away, because people hold on tothem. But they are giant, way
bigger than you or me, and theyare made specifically to look
(18:57):
like a special character orsomething famous that you know,
like maybe Snoopy or Mario, andso they have to be able to have
this material that can makesomething in that shape and
size, and be able to withstandNew York City, November, wind
and rain and maybe snow.
Will Coss (19:16):
Yes, the material is an important part of making
these balloons and making themsuccessfully. The size depends
on the type of character thatwe're doing. Our largest balloon
right now is Spider Man, whichis almost 70 feet long, many.
Jane (19:32):
How many school busses is that?
Will Coss (19:34):
That's probably two school busses long, two and a
half school busses long. MinnieMouse is one of our tallest
balloons at over 60 feet tall.So these are giant. When we say
giant, they are giant. We'restanding here next to Mario
right now, and from the floor wejust come up to about his ear,
and that's his hea. is the onlything that's inflated. So
(19:55):
they're quite big. Some of ourballoons have over 200 pieces
that get melted together to makeour giant balloons, and that's
what the team over here is doingright now on the heat sealers.
Jane (20:06):
The heat sealing machines look kind of like giant sewing
machines, except instead ofhaving a needle and thread to
attach the various pieces offabric, the heat sealing machine
melts the pieces together.
Jen (20:19):
My name is Jen, and I'm a balloon fabricator at the Macy's
Parade studio.
Jane (20:23):
You've got a ton of fabric here. It looks like you're
making a dress for Cinderella orsomething.
Jen (20:27):
I's not Cinderella, but I'm sure you guys do know who I'm
making which I'm not sure if Ican say I can. And it's Derpy
from KPop Demon Hunter. So veryexciting. I'm most pumped about
this balloon. I know we're notsupposed to pick favorites, but
I might have one. And yes, I'msitting at what's called a heat
sealer. So we use really highheat to melt the pieces of the
(20:50):
balloon together before we goand clean and paint it. So it's
really exciting and quite fun.
Jane (20:56):
How do you know where to melt the pieces together?
Jen (21:00):
I have a really wonderful team here that works on the
computer to mark out the piecesfor us. So we have digital
markings that allow us to matchit up like, almost like a puzzle
piece. And we attach the puzzlepieces together so that we get
from hundreds and hundreds oflittle parts one big, awesome
balloon.
Jane (21:17):
And then on this fabric itself, there are lines and
there are numbers, so you'refollowing those directions when
you're using your machine.
Jen (21:26):
Absolutely. Thank goodness I learned how to count, because
if not, we would not have a cat,but maybe some other animal. So
yeah, we use a series of lettersand numbers as codes to go ahead
and build and we also havereally fun little miniature
models of the balloons that alsohelp us put the pieces together.
And I use it as a guide toensure that I'm doing the right
(21:48):
thing.
Jane (21:49):
It looks like you're holding an arm.
Jen (21:50):
It is. This is derpy's Sweet little arm, and we're
currently working on buildingout his limbs. And last bit is
his body. So we're moving alongreally well.
Jane (22:00):
Every balloon starts out white and then gets painted by
hand after it's all puttogether. The paint really
brings the balloons to life andlets you know exactly what
character is floating up therein the sky. And we got a
question from one kid who feelslike a certain favorite
character is being unfairlyoverlooked by the parade.
Mary (22:19):
My name is Mary. I live in UK. My question is, why didn't
Minnie Mouse get brought out inthe Macy's Parade, and why
didn't Daisy Duck get broughtout in the Macy's Parade?
Because they're the boy'sgirlfriends.
Jane (22:38):
Mary, I think, doesn't know that Minnie Mouse was
debuted in the parade last year,I believe. So Minnie is here,
but not Daisy.
Will Coss (22:46):
Minnie is here. We were excited to bring Minnie to
the parade last year. Everyyear, we try to find a
collection of characters thatare known and loved, and our
team sits around a table andtalks about all of the most
exciting characters to includein any one parade, and last year
was Minnie. We've got somespecial surprises this year.
Jane (23:06):
Are there any that you can tell us about that we don't have
to that we don't reveal untilour episode comes out on
November 14?
Will Coss (23:12):
So we have Mario, who will be joining the parade this
year. Shrek will be returning tothe parade this year. We have
Pac Man, who is a legendaryvideo game character that we're
really excited and be Pac Man'sfirst time in the parade this
year, and the one and only BuzzLightyear will be returning to
(23:35):
the parade this year,celebrating Toy Story. So super
excited to see Buzz.
Jane (23:41):
You talk about them like they're alive when you put them
away after the parade, do youlike say goodbye to them and
tell them to have a nice sleep.Are you like see you next year
or maybe in 10 years?
Will Coss (23:52):
Yes, we do. We we treat all of our characters as
our family. We spend a lot oftime with all of our characters.
So after parade, we do takegreat care and making sure that
we fold them in a very specificway, and then we we store them
in what we call our hampers. Soif you think about your hamper
at home, where you put yourdirty laundry, a giant version
(24:13):
of that is where all of ourballoons get rolled up and
folded into, we cover them, andthen we store them at one of our
storage facilities until thenext parade.
