Santa's Whiskers
Parades to see
The In 1930 a Mother Goose flat re-appeared and would become the parade’s longest running float (30 years). http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.com/2013_11_1_archive.html
Fred Lazarus Jr. persuaded President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 to move Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of the month to prolong the holiday shopping season. http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/print-edition/2012/02/17/shaping-columbus-fred-lazarus-jr.html?s=image_gallery Jobless and homeless men wait for a free dinner in New York in this 1932 file photo. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/28698830/ns/business-personal_finance/#.U4qZEpRdXGI The Mother Goose float led off the first J.L. Hudson Thanksgiving Day parade (1924) http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC43VC6_ghq-i-love-a-parade The Santa Float in the 1924 Macy’s Parade. http://www.richardcassaro.com/macys-mind-control-strategies-symbolsGimbels Thanksgiving Parade in 1934 at Broad near Arch. http://ilovebricks.blogspot.com/2010/11/gimbels-thanksgiving-day-parade.html Barnum & Bailey Circus entering town. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/v/victorian-circus/ “The Age” Brighton Coach in front of the “Bull & Mouth”, Regent Circus, Piccadilly. http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/work.aspx?obj=13891The Traveling Circus. Similar to the circus carts during Middle Ages. Painted by Noel Saunier, middle or late 1800’s. http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/Noel-Saunier/The-Travelling-Circus.html Ancient Roman Procession. http://www.bible-history.com/ibh/Roman+Customs/Procession/Procession+of+Roman+Soldier
Ancient Greek procession of the Dionysia.
http://www.learner.org/courses/worldlit/bacchae/explore/
Christmas Parades
Who doesn’t love a parade? Parades are fun! Colorful decorated floats, brightly costumed people, bands playing music, dignitaries in shiny cars, lots of enthusiasm, smiles and noise. And the traditional Thanksgiving Day, or Christmas, parade is especially fun because it announces the arrival of Santa Claus and the beginning of the holiday season. The History of Parades
But parades have a history long before that of Christmas. Ancient paintings in Spanish caves that date back ten thousand years suggest that the earliest parades consisted of prehistoric men carrying back to camp the game they had killed during the hunt. http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/byrnes-celebrations/parades.html
Building illustrations from 4000 – 3000 B.C. show Mesopotamian rulers walking on the heads of conquered enemies in front of their army, an action designed to lift the monarch’s prestige and cement his legitimacy as a ruler. http://www.historyofthings.com/history-of-parades
As early as 3000 B.C. religious processions were another form of parade, formed in the hopes of moving a step nearer to heaven.
By 700 – 600 B.C. the ancient Greeks brought
together in their parades all the essential items
needed in modern parades, including music,
marchers, floats and animals.
For the ancient Romans, 500 B.C. – 500 A.D.,
the parade was a military maneuver, an army
marching together to frighten many of their
enemies. But during this time parades were
also held to introduce performers from the
circus. And the Romans would also have
parades for the different seasons, and civil
parades called “triumphs” to celebrate special
occasions. http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/
units/byrnes-celebrations/parades.html
During the Middle Ages, 500 – 1400 A.D., circus parades and
brightly painted carts of Italy brightened people’s lives amidst
the misery of medieval times. The parades developed a flashy
and exotic mood and the public waited in anticipation for such
events. http://www.historyofthings.com/history-of-parades
The modern circus was created in England by Philip Astley
(1742-1814), a former cavalry Sargeant-Major turned
showman. In England circus performances were performed
in circus buildings and every major European city had at
least one permanent circus building.
But in the early nineteenth century, the United States was a new, developing country with few cities large enough to support long-term resident circuses. And settlers were steadily pushing the American frontier westward, establishing new communities in the process of expansion. To reach their public, showmen had no choice but to travel light and fast. http://www.circopedia.org/SHORT_HISTORY_OF_THE_CIRCUS
The larger circuses would announce their arrival in town with a
circus parade, which was a natural advertisement that would
attract crowds to the performance.
The ModernChristmas Parade
1887 Peoria, Illinois
It’s interesting to note that the longest running Christmas parade had its start during the growing popularity of American circuses. In Peoria, Illinois, the tradition began in 1887, with a parade on the Illinois River of barges, boats and derricks as part of the construction of the Upper Free Bridge. Santa Claus made his first appearance that year, arriving on a river barge.
The following year the parade was moved to land and wound its way through downtown Peoria. From then on Santa’s spot in the parade was in a horse-drawn carriage, on a Mother Goose float or atop a 12-foot gilded circus wagon.
