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Speaker 1: Too Much Information is a production of iHeartRadio. Hello everyone,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to Too Much Information, the show that brings

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Speaker 1: you the secret history and little known facts behind your

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Speaker 1: favorite movies, music, TV shows, and more. We are your

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Speaker 1: inflatable cartoon characters of Info. Nope, your festive float riders

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Speaker 1: of facts, Nope, your department store divas of details. Giving

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Speaker 1: thanks for each and every one of you tuned in today. Nope.

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Speaker 1: My name is Jordan run Tug. No, come on, those

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Speaker 1: are all good? Now? Those were all solid?

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Speaker 2: Nope, every single one a miss? How would you have

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Speaker 2: done that?

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Speaker 1: Not at all? I'm Alex Igel.

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Speaker 2: Why do you care about the Mazy's Thanksgiving Parade?

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Speaker 1: Jordan? Well, I'll tell you well. I had a whole

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Speaker 1: intro written that I was going to tease that, but

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Speaker 1: I guess I'll go right into it now. You know why.

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Speaker 1: In the recent episode, I think it was the candy episode,

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Speaker 1: we talked about how the super Bowl was one of

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Speaker 1: the last vestiges of monoculture that we yes, and I

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Speaker 1: think I would also include the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

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Speaker 1: on that short list. Unlike the super Bowl or even

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Speaker 1: the Olympics, it's an event that's purely based on frivolous fun.

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Speaker 1: And I see the Thanksgiving Day Parade as a descendant

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Speaker 1: of variety show vaudeville, which is largely extinct in twenty

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Speaker 1: first century mass media. Okay, you don't have plate spinners,

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Speaker 1: you don't have acrobats, you don't have novelty acts like

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Speaker 1: that's gone. That's gone. This is the closest thing we

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Speaker 1: have that's part of our culture, is it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're connecting Vaudeville to all the Ed Sullivan like

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Speaker 2: goofy stuff to the Macy's Day Parade.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I said, it's a descendants. I mean, there's nothing

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Speaker 1: else out there like this. You know, we got the

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Speaker 1: Dick Clark Rock in New Year's Eve that's basically a

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Speaker 1: lame halftime show. It's been updated and new oblivion. It's nothing.

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Speaker 1: You got the Fourth of July Fireworks, which are also

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Speaker 1: hosted by Macy's. That just doesn't have the same It's good,

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Speaker 1: it lacks the goofiness factory. You know, you got the

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Speaker 1: Boston Pops it's too stuffy. You know. The Oscars they

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Speaker 1: swing wildly between taking themselves too seriously and then also

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Speaker 1: revealing troubling truths about our society. The maces, Thanks Saving,

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Speaker 1: they parade. It just it makes no bones about what

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Speaker 1: it is. It's pure stupid, giddy, corny celebration, and I

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Speaker 1: think we need that. I strongly believe in that. And

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm not gonna lie. I've fallen off from

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Speaker 1: watching it regularly, but I still get happy when I'm

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Speaker 1: walking between rooms with casserole dishes or tablecloths on Thanksgiving

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Speaker 1: morning and I see that it's still on.

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Speaker 2: I guess, I just I don't disagree with what you're

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Speaker 2: saying about those other aspects of monoculture, but I guess

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Speaker 2: I just like, is this really such a thing. I

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Speaker 2: would have thought, like football was morph being on Thanksgiving?

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Speaker 1: Or really macus thanks Ev they parade. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: guess you know, I'll leave it to listeners to tweet

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Speaker 1: at us.

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Speaker 2: No, No, I mean I remember my mom liking it

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Speaker 2: a good bit mine too.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I never once went for it when I was in

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Speaker 2: New York, did you?

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Speaker 1: Oh? No, god, no, Well it was either I was

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Speaker 1: always home first of all, right, But even if I wasn't,

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Speaker 1: I would like to see the inflating of the balloons

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Speaker 1: the night before, or that'd be kind of cool. That

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Speaker 1: seems a little less chaotic. But yeah, no, I mean

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Speaker 1: for the same reason I would never do the ball

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Speaker 1: on Times Square. Sure the people in the cold, No, yeah, well, yeah,

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Speaker 1: what do you think about this? I guess you don't

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Speaker 1: think about that. I don't think about it. It's Whitney

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Speaker 1: Houston on Mariah Carrey. I don't think about you at all. Yeah, yeah, looked.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it does seem unbearably quaint in the sense of, like,

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Speaker 2: you know, let's get a bunch of large things and

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Speaker 2: put them down a street.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's hilarious that we still have that. Yes, it's hilarious.

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Speaker 1: They spent you know, it's for me. It's the same

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Speaker 1: reason that I love big, stupid musicals, because I find

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Speaker 1: the inherent joke of it all. Wow, somebody took a

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Speaker 1: lot of time and effort and money and got a

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Speaker 1: whole bunch of other people and convinced them that this

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Speaker 1: was a good idea, put all these resources into it

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Speaker 1: for something that's really kind of goofy. And I admire

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Speaker 1: that hutzpah. I find that idalism. I find it to

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Speaker 1: be both the best and the worst of being American.

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Speaker 1: And I think that that sums up thanksgiving perfectly. A

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Speaker 1: day of giving thanks and gratitude, but also a day

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Speaker 1: of absolute gluttony and waste. I think it's the same

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Speaker 1: I guess of America.

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Speaker 2: I guess I just don't see the artistry in it

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Speaker 2: in like the same sense as like, oh, my friend, no,

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Speaker 2: I kind of.

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Speaker 1: Got seventeenth pages.

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Speaker 2: I'm no, I'm well. But to me, artistry is different

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Speaker 2: from craftsman show. Yeah, yeah, you're just The Macy's Day

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Speaker 2: Parade is an example of like, yeah, organization and craftsmanship,

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Speaker 2: but it's not like it's not a musical.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry.

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Speaker 2: There's at least some like emotional content to a musical.

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Speaker 2: I just I don't get the get You watch a

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Speaker 2: big spider man float down the street and you're you're

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Speaker 2: what transcended? Like, what does that tell us about the

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Speaker 2: human experience? I think it's the same as a firework.

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Speaker 2: How do you feel about watching a firework?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? No, fireworks whip? Well okay, but yes, I know

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Speaker 1: they whip, but yeah, it's the same experience of everybody

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Speaker 1: in one place looking up and going wow.

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Speaker 2: Maybe I guess I connect fireworks to something more primal,

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Speaker 2: which is just like the fire Yeah, the love of

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Speaker 2: blowing of things exploding. I don't like, well we got

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Speaker 2: some exploding. Yeah no, but that's like the first love

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Speaker 2: of man other than violence and sex. It's probably an alcohol.

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Speaker 2: It's probably it's gotta be top five, right.

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Speaker 1: Well okay, well what about looking to the sky waiting

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Speaker 1: for a giant being to come down and grace you.

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Speaker 2: Your reaching is what you're doing, and I respect it

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Speaker 2: because that's what you do. But no, I don't get it.

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Speaker 2: And I feel like if it went away, I would

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Speaker 2: go huh and then never think about it ever again

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Speaker 2: in my life once ever. And I didn't realize this

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Speaker 2: was such a thing for you, Like you turned this

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Speaker 2: around in like three days after being like, well I'm

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Speaker 2: getting into the Macy state. Red Just it kind of

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Speaker 2: came out of nowhere for me.

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Speaker 1: I mean, don't ever underestimate my ability to just get

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Speaker 1: interested in anything and then spin it into something that's true.

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Speaker 1: That's true.

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Speaker 2: Okay, man, all right, I'm willing to go along with it.

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Speaker 2: I'm here for it. It's giving.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think you've read through this at all,

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Speaker 1: So I think this is bringing a lot of live react.

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Speaker 2: It's giving thanks, it's giving balloons. Do you like balloons?

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Speaker 1: Not any more than the average in the average bear.

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Speaker 2: So you're not like a like, I'm not a lunar.

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Speaker 1: No.

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Speaker 2: So but if somebody like, if somebody like brought you say.

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Speaker 1: No, I wouldn't. I'd say, well, now I got to

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Speaker 1: deal with this until yeah, till it. Yeah, it's like

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Speaker 1: a pad I didn't ask for. Well, I have to,

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Speaker 1: I have to take kind of I feel about flowers too.

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Speaker 1: It's like, well, I gotta take care of this is

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Speaker 1: going to die until it dies. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you brought me something a corpse to dispose of.

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Speaker 1: Well, here's a question I never would have thought. I

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Speaker 1: would have asked you on the show, what do you

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Speaker 1: think about balloon's Heigel?

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Speaker 2: You know, I can take them or leave them. I

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Speaker 2: find it funny that it's an art form that is persisted.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I get, you know, there for kids, and

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Speaker 2: you can inhale the helium and it'll make your voice

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Speaker 2: sound funny.

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Speaker 1: Although I don't.

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Speaker 2: I did have a terrifying I remember one time my

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Speaker 2: high school chemistry teacher was like talking about how helium

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Speaker 2: like paralyzes your vocal chords.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm not good to do that as.

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Speaker 2: It yeah, and then like as an aside, and she

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Speaker 2: was like, she was like, also, my husband is dying,

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Speaker 2: and that's what's happened to him. It's just like a

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Speaker 2: very very bizarre moment of being like sixteen and having

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Speaker 2: an adult just like drop like she was a bit

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Speaker 2: of a kook god lover. She's a water witch in

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Speaker 2: rural Pennsylvania when she was growing up.

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Speaker 1: What is a water witch? Dowsing? You know? Dowsing? I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know that's sick. I would, but I don't.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's like an old folk magic thing where you

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Speaker 2: walk around with a stick and.

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Speaker 1: Well the stick Oh yeah, I didn't know that was

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Speaker 1: what that was called.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And she was like thought to have had

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Speaker 2: that power in Pennsylki.

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Speaker 1: Wherever. What are you looking for with the stick water?

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Speaker 2: I mean it would be in like Appalachia and ok

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Speaker 2: Appalachia sorry, an Appalachia and such. That would be where

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Speaker 2: you would sink your well where the water witch told you.

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Speaker 1: That's the hell of a racket. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Maybe that's why I don't like balloons, just because she traumatize.

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Speaker 1: Me in that good way. Uh yeah, I don't know.

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Speaker 2: I don't give you bubballoons, you know what I like

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Speaker 2: pumpkin pie? Yeah, why didn't you give me seventeen pages

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Speaker 2: on pumpkin pie?

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Speaker 1: I see it must more of a pecana guy, though,

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Speaker 1: I'll allow it.

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Speaker 2: I'm not offended by that. At least you didn't say apple.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad you said that. I don't like apple pie

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Speaker 1: and that's everyone's favorite. Not like it.

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Speaker 2: I just find it so basic.

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Speaker 1: Well yeah, well that yeah.

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Speaker 2: Do you just want to just shoot the for this

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Speaker 2: whole episode about Thanksgiving?

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Speaker 1: We can we can work that. We could definitely work

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Speaker 1: at a secon can do a type five on pies. Well, cranberries,

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Speaker 1: I like what about that? I like cranberry sauce the

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Speaker 1: older I get. Do you like it out of a can?

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Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying.

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Speaker 2: I like that weird gelatinous stuff where it shakes out

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Speaker 2: of the can in one form and you can still

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Speaker 2: see the indentations of the ridges. YEA love that. That's

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Speaker 2: America to me, and that's beautiful. All right, take it away.

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Speaker 1: Well from we will have fun. I promise I sense

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Speaker 1: how anxious you are right now. We will have fun.

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Speaker 1: It will be okay. I never said we wouldn't. I

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Speaker 1: just no, continue going at the end of this episode. Okay, folks,

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Speaker 1: I'm calling out at the end of this episode. I

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Speaker 1: want to check in with you. This is going to

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Speaker 1: be so much more entertaining than you ever thought, because

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Speaker 1: here's the fundamental difference between you and I about how

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Speaker 1: we approach this series. I don't mind covering things that

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Speaker 1: I don't care about as long as the stories are interesting,

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Speaker 1: Whereas you, if you don't care about the topic, that's

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Speaker 1: it for you, and that's interesting to me. Okay. That's

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Speaker 1: why I was able to turn around seventeen pages on

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Speaker 1: the Macy's Thanksgiving they parayed in like two days. I've

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Speaker 1: never really thought much about it before this, and then

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Speaker 1: the more I dug into it, the more I found

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Speaker 1: interesting stuff. And that's beautiful, and now we get to

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Speaker 1: share that with people. That is what I am thankful

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Speaker 1: for Thanksgiving. That is America, and that is what I

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Speaker 1: am thankful for this Thanksgiving well, folks. From Macy's connection

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Speaker 1: to my beloved Titanic, to the time stray balloons nearly

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Speaker 1: crashed an airplane, to the sweat field bootcamp like life

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Speaker 1: of a Rocket to the hilarious pettiness between rival TV

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Speaker 1: networks for broadcasting rights, here is everything you didn't know

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Speaker 1: about Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Now, before we talk about

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Speaker 1: Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, Heigel, do you know the Ragamuffin Man?

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Speaker 1: Is it like a the rag and bone Man? No, no, no,

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Speaker 1: it's not. This is a truly bizarre, eccentric predecessor or

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Speaker 1: precursor to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade called Ragamuffin Day.

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Speaker 1: For many years at the turn of the century, there

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Speaker 1: was a Thanksgiving Ragamuffin Parade, which was an event where

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Speaker 1: local children dressed up as beggars and asked the adults

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Speaker 1: on the street for pennies, candy, and apples. As we'll

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Speaker 1: get to, not terribly dissimilar to Halloween trick or treating,

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Speaker 1: this very whimsical tradition has a somewhat depressing origin, as

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Speaker 1: so many whimsical traditions do. In the early nineteenth century,

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Speaker 1: poor Massachusetts residents started knocking on doors on the eve

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Speaker 1: of Thanksgiving begging something for Thanksgiving, and as a terrible,

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Speaker 1: tasteless joke, well to do children in the neighborhood began

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Speaker 1: dressing and tattered close and doing the same thing, mocking

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Speaker 1: these poor starving people, and then go mass yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: So after Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving an official holiday in

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, towns across the country held elaborate masquerade

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Speaker 1: balls and parades, and children mostly dressed as these ragamuffins.

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Speaker 1: It became a thing, and soon that became the dominant

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Speaker 1: tradition on Thanksgiving morning in the late eighteen hundreds early

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Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, they just ran around the streets in rags.

