How Does Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Work?

Thousands of participants and millions of viewers turn out every year for the spectacle that is the Macy's Parade. Learn its history and what goes into running it in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, production of I Heart Radio, Hey
brain Stuff. Lauren vog obam here on the fourth Thursday
of the month, the same day that most Americans gather
around the dining table to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, The
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade marches through the streets of New
York City. Elaborate floats, giant helium balloons, marching bands, acrobats,

(00:23):
and celebrities create a carnival esque atmosphere. For more than
eighty years, the parade has drawn spectators who line the
streets and cheer on the participants. Covering two and a
half miles, the three hour spectacle runs from nine am
to noon. The holiday event has grown and grown over
time from a small parade of floats and live animals
organized by Macy's employees into a large scale, annual tradition

(00:46):
to this day. Though apart from performing talent, all other
parade participants, such as balloon handlers, are Macy's employees and
their family and friends. The parade showcases more than eight
thousand participants and crowds. More than three point five million
spectators cram Manhattan streets for a close up view. Another
fifty million watched the parade on TV. So how did

(01:08):
we get here? Macy's Department Store celebrates its sixty one
anniversary in twenty nineteen. The store staged its first Thanksgiving
Day parade in nine. That year, it was called the
Macy's Christmas Parade, and it featured three floats pulled by horses,
four bands, and zoo animals from these Central Park Zoo,
including camels, donkeys, elephants, and goats. Santa Claus was last

(01:33):
in the lineup, a tradition that continues to this day.
It was all staged by and at the request of
Macy's employees, many of whom had just emigrated to America
from Europe and longed to celebrate their new home. In seven,
the gigantic balloons that are now the signature element of
the parade made their first appearance. With the help of helium.

(01:53):
The balloons replaced the zoo animals that were frightening to
some children, and the first balloons included cartoon characters like
phil Cat. At the conclusion of the parade, the giant
balloons were released into the air. In nineteen twenty eight,
Macy's began offering a one dollar reward for any returned balloons,
which were fixed with the return address label. In nineteen
thirty one, pilot Colonel Clarence E. Chamberlain snagged a balloon

(02:16):
with his airplane's wings, leading to a ban on retrieval
by airplanes. The following year, and after the nineteen thirty
two parade, another pilot attempted to capture a balloon and
nearly crashed, leading Macy's to discontinue releasing the balloons. At
the parade's end. In nineteen thirty four, celebrities became an
important element of the parade, but singer actor Eddie Canter
joining the event that year. The Mickey Mouse helium balloon

(02:40):
was also introduced to that year to parade goers. From
nineteen forty two to nineteen forty four, the parade was
canceled because of the shortage of helium and rubber during
World War Two. Those three years are the only time
that the celebration has ever been called off. When the
parade returned in nineteen forty five, it was broadcast on
television for the first time and was bigger that our
lear versions, but the floats didn't achieve their current spectacle

(03:03):
status until nineteen sixty nine, when one Manfred Bass began
creating them. Bass designed them so that they could be
flattened for their trip through the Holland Tunnel. They were
then reassembled during the pre dawn hours of the parade. Today,
Macy's begins planning for the parade at least a year
in advance, and includes float and balloon creation, celebrity booking,

(03:24):
volunteer coordination, and training for clowns and balloon handlers. As
the parade grows closer, the preparations get more intense. In
nineteen Macy's is celebrating its ninety third parade with twenty
six floats, sixteen giant helium character balloons, and forty heritage
and novelty balloons and eleven marching bands. But let's talk

(03:44):
about those balloons. In a former Tutsi roll factory in Hoboken,
New Jersey, just across the river from New York City,
the balloons are created by the Macy's Parade Studio. It
all starts with the pencil sketch. Aerodynamic and engineering consultants
assist with calculations to make sure the balloon will fly properly.
Exact scale replicas, one made out of clay and one
a painted model are fashioned before the actual balloon is

(04:06):
cut out of fabric. Each balloon has several chambers and
includes a zipper, an inflation device, and a high pressure valve.
Flight inflation and deflation tests are run and cosmetic adjustments
are made. Finally, the balloon can appear in the parade
up to a year after the process began. Balloons these
days are constructed of polyurethane, though they used to be

(04:27):
made of rubber. Since the switch from air to helium,
these behemouth balloons have coasted along with a big dose
of help from volunteer balloon wranglers, but it hasn't always
been that easy to keep the balloons afloat. In nineteen
fifty eight, the balloons were filled with air and hoisted
by cranes onto trucks due to a helium shortage and
poor weather conditions kept the balloons from being inflated at

(04:47):
all in nineteen seventy one. The balloons dimensions vary, but
most are about five to six stories high and somewhere
around sixty feet long and thirty feet wide. Each balloon
needs around ninety handlers. In all, there are around two
to three thousand balloon handlers for the parade. These handlers
must weigh at least a hundred and twenty pounds and

(05:07):
be in good health. Of those, only a few hundred
team leaders are required to attend training, though all are invited.
Training includes lessons on aerodynamics, geometry, and physics. Then volunteers
practice handling one of the big balloons on a field.
The team leaders include an overall leader, pilot, captain, and
two drivers. A police officer marches with each balloon. The

(05:29):
handlers hold the ropes to guide the balloon, and each
balloon is also tethered to to eight hundred pound utility vehicles.
Instruments that measure the speed of wind, called anemometers I think,
are mounted on poles at key points along the route,
and each one is monitored with a portable computer by
a police officer and a New York City Office of
Emergency Management representative. Well before the parade begins, objects that

(05:52):
could obstruct balloons, including arms of lamp posts, traffic signal polls,
street lights, and trees, are either altered or remove On
the eve of the parade, the balloons and floats are
brought to New York City and set up begins by
six am on Thanksgiving Day, the balloons and floats are
ready to go, and parade participants take their places for
the nine am parade start. After the parade, floats are

(06:14):
immediately disassembled, balloons deflated, and all are returned to their
warehouse in Hoboken. Today's episode was written by Kathleen Seiler
Neary and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a
production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. For more
on this and lots of other well coordinated topics, visit
our home planet, how stuff works dot com, and for

(06:36):
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