In 1889, and for the next 71 years of the parade’s history, local department store Schipper & Block sponsored the event, creating the concept of the department store parade that was later emulated in larger cities. http://americanprofile.com/articles/americas-longest-running-christmas-parade/
1905 Toronto, Canada
1905 saw the beginning of what was to become one of the
largest parades. The Toronto Santa Claus Parade was started in
1905 by the Eaton’s department store. That first year Santa
arrived on a train, met Mr. and Mrs. Eaton, and then walked to
the Eaton’s downtown store. The first float was introduced in
1908 and consisted of one truck with a band to accompany
Santa. The annual mid-November parade now has over 24
floats, 24 bands, and 1,700 participants. http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Santa_Claus_parade
1920 Philadelphia
Gimbels Department Store in Philadelphia started its parade
in 1920. That first parade was made up of fifty Gimbels
employees, but quickly grew into a festival of floats, balloons
and high school marching bands. At the end of the parade
came Santa Claus who, upon reaching Gimbels, scaled a
ladder to the store’s eighth floor, the home of Gimbel’s
“Toyland.” By 1986 the parade boasted twenty bands, twenty
floats and forty-eight balloons, as well as 4,500 people
assisting with the production. http://www.phillyhistory.org/
blog/index.php/2010/11/floats-balloons-and-celebrities-
oh-my-philadelphias-thanksgiving-day-parade/
The Philadelphia parade claims to be the oldest parade in the
United States actually held on Thanksgiving Day, as the older
parade in Peoria is held the day after.
1924 New York City
In 1924 Macy’s employees started the Macy’s
Christmas Parade in New York, which featured
animals from the Central Park Zoo. There were
three floats pulled by horses, four bands and the
animals – camels, donkeys, elephants and goats.
Santa Claus was the last in the lineup.
In 1927 the parade debuted Felix the Cat, the
first of what would become the parade’s
signature balloons. By 2006 there were more
than 33 floats, 12 giant character balloons, and
48 novelty, ornamental balloons, balloon heads
and balloonicles. http://people.howstuffworks.
com/culture-traditions/holidays-other/macys-
thanksgiving-day-parade1.htm
Today, the parade is seen by more than 3.5 million people in New York and 50 million people at home watching television. Since 1979 twelve televised broadcasts of the parade have been awarded Emmys for outstanding achievement. http://social.macys.com/parade/#/about/history/5
1924 Detroit, Michigan
The same year that Macy’s started its parade (1924), the
J. L. Hudson Company staged its first Thanksgiving
Parade in Detroit, Michigan. Charles F. Wendel, the
display manager at Hudsons, organized the first parade.
Inspired by the papier-mache heads he had seen at
carnivals in Venice and Viareggio, Italy, he had four
created for that first parade. http://detroit.about.com/
od/halloweenattractions/a/parade_history.htm
The giant heads came from a small studio in Viareggio,
Italy, hand made by Alfredo Morescalchi and his staff.
Morescalchi was the chief designer of flats and masks
for the Viareggio carnival, the largest in Italy. Over the
years he made hundreds of heads for the Hudson’s
parade. The heads in Italy are three stories high, but because of overhead wires, the Detroit heads were smaller. In Detroit, Charlie Gettel patched and pampered the heads for more than 45 years. Famous people portrayed by the more than 600 heads included Henry Ford, Rosa Parks, Charles Lindbergh and Joe Louis.
The first parade also had four bands, ten floats depicting nursery rhymes (including a decorated Mother Goose float and The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe float, both pulled by horses). In 1925, 300 male employees of Hudson’s marched in the parade. Detroit Creamery loaned its horses and wagons to pull the 26 floats and Santa. A live elephant was used to promote a toy sold at the store. http://www.forensicgenealogy.info/contest_89_results.html
Over the years the parade has grown with giant balloons, floats, marching bands, cartoon characters, celebrities and more. It was first televised locally in 1948 and is now broadcast nationally to more than 100 million viewers. http://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/americas-thanksgiving-day-parade
Changing the Date of Thanksgiving
Not longer after these early parades took root and began to
grow, The Great Depression of 1929 started. It was severe and
worldwide, the longest, deepest and most widespread
depression of the 20th century. Personal income, tax revenue,
profits and prices dropped, international trade plunged by
more than 50%. Unemployment rose to 25%. The Depression
lasted until the late 1930’s or early 1940’s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression
All of which had its impact on retailers like Macy’s, Hudson’s,
Gimbel’s, Eaton’s and others. The Christmas season was (and
is) an important income-generating time of year for stores of
all kinds. At the time, advertising goods for Christmas before
Thanksgiving was considered inappropriate.
Traditionally each President had annually declared the last
Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving Day. Most of the
time that meant the fourth Thursday in the month. But every
five years there are five Thursdays in the month of November,
an opportunity for retailers to have a longer Christmas season.
1939 was such a year. Fred Lazarus, Jr., founder of Macy’s, is credited with
asking President Roosevelt to push Thanksgiving that year to a week
earlier to expand the shopping season. With the country still in the midst
of The Great Depression, Roosevelt thought an earlier Thanksgiving
would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas,
increasing profits and spending. He hoped this would help bring the
country out of the Depression, so he declared the fourth Thursday of
November 1939 as Thanksgiving. Within two years the change passed
through Congress into law. http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/
a/thanksgiving.htm and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)