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Speaker 1: They darkened their faces with soot. They modeled themselves after

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Speaker 1: Charlie Chaplin in the Tramp basically, and they'd ring doorbells

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Speaker 1: and always say anything for Thanksgiving. By the nineteen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: it was known as ragamuffin Day, and it wasn't exactly

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Speaker 1: popular with the city officials. The New York Times complained

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Speaker 1: in nineteen oh three, the practice of ringing all the

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Speaker 1: doorbells and demanding backsheesh is long past a joke, and

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Speaker 1: a nineteen oh nine Sons of Daniel boone hambook moaned

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Speaker 1: this must be a foreign innovation, for no self respecting

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Speaker 1: American boy would think of parading the streets dressed up

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Speaker 1: like a ragamuffin and begging a cent from each passer by.

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Speaker 1: And this is truly wild, especially mean spirited New Yorkers

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Speaker 1: began heating up coins on their stoves and throwing these

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Speaker 1: so called red pennies out onto the streets and roared

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Speaker 1: with laughter as these kids burn their fingers to try

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Speaker 1: to take them.

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Speaker 2: This is really the most like American.

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Speaker 1: Possible.

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Speaker 2: Starts with mocking the poor, yeah, ends with becoming a

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Speaker 2: weird or I mean the middle ground. Is it becoming

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Speaker 2: a weird nativist dig where there's like a hint of

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Speaker 2: anti immigrant, a sousson of anti immigrant sentiment in there

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Speaker 2: by the Daniel Boone society.

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Speaker 1: Question mark yeah, which I haven't looked up. I like

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Speaker 1: the John Birch Society. I would only assume yeah, and

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Speaker 1: then yeah. Then burning the fingers of children yeah, well yeah.

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Speaker 1: By the nineteen thirties, articles appeared in the New York

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Speaker 1: Times calling for an end to the ragamuffin day tradition,

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Speaker 1: mostly because everyone found it annoying. There's a piece from

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six, Ragamuffins frowned the Ponds the headline. Despite

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Speaker 1: the endeavors of social agencies to discourage begging by children,

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Speaker 1: it is likely that the customary Thanksgiving ragamuffins wearing discarded

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Speaker 1: to pairrel of their elders with masks and painted faces.

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Speaker 1: We'll ask passers by anything for Thanksgiving. The New York

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Speaker 1: school superintendent sent a memo to his principles which stated, quote,

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Speaker 1: modernity is incompatible with the custom of children to masquerade

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Speaker 1: and annoy adults on Thanksgiving Day. Many citizens complain on

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Speaker 1: Thanksgiving Day that they are annoyed by children dressed as

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Speaker 1: ragamuffins who begged for money and gifts. Organizations like the

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Speaker 1: Madison Square Boys Club began throwing parades to quote discourage

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Speaker 1: the Thanksgiving ragamuffins, and they sported the slogan American Boys

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Speaker 1: do not beg.

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Speaker 2: The sons of Daniel Boone were merged into the Boy Scouts.

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Speaker 2: They be like an early competitors that merged in, but

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Speaker 2: they used to dress in like the classic fringed buckskin situation,

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Speaker 2: which is so much bit not just but yeah, that

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Speaker 2: is so cool, so much cooler than a Boy Scout uniform.

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Speaker 1: Wow. So these parades began to kind of outstripped the

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Speaker 1: whole ragamuffin day tradition for popularity. And also the Great

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Speaker 1: Depression went a long way towards killing the ragamuffin Day

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Speaker 1: tradition because at this point, the answer to the question

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Speaker 1: anything for Thanksgiving was usually no. The Ragamuffin Day parades

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Speaker 1: were largely a thing of the past by the fifties,

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Speaker 1: having been out shown by the bigger, balloon centric parades

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Speaker 1: like Macy's, which had received a boost in popularity thanks

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Speaker 1: to its inclusion in the nineteen forty seven film Miracle

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Speaker 1: on thirty Fourth Street, which we'll talk about later. This

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Speaker 1: was also a period when Halloween was starting to become

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Speaker 1: a bigger deal, so the whole costumes door to door

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Speaker 1: begging tradition was absorbed into that. The loss of Ragamuffin

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Speaker 1: Day hit some nostalgic New yorker's hard. As one patrolman

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Speaker 1: told The New York Times, I remember how my fingers

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Speaker 1: got blistered. But they don't have any real fun like

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Speaker 1: that anymore. Tone, what are your thoughts on Ragamuffin Day.

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Speaker 1: I think we should bring it back.

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Speaker 2: I mean, not necessarily the burning coin situation, but you know,

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Speaker 2: I'll walk around and bring people's doors for money. I

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Speaker 2: need it just as much as anyone everyone does. Or

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Speaker 2: corn bread or pumpkin pie or whatever you got. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: anything for Thanksgiving, you know, that's cool. It's like the purge.

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Speaker 1: No, that's after Thanksgiving. Oh okay, okay, okay, okay. So

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Speaker 1: Ragamuffin Day gave way to parades on Thanksgiving and giving

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Speaker 1: its status, you would imagine that Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade

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Speaker 1: was the first of its kind in the United States,

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Speaker 1: but this was not the case. The oldest Thanksgiving Day

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Speaker 1: parade was actually founded in Philadelphia by appropriately enough, Macy's rivals, Gimbals.

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Speaker 1: Gimbles had a store in New York next to Macy's

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Speaker 1: flagship store in Harold Square, as you may remember from

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Speaker 1: the movie Miracle on thirty fourth Street, and prior to

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Speaker 1: Gimble's closure in nineteen eighty seven, their rivalry with Macy's

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Speaker 1: was the stuff of legend. Even gave way to a

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Speaker 1: popular phrase to brush off questions you didn't feel like answering.

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Speaker 1: Does Macy's tell Gimbals your grandparents or anybody ever? Say that? No? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: no mind either. Yeah. Gimbal's massive flagship store at Harold

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Speaker 1: Square was home to the Manhattan Mall, which some New

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Speaker 1: Yorkers may be familiar with. Until twenty twenty one. He

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Speaker 1: was hit hard by the pandemic, and now it's just

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Speaker 1: off of space. They paved down Gimbals and put us

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Speaker 1: off his space, but back to their glory days. The

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Speaker 1: Gimbals Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia kicked off in nineteen twenty,

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Speaker 1: a full four years before Macy's unleashed their own holiday

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Speaker 1: parade and the Gimbals thanks Giving Day Parade. It's still

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Speaker 1: going on, though it's gone through a handful of name

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Speaker 1: changes since Gimbles closed. Today it's called the six ABC

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Speaker 1: Duncan Thanksgiving Day Parade really just just rolls off the tongue.

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Speaker 2: Well, at least they've got the Massachusetts connection in there

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Speaker 2: with Duncan. That's got a warm macacus of the original

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Speaker 2: you know, well to do Massachusetts family who founded the

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Speaker 2: parade by mocking their poorer peers.

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Speaker 1: And actually Macy's has its origins in Massachusetts.

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Speaker 2: Ah, the state that just won't stop giving such a

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Speaker 2: big heart. So oh, you were segueing that, and I was,

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Speaker 2: I was trying to help you. Yeah, and I rejected

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Speaker 2: your gift. I rejected your They could not hear his message.

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Speaker 1: They rejected him. Uh yeah.

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Speaker 2: Macy's founded by Rowland Hussey Macy, a native of Nantucket,

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Speaker 2: perhaps the original man from Nantucket of poetry and song.

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Speaker 2: According to legend. The store's red star logo was chosen

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Speaker 2: because it resembled a tattoo Macy had received from his

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Speaker 2: brief period working as a New England whaler.

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Speaker 1: Come on tattoos and whaling of trying to I'm mountain.

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Speaker 2: That's cool. No, that's yeah, that's cool man. And I

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Speaker 2: wonder how many scholy square dick bags got that same

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Speaker 2: tattoo in honor of him on their way to punch

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Speaker 2: someone out of the drop Kick Murphy's show. Taking a

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Speaker 2: lot of shots at Boston tonight. Feels good, yo. Despite

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Speaker 2: this extremely metal backstory, Macy was kind of a failure

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Speaker 2: for a time. Between eighteen forty three and eighteen fifty five,

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Speaker 2: he opened four dry goods stores, including the original Macy

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Speaker 2: store in downtown Haverhill, Massachusetts, in an effort to serve

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Speaker 2: the mill employees of the area. After they all shuddered,

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Speaker 2: he decided to try his luck in New York. His

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Speaker 2: original store was on sixth and fourteenth. He was on

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Speaker 2: sixth and fourteenth. There was an American Guitar center. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: there was a guitar center. There's a I think I

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Speaker 2: stole a lot from the Urban outfitters that was there.

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Speaker 1: On the corner. Yeah, yeah, it's not there anymore. Now.

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Speaker 1: You know what's in that Urban Outfitters? Now, what's that?

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Speaker 1: A Titanic exhibit, which I keep trying to set you

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Speaker 1: up because there is a connection between Macy's and Titanic.

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Speaker 2: Anyway, then moved to Harold Squared, which is the classic

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Speaker 2: Macy's location as most New Yorkers and.

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Speaker 1: Tourists know it.

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Speaker 2: Following his death, however, the company passed through a series

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Speaker 2: of family members before being acquired by Isidor Strauss and

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Speaker 2: his brother Nathan, who had previously had a license to

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Speaker 2: sell china and other goods in the Macy's store. Isidor

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Speaker 2: and his wife Ida are interesting because they famously died

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Speaker 2: on the Titanic.

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Speaker 1: If you gotta die, you might as well do it famously.

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Speaker 2: Due to the orders of women and children, first, Isidor

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Speaker 2: was not allowed in a lifeboat. A friend wanted to

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Speaker 2: ask an officer about letting him board the boat, but

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Speaker 2: he refused to go while there were still women and

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Speaker 2: children on board. I had to refuse to leave her husband.

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Speaker 2: When he tried to persuade him to go, she replied,

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Speaker 2: we have been together for many years. Where you go

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Speaker 2: I go, and that is supposedly the couple referenced in

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Speaker 2: that shot of the old people cuddling together on the

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Speaker 2: bed as the icy waters take them in James Cameron's Titanic.

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Speaker 1: I think the whole scene's actually enacted in the movie too.

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Speaker 1: I forget. It's been a while, has it. It's been

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Speaker 1: since February.

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Speaker 2: Not historically accurate, but sad. In reality, they were last

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Speaker 2: seen sitting in deck chairs, and his body was later

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Speaker 2: recovered floating in the ocean. He is buried at New

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Speaker 2: York's Woodlawn Cemetery, along with an urn filled with water

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Speaker 2: from the Rex site. In tribute to Ida. The Strauss

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Speaker 2: Mausoleum bears the following Biblical verse from Song of Solomon

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Speaker 2: eight to seven. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can

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Speaker 2: the floods drown it.

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Speaker 1: There you go. The Bible was wrong.

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Speaker 2: If I'd say the waters succeeded water one Strauss's zero

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Speaker 2: feels like kind of a you to put that on

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Speaker 2: the on the gravestone, like.

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Speaker 1: The water too. The fact that they actually had an

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Speaker 1: urn is not not a move.

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Speaker 2: I would have made. If I was a ghost slide there,

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Speaker 2: I'd be like, you put one on.

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Speaker 1: Top of me. Yeah, not wrong, man, they really, I

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Speaker 1: mean not to. I probably will cut this whole thing

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Speaker 1: because it's the holidays. But there really have been some

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Speaker 1: incredible advancements. And what to do with you after you die? Like,

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Speaker 1: did you know they can put you on a firework? Yeah? Firework?

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Speaker 2: There was a company doing it, pressing you people into vinyl?

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Speaker 1: Vinyl? Yeah, would you press yourself? Like what would you have?

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Speaker 1: Would you want to do the tree things? No? I

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Speaker 1: want to do the tree thing? Oh?

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Speaker 2: What would I be pressed into? Yeah? Harsh noise? Yeah,

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Speaker 2: like maybe something maybe an istres ending, noibounten.

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Speaker 1: Or or Lulu? Would you do Lou read in Metallica?

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Speaker 2: No, no, it can't be have lyrics. It's got to

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Speaker 2: be instrumental and it has to make people feel. Maybe

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Speaker 2: metal music actually has to make people feel like I

428
00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:06,560
Speaker 2: feel all the time, which is on edge and back.

429
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:11,440
Speaker 2: And then they'll go, oh I remember him. No, I

430
00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:13,840
Speaker 2: was actually just no. Have you heard about have you

431
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:15,680
Speaker 2: heard about the Infinity Chapel?

432
00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:20,000
Speaker 1: Or like the so I told you we take this

433
00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:21,800
Speaker 1: to a place that made you happy? Yeah?

434
00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:29,360
Speaker 2: Eventually, no, what is the yes? John Cage, who famously

435
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:35,119
Speaker 2: wrote not wrote so much as conceptualized minimalism in a

436
00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:38,119
Speaker 2: big way with four three three, which is a composition

437
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:41,080
Speaker 2: in quotes that is four minutes and thirty three seconds

438
00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:45,680
Speaker 2: of nothing. He has a piece called as Slow as Possible.

439
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:48,119
Speaker 1: And what it is is.

440
00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:55,040
Speaker 2: A properly maintained pipe organ can sustain forever. What yeah,

441
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:57,000
Speaker 2: if it just has air flowing through it and the

442
00:24:57,080 --> 00:24:59,119
Speaker 2: keys are held down, you know, as long as the

443
00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:05,440
Speaker 2: airflow never stopped. So I guess it's a composition. The

444
00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:08,639
Speaker 2: piano version lasts anywhere from twenty to seventy minutes, but

445
00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:13,960
Speaker 2: there is a foundation that is dedicated to putting on

446
00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:23,159
Speaker 2: a performance in Germany that will end in twenty six forty.

447
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:28,560
Speaker 2: How would you keep the airflow going? I don't well,

448
00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:30,480
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think human civilization is going to

449
00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:34,159
Speaker 2: last that long. But sandbags are held on the organ's pedals.

450
00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:38,280
Speaker 2: The performance started on September fifth, two thousand and one,

451
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 2: and it has oh good, yeah, it has rests involved.

452
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:47,160
Speaker 2: The note last changed on February fifth, twenty twenty two.