Ezra (24:23):
Hi, I am Ezra. I'm four years old. I live in Pittsburgh,
and my question is, why doballoons float inside the sky?
Henry (24:37):
Hi, my name is Henry, and I live in Los Angeles,
California. I'm five and a halfyears old, and my question is,
why do balloons float?
Tom (24:51):
Hello. My name is Tom. I'm six years old. I live in
Potomac, Maryland. My questionis how do balloons float on air?
Becks (25:02):
Hi, my name is Becks. I'm six years old, and I'm from
Canada, Alberta. And my questionis, why do balloons float, if
gravity is pushing down?
Arthur (25:17):
My name is Arthur. I am four years old. I live in
Auckland, New Zealand. Myquestion is, why do balloons
float?
Tyler (25:25):
Hi, my name is Tyler, and I'm five, and I live in
Sunnyvale, California. And myquestion is, how do balloons
float?
Gabby (25:36):
How does the balloon stay up? My name is Gabby, five South
Burlington.
Evelyn (25:43):
Hi. I'm Evelyn from Hinesburg, Vermont, and I'm
four, and I want to know howsome balloons fly and some
don't.
Tilda (25:52):
My name is Tilda, and I'm seven years old, and I live in
Sydney, Australia, and myquestion is, why do balloons
float up with helium inside, butnot without helium, like with
your breath and things likethat?
Riley (26:10):
Hi. My name is Riley. I am nine years old, and I live in
Auckland, New Zealand. Myquestion is, why, when you blow
up a balloon with air, it sinksto the bottom, but when you fill
it up with helium, it floats?
Jane (26:23):
What makes balloons float?
Will Coss (26:26):
Our Macy's Parade balloons float because we put
something called helium insideof the balloon. It's a gas
that's lighter than air, so oncewe put enough of that helium,
similar to your party balloonsthat you'll see on on anyone's
party or celebration. We just dothem in a giant form. So there's
(26:47):
a lot of helium, a lot of gasthat goes into the balloon,
which allows it to float up inthe air. And then once we're
done with the parade, we releasethe helium, we fold it back
down, and we store them for thenext parade.
Jane (26:58):
And you said something very important, which is that
helium is lighter than air, sothe helium rises and the balloon
is pretty light, even thoughit's big, so the balloon, which
is holding all that helium in,rises along with that gas.
Will Coss (27:11):
That's correct. Yes, they're actually heavier than we
might think. They're a couple of100 pounds, with all of the
fabric and the paint. But at 70feet long, we have a lot of
space for helium, and once wefill that with helium, the
balloons rise, and then ourballoon handlers grab onto what
(27:32):
we call bones and hold them andwalk them down the parade route.
Jane (27:36):
Yeah. Amelia wants to know about that.
Amelia (27:39):
I'm eight years old, and I live in Portland, Oregon, and
I have a question about theMacy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
And my question is, how do thosebig balloons hold on just a tiny
string?
Eleanor (27:51):
Hi, my name is Eleanor. I'm four years old. I'm in
California. My question is, howmany people take to hold one
float.
Jane (28:02):
How are those big balloons held on such tiny strings? And
Eleanor is wondering about howmany people it takes.
Will Coss (28:11):
We have over 90 tiny strings on any one giant balloon
which covers the entirety of thecharacter. And each one of those
strings gets held by a personwhich walks the balloon down the
parade route, and each one ofthe strings is fastened to the
balloon itself in a very secureway. We actually design and
(28:35):
engineer the balloon with aspecial material to reinforce
the handle, what we callhandling lines. So it's if you
think about a piece of clothing,and you've got a label stitched
into the clothing, you've got alittle design stitched in. It's
sort of an extra layer ofstitching that goes into these
lines to make sure that they'restrong enough to hold.
Jane (28:58):
And I think you said some of the balloons have 90 of those
strings. Are there 90 people onthe ground holding each balloon?
Will Coss (29:05):
There's at least 90 people on our giant balloons.
Everyone holds one string, whichis attached to a bone, which
they'll hold in their hand. Andin addition to the 90 people on
our giant balloons, we actuallyhave little carts that also help
to keep it safe and secure onthe ground.
Jane (29:25):
Because otherwise it would float away.
Will Coss (29:27):
Otherwise it could potentially float away if
everyone released it. So ifeveryone, if there was big wind
gusts, and everyone decided tolet go, we still hold our
balloons to the ground usingwhat we call a vehicle patch.
Jane (29:40):
You know, it's really interesting, because not only do
you have people here who areartists and engineers and
carpenters, but you also have tohave people who understand
things like weather and windgusts, and not just, well, it's
going to be cloudy and a littlebit windy, but like, it's going
to be cloudy and a little bitmore windy on this part, or when
we. Go around this building,you're going to get a wind gust,
(30:02):
and you have to take that intoaccount when you're building
these things. And then on theday of the parade, you need to
know, because you've got thesehuge balloons and floats and all
of these things that really youneed to be able to control with
the weather conditions.
