Flashback: Old Thanksgiving Day Parade Floats

Photos via straatis's flickr and Life.

The 1930 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade certainly looked a little odd compared to the floats we see today. The Bowery Boys have now taken a stroll down memory lane, recalling some of the weirdest balloons to fly above Broadway in history. Above are a couple of old-timers, a Pinocchio from 1935 with a 44-foot nose, and a 1941 fish, which they call "artistic and graceful."

Check out the new and old guard get inflated tonight; and here's a map of the route for tomorrow.

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on November 26, 2008 5:57 PM

Comments [rss]

r1b2

These are great, thanks for posting this.

Shinobi Shaw

The old school balloons were pretty awesome!

sinisterteashop

Designed by hand with a non-digital imagination.

Cobalt

That goldfish -well, at least I think it was gold- looks amazing! I wonder if it had a connection to a particular children's story or something.

Aside from all of the corporate crap for this year the Keith Harring balloon is cool... to think it was less then 30 years ago that he was dodging the cops in the subway while he graffitied and now they work traffic control while his balloon floats along Broadway.

NannyState

This year's Pinocchio will be much like the one above only his nose ain't the thing needing those tethers.

chopp3r

My God! The balloons back then were so much cooler than the crap they drag through the streets today. Next year they're probably going to have a huge iPhone balloon.