453
00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:51,320
Speaker 2: And so what I want instead of like an eternal flame,

454
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:55,800
Speaker 2: is I want like a like a delay pedal set

455
00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:58,480
Speaker 2: up with a guitar feeding back, so you just get

456
00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:03,720
Speaker 2: a self oscillated echo to pitched guitar feedback forever.

457
00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:07,720
Speaker 1: That's oddly beautiful, I know, and some lovely. You're being sarcastic,

458
00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:10,000
Speaker 1: but I actually find that deeply touching because I was

459
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:14,359
Speaker 1: just watching a thing on JFCA Assassination for the sixtieth anniversary.

460
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:17,480
Speaker 1: I say, as if I don't do that every year

461
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:22,119
Speaker 1: or two anyway, and was watching Jackie like the Eternal Flame.

462
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:24,800
Speaker 1: That's a very I yeah, that's very touching. I like

463
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:28,520
Speaker 1: that a lot, The Eternal The Eternal just like hit

464
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:29,000
Speaker 1: the guitar.

465
00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he just wanders by every now and again

466
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:33,680
Speaker 2: and just flicks a string and the amp is loud

467
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:36,640
Speaker 2: enough and the delays maxed out, so it just starts

468
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:38,320
Speaker 2: feeding back over and over again.

469
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:40,919
Speaker 1: I wonder if you could make a feedback forever if

470
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:41,720
Speaker 1: you just hit it once.

471
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:43,760
Speaker 2: So not forir Well, you could use an ebo, which

472
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:46,720
Speaker 2: was part of part of it, but the batteries on

473
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:48,639
Speaker 2: those do need to be changed. So in theory you

474
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:49,920
Speaker 2: could do it if you had it all kind of

475
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:53,320
Speaker 2: rigged up to solar panels and it just sort of,

476
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:56,440
Speaker 2: you know, in a battery to help it go overnight.

477
00:26:56,600 --> 00:26:58,600
Speaker 2: Trust me, I've thought about this. It's like the eternal

478
00:26:58,640 --> 00:26:59,960
Speaker 2: flame though, I mean, you have to have that hook

479
00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:03,320
Speaker 2: up to some kind of like pain, you know, propane.

480
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:06,320
Speaker 2: Do you think it's propane? You should know this.

481
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:09,840
Speaker 1: I think it is. I know that it like accidentally

482
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:12,720
Speaker 1: went out like some I feel like a tourist like

483
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:16,600
Speaker 1: accidentally doused it once or something. It was like quietly,

484
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:23,000
Speaker 1: wait how many times? On two occasions. Oh, inclement weather

485
00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:25,440
Speaker 1: caused the flame to go out for a second time

486
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:30,639
Speaker 1: in March nineteen sixty seven. First, but first there was

487
00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:33,480
Speaker 1: the holy water incident. This is per mental floss. On

488
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,480
Speaker 1: December tenth, nineteen sixty three, a group of Catholic school

489
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:40,119
Speaker 1: children were visiting the Kennedy Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.

490
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:42,639
Speaker 1: The grave site was temporary, a place for the public

491
00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:45,320
Speaker 1: to go grieve while the permanent memorial was being constructed.

492
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:48,080
Speaker 1: Even so, the eternal flame was already in place, lit

493
00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 1: by Jackie Kennedy on the day of the funeral. The

494
00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:53,040
Speaker 1: children managed to extinguish the flame less than a month

495
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:56,680
Speaker 1: later while blessing it with holy water. Luckily, one of

496
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 1: the grave guards happened to be a smoker, and he

497
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:02,159
Speaker 1: used his hip a lighter to reignite the memorial.

498
00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:07,959
Speaker 2: This crusty old guy bending down flickless. All right, col

499
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 2: all right, I didn't see a thing. Wo wow, alright

500
00:28:13,119 --> 00:28:17,719
Speaker 2: where worry well? From death to consumerism the American experience.

501
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:18,360
Speaker 1: Yeah.

502
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:23,080
Speaker 2: Flagship Herald Square location of Macy's initially consisted of just

503
00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:26,480
Speaker 2: one building, but expanded through new construction eventually came to

504
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:29,959
Speaker 2: occupy a whole city block, save for a small, pre

505
00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:32,200
Speaker 2: existing five story building on the corner of thirty fourth

506
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:35,400
Speaker 2: and Broadway that was purchased by a rival of Macy's

507
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:37,840
Speaker 2: and never to thwart their attempt at building the largest

508
00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:38,560
Speaker 2: store in the world.

509
00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:41,560
Speaker 1: This rival had the largest store at.

510
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:46,160
Speaker 2: The time, so undeterred, Macy's simply built around the building,

511
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 2: which earned the name Million Dollar Corner when it was

512
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:52,840
Speaker 2: sold for a then record one million dollars in December

513
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:55,400
Speaker 2: nineteen eleven. Jordan, what is it now?

514
00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:57,520
Speaker 1: What it's worth? What's in there? Now? Oh?

515
00:28:57,640 --> 00:28:57,800
Speaker 2: Now?

516
00:28:58,080 --> 00:28:59,360
Speaker 1: Now it's a sunglasses hut?

517
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:03,880
Speaker 2: Yeah that God love this country. Macy's does not own

518
00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:06,280
Speaker 2: it still, but they have leased the air rights and

519
00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:09,440
Speaker 2: put a sign shaped like a giant shopping bag on

520
00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:12,560
Speaker 2: the roof. Macy's became the world's largest store when it

521
00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:14,440
Speaker 2: opened in nineteen oh two, and it's a title it

522
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:17,320
Speaker 2: held into two thousand and nine, when Guinness World Records

523
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:20,840
Speaker 2: certified that the Accolade now belonged to the Shingsehi Centum

524
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:25,520
Speaker 2: City department store in Busan, South Korea. At five point

525
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:30,240
Speaker 2: eight four seven million square feet, Shinseia is practically three

526
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:33,440
Speaker 2: times the size of Macy's, but it remains the largest

527
00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:36,360
Speaker 2: in North America, with its selling space adding up to

528
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:39,680
Speaker 2: over twenty six acres or over one point one million

529
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 2: square feet. That was something I wanted to pitch to

530
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:44,760
Speaker 2: I pitched to people at one point that they wouldn't

531
00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:46,480
Speaker 2: they wouldn't let me do, was see how long I

532
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 2: could live in Macy's.

533
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:51,600
Speaker 1: Oh that's so, because it's like, yeah, I pitched a

534
00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:52,160
Speaker 1: lot of stuff.

535
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:55,560
Speaker 2: I don't I think they like that presaged the kind

536
00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:58,080
Speaker 2: of Logan Paul era of posting that they should have

537
00:29:58,160 --> 00:29:58,640
Speaker 2: let me try.

538
00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:00,280
Speaker 1: That was literally my pitch.

539
00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:02,520
Speaker 2: I was like, I'll just go into Macy's and see

540
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:05,040
Speaker 2: how long I can stay in there uninterrupted, like I

541
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 2: was gonna hot. I was gonna scope out and see

542
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:09,360
Speaker 2: what the security was for their closing routine. There's no

543
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:12,640
Speaker 2: way they can lock down all twenty six acres. I'm

544
00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:15,480
Speaker 2: sure people have tried, but I would succeed.

545
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:20,360
Speaker 1: I'm sure people have succeeded. Yeah, that's also true. It's

546
00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:24,480
Speaker 1: probably motion sensors. Uh yeah, what were some other experiential things,

547
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 1: because you did a few that were like you did

548
00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 1: the past life regressions.

549
00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:30,400
Speaker 2: But I did the past life regressions post and boy,

550
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:33,760
Speaker 2: I lied to that woman. I felt nothing. I made

551
00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:37,680
Speaker 2: it all up. I could remember her name, I'd call

552
00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 2: her out right now. Uh, it's a crackish You're just

553
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:44,040
Speaker 2: rotten the ground. There's no past lives in your body

554
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:49,000
Speaker 2: or your mind. Then sorry, what was I saying?

555
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:49,200
Speaker 1: Oh?

556
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:51,479
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the land the building stands on has an

557
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 2: estimated value of between three and four billion dollars. Macy's

558
00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 2: also boasts the world's largest shoe floor, with over sixty

559
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:02,160
Speaker 2: three thousand thousand square feet containing two hundred and eighty

560
00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:03,280
Speaker 2: thousand pairs of shoes.

561
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:05,120
Speaker 1: Quentin to hero must.

562
00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 2: Love it there bah And speaking of shoes, Macy's was

563
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:12,200
Speaker 2: among the first American retail stores with escalators. A number

564
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:15,640
Speaker 2: of these century old wooden ones are still preserved in

565
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 2: the store today. You say, forty two forty two. Yeah,

566
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:24,240
Speaker 2: and speaking of firsts, well, and speaking of constructions, and

567
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:27,240
Speaker 2: speaking of firsts, Macy's was the first to introduce colored

568
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:30,560
Speaker 2: bath towels to America in nineteen thirty two. Before that,

569
00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:36,440
Speaker 2: they had been kept separate. Before that, America had only

570
00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 2: ever seen or imagined white bath towels. They also supposedly

571
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 2: brought tea bags and the baked potato to the United States,

572
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:47,520
Speaker 2: and also when prohibition ended, the first liquor license issued

573
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 2: by the City of New York was rh Macy and Co.

574
00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:53,560
Speaker 2: This brings us now to the origin of the Macy's

575
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:56,840
Speaker 2: Thanksgiving Parade. Though the first was held on Thanksgiving Day,

576
00:31:56,960 --> 00:32:00,280
Speaker 2: November twenty seventh, nineteen twenty four, it was actually called

577
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:04,160
Speaker 2: the Big Christmas Parade You disingenuous.

578
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:06,080
Speaker 1: Just before the parade.

579
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 2: This was because the parade was designed to usher in

580
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:12,400
Speaker 2: the start of the Christmas shopping season by showcasing Macy's

581
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 2: beautiful storefront and dazzling window displays. Those framed as welcoming

582
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:20,960
Speaker 2: Santa to New York, which is an interesting bit and

583
00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:24,320
Speaker 2: why Santa always appears at the end of the parade.

584
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:27,040
Speaker 2: It wasn't until three years later, in nineteen twenty seven

585
00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:30,200
Speaker 2: that was re christened the Thanksgiving Day Parade, and according

586
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:32,360
Speaker 2: to the New York Times, the majority of participants of

587
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:35,400
Speaker 2: this first parade were employees of the stores. This is

588
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:38,880
Speaker 2: a tradition or condition that continues to this day. In

589
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:40,840
Speaker 2: order to be involved with the parade, you must either

590
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:44,480
Speaker 2: be affiliated with Macy's or be recommended by someone who is,

591
00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 2: like joining the Freemasons.

592
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:48,800
Speaker 1: Do you know Mason? No? I bet you doing? You

593
00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:51,200
Speaker 1: still know it? Are you a Freemason? You think I

594
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 1: would be, but I'm not. Had you pegged for a Shriner?

595
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:58,040
Speaker 1: I do like the hat? Yeah, I'm the little cars. Yeah.

596
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,720
Speaker 2: Original parade, which began on one hundred and forty fifth

597
00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:06,240
Speaker 2: Street before ending at Macy's thirty fourth a one hundred

598
00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 2: and eleven block six mile journey, and the floats at

599
00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 2: this point were being pulled by horses rather than cars.

600
00:33:12,080 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 2: The route has since been shortened two and a half miles.

601
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,240
Speaker 2: It now begins at seventy seventh in Central Park West,

602
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 2: but it still ends in front of Macy's. Approximately ten

603
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:23,120
Speaker 2: thousand people watched Santa, who rode on a float designed

604
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:24,920
Speaker 2: to look like a sled being pulled by a reindeer

605
00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:29,280
Speaker 2: to be crowned King of the Kiddies. Glad that one

606
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:31,440
Speaker 2: went back to the drawing board, and then enjoyed the

607
00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:34,640
Speaker 2: unveiling of the Sour's Christmas windows. The display was titled

608
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:36,400
Speaker 2: The Fairy Frolics.

609
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:36,640
Speaker 1: Of wonder Town.

610
00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:39,640
Speaker 2: I think I've been to that bar and it featured

611
00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 2: marionettes of Mother Goose characters.

612
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:43,600
Speaker 1: That sucks.

613
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:47,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't really easily impressed back then, Huh.

614
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:49,960
Speaker 1: I see, And that's what I find so charming about

615
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:50,200
Speaker 1: all this.

616
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:51,200
Speaker 2: Yes, is that?

617
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:56,360
Speaker 1: Yeah? So it's a three hand made yeah, three analog huh. Yeah.

618
00:33:57,320 --> 00:33:59,160
Speaker 2: Now you just go on TikTok and watch people die.

619
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:03,280
Speaker 2: This is one hundred years later. We've made that progress.

620
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:07,880
Speaker 2: Greatest country on Earth. This is partially why most of

621
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:10,800
Speaker 2: the floats at this first year were nursery rhyme themed,

622
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:13,719
Speaker 2: depicting the little old Lady who lived in Shoe, little

623
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:18,800
Speaker 2: Miss Muffett, Red Riding Hood, and the rest. The procession

624
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:22,720
Speaker 2: included with the New York Times called a Retinue of clowns, freaks,

625
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:28,160
Speaker 2: animals and floats. You'll notice they said animals rather than balloons.

626
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:30,920
Speaker 2: For the first three years of the Macy's Thanksgaving, they

627
00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:33,960
Speaker 2: parade animals with a big attraction of the day. The

628
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:39,480
Speaker 2: Central Park Zoo loaned out donkeys, lions, tigers, elephants, camels

629
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:43,200
Speaker 2: and bears, who were then draped in Macy's promotional pennants

630
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:46,560
Speaker 2: and marched down the six mile trail of tears down

631
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:50,360
Speaker 2: the majority of Manhattan. However, these animals.

632
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:54,200
Speaker 1: Reportedly terrified children, and there are also reports of marching

633
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:58,080
Speaker 1: bands having the dodge massive piles of elephant dung during

634
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:00,840
Speaker 1: their trek. So in nineteen two twenty seven, it was

635
00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:04,040
Speaker 1: decided to replace the zoo animals with less threatening and

636
00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:08,120
Speaker 1: less messy balloon creatures. Although I've also read that these

637
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:10,839
Speaker 1: big balloon creatures were easier for the crowds to see,

638
00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:14,120
Speaker 1: especially the short little children, so your mileage may vary.

