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BY ERIC MODEL
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
JOURNEYS INTO NEW JERSEY
Thanksgiving would not be Thanksgiving without the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade — a N.Y.C. tradition since 1924. The parade, which winds its way through the canyons of midtown to 34th Street, draws 3 million in person and many millions more on television. It is also celebrated each year on film through seasonal re-runs of the 1947 classic "Miracle on 34th Street."
Generations have grown up enjoying the marching bands from across America, celebrity floats — and of course the giant balloons, from Felix the Cat (1927) Mickey Mouse (1934) to today's cartoon and movie counterparts.
These days the parade starts at 77th Street and Central Park West (at one time it started at 145th Street in Harlem). There are more than 8,000 participants, and includes balloon handlers, float escorts, clowns, marching bands, cheerleaders, dance groups, and other performers.
But in reality the parade starts right here in New Jersey.
For over 50 years, the floats and balloons featured in the world-famous parade have been designed on this side of the Hudson at the Macy's Parade Studio in Hoboken. It all takes place at a former Tootsie Roll factory on the outside, a non-descript warehouse on Willow Avenue.The lack of flash on the outside intentional as those working there don't want to be interrupted or distracted in their efforts to make a parade look magical on Thanksgiving.
Inside, though, it's a place of magic year-round — as floats come to life in the form of new floats or updates to old ones. It's a scene described by one media account as "Willy Wonka-esque."
Buzz Lightyear, Snoopy, Kermit, Popeye, SpongeBob and all the rest are prepped here before they are sent off to the Big Apple on Thanksgiving eve.
It is here that each float is constructed piece by piece, painted, and waterproofed.
The Macy's design team will have routinely spent months preparing floats. Then, the night before the parade they'll spend a few minutes taking them apart. Before the balloons and floats pass before gazers along the parade route, they must be dismantled and deflated as they are made small enough to squeeze through the Lincoln Tunnel. All the floats are engineered to collapse to no more than 12.5 high and 8 feet wide so that they can all be transported through the Tunnel.
So these created in Hoboken floats must be not just creative, but also structurally sound.
The floats and balloons are themselves escorted to Manhattan by members of the Port Authority, New Jersey state police officers, and city police officers. The convoy of vehicles can be as long as 50 vehicles — a parade itself.
Though the location in Hoboken was supposed to have been a secret, folks have gathered there for years on the night before Thanksgiving to see the floats and balloons make their way across the river on the eve of the big parade.
But change is at hand.
Macy's is moving the studio out of Hoboken to Moonachie in the Meadowlands.
Store and political officials recently celebrated a groundbreaking for a new facility — a 71,476 square foot building that is to be finished by next summer. It will house about 100 artists, builders and balloon technicians who work on the parade year round (The night before the parade 300 are needed to make it work).
A Macy's spokesperson calls the move from Hoboken "bittersweet." They say they have outgrown the 40,000-foot Hoboken space factory — and that further expansion there wasn't an option. They are hoping that the new site can be the studio's home for the next 75 years or more.
When it all happens some time next year, most won't notice any change. But to others it will mark another passing.
But that's next year. For now there's a big parade at hand. After all, all the kids (and kids at heart) will be waiting.
Eric Model explores the "offbeat, off the beaten path overlooked and forgotten" on SIRIUS-XM Radio and at journeysinto.com.