Will Coss (30:19):
On each one of our balloons, we have what are
called pilots and flightmanagers. So that's the team
that walks out in front of theballoon to help us understand,
okay, this corner is going tohave a big cross wind, so we
might want to bring the balloondown a little bit so we have a
little bit more control over it.
Jane (30:37):
So some people are talking constantly during the parade to
each other to make sure it goessmoothly.
Will Coss (30:41):
The entire team is talking. We encourage the team
to continue to talk and to makesure that the people who are
leading the balloon arecommunicating with all of the
team that are holding theballoon so they know exactly how
high to fly the balloon if theyneed to bring it down, if they
need to move to one side of thestreet or the other side,
depending on the weather.
Jane (30:59):
Do they yell at each other, or do they have headsets?
They yell?
Will Coss (31:04):
We've tried headsets. We've tried a variety of
communication devices. Justprojecting and raising your
voice seems to be the mosteffective way to get the get the
communication across. So there'syelling, there's hand signals,
there's also whistles that weuse at certain points to help
people understand where theyneed to be and where they need
to move.
Jane (31:24):
Can you tell us a whistle signal so that if we are ever
watching the parade, we caninterpret.
Will Coss (31:29):
We use single whistles if we're raising a
balloon or lowering the balloon,so you'll hear it. And that's
one two, and that's how manyessentially rotations we'll use
to make a balloon go from theground to 20 feet in the air,
and then there's a three chirpwhistle that'll be a stop
(31:50):
signal.
Jane (31:53):
What about turn left?
Will Coss (31:55):
Turn left is just a hand signal.
Jane (31:57):
So now you'll know if you ever overhear a whistle or a
three chirp whistle what's aboutto happen with those big
balloons. It's a massiveundertaking to put this parade
together. Will told us there aremore than 5000 people who are
part of the parade each year.There are lots of performers
dancing and singing and playinginstruments, plus all those
people who hold the balloons orstand and wave on the floats.
(32:20):
Will took us up to the thirdfloor to look at the costume
room, and it was massive, too,and filled with everything from
bowling pin to cherry piecostumes to cupcakes to clouds
with propellers to outfits thatmatch the Spider Man balloon and
on and on, rows and rows ofcostumes. Now it's not that easy
(32:40):
to get a job in the parade. Inorder to be a balloon handler,
for example, you have to meetcertain height and weight
requirements so that you'restrong enough to hold down the
balloon. Remember, it's filledwith a lot of helium. And all
the volunteers are people whowork at Macy's, or are the
friends and family members ofpeople who work at Macy's. As
(33:00):
for Will Coss, he's not holdinga balloon or marching in the
parade during the event itself.He's in a TV production truck.
Will Coss (33:08):
Which is where the producers, the director and all
of our technical crew look atall the cameras and select all
of the different shots that yousee on your television screen.
Jane (33:18):
So you might be telling a camera operator. Quick, go down
and show one of the handlers.They look great in their
costume, and they're holdingthat bone and that string really
well. So quick, let's get a shotof them. Now, zoom up and let's
see the face of Mario, becausehis mustache and his nose is
inflated now.
Will Coss (33:36):
Exactly, exactly, yes.
Jane (33:39):
What's your favorite part of the parade?
Will Coss (33:41):
My favorite part of the parade has to be what we
call step off, which is themoment we say 3-2-1, confetti
blows, and it's the officialstart to the parade. There's
just an excitement and an energyup on the Upper West Side. We've
spent the last 18 to 24 monthsbuilding to that moment, and
it's the moment where weofficially start the parade and
(34:05):
begin the celebration for all ofNew York City in America.
Jane (34:09):
I bet that is a pretty exciting moment for the
thousands of people in theparade, not to mention the
millions who are watching. Formany people watching the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade is anannual tradition. What
traditions do you have duringthe holidays that make you feel
happy and connected to yourfamily or your community? For
me, on Thanksgiving, I like togather with my aunts and uncles
(34:31):
and cousins and all of theirkids in Maine for a big family
get together. Some of us like torun in a race in the morning
called a turkey trot, and we alllike to contribute to making the
meal that we share in theafternoon. If you celebrate
Thanksgiving, I hope you have agood one. Thanks to Christine
Nealon and Will Coss at Macy'sfor helping us understand all
(34:53):
the stuff that goes into makingthe Thanksgiving Day Parade. I
always love a chance to getbehind the scenes at some place
cool and learn about all thework that goes into it and all
the different kinds of peoplewho have jobs making interesting
things. That's it for today. Ourshow is produced by Sarah Baik,
Melody Bodette and me, JaneLindholm at Vermont Public and
(35:13):
distributed by PRX. Our thememusic is by Luke Reynolds. Joey
Palumbo is our video producer,and you can see a lot of what we
talked about in this episode onour But Why Kids YouTube
channel. If you like our show,please have your adults help you
give us a thumbs up or a reviewon whatever app you use to
listen to us. And as always,send us your questions about
(35:35):
whatever makes you curious. Havean adult record you and then
send the file toquestions@butwhykids.org We'll
be back in two weeks with an allnew episode until then, stay
curious.
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