639
00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:18,560
Speaker 1: It's been weirdly hard to nail down the first balloons

640
00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:21,400
Speaker 1: in the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but according to

641
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:24,800
Speaker 1: my research, they included a dragon, a toy soldier, and

642
00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:29,000
Speaker 1: other animal shapes. The first cartoon character appeared in nineteen

643
00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:31,840
Speaker 1: thirty two in the form of a popular cartoon character,

644
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:35,399
Speaker 1: Felix the Cat, and despite the fact that he's fallen

645
00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 1: on a fashion in favor of Disney characters these days.

646
00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:41,400
Speaker 1: That balloon has returned to the parade several times over

647
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:44,680
Speaker 1: the years for old time's sake. Mickey Mouse joined the

648
00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:46,920
Speaker 1: parade in nineteen thirty four with a balloon that was

649
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 1: designed by Uncle Walt himself, and that same year, nineteen

650
00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:53,640
Speaker 1: thirty four, the parade featured a balloon of the popular

651
00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:57,879
Speaker 1: entertainer Eddie Canter, who became I believe the first real

652
00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:01,040
Speaker 1: life person to be a Mora lies Via Mas parade balloon,

653
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,319
Speaker 1: and I think to date the only other real life

654
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:06,400
Speaker 1: person I could find who was turned into a balloon

655
00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:10,960
Speaker 1: was Harpo Marx in nineteen thirty three. The balloons had

656
00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:14,520
Speaker 1: sound effects, which meant that the flying twenty five foot

657
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:19,200
Speaker 1: docs and barked, the massive flying pig oinked, and the

658
00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 1: colicky kid balloon really cried, which is horrifying. Yeah, I

659
00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:25,160
Speaker 1: don't like that.

660
00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:26,640
Speaker 2: Yeah.

661
00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:28,719
Speaker 1: No. Some of these old timey balloons, if you look

662
00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:32,240
Speaker 1: them up, are really freaky because it's they're genuinely scary.

663
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:35,200
Speaker 1: There's things like a lot of two headed stuff, two

664
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:40,319
Speaker 1: headed pirate. There's the Nantucket Sea serpent, presumably a nod

665
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:46,600
Speaker 1: to the macy's founder's origin on Nantucket Pinocchio with supposedly

666
00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:50,120
Speaker 1: a forty four foot nose. I don't know how the

667
00:36:50,239 --> 00:36:52,880
Speaker 1: era dynamics of that would work. And then there was

668
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:57,080
Speaker 1: also Bobo the Hobo. Yeah, you're gonna have some of

669
00:36:57,160 --> 00:36:58,319
Speaker 1: those in these early years.

670
00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and the whole thing stems from the

671
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:05,040
Speaker 2: rich mocking the poor, so yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

672
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:09,319
Speaker 1: I'd like to read this description from an undetermined year

673
00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:11,360
Speaker 1: of the parade. I think it's nineteen thirty two that

674
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:14,480
Speaker 1: appeared in the New York Times, which details quote a

675
00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:18,200
Speaker 1: human behemoth twenty one feet tall that had the crawl

676
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:21,920
Speaker 1: under the elevated structure at sixty sixth them Broadway. A

677
00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:26,120
Speaker 1: dinosaur sixty feet long, attended by a bodyguard, a prehistoric

678
00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:28,800
Speaker 1: cave man, and a twenty five foot docks in that

679
00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:32,640
Speaker 1: swayed along in the company of gigantic turkeys and chickens

680
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:35,320
Speaker 1: and ducks of heroic size.

681
00:37:35,719 --> 00:37:39,239
Speaker 2: That's a good, bad, great band name. Yeah, how big

682
00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:43,239
Speaker 2: does a duck have to be a qualifies heroic? Labrador? Clydestone.

683
00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:46,760
Speaker 1: I was gonna say Beethoven, Well it was a Beethoven.

684
00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:48,360
Speaker 1: San Bernard. I want to say San Bernard.

685
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:52,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, I think horse size. Though,

686
00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:55,279
Speaker 2: isn't that a reddit thing that they ask celebrities every

687
00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:58,480
Speaker 2: time they do ames? Would you rather fight one one

688
00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:02,120
Speaker 2: horse sized duck or one hundred, five hundred whatever duck

689
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:03,520
Speaker 2: sized horses or something like that?

690
00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:08,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, it's finding one hundred duck sized horses or

691
00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:12,800
Speaker 1: a horse sized duck. Yeah, okay, what about you? Probably

692
00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 1: a horse sized duck because then you know where you stand?

693
00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:19,440
Speaker 2: No, definitely, you know you know how many duck sized

694
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:21,560
Speaker 2: horses I could just kick into oblivion?

695
00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:24,760
Speaker 1: A hundred of them? Though? Yeah, you did take karate

696
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:30,480
Speaker 1: and I've been jogging, so come on, they wouldn't I'd

697
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:37,240
Speaker 1: like to ask a rock at this question. That's something

698
00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:39,160
Speaker 1: they get all the profiles on the rockets I read

699
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:41,719
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal. Really drop a ball on that one.

700
00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:46,880
Speaker 2: As you meditate on that, we'll be right back with

701
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:49,400
Speaker 2: more too much information after these messages.

702
00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:04,320
Speaker 1: Well, back to the ballurns now. This first year of

703
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:07,160
Speaker 1: the parade, the balloons were filled with air and held

704
00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:10,160
Speaker 1: aloft by a support crew with sticks. They were called

705
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,960
Speaker 1: upside down marionettes back then, but kind of semi jokingly.

706
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:16,520
Speaker 1: But these days it's easier to think of a more

707
00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:19,719
Speaker 1: as muppets kind of. It wasn't until two years after

708
00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:22,200
Speaker 1: the balloons debuted in nineteen twenty nine that they began

709
00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:24,320
Speaker 1: to fill them with a mixture of air and helium

710
00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:27,840
Speaker 1: so that they floated. This kicked off a tradition that

711
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:31,160
Speaker 1: has made Macy's the second largest consumer of helium in

712
00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:35,719
Speaker 1: this country, next to the US government. Uh. Yeah, I

713
00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:40,520
Speaker 1: I don't know if we're doing weather balloon in quotes

714
00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:44,560
Speaker 1: experiments or what, but yeah, the US government is the

715
00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:48,320
Speaker 1: largest consumer of helium in this country, more than Party

716
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:49,799
Speaker 1: Central or Ie Party or whatever.

717
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:52,719
Speaker 2: The medical field uses helium, and diagnostic equipment such as

718
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:56,960
Speaker 2: MRIs helium neon lasers are used in eye surgery. National

719
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:02,480
Speaker 2: defense applications include rocket engine testing, scientific balloons, surveillance craft,

720
00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:06,560
Speaker 2: air to air missile guidance systems, and more.

721
00:40:07,480 --> 00:40:10,480
Speaker 1: And I shudder to think what the end more is.

722
00:40:10,840 --> 00:40:13,759
Speaker 2: NASA uses helium to keep hot gases and ultra cold

723
00:40:13,800 --> 00:40:18,160
Speaker 2: liquid fuels separated during liftoff of rockets. I guess ark

724
00:40:18,239 --> 00:40:21,680
Speaker 2: welding uses helium. Was that what the O ring thing was?

725
00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:25,640
Speaker 2: And challenger that was keeping the helium out of Oh buddy,

726
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:30,640
Speaker 2: was it the mazy tanks type?

727
00:40:32,080 --> 00:40:35,800
Speaker 1: I can't go from Challenger to Macy's thanks gimmick they parade.

728
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:38,480
Speaker 2: I need it.

729
00:40:38,719 --> 00:40:43,399
Speaker 1: I need some kind of a stepic stone. Oh man,

730
00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:47,480
Speaker 1: all right, the Challenger Titanic, Macy's macy Thanksgiving they parade.

731
00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:51,839
Speaker 1: There we go, Okay, The parade requires more than three

732
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:55,600
Speaker 1: hundred thousand cubic feet, well the volume of three and

733
00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:59,000
Speaker 1: a half Olympic sized swimming pools of helium to inflate

734
00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:02,760
Speaker 1: the balloons. The biggest of these balloons require twelve hundred

735
00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:08,720
Speaker 1: cubic feet, or approximately twenty five hundred bathtubs worth of helium.

736
00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:11,279
Speaker 2: So that's pretty crazy. You don't hear that as a

737
00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:13,760
Speaker 2: standard unit of measurement that much anymore.

738
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:17,319
Speaker 1: What it's bathtubs? Yeah? Yeah, I think the jacuzzis really

739
00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:21,760
Speaker 1: put the kebaj on that. Helium's obviously a finite resource,

740
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:23,920
Speaker 1: and the cost to fill the balloons is more than

741
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:27,000
Speaker 1: half a million dollars. Now, in nineteen fifty eight, this

742
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:29,279
Speaker 1: was a problem because there was a helium shortage, and

743
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:32,239
Speaker 1: organizers of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade grappled with how

744
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:37,000
Speaker 1: to continue without helium. In what seems like the most

745
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:42,279
Speaker 1: complex solution imaginable, they rigged up construction cranes to hold

746
00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:46,640
Speaker 1: these balloons aloft, almost like a giant gallows or something,

747
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:51,560
Speaker 1: and travel down the parade route admirably but also sort

748
00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:54,880
Speaker 1: of psychotically. The only years the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

749
00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:58,040
Speaker 1: were ever canceled were during World War Two between nineteen

750
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:01,239
Speaker 1: forty two and nineteen forty four, and Macy's did their

751
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:03,759
Speaker 1: part for the war effort by donating six hundred and

752
00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:06,360
Speaker 1: fifty pounds of rubber from the balloons to the government.

753
00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:10,600
Speaker 1: They considered calling off the Thanksgiving Day parade in nineteen

754
00:42:10,719 --> 00:42:13,640
Speaker 1: sixty three since JFK had just been killed the week before,

755
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:17,000
Speaker 1: but they opted to continue to keep up the spirits

756
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:17,480
Speaker 1: of the nation.

757
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:21,440
Speaker 2: The nation needed to heal with Yes with Big Snoopy.

758
00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:26,600
Speaker 1: Now, it takes roughly ninety minutes to fill each balloon,

759
00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:29,640
Speaker 1: so it's roughly ten hours to fill all of the

760
00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 1: balloons used for the parade. This process begins the night

761
00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:35,800
Speaker 1: before the parade at a staging area near the American

762
00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:38,880
Speaker 1: Museum of Natural History at seventy seventh Street and Central

763
00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:42,440
Speaker 1: Park West, and this draws all manner of tourists and

764
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:45,240
Speaker 1: locals to come and take a sneak peak the night before,

765
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:47,520
Speaker 1: which I would actually if I were over here. I'm

766
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:50,240
Speaker 1: usually in a MEP in Massachusetts with my family for Thanksgiving,

767
00:42:50,320 --> 00:42:51,880
Speaker 1: but if I was here, i'd like to see that.

768
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:55,800
Speaker 1: That'd be kind of cool. Hilariously, it only takes fifteen

769
00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:58,719
Speaker 1: minutes to to flate one of those giant balloons. They

770
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:02,320
Speaker 1: use the same method that everyone uses who's ever deflated

771
00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:05,880
Speaker 1: an air mattress. They just open up the vents and

772
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 1: lay on it in the street and fold it over

773
00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:12,320
Speaker 1: on itself. And there you go. And now for my

774
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:15,520
Speaker 1: single favorite part of this episode, I am so excited

775
00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:19,239
Speaker 1: to talk about this. We mentioned the deflation technique. For

776
00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:21,800
Speaker 1: the first few years of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade,

777
00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:26,799
Speaker 1: organizers didn't have a deflation procedure in place. Instead, from

778
00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:30,200
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty seven to nineteen thirty two, the handlers would

779
00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:33,040
Speaker 1: simply release the balloons into the sky at the end

780
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:37,440
Speaker 1: of the parade, which admittedly must have looked pretty awesome, but,

781
00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:41,040
Speaker 1: as we will see, caused all manner of airborne chaos.

782
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:45,120
Speaker 1: In this first year, they merely popped after reaching a

783
00:43:45,160 --> 00:43:49,080
Speaker 1: certain altitude. But Macy's didn't like this, so they strengthened

784
00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:53,280
Speaker 1: the balloons the following year, and introduced a truly bizarre

785
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:58,480
Speaker 1: Willy Wonka like contest. The balloon fabric was printed with

786
00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:01,560
Speaker 1: the return address on it, and those who found the balloon,

787
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:05,640
Speaker 1: or more realistically, had the thing PLoP down in your

788
00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:08,840
Speaker 1: front lawn, were invited to send it back to Macy's

789
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:11,839
Speaker 1: and collect one hundred dollars reward. Now, the one hundred

790
00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:13,719
Speaker 1: dollars prize, this was nothing to sneeze at because this

791
00:44:13,840 --> 00:44:16,880
Speaker 1: was close to an eighteen hundred dollars value today. And

792
00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:20,120
Speaker 1: needless to say, it became a race to find these balloons,

793
00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:24,839
Speaker 1: and things got intense. I'd like to cite a December first,

794
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:27,959
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty eight article from The New York Times in full.

795
00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:32,600
Speaker 1: The headline is four Macy's Balloons land. Four of the

796
00:44:32,680 --> 00:44:36,480
Speaker 1: five balloons representing grotesque figures and released at the close

797
00:44:36,560 --> 00:44:39,640
Speaker 1: of the Macy's Christmas Day parade on Thanksgiving have been

798
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:43,080
Speaker 1: accounted for last night. Executives of the store said. The

799
00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:47,440
Speaker 1: fifth balloon, a fantastic Ghost, was reported as having been

800
00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:50,680
Speaker 1: cited moving out to sea over the Rockaways with a

801
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:54,320
Speaker 1: flock of seagulls in pursuit. The first balloon to a

802
00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:57,120
Speaker 1: light was the sky Tiger. It came down on the

803
00:44:57,200 --> 00:44:59,719
Speaker 1: roof of a home of Sea Shepherd and Richmond Hill,

804
00:44:59,800 --> 00:45:03,399
Speaker 1: Law Island. Its arrival stirred the neighborhood to a tug

805
00:45:03,520 --> 00:45:07,839
Speaker 1: of war for its possession. Missus Shepherd's two sons ran

806
00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:10,880
Speaker 1: to the roof to obtain it, while neighbors and motorists

807
00:45:10,960 --> 00:45:14,960
Speaker 1: rushed up from all directions. The rubberized silk burst into

808
00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:19,080
Speaker 1: dozens of fragments. The capture of the early Bird balloon

809
00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:22,320
Speaker 1: was affected more peaceably. It alighted to the premises of

810
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:27,040
Speaker 1: Missus Lena Stender of Mill Village, Long Island. The sky Elephant,

811
00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:29,920
Speaker 1: the third to be recorded, descended on a dock at

812
00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:33,200
Speaker 1: Fourth and Front Streets in Long Island City, and the

813
00:45:33,239 --> 00:45:36,319
Speaker 1: fourth balloon, the Hummingbird, was last seen in the East River.

