Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloons of Yesteryear

Maybe Gothamist has Thanksgiving on the brain, what with yesterday's Pikachu balloon test, and our overall love of the holiday (we love turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and...). But how could we not post about some great photographs from a 1930s Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? Reader Jon sent us a link to a Swaptorium post describing a trove of photographs found in a small Texas town. Swaptorium writes, "The marquee on the movie theater is showing Divorce in the Family with Jackie Cooper which would date the photos to around 1932."

There are more beautiful photographs on Swaptorium, including ones with Felix the Cat. And the city's Office of Emergency Management was very pleased with yesterday's test run - and did you know the Department of Transportation has had street lights and street lamps moved out of the way for the parade?

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By Jen Chung in Arts and Events, News on May 23, 2006 2:17 PM

Comments [rss]

White Power

Yeah. These pictures remind of how New York Should be.

zincink

Great photos! I think I might make a few desktops out of them..I scanned in only one book of old photos and it took hourrrsss of scanning..ugh! One book...12 to go...yipes!

Jixx rag

Amazing coincidence! Everything was entirely awful until the exact day of Jixx's birth, when everyone suddenly accquired a conscience, and all social ills disappeared.

No, seriously, Jixx is right. It's wrong to enjoy old photos, particularly of the Macy's parade, because racism was more prevalent then. In fifty years, everyone will look at our snapshots and know how evil we were, because racism still existed in 2006.

Meredith

And goodness knows that nothing else happened in the '30s besides segregation and mob lynchings. Yup, just those two things, all over the history books.

timbnyc

I think segregation on NYC transit was outlawed well before 1932. The story I remember is, a black woman was ticketed and either a judge or jury or DA refused to enforce the ticket, so the law was effectively dead.

Tim N.

Amazing photos. Can anyone place the corner? That looks like a large luxury apartment building in the background, but it also looks like the 6th Ave El in some of them as well.

jixx

ahhh. the good old days of segregration and mob lynchings. brings back memories. That's when colors had to go into the back of the bus. Awesome memories gothamist.