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The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade presented by the U.S.-based department store chain Macy's. The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit (with both parades being four years younger than the 6abc Dunkin' Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia). The three-hour Macy's event is held in New York City starting at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thanksgiving Day, and has been televised nationally on NBC since 1952. ==History== In the 1920s, many of Macy's department store employees were first-generation European immigrants. Proud of their new American heritage, they wanted to celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving with the type of festival their parents had loved in Europe. In 1924, the annual Thanksgiving parade started by Louis Bamberger in Newark, New Jersey at the Bamberger's store was transferred to New York City by Macy's. In New York, the employees marched to Macy's flagship store on 34th Street dressed in vibrant costumes. There were floats, professional bands and live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo. At the end of that first parade, as has been the case with every parade since, Santa Claus was welcomed into Herald Square. At this first parade, however, the Jolly Old Elf was enthroned on the Macy's balcony at the 34th Street store entrance, where he was then "crowned" "King of the Kiddies." With an audience of over 250,000 people, the parade was such a success that Macy's declared it would become an annual event. Anthony "Tony" Frederick Sarg loved to work with marionettes from an early age. After moving to London to start his own marionette business, Sarg moved to New York City to perform with his puppets on the street. Macy's heard about Sarg's talents and asked him to design a window display of a parade for the store.〔Sweet, Melissa. Balloons Over Broadway; The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2011. Print〕 Sarg's large animal-shaped balloons, produced by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, replaced the live animals in 1927 when the Felix the Cat balloon made its debut. Felix was filled with air, but by the next year, helium was used to fill the expanding cast of balloons. At the finale of the 1928 parade, the balloons were released into the sky, where they unexpectedly burst. The following year, they were redesigned with safety valves to allow them to float for a few days.〔http://www1.macys.com/campaign/parade/index.jsp?keyword=parade〕 Address labels were sewn into them, so that whoever found and mailed back the discarded balloon received a gift from Macy's.〔 Through the 1930s, the Parade continued to grow, with crowds of over one million people lining the parade route in 1933. The first Mickey Mouse balloon entered the parade in 1934. The annual festivities were broadcast on local radio stations in New York City from 1932 to 1941,〔WOR schedule, "Today on the Radio", ''The New York Times'' Nov. 24, 1932, p. 40. "R adio Today", ''The New York Times'', Nov. 20, 1999, p. 54.〕 and resumed in 1945, running through 1951.〔"Radio Today", ''The New York Times'', Nov. 22, 1945, p. 36. "On the Radio", ''The New York Times'', Nov. 22, 1957, p. 58.〕 The parade was suspended from 1942 to 1944 as a result of World War II, owing to the need for rubber and helium in the war effort.〔"Mayor Plays Role of Dragon Slayer", ''The New York Times'', Nov. 14, 1942, p. 17.〕〔"Get Set, Children, and Your Parents, Too; Genii Are Coming in Thanksgiving Parade", ''The New York Times'', Nov. 14, 2010, p. 27.〕 The parade resumed in 1945 using the route that it followed until 2008. The parade became known nationwide after being prominently featured in the 1947 film, ''Miracle on 34th Street'', which included footage of the 1946 festivities. The event was first broadcast on network television in 1948 (see below). By this point the event, and Macy's sponsorship of it, were sufficiently well-known to give rise to the colloquialism "Macy's Day Parade". Since 1984, the balloons have been made by (Raven Aerostar ) (a division of Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Raven Industries).〔(Firm Flying High With Order for 4 Giant Macy's Parade Balloons - Los Angeles Times ). Articles.latimes.com (1987-11-25). Retrieved on 2013-12-06.〕 Macy's also sponsored the smaller Celebrate the Season Parade in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which is held two days after the main event, from 2006 to 2013. Other American cities also have parades held on Thanksgiving, none of which are run by Macy's. The nation's oldest Thanksgiving parade (the Gimbels parade, which has had many sponsors over the years, and is now known as the 6abc Dunkin' Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade) was first held in Philadelphia in 1920. Other cities with parades on the holiday include the McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade in Chicago, Illinois and parades in Plymouth, Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; Houston, Texas; Detroit, Michigan; and Fountain Hills, Arizona. A parade is also held at the two Disney theme parks, Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort. There is also a second Thanksgiving balloon parade within the New York metropolitan area, the UBS balloon parade in Stamford, Connecticut, located away; that parade is held the Sunday before Thanksgiving, so as to not compete with the parade in New York City and usually does not duplicate any balloon characters. The classic "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" logo (seen below) was, with one exception, last used in 2005. For 2006, a special variant of the logo was used. Every year since then, a new logo has been used for each parade. The logos however are seen rarely, if at all, on television as NBC has used its own logo with the word "Macy's" in a script typeface and "Thanksgiving Day Parade" in a bold font. The logos are assumed to be for use by Macy's only, such as on the Grandstand tickets and the ID badges worn by parade staff. The Jackets worn by parade staff still bear the original classic parade logo, this being the only place where that logo can be found. New safety measures were incorporated in 2006 to prevent accidents and balloon-related injuries. One measure taken was the installation of wind measurement devices to alert parade organizers to any unsafe conditions that could cause the balloons to behave erratically. In addition, parade officials implemented a measure to keep the balloons closer to the ground during windy conditions. If wind speeds are forecast to be higher than , all balloons are removed from the parade. In 2007, the journal ''Puppetry International'' published a first person account of being a balloon handler.〔Langsner, Meron "Parading With the Pink Panther Pulling Posse: An Account of Being a Balloon Hander in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade," ''Puppetry International'' , Fall/Winter 2007- Issue No. 22〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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