814
00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:39,480
Speaker 1: It was broken in half and both sections were floating

815
00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:43,840
Speaker 1: with a tide pursued by two tug boats. So I

816
00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:46,400
Speaker 1: almost want to stop and read through a list of

817
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:48,600
Speaker 1: these early balloons that determine which of these would have

818
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:51,160
Speaker 1: been the most terrifying to have land in your yard.

819
00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:56,240
Speaker 1: You've got sea serpents, a giant docks, and a giant

820
00:45:56,320 --> 00:46:00,000
Speaker 1: hippo nearly rammed the newly completed Empire's state building before

821
00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:03,400
Speaker 1: heading out to sea. It was reported by a fisherman

822
00:46:03,520 --> 00:46:08,360
Speaker 1: one hundred miles out of Rockaway Point quote walking on water,

823
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:12,560
Speaker 1: the tail of a one hundred and seventy six foot

824
00:46:12,800 --> 00:46:17,760
Speaker 1: dragon narrowly avoided shattering windows and several office buildings in Midtown.

825
00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:21,279
Speaker 1: But the horrors got worse for those involved in the

826
00:46:21,360 --> 00:46:25,120
Speaker 1: nascent world of aviation. In nineteen thirty one, when the

827
00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:28,480
Speaker 1: so called balloon Race was in its fourth year, pilot

828
00:46:28,640 --> 00:46:32,560
Speaker 1: Clarence E. Chamberlain, who it's worth noting, was the second

829
00:46:32,680 --> 00:46:36,280
Speaker 1: man to fly across the Atlantic after Charles Limberg picked

830
00:46:36,320 --> 00:46:39,200
Speaker 1: up a plane ride of sightseers in Brooklyn and was

831
00:46:39,320 --> 00:46:42,280
Speaker 1: flying over the Burrow when he saw a giant balloon

832
00:46:42,480 --> 00:46:46,040
Speaker 1: of Felix the Cat and another giant balloon of a

833
00:46:46,160 --> 00:46:50,200
Speaker 1: giant pig gliding over Jamaica Bay, which is a perfectly

834
00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:53,799
Speaker 1: normal sentence. At the suggestion of one of his passengers,

835
00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:57,880
Speaker 1: the pilot brought his plane parallel to the Felix balloon

836
00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:00,879
Speaker 1: and managed to snag it with his wing, as well

837
00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:04,040
Speaker 1: as lassoing the pig with some rope. So here's a

838
00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:06,640
Speaker 1: guy flying with a Felix the Cat balloon on his

839
00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:12,200
Speaker 1: wing and a rope that's towing a pig. Unfortunately, the

840
00:47:12,239 --> 00:47:15,800
Speaker 1: felix the cat broke free, but he succeeded in bringing

841
00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:18,080
Speaker 1: the pig down to earth, and he collected the prize

842
00:47:18,080 --> 00:47:23,160
Speaker 1: from Macy's word of his endeavor must have gotten out

843
00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:26,680
Speaker 1: because the following year, in nineteen thirty two, a twenty

844
00:47:26,719 --> 00:47:30,600
Speaker 1: two year old flight student named Annett Gibson flew her

845
00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:34,880
Speaker 1: plane directly into one of these balloons, a yellow striped

846
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:39,960
Speaker 1: tom Cat, which was one hundred feet across. The fabric

847
00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:42,520
Speaker 1: wrapped around the left wing of her plane, causing it

848
00:47:42,600 --> 00:47:46,440
Speaker 1: to go into a deep tailspin, and she basically panicked

849
00:47:46,480 --> 00:47:48,959
Speaker 1: and shut off the ignition, thinking that this would prevent

850
00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:52,960
Speaker 1: fire when the plane crashed. When you're in a tailspin,

851
00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:55,200
Speaker 1: try to get out of the tailspin before just turning

852
00:47:55,239 --> 00:47:58,160
Speaker 1: the engine off and giving up. There were two hundred

853
00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:00,840
Speaker 1: and fifty feet from crashing into the rooftop of Queens

854
00:48:00,880 --> 00:48:04,200
Speaker 1: when her flight instructor intervened and they switched seats so

855
00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:06,600
Speaker 1: the instructor could take control of the plane. But the

856
00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:09,480
Speaker 1: cabin door of the aircraft, which had been opened to

857
00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:12,760
Speaker 1: try to lasso the balloon in, was still left open,

858
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:16,759
Speaker 1: and Annette nearly fell out. Her foot got caught in

859
00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,080
Speaker 1: the safety strap and she was able to pull herself

860
00:48:19,160 --> 00:48:23,120
Speaker 1: back in, and the instructor saved them, both, seemingly violating

861
00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:25,360
Speaker 1: Darwin's law. But she would go on to become a

862
00:48:25,440 --> 00:48:28,279
Speaker 1: friend of Amelia Earhart, So I guess she didn't give

863
00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:32,080
Speaker 1: up on her flying dream despite that stupid, stupid choice.

864
00:48:32,160 --> 00:48:35,160
Speaker 1: Did anyone ask her why she did that? I don't know.

865
00:48:35,880 --> 00:48:36,680
Speaker 1: I'm not sure.

866
00:48:36,719 --> 00:48:40,040
Speaker 2: I just assumed she was like woman crazy, like in

867
00:48:40,120 --> 00:48:42,759
Speaker 2: the in the like as in the fashion of the time.

868
00:48:42,840 --> 00:48:44,359
Speaker 2: I don't mean that was a real reason. They were

869
00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:47,439
Speaker 2: just like, ah, what a dame, What a silly dame,

870
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:50,480
Speaker 2: Like she's a hard study. Did the voices tell her

871
00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:53,600
Speaker 2: to do that? What intrusive thought was like I'm gonna

872
00:48:53,719 --> 00:48:56,480
Speaker 2: nine to eleven one of the Macy's balloons.

873
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:04,120
Speaker 1: I don't know, I should add this wasn't during the parade.

874
00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:06,320
Speaker 1: I want to add. This was after they'd let them go.

875
00:49:07,080 --> 00:49:10,600
Speaker 2: Oh okay, and she was hunting it for the reward

876
00:49:10,719 --> 00:49:12,800
Speaker 2: money and was like, this is how I'm going to

877
00:49:12,840 --> 00:49:13,480
Speaker 2: bring it down.

878
00:49:14,239 --> 00:49:15,840
Speaker 1: Maybe she thought she could run into it and it

879
00:49:15,880 --> 00:49:18,279
Speaker 1: would pop and just like the fabric would just kind

880
00:49:18,280 --> 00:49:20,719
Speaker 1: of harmlessly be on the wing. I don't I don't know,

881
00:49:21,239 --> 00:49:23,279
Speaker 1: But can you imagine the flight instructor was with her?

882
00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:25,400
Speaker 1: So can you imagine flight instructors being like, no, what

883
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:28,920
Speaker 1: are you doing? What are you doing? No? No, no, man?

884
00:49:29,120 --> 00:49:30,120
Speaker 1: Can you imagine being a.

885
00:49:30,280 --> 00:49:33,160
Speaker 2: Like a really World War One veteran then when like

886
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:38,160
Speaker 2: with your weird like boardwalk Empire assassin guy plastic thing

887
00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:40,239
Speaker 2: that covers the part of your face to the gas

888
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:42,399
Speaker 2: eight and you're just doped up on the real good

889
00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:44,880
Speaker 2: morphine and you're like out on Long Island Sound and

890
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:48,200
Speaker 2: you look up and you see like a good hippo, Yeah,

891
00:49:48,200 --> 00:49:50,560
Speaker 2: a hippo or a ghost like flying by.

892
00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:54,800
Speaker 1: That would be awesome. That's what I mean. This is

893
00:49:54,920 --> 00:49:57,239
Speaker 1: this is the stuff I thought you would like about this. No,

894
00:49:57,400 --> 00:50:01,279
Speaker 1: you're right, you're right. So far no word of this

895
00:50:01,400 --> 00:50:04,520
Speaker 1: incident made the news, So I should probably read more

896
00:50:04,560 --> 00:50:06,240
Speaker 1: of the reports from the time and see if anybody

897
00:50:06,280 --> 00:50:08,719
Speaker 1: asked her why she thought to do that. And New

898
00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:11,920
Speaker 1: Yorkers decided that it was worth more to keep fragments

899
00:50:12,120 --> 00:50:15,800
Speaker 1: of this balloon as souvenirs, so they tore him to pieces,

900
00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:19,040
Speaker 1: and none of them will returned to Macy's and it's

901
00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:21,839
Speaker 1: probably not a surprise that the following year Macy's ended

902
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:24,640
Speaker 1: its They call it the Balloon Race, the race define

903
00:50:24,680 --> 00:50:27,320
Speaker 1: the balloons. They kept the tradition alive, though in a

904
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:31,360
Speaker 1: scaled down way, in nineteen thirty three, by releasing thousands

905
00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:35,600
Speaker 1: of small balloons, two hundred of which had tags offering

906
00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:39,920
Speaker 1: one dollar a free merchandise at Macy's. And these balloons

907
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:42,480
Speaker 1: they were recovered as far away as Nova Scotia, which

908
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:46,239
Speaker 1: is pretty impressive. One current organizer of the Macy's Thanks

909
00:50:46,239 --> 00:50:49,480
Speaker 1: Steven Day Parade, it was interviewed by People magazine, expressed

910
00:50:49,520 --> 00:50:52,360
Speaker 1: a desire for the full size character balloons to be

911
00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:54,880
Speaker 1: released at the end of the twenty twenty four parade

912
00:50:55,360 --> 00:50:57,920
Speaker 1: in honor of its one hundredth anniversary, so we may

913
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:01,480
Speaker 1: get to see a giant hippo floating out past the rockaways.

914
00:51:01,560 --> 00:51:04,320
Speaker 2: Yet this is looking to have a bit of fun,

915
00:51:04,719 --> 00:51:07,080
Speaker 2: and Net flew straight into the tom Cat.

916
00:51:07,600 --> 00:51:13,399
Speaker 1: Yeah. I've never found a good explanation. All right, it's

917
00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:15,600
Speaker 1: a hell of a thing. It truly is.

918
00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:21,640
Speaker 2: Uh am i up, I just can't stop thinking about

919
00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:22,520
Speaker 2: what that was.

920
00:51:22,719 --> 00:51:22,759
Speaker 1: Like.

921
00:51:23,560 --> 00:51:26,160
Speaker 2: She's just like in the cockpit, like I'm gonna do

922
00:51:26,239 --> 00:51:28,960
Speaker 2: it I'm gonna get that cat.

923
00:51:30,600 --> 00:51:31,760
Speaker 1: Or were they both just drunk?

924
00:51:32,040 --> 00:51:34,279
Speaker 2: Was like the flight instructor like, ah, this would be great,

925
00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:35,319
Speaker 2: you get the cat.

926
00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:37,360
Speaker 1: You won't do it, you won't.

927
00:51:39,080 --> 00:51:42,040
Speaker 2: She's on like old timey cocaine. She's like, I'm gonna

928
00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:43,480
Speaker 2: get that. I'm gonna get it.

929
00:51:44,960 --> 00:51:46,759
Speaker 1: Okay, you know what. I'm looking at a picture of

930
00:51:46,840 --> 00:51:49,120
Speaker 1: it now, hang on, I'm sending it to you. It's

931
00:51:49,239 --> 00:51:53,799
Speaker 1: small enough that I almost get it. It's like it's

932
00:51:53,840 --> 00:51:56,719
Speaker 1: like the size of like an RV, which I mean

933
00:51:56,840 --> 00:51:59,160
Speaker 1: still my first thought wouldn't be to fly into it,

934
00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:01,839
Speaker 1: but it's like not that huge. Dude.

935
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:04,440
Speaker 2: Everything I know about flying is like and I know

936
00:52:04,680 --> 00:52:08,200
Speaker 2: very little is like, oh yeah, you know, the slightest

937
00:52:08,280 --> 00:52:11,120
Speaker 2: gust of wind on your tail can send you flying

938
00:52:11,200 --> 00:52:12,520
Speaker 2: into the ground and you'll die.

939
00:52:13,080 --> 00:52:16,640
Speaker 1: And this woman was just like, no, I'm gonna get

940
00:52:16,680 --> 00:52:22,839
Speaker 1: that balloon. That guy. I love her. I love her

941
00:52:22,920 --> 00:52:25,520
Speaker 1: so much. I love that she was like she went

942
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:28,600
Speaker 1: on to be like a major pilot.

943
00:52:28,800 --> 00:52:32,760
Speaker 2: Well with Cahoni's like that, no wonder, she didn't fear anything.

944
00:52:33,040 --> 00:52:37,319
Speaker 1: Oh she was like twenty twenty one. Wait, she's kind

945
00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:40,760
Speaker 1: of gorgeous. Wow, she's like really really pretty. No, that tracks.

946
00:52:40,880 --> 00:52:46,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, a hot twenty one year old flying like I

947
00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:49,719
Speaker 2: was twenty one once. I knew beautiful twenty one year

948
00:52:49,719 --> 00:52:52,120
Speaker 2: old women once they're a special brand of vane.

949
00:52:53,000 --> 00:52:54,480
Speaker 1: Good for her. That's hot girl.

950
00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:02,880
Speaker 2: Oh survived into the late eighties, so she married a

951
00:53:03,320 --> 00:53:07,560
Speaker 2: rich attorney. She was just like a society dame and aviatrix.

952
00:53:08,719 --> 00:53:11,440
Speaker 2: Uh God, good for her, and spent more like she

953
00:53:11,520 --> 00:53:13,000
Speaker 2: had a lot of time to think about what she

954
00:53:13,080 --> 00:53:18,560
Speaker 2: had done, plotting her revenge. She's like eighty, She's like

955
00:53:18,680 --> 00:53:20,920
Speaker 2: tottering towards the plane one more time. They're like, Grandma,

956
00:53:20,960 --> 00:53:21,440
Speaker 2: what are you doing.

957
00:53:21,480 --> 00:53:23,240
Speaker 1: She's like, I'm gonna get that sound of a picture.

958
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:29,279
Speaker 1: I got one last flight in me. Hello, boys, did

959
00:53:29,400 --> 00:53:30,040
Speaker 1: you miss me?

960
00:53:33,200 --> 00:53:33,359
Speaker 2: Oh?

961
00:53:33,640 --> 00:53:36,640
Speaker 1: We gotta do Independence Day sometimes, Yeah, I kind of

962
00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:42,680
Speaker 1: I'm shocked we haven't. Yeah, uh, where were we? Skypilots

963
00:53:42,760 --> 00:53:43,480
Speaker 1: moving in the sky.

964
00:53:43,600 --> 00:53:47,879
Speaker 2: Pilots moving these balloons around and killing them is more

965
00:53:47,920 --> 00:53:51,280
Speaker 2: difficult than you might expect. They are, in many cases

966
00:53:51,320 --> 00:53:54,320
Speaker 2: several stories tall, and as we'll discover, extremely susceptible to

967
00:53:54,360 --> 00:53:56,880
Speaker 2: high winds. Up to ninety people or needed to anchor

968
00:53:56,960 --> 00:53:59,560
Speaker 2: and navigate each balloon, and they do so by grasping

969
00:53:59,640 --> 00:54:03,320
Speaker 2: onto ropes affixed to the bottom and sides. The ropes

970
00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:06,320
Speaker 2: are for some reason called bones, and they require a

971
00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:09,160
Speaker 2: specific way of handling so that they remain taut throughout

972
00:54:09,160 --> 00:54:11,800
Speaker 2: the parade. All of these people are requested to be

973
00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:14,040
Speaker 2: in good health and must weigh a minimum of one

974
00:54:14,120 --> 00:54:16,880
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty pounds. They are led by the mysterious

975
00:54:16,920 --> 00:54:20,240
Speaker 2: balloon pilot, who is basically the captain of each balloon.

976
00:54:20,840 --> 00:54:23,600
Speaker 2: They spend the entire parade walking backwards in front of

977
00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:26,600
Speaker 2: their balloons, guiding their team of marchers and two anchor

978
00:54:26,719 --> 00:54:29,800
Speaker 2: vehicles that also tow the balloons. As you can imagine,

979
00:54:30,040 --> 00:54:35,640
Speaker 2: the balloon pilots are the most experienced balloon handlers. To qualify,

980
00:54:35,760 --> 00:54:38,160
Speaker 2: they must demonstrate that they can walk the entire two

981
00:54:38,200 --> 00:54:42,520
Speaker 2: and a half mile route backwards without stumbling, as well

982
00:54:42,560 --> 00:54:45,040
Speaker 2: as sit for three field trainings and classroom training.

983
00:54:45,120 --> 00:54:48,880
Speaker 1: Each year. One balloon pilot has admitted to training by

984
00:54:48,920 --> 00:54:52,319
Speaker 1: walking backwards through their entire neighborhood. And this is all

985
00:54:52,480 --> 00:54:57,920
Speaker 1: done on a volunteer basis. Insane want to be a

986
00:54:58,040 --> 00:55:02,480
Speaker 1: volunteer lunar. You've been using this term without explaining it.

987
00:55:02,560 --> 00:55:05,160
Speaker 1: I think the good people are owed an explanation. It's

988
00:55:06,040 --> 00:55:08,520
Speaker 1: a specific kind of porn fetish. I believe people who

989
00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:13,759
Speaker 1: fetishize balloons fully get it, but I'm aware of it,

990
00:55:14,280 --> 00:55:17,400
Speaker 1: which really sums up my approach.

991
00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:23,719
Speaker 2: To so many lies. For those of you seeking a

992
00:55:23,880 --> 00:55:29,680
Speaker 2: chance to loon for Macy's good luck. As per tradition,

993
00:55:30,239 --> 00:55:33,000
Speaker 2: all of the handlers are either macy employees themselves or

994
00:55:33,040 --> 00:55:35,640
Speaker 2: friends and family of one. So this is a good

995
00:55:35,680 --> 00:55:36,719
Speaker 2: long con for us, though.

996
00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:39,360
Speaker 1: We you know you, yeah you.

997
00:55:40,640 --> 00:55:43,960
Speaker 2: There's look, there's twenty twenty seven acres of Macy's. You're

998
00:55:43,960 --> 00:55:46,960
Speaker 2: gonna find a cute Macy's employee. You're going to cozy

999
00:55:47,080 --> 00:55:50,960
Speaker 2: up to her. We get access to the balloon, and

1000
00:55:51,080 --> 00:55:53,440
Speaker 2: then we pilot. We drive it into the White House

1001
00:55:55,760 --> 00:55:57,760
Speaker 2: or Trump Tower. I guess that's probably easier.

1002
00:55:58,960 --> 00:56:00,600
Speaker 1: It's closer, yeah, close.

1003
00:56:00,520 --> 00:56:04,640
Speaker 2: Or the Union Square Guitar Center. Who's done the most farm.

1004
00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:12,240
Speaker 2: Fifteen hundred volunteer spots are up yearly, and they go quickly.

1005
00:56:13,640 --> 00:56:17,760
Speaker 2: There are there are nearly ten thousand participants, from clouds

1006
00:56:17,800 --> 00:56:21,320
Speaker 2: to cheerleaders, to dancers to marching bands to the balloon

1007
00:56:21,400 --> 00:56:23,560
Speaker 2: handlers and the pilot.

1008
00:56:24,160 --> 00:56:27,840
Speaker 1: I don't like the phrase balloon handler. That really I

1009
00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:28,359
Speaker 1: just don't.

1010
00:56:28,440 --> 00:56:31,080
Speaker 2: I don't like balloon pilot. I mean like it implies

1011
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:33,480
Speaker 2: that you're to meet, implies that you're like as I think.

1012
00:56:33,600 --> 00:56:35,320
Speaker 2: I hear that, and I think of the Hindenburg, not

1013
00:56:35,440 --> 00:56:37,920
Speaker 2: like a guy walking backwards, you know what it is.

1014
00:56:38,120 --> 00:56:40,160
Speaker 1: I think a balloon handler. I think of the people

1015
00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:44,440
Speaker 1: who make balloon animals of the towns. Yeah, you're describing

1016
00:56:44,480 --> 00:56:47,360
Speaker 1: a clown. Well, no, I mean sometimes you just have

1017
00:56:47,480 --> 00:56:49,759
Speaker 1: people that are really in the making balloon.

1018
00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:55,320
Speaker 2: Shapes, do you, buddy, Yeah, how many civilian balloon makers

1019
00:56:55,400 --> 00:56:55,560
Speaker 2: do you?

1020
00:56:55,840 --> 00:56:58,040
Speaker 1: Well? Quite a few. I mean I grew up in

1021
00:56:58,120 --> 00:57:00,520
Speaker 1: Boston and like Faniel Hall and stuff like that, and

1022
00:57:00,680 --> 00:57:03,799
Speaker 1: like you know, like city squares, you got the guys

1023
00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:05,680
Speaker 1: with the briefcases up when you fill the bucks in,

1024
00:57:05,800 --> 00:57:07,960
Speaker 1: then they get a hat or whatever and they and

1025
00:57:08,040 --> 00:57:11,040
Speaker 1: they make, you know, a little unicorns and stuff out

1026
00:57:11,120 --> 00:57:12,920
Speaker 1: of Not always.

1027
00:57:12,680 --> 00:57:16,120
Speaker 2: You're describing as street balloon artist. I've never seen this once.

1028
00:57:16,800 --> 00:57:19,240
Speaker 2: Oh come on, no, I've had I have more dignity

1029
00:57:19,320 --> 00:57:22,080
Speaker 2: for the humble living statue than I do for a

1030
00:57:22,480 --> 00:57:24,160
Speaker 2: street balloon artist.

1031
00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:27,640
Speaker 1: For sake, street balloon ars, it gives you something to

1032
00:57:27,680 --> 00:57:33,200
Speaker 1: take home. What's a still statue? Do joy no we

1033
00:57:33,360 --> 00:57:35,680
Speaker 1: used to be a proper country. Well.

1034
00:57:36,120 --> 00:57:39,440
Speaker 2: The balloon MVP of the Macy's Parade is, of course Snoopy.

1035
00:57:40,280 --> 00:57:42,320
Speaker 2: There have been nine variations of him since he made

1036
00:57:42,360 --> 00:57:45,360
Speaker 2: his debut as Aviator Snoopy in nineteen sixty eight. In

1037
00:57:45,440 --> 00:57:48,160
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine he was Astronauts Snoopy to mark the

1038
00:57:48,160 --> 00:57:51,400
Speaker 2: Apollo eleven moon landing. There was also ice skating Snoopy,

1039
00:57:51,840 --> 00:57:57,080
Speaker 2: Winter Snoopy somehow different from ice skating Snoopy, Millennium Snoopy Snoopy,

1040
00:57:57,120 --> 00:58:01,160
Speaker 2: The Flying Ace of revamped Aviator design Snoopy with woodstock,

1041
00:58:01,720 --> 00:58:04,720
Speaker 2: and for twenty twenty three Beagle Scout Snoopy.

1042
00:58:05,520 --> 00:58:08,400
Speaker 1: You're an Eagle Scout. I am that's really cool. No,

1043
00:58:08,520 --> 00:58:10,840
Speaker 1: it's not. There's no joke there. I genuinely find that

1044
00:58:10,920 --> 00:58:12,680
Speaker 1: really cool. What was the project again?

1045
00:58:13,360 --> 00:58:15,280
Speaker 2: It was something that it was like building a little

1046
00:58:15,640 --> 00:58:18,439
Speaker 2: garden and some benches at the local old folks home.

1047
00:58:19,160 --> 00:58:19,320
Speaker 1: Oh.

1048
00:58:19,800 --> 00:58:22,360
Speaker 2: I thought the Boy Scouts were like an edging bankruptcy

1049
00:58:22,480 --> 00:58:25,960
Speaker 2: because of all the molestation. How they have money to

1050
00:58:26,480 --> 00:58:28,000
Speaker 2: influence the Macy's Parade.

1051
00:58:29,080 --> 00:58:32,400
Speaker 1: I would almost imagine that the Charles Schultz h State

1052
00:58:32,440 --> 00:58:37,280
Speaker 1: State is really into the Boy Scouts in a nice way. Huh.

1053
00:58:38,360 --> 00:58:41,440
Speaker 1: And maybe this was his way of trying to are

1054
00:58:41,520 --> 00:58:43,600
Speaker 1: their way of trying to pick up the boy scouts.

1055
00:58:43,640 --> 00:58:47,040
Speaker 1: I don't know. Well. Although Snoopy is the most frequently

1056
00:58:47,080 --> 00:58:50,520
Speaker 1: appearing balloon, he is an impressive forty three parades to

1057
00:58:50,600 --> 00:58:52,920
Speaker 1: his name, he is not the biggest. This honor belongs

1058
00:58:52,920 --> 00:58:56,960
Speaker 1: to Superman, or more accurately, Superman the Third. The Superman

1059
00:58:57,000 --> 00:59:00,640
Speaker 1: balloon debuted in nineteen thirty nine to show those Jerry's

1060
00:59:00,680 --> 00:59:04,200
Speaker 1: what was coming to him, and reappeared in nineteen sixty

1061
00:59:04,320 --> 00:59:07,160
Speaker 1: six to show those hippies what was coming to him.

1062
00:59:08,320 --> 00:59:10,360
Speaker 2: Ah, and his third appearance in nineteen eighty, the Man

1063
00:59:10,400 --> 00:59:13,640
Speaker 2: of Steel got a supersized makeover, towering eighty feet tall,

1064
00:59:13,760 --> 00:59:16,440
Speaker 2: making him the tallest balloon to ever appear in the parade.

1065
00:59:16,560 --> 00:59:18,880
Speaker 1: Was that tied to the First Reeves movie? Yeah, but

1066
00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:21,120
Speaker 1: also to show the Ruskies what they got coming to him?

1067
00:59:21,840 --> 00:59:24,919
Speaker 1: So you're the Moscow Olympics. I think it's related.

1068
00:59:24,640 --> 00:59:28,560
Speaker 2: Person, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Another beloved balloon is

1069
00:59:28,600 --> 00:59:31,520
Speaker 2: a green apatosaurus dinosaur that appeared in the parade thirteen

1070
00:59:31,600 --> 00:59:34,240
Speaker 2: times before being retired in nineteen seventy six after being

1071
00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:37,960
Speaker 2: displayed inside the American Museum of Natural Histories, Theodore Roosevelt

1072
00:59:38,000 --> 00:59:41,800
Speaker 2: Wrotetunda for five days. In other words, they held a

1073
00:59:41,920 --> 00:59:46,480
Speaker 2: state funeral for the balloon. In two thousand and four,

1074
00:59:46,920 --> 00:59:50,520
Speaker 2: Yeah It's nice. In two thousand and four, Spongeob SquarePants

1075
00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:53,120
Speaker 2: made his debut as the parade's first square shaped balloon.

1076
00:59:54,040 --> 00:59:57,920
Speaker 2: It takes more than six hundred internal tie lines to

1077
00:59:58,000 --> 01:00:01,320
Speaker 2: give SpongeBob his distinctive look, and the following year they

1078
01:00:01,360 --> 01:00:04,680
Speaker 2: launched the Blue Sky Gallery initiative to incorporate the work

1079
01:00:04,720 --> 01:00:08,360
Speaker 2: of contemporary artists into parade balloons. To date, they've included

1080
01:00:08,400 --> 01:00:13,959
Speaker 2: works by Jeff Coons, Keith Herring, Better, Tim Burton, Takashimir

1081
01:00:14,040 --> 01:00:19,600
Speaker 2: Kami Kause, and Yooi Kusama. Jeff Coons is already balloons.

1082
01:00:20,040 --> 01:00:25,240
Speaker 2: I was in a stretch Cowards. I should do Herman Nietzsche.

1083
01:00:27,440 --> 01:00:31,240
Speaker 2: He's a guy paints in blood or just the scream

1084
01:00:31,640 --> 01:00:32,040
Speaker 2: are here?

1085
01:00:32,320 --> 01:00:35,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, that'll be cool. Yeah, a monkst the scream. I

1086
01:00:36,040 --> 01:00:39,760
Speaker 1: tell you about how I mean. As you can probably imagine,

1087
01:00:39,760 --> 01:00:41,200
Speaker 1: this is one of the happiest days of my life.

1088
01:00:41,720 --> 01:00:43,080
Speaker 1: I was a kid and we were going to the

1089
01:00:43,560 --> 01:00:46,440
Speaker 1: local little harvest fair in our town, probably around this

1090
01:00:46,520 --> 01:00:49,560
Speaker 1: time of year, and I remember like not being all

1091
01:00:49,640 --> 01:00:52,240
Speaker 1: that excited to go. I don't know. And we pulled

1092
01:00:52,320 --> 01:00:55,360
Speaker 1: up and what's like in the distance and I see

1093
01:00:55,440 --> 01:01:01,040
Speaker 1: the unmistakable site of the Titanic sinking, and I'm getting

1094
01:01:01,080 --> 01:01:04,720
Speaker 1: closer to it, and it is a giant inflatable back

1095
01:01:04,840 --> 01:01:09,760
Speaker 1: end of the Titanic angled down as a slide that

1096
01:01:10,440 --> 01:01:16,880
Speaker 1: someone at this harvest fans quaint bobbing for apples cinnamon

1097
01:01:17,080 --> 01:01:22,360
Speaker 1: apple dumpling contest type place decided that was a good

1098
01:01:22,400 --> 01:01:25,520
Speaker 1: idea to rent a sinking ty. I think this must

1099
01:01:25,560 --> 01:01:27,400
Speaker 1: have been right after the movie came out, and I

1100
01:01:27,480 --> 01:01:32,240
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. It's not just about the balloons, though, Higo,

1101
01:01:32,280 --> 01:01:33,480
Speaker 1: how many times you have to tell you it's not

1102
01:01:33,600 --> 01:01:34,480
Speaker 1: just about the balloons?

1103
01:01:36,560 --> 01:01:37,680
Speaker 2: God, get it right.

1104
01:01:38,000 --> 01:01:39,240
Speaker 1: No, there's always making about the.

1105
01:01:39,280 --> 01:01:43,280
Speaker 2: Balloons, but we're neglecting the real flesh and blood humans

1106
01:01:43,320 --> 01:01:47,320
Speaker 2: who perform often in frigid temperatures. Twenty eighteen is the

1107
01:01:47,520 --> 01:01:51,000
Speaker 2: coldest parade on record, with performers like Dinah Ross, John Legend,

1108
01:01:51,240 --> 01:01:56,200
Speaker 2: and Martina McBride lip syncing in nineteen degrees. According to Wikipedia,

1109
01:01:56,240 --> 01:01:58,680
Speaker 2: the first celebrity performer to grease the parade was Milton

1110
01:01:58,760 --> 01:02:01,880
Speaker 2: Burrel in nineteen forty nine, followed by Jimmy Duranty the

1111
01:02:01,960 --> 01:02:09,160
Speaker 2: following year. You must remember this, that was amazing Jimmy wedding.

1112
01:02:09,520 --> 01:02:13,400
Speaker 2: Jimmy Duranty's a different version of it, not the Jimmy

1113
01:02:13,440 --> 01:02:17,560
Speaker 2: Duranty one, although we should have uh less expected guests

1114
01:02:17,640 --> 01:02:21,680
Speaker 2: include Jazz Great Lionel Hampton, a post child stardom, Shirley

1115
01:02:21,760 --> 01:02:25,360
Speaker 2: Temple a pre Partridge Family, Shirley Jones, Big Band leader,

1116
01:02:25,400 --> 01:02:28,920
Speaker 2: Benny Goodman, Amber Tamblin's father, Russ Tamblin.

1117
01:02:29,120 --> 01:02:32,080
Speaker 1: I think he was in a lot of Roger Corman movies.

1118
01:02:32,240 --> 01:02:34,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was in West Side Story, Oh yeah, yeah yeah,

1119
01:02:35,640 --> 01:02:37,720
Speaker 2: and he's in Twin Peaks And I'm the only reason

1120
01:02:37,760 --> 01:02:37,960
Speaker 2: I know.

1121
01:02:39,200 --> 01:02:39,400
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1122
01:02:40,360 --> 01:02:43,320
Speaker 2: Tony Bennett makes sense, Willie Mays, Gene Krupa, The Cast

1123
01:02:43,400 --> 01:02:47,400
Speaker 2: of the Monsters, Nina Simone, God, she must have loved

1124
01:02:47,520 --> 01:02:54,960
Speaker 2: that makes Crackers like just up there like angrily comping Pano,

1125
01:02:55,560 --> 01:03:00,800
Speaker 2: Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, William Shatner, The Temptations, Evil Canievel,

1126
01:03:00,880 --> 01:03:05,400
Speaker 2: The Village People, Andy Kaufman, Robert sta Bobby Stacks, Lou

1127
01:03:05,560 --> 01:03:09,160
Speaker 2: Rawls Hell Yeah, good for Lou Rolls, Twiggy Nah, I

1128
01:03:09,200 --> 01:03:13,360
Speaker 2: don't like that. British people shouldn't be allowed She's British. Yeah,

1129
01:03:13,360 --> 01:03:15,760
Speaker 2: they shouldn't be allowed to do that. President Ronald Reagan

1130
01:03:17,640 --> 01:03:24,960
Speaker 2: American Yeah, Shelley Duvall, Kelsey Grammer, Dave Thomas of presumably

1131
01:03:25,040 --> 01:03:29,480
Speaker 2: of Wendy's, Wendy l Cool, Jy Bo Diddley, the Baja

1132
01:03:29,640 --> 01:03:30,960
Speaker 2: Men twice.

1133
01:03:31,320 --> 01:03:32,400
Speaker 1: Also foreign nationals.

1134
01:03:32,440 --> 01:03:35,440
Speaker 2: They should not be allowed here, Sharon Jones and the

1135
01:03:35,520 --> 01:03:39,560
Speaker 2: DAP Kings, Rip and Rick Astley, who, of course, Rick

1136
01:03:39,640 --> 01:03:41,680
Speaker 2: rolled the crowd during two thousand and eight by making

1137
01:03:41,680 --> 01:03:43,680
Speaker 2: a surprise appearance of the float of the animated TV

1138
01:03:43,760 --> 01:03:48,080
Speaker 2: shows Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends on Cartoon Network. Each year,

1139
01:03:48,120 --> 01:03:50,400
Speaker 2: Broadway Musical or two will perform a number outside of

1140
01:03:50,400 --> 01:03:53,200
Speaker 2: the front door of Macy's. Despite the old time equality

1141
01:03:53,200 --> 01:03:55,400
Speaker 2: of this segment, it was only introduced in the seventies,

1142
01:03:55,800 --> 01:03:58,520
Speaker 2: And of course we cannot neglect to mention the non

1143
01:03:58,640 --> 01:04:02,240
Speaker 2: famous human performers, the almost three thousand marching band members

1144
01:04:02,240 --> 01:04:05,840
Speaker 2: from across the country who entertain along the parade route.

1145
01:04:05,920 --> 01:04:07,640
Speaker 1: Were you ever in a marching band in high school?

1146
01:04:08,160 --> 01:04:10,080
Speaker 2: One year I was in the pit. I played bass, guitar.

1147
01:04:10,200 --> 01:04:14,280
Speaker 2: I hated it in a marching band. Yeah, in the

1148
01:04:14,520 --> 01:04:16,680
Speaker 2: in the pit, yeah, you play the tube lines basically,

1149
01:04:16,680 --> 01:04:17,880
Speaker 2: it just helps it sound better.

1150
01:04:18,400 --> 01:04:20,280
Speaker 1: I just I'm more like confused about how you were

1151
01:04:20,320 --> 01:04:21,880
Speaker 1: able to. I've never heard of a pit for a

1152
01:04:21,920 --> 01:04:22,439
Speaker 1: marching band.

1153
01:04:23,120 --> 01:04:25,400
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's where all the auxiliary percussion is, like

1154
01:04:25,480 --> 01:04:29,439
Speaker 2: all the marimbos and xylophones and bells and stuff. Yeah,

1155
01:04:29,640 --> 01:04:32,160
Speaker 2: only the drum line marches. All the other percussion gets

1156
01:04:32,200 --> 01:04:34,080
Speaker 2: to sit still, which rules.

1157
01:04:34,760 --> 01:04:37,520
Speaker 1: Oh, we had a whole line of all the brass

1158
01:04:37,640 --> 01:04:39,880
Speaker 1: and everything. But I don't think we had a pit.

1159
01:04:40,360 --> 01:04:42,000
Speaker 1: I wasn't in it, so I'm not totally sure. But

1160
01:04:42,280 --> 01:04:45,920
Speaker 1: that's cool. No, no, it's not. No, it's no, I

1161
01:04:45,960 --> 01:04:49,080
Speaker 1: don't have no. No, it's a weird cult.

1162
01:04:49,280 --> 01:04:51,720
Speaker 2: It's like yeah, it's like it's like the levels of

1163
01:04:52,280 --> 01:04:54,320
Speaker 2: it has all the incest of all the other niche

1164
01:04:54,480 --> 01:04:57,920
Speaker 2: high school of drama club, like drama club, cross country,

1165
01:04:58,240 --> 01:05:00,920
Speaker 2: you know all that stuff. But no about cachet and

1166
01:05:01,840 --> 01:05:06,200
Speaker 2: we were egged, you were agged. Yeah that's horrible. I'm

1167
01:05:06,600 --> 01:05:12,440
Speaker 2: Pennsylvania and sucks. Oh yeah, what else did I hate

1168
01:05:12,440 --> 01:05:13,160
Speaker 2: about high school?

1169
01:05:16,520 --> 01:05:18,440
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break. But We'll be

1170
01:05:18,600 --> 01:05:21,360
Speaker 1: right back with more too much information in just a moment.

1171
01:05:32,840 --> 01:05:33,880
Speaker 1: Keep going, where are we?

1172
01:05:35,160 --> 01:05:35,320
Speaker 2: Oh?

1173
01:05:36,040 --> 01:05:39,760
Speaker 1: Welcome to your worst night, my friends. We are about

1174
01:05:39,800 --> 01:05:44,680
Speaker 1: to give a special TMI shout out to the rock Atshigo.

1175
01:05:44,720 --> 01:05:46,479
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen the rock Cats live and in person.

1176
01:05:46,600 --> 01:05:49,320
Speaker 2: I've never seen them, but I know about the horrific

1177
01:05:49,800 --> 01:05:51,840
Speaker 2: life of an exotic tiger that they lead.

1178
01:05:54,600 --> 01:05:57,640
Speaker 1: I've seen them literally more times than I can count.

1179
01:05:57,800 --> 01:06:00,960
Speaker 1: It became this strange my first trips to New York

1180
01:06:01,000 --> 01:06:03,400
Speaker 1: as a kid, where I was brought here by my

1181
01:06:03,520 --> 01:06:07,040
Speaker 1: parents and my aunt to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

1182
01:06:07,600 --> 01:06:09,440
Speaker 1: I was very young, and I probably I must have

1183
01:06:09,520 --> 01:06:11,440
Speaker 1: seen it at least a dozen times over the years,

1184
01:06:12,240 --> 01:06:14,400
Speaker 1: so I have a soft spot in my heart for them.

1185
01:06:15,040 --> 01:06:18,680
Speaker 1: They have been performing with the parade since nineteen fifty seven.

1186
01:06:19,720 --> 01:06:23,040
Speaker 1: But shockingly, the dance troop that's become so associated with

1187
01:06:23,160 --> 01:06:26,760
Speaker 1: Christmas in New York actually got their start in Saint

1188
01:06:26,880 --> 01:06:30,040
Speaker 1: Louis in nineteen twenty five when they were known as

1189
01:06:30,440 --> 01:06:33,960
Speaker 1: the Missouri Rockets. That's such a New York story. Get

1190
01:06:34,000 --> 01:06:36,040
Speaker 1: your start in the Midwestern or a totally different name.

1191
01:06:36,120 --> 01:06:38,840
Speaker 1: You move to the big city, try to Reinvent Yourself

1192
01:06:40,920 --> 01:06:43,920
Speaker 1: creator Russell Markert got the idea for what we now

1193
01:06:44,000 --> 01:06:46,160
Speaker 1: know was The Rockets after he was impressed by a

1194
01:06:46,320 --> 01:06:50,919
Speaker 1: UK dance troupe in nineteen twenty two, Zigfried Follies, which

1195
01:06:51,040 --> 01:06:54,880
Speaker 1: was a review show. Basically, here's the closest thing I

1196
01:06:54,880 --> 01:06:58,120
Speaker 1: can think of how to describe it. He was seized

1197
01:06:58,200 --> 01:07:01,880
Speaker 1: with this can do big is better American spirit and

1198
01:07:02,040 --> 01:07:04,360
Speaker 1: quoted as saying, if I got a chance, they get

1199
01:07:04,400 --> 01:07:06,640
Speaker 1: a group of American girls who would be taller and

1200
01:07:06,720 --> 01:07:10,040
Speaker 1: have longer legs and could do really complicated tap routines

1201
01:07:10,120 --> 01:07:13,160
Speaker 1: and I high kicks. Man, they'd really knock your socks off.

1202
01:07:14,200 --> 01:07:16,600
Speaker 1: He didn't say, man, but everything else is a quote

1203
01:07:17,040 --> 01:07:17,880
Speaker 1: that didn't really show up.

1204
01:07:17,960 --> 01:07:18,200
Speaker 2: Jerry.

1205
01:07:21,520 --> 01:07:28,960
Speaker 1: The themis and themis all of them. Russell Markert envisioned

1206
01:07:29,680 --> 01:07:33,280
Speaker 1: a drill team that moved as a single dancer, and

1207
01:07:33,360 --> 01:07:35,920
Speaker 1: when the group toured New York, their show was attended

1208
01:07:35,960 --> 01:07:41,520
Speaker 1: by a theater magnate named sl Roxy Rothefeld. Roxy was

1209
01:07:41,600 --> 01:07:45,640
Speaker 1: so taken by the display of athleticism and dance acumen

1210
01:07:46,040 --> 01:07:49,600
Speaker 1: that he hired this group for his Roxy Theater. And

1211
01:07:49,760 --> 01:07:52,880
Speaker 1: this move required a new name, and so the former

1212
01:07:53,200 --> 01:07:57,800
Speaker 1: Missouri Rockets was reborn as the Roxyettes, which then morphed

1213
01:07:57,800 --> 01:08:02,720
Speaker 1: into the American Rockets, the Rose and finally the Rockets.

