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- | The 1st Annual Macy's Christmas Parade (1924) | The 2nd Annual Macy's Christmas Parade (1925) | 
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The 1st Annual Macy's Christmas Parade was held on November 27, 1924, in New York City. The inaugural event took place from 9 a.m. to noon EST. The lineup featured four floats, four bands, hundreds of Macy's employees and professional performers, and the one-and-only Santa Claus.
Overview[]
The first-ever Macy’s Christmas Parade was ideated and directed by Macy’s advertising manager James A. Goold. The idea came about when store executives wished to do something special to celebrate the expansion of Macy’s Herald Square into the “World’s Largest Store” earlier in the year.[1] The store’s employees (many of which were first-generation European immigrants) played a large part in staging the inaugural event, as it evoked the street festivals held in their homeland to celebrate special occasions and good fortune. Herbert Straus, president of Macy’s, announced at a luncheon two weeks before the Parade that the department store would put on a show that would “set the city on its ear.”[1][2]
Led by a mounted police escort, the first Macy’s Parade stepped off at 9 a.m. sharp at 145th Street and Convent Avenue in Harlem. The two-block procession traveled down Convent Avenue, Morningside Avenue, and Manhattan Avenue before turning left onto 110th Street. It then traveled west to Broadway, where it continued until Columbus Circle. Heading down 8th Avenue to 40th Street, the Parade turned east on Broadway. The final stretch of the Parade was from Broadway to 34th Street, where its grand finale took place.
In Macy’s first “Marathon of Mirth,” were floats based on nursery rhyme stories, the most elaborate of which featured Santa Claus riding in his sleigh on a mountain of ice and snow. Filling the space between the floats were tumbling clowns, bareback riders, freaks, cowboys and girls, and other merry-makers. Live animals from the Central Park Zoo were brought in to create an impromptu circus featuring lions, monkeys, and camels. Walter F. Donor, a ringmaster-turned-assistant superintendent of delivery at Macy’s, organized the circus division of the parade that included 35 clowns refereeing a wrestling match between two grizzly bears in an open cage.[3]
Music for the day was provided by four bands—a jazz band of Macy’s African-American employees, a clown band of other Macy’s employees, a 75-piece military band, and a drum and bugle corps. Funny page characters took to the streets (as costumed characters) with the likes of Krazy Kat, Ignatz Mouse, and Silk Hat Harry.[3]
The Parade’s closing act featured Santa arriving at Macy’s to a crowd of an estimated 10,000 people.[4] After being crowned the “King of the Kiddies,” Santa scaled a ladder and sat on the Throne of Gold on the store’s newly-erected entrance marquee. With a wave of his hand and the bellow of a trumpet, that year’s Macy’s Holiday Windows were unveiled, set to the theme of “The Fairyfolk Frolics of Wonderland.”
Macy’s announced in newspapers the following day that, because of the resounding success of the day’s events, such a parade would be held thereafter as part of Macy’s holiday celebrations.[4]
Parade Lineup[]
Listed below are the parade elements that appeared in the 1924 Macy’s Christmas Parade. They are categorized by unit type, with their respective sponsors in bold. Home locations of talent ensembles are featured in brackets, and the guest star’s float appearances are indicated in bold.
Bold denotes a new parade element, and an asterisk (*) indicates an element that was retired after the 1924 Parade.
Floats[]
- The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe* (Macy's) - 1st time
- Little Miss Muffet* (Macy's) - 1st time
- Three Men In a Tub* (Macy's) - 1st time
- Santa's Sleigh* (Macy's) - 1st time
Specialty Units[]
- NYPD Mounted Unit - 1st time
- Central Park Zoo Animals - 1st time
Guest Stars[]
- Three Men In a Tub (Three Men In a Tub)
- Little Miss Muffet (Little Miss Muffet)
- Santa Claus (Santa's Sleigh)
Costumed Characters[]
Trivia[]
- 1924 was the first time in history that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade would start and was created/brought to life by Macy's and Tony Sarg, but would be called the Macy's Christmas Parade (despite being on thanksgiving) until 1931 where to this day it would be the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and would still be to this day as a holiday event.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 (2006) Inside Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, History Channel.
- ↑ Madden, Stephen. Sullivan, Robert (2001). Life: America's Parade: Celebrating 75 Years of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. LIFE Magazine.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Macy Christmas Parade Big Thanksgiving Day Feature," The Central New Jersey Home News. November 26, 1924.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Grippo, Robert (2004). Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Arcadia Publishing.