1214
01:08:03,200 --> 01:08:05,480
Speaker 1: I have a question, what's that? How much do you

1215
01:08:05,640 --> 01:08:10,160
Speaker 1: think this was just horniness? Oh? Oh, greater than seventy

1216
01:08:10,200 --> 01:08:10,680
Speaker 1: five percent?

1217
01:08:10,760 --> 01:08:12,680
Speaker 2: Because I didn't think other than the high character, I

1218
01:08:12,720 --> 01:08:15,000
Speaker 2: didn't think they were known as like an especially amazing

1219
01:08:15,160 --> 01:08:15,800
Speaker 2: dance troupe.

1220
01:08:16,200 --> 01:08:18,320
Speaker 1: Oh no, no that's not true.

1221
01:08:18,680 --> 01:08:23,000
Speaker 2: No, they're extremely talented, he said, unconvincingly.

1222
01:08:24,760 --> 01:08:26,360
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know enough about dance to be

1223
01:08:26,400 --> 01:08:28,240
Speaker 1: able to like back that up with anything. But no,

1224
01:08:28,400 --> 01:08:35,120
Speaker 1: they're like really well, okay, let me really hot and tall.

1225
01:08:37,080 --> 01:08:40,479
Speaker 1: That's what it is. It's just tall women. It is

1226
01:08:40,640 --> 01:08:44,759
Speaker 1: shocking to me how every tall woman I know hates

1227
01:08:44,840 --> 01:08:49,640
Speaker 1: being tall, and it makes me so sad. Yeah, now,

1228
01:08:49,880 --> 01:08:52,439
Speaker 1: this Roxy character. He was one of the visionaries behind

1229
01:08:52,560 --> 01:08:56,280
Speaker 1: Radio City Music Hall, along with John D. Rockefeller, who

1230
01:08:56,520 --> 01:09:00,280
Speaker 1: bankrolled Rockefeller Center. I always assumed that the rocket were

1231
01:09:00,320 --> 01:09:03,439
Speaker 1: named after Rockefeller and Rockefeller Center, but I guess they

1232
01:09:03,479 --> 01:09:06,160
Speaker 1: got the name before Rockefeller Center was a thing. But

1233
01:09:06,320 --> 01:09:10,280
Speaker 1: when Radio City opened on December twenty seventh, nineteen thirty two,

1234
01:09:10,840 --> 01:09:14,200
Speaker 1: Roxy tapped the Rockettes to perform and it's been their

1235
01:09:14,240 --> 01:09:17,720
Speaker 1: home ever since. A year later, in nineteen thirty three,

1236
01:09:17,800 --> 01:09:22,160
Speaker 1: the Radio City Rockets debut They're iconic Christmas Spectacular, which

1237
01:09:22,280 --> 01:09:25,840
Speaker 1: was designed by future Judy Garland husband and Liza's dad,

1238
01:09:26,040 --> 01:09:29,200
Speaker 1: Vincente Minelli. During the rest of the year, the Rockets

1239
01:09:29,320 --> 01:09:32,160
Speaker 1: were the opening act for screenings of the latest movies

1240
01:09:32,240 --> 01:09:34,600
Speaker 1: back when Radio City was mostly a movie theater. Did

1241
01:09:34,640 --> 01:09:36,960
Speaker 1: you know that Radio City used to be mainly for movies?

1242
01:09:37,360 --> 01:09:41,360
Speaker 2: I assume all those beautiful buildings in like every decaying

1243
01:09:41,400 --> 01:09:44,680
Speaker 2: American city was like a movie theater. He was a

1244
01:09:44,760 --> 01:09:48,200
Speaker 2: beautiful one in downtown New Cumberland where I grew up. Really,

1245
01:09:48,520 --> 01:09:50,160
Speaker 2: it wasn't even a first run theater when I was

1246
01:09:50,200 --> 01:09:52,240
Speaker 2: growing up. There was literally the two dollar theater which

1247
01:09:52,240 --> 01:09:54,479
Speaker 2: you went in and had all the gilded you know.

1248
01:09:55,200 --> 01:09:58,280
Speaker 2: I saw the big velvet curtain and gilded pillars and such.

1249
01:09:59,320 --> 01:10:00,559
Speaker 2: Wow did they get yepifi?

1250
01:10:00,680 --> 01:10:02,439
Speaker 1: Did millennials come in and turn it into one of

1251
01:10:02,479 --> 01:10:05,679
Speaker 1: those like twenty dollars Hamburger and Martiniz while you watch

1252
01:10:05,760 --> 01:10:08,280
Speaker 1: like Breakfast at Tiffany's kind of places. I'll report back

1253
01:10:08,320 --> 01:10:11,040
Speaker 1: at Christmas. Yeah, so here, I don't know that much

1254
01:10:11,040 --> 01:10:13,320
Speaker 1: about dancing to be able to offer an informed opinion

1255
01:10:13,479 --> 01:10:16,400
Speaker 1: on the rockets dancing abilities. But I do know a

1256
01:10:16,439 --> 01:10:20,000
Speaker 1: little thing about elbow grease, and damn it, the Rockets

1257
01:10:20,040 --> 01:10:23,840
Speaker 1: have it. Over three thousand women have performed as Rockets

1258
01:10:24,160 --> 01:10:26,840
Speaker 1: since the Christmas Spectacular is opening in nineteen thirty three,

1259
01:10:27,680 --> 01:10:30,679
Speaker 1: and they are somewhat famously all on the taller side.

1260
01:10:31,200 --> 01:10:33,880
Speaker 1: These days. The height requirement is between five foot six

1261
01:10:34,040 --> 01:10:37,160
Speaker 1: and five foot ten and a half inches, and by

1262
01:10:37,200 --> 01:10:39,680
Speaker 1: placing the tallest girls in the center and lining up

1263
01:10:39,720 --> 01:10:42,800
Speaker 1: and descending order of height, the dancers can create the

1264
01:10:42,840 --> 01:10:45,879
Speaker 1: optical illusion of all being the same height, which is interesting.

1265
01:10:46,840 --> 01:10:49,040
Speaker 1: Imagine it's like a forced perspective thing. I don't know.

1266
01:10:49,200 --> 01:10:50,840
Speaker 1: I thought they were like running out of money.

1267
01:10:50,880 --> 01:10:52,840
Speaker 2: I thought they were like bankrupt at some point, like

1268
01:10:53,040 --> 01:10:54,639
Speaker 2: people just stop giving it about them.

1269
01:10:55,479 --> 01:10:59,519
Speaker 1: I'm not saying anything about that. I see that the

1270
01:10:59,600 --> 01:11:03,759
Speaker 1: Rockets Spectacular was canceled in twenty twenty for obvious reasons,

1271
01:11:04,360 --> 01:11:06,200
Speaker 1: and it lost millions as a result.

1272
01:11:09,520 --> 01:11:18,840
Speaker 2: I think there's still kick in. I don't have an

1273
01:11:18,840 --> 01:11:22,439
Speaker 2: anti Rocket's agenda. I just think it's horny. It's I

1274
01:11:22,520 --> 01:11:27,439
Speaker 2: don't really see what sustained that for fifty years, one

1275
01:11:27,520 --> 01:11:29,519
Speaker 2: hundred years, however long this shit happened.

1276
01:11:30,160 --> 01:11:32,640
Speaker 1: Okay, let me talk about this. Every year, over a

1277
01:11:32,720 --> 01:11:35,800
Speaker 1: thousand dancers auditioned to be a rock At only eighty

1278
01:11:35,920 --> 01:11:40,040
Speaker 1: make it so. First of all, you know the cream Rises,

1279
01:11:40,080 --> 01:11:41,760
Speaker 1: they've got to be extremely good at what they do.

1280
01:11:43,040 --> 01:11:46,479
Speaker 1: But the Rockets, they have a somewhat complicated legacy due

1281
01:11:46,520 --> 01:11:55,320
Speaker 1: to what I'll generously call outdated beauty standards hype restriction. Aside,

1282
01:11:55,400 --> 01:11:59,000
Speaker 1: the Rockets reportedly didn't hire a black dancer named Jennifer

1283
01:11:59,080 --> 01:12:02,920
Speaker 1: Jones until they eighteen eighty seven, fifty five years after

1284
01:12:03,040 --> 01:12:06,439
Speaker 1: they taputed at Radio City. That's a bad track record.

1285
01:12:07,120 --> 01:12:09,519
Speaker 1: Allow me to quote a piece from the November twentieth,

1286
01:12:09,560 --> 01:12:12,040
Speaker 1: two thousand and five issue of The New York Times.

1287
01:12:12,840 --> 01:12:16,400
Speaker 1: The Rockets are instantly recognizable symbols, but what they represent

1288
01:12:16,560 --> 01:12:19,920
Speaker 1: depends on who is doing the interpreting. To some, they're

1289
01:12:20,000 --> 01:12:22,680
Speaker 1: step for dancers. That's a great pun there, with the

1290
01:12:23,000 --> 01:12:26,519
Speaker 1: step in and the step. That's good. Objectified women reduced

1291
01:12:26,560 --> 01:12:29,799
Speaker 1: to nothing but legs and teeth to others, their glamour

1292
01:12:29,880 --> 01:12:33,880
Speaker 1: personified the last cherish remains of a guys'n' dolls style

1293
01:12:34,040 --> 01:12:37,040
Speaker 1: nightlife and to yet another part of the audience. This

1294
01:12:37,200 --> 01:12:40,839
Speaker 1: is me their glorious kitch as amusing as they are entertaining.

1295
01:12:41,280 --> 01:12:43,360
Speaker 1: Actually no, I'm the next one also. But one thing

1296
01:12:43,479 --> 01:12:47,679
Speaker 1: is constant, their sheer physical accomplishment. Even in a city

1297
01:12:47,800 --> 01:12:51,320
Speaker 1: full of sweating, striving talent, The Rockets may well be

1298
01:12:51,439 --> 01:12:54,960
Speaker 1: the hardest working women in show business, and this is true.

1299
01:12:55,000 --> 01:12:58,240
Speaker 1: They truly work their asses off. They rehearse for six

1300
01:12:58,360 --> 01:13:00,760
Speaker 1: hours a day, six days a week, for six weeks

1301
01:13:00,800 --> 01:13:05,080
Speaker 1: before the Christmas Spectacular opens. That's a lot of sixes.

1302
01:13:05,160 --> 01:13:09,599
Speaker 1: Maybe they mistook Satan for Santa. A Rocket named Katie

1303
01:13:09,680 --> 01:13:12,920
Speaker 1: Daniel told The Wall Street Journal in twenty thirteen. Rehearsals

1304
01:13:12,920 --> 01:13:16,000
Speaker 1: are an all consuming process that requires a lot of grit,

1305
01:13:16,520 --> 01:13:20,120
Speaker 1: focus and attention. We practice all day together, and then

1306
01:13:20,160 --> 01:13:22,320
Speaker 1: we go home and practice on our own, and then

1307
01:13:22,400 --> 01:13:27,000
Speaker 1: wake up and practice more. It's NonStop Christmas. There are

1308
01:13:27,040 --> 01:13:29,960
Speaker 1: two separate casts of Rockets, with thirty six women each,

1309
01:13:30,080 --> 01:13:32,720
Speaker 1: and each cast has four swings for a total of

1310
01:13:32,800 --> 01:13:35,479
Speaker 1: eighty and these swings are waiting in the wings in case,

1311
01:13:36,439 --> 01:13:40,439
Speaker 1: I don't know, somebody's achilles tendon acts up on stage

1312
01:13:40,479 --> 01:13:44,200
Speaker 1: and they gotta tag out. I'm not sure so this

1313
01:13:44,400 --> 01:13:48,479
Speaker 1: makes these six show days slightly more bearable. But still,

1314
01:13:48,600 --> 01:13:51,840
Speaker 1: that's upwards of one thousand, two hundred kicks a day.

1315
01:13:52,280 --> 01:13:54,000
Speaker 1: It's leg day every day.

1316
01:13:54,120 --> 01:13:55,000
Speaker 2: How many kicks a day?

1317
01:13:55,720 --> 01:13:57,960
Speaker 1: Twelve hundred kicks a day. It's a lot of kicks.

1318
01:13:58,200 --> 01:13:59,080
Speaker 1: It's a lot of kicks.

1319
01:13:59,360 --> 01:14:02,479
Speaker 2: As Bruce Lee once said, I fear not the man

1320
01:14:02,520 --> 01:14:05,160
Speaker 2: who has practiced ten thousand kicks once but one kick

1321
01:14:05,320 --> 01:14:06,240
Speaker 2: ten thousand times.

1322
01:14:06,640 --> 01:14:08,720
Speaker 1: I fear the woman who has perfected that kick ten

1323
01:14:08,800 --> 01:14:09,479
Speaker 1: thousand times.

1324
01:14:09,560 --> 01:14:13,519
Speaker 2: In heels, Well said le go, you should start marketing

1325
01:14:13,560 --> 01:14:17,360
Speaker 2: that on Cafe Press or something. I guarantee it'll become

1326
01:14:17,360 --> 01:14:18,400
Speaker 2: a girl Boss slogan.

1327
01:14:20,360 --> 01:14:22,759
Speaker 1: Some of these women are required to wear heavy robes

1328
01:14:22,800 --> 01:14:25,799
Speaker 1: from the Nativity scene, for which they use real camels.

1329
01:14:26,600 --> 01:14:29,400
Speaker 1: One Rocket was later quoted as saying, standing still in

1330
01:14:29,479 --> 01:14:33,560
Speaker 1: that heavy robe, you can feel yourself dripping sweat. And

1331
01:14:33,640 --> 01:14:35,880
Speaker 1: there's a similar problem with the Santa costu, in which

1332
01:14:35,920 --> 01:14:39,320
Speaker 1: weighs forty pounds. But the ladies like to wear it

1333
01:14:39,479 --> 01:14:42,519
Speaker 1: because it's the only costume in which they can wear flats.

1334
01:14:44,280 --> 01:14:47,080
Speaker 1: In a truly remarkable profile on the New York Times

1335
01:14:47,120 --> 01:14:49,400
Speaker 1: from two thousand and five that I quoted earlier called

1336
01:14:49,439 --> 01:14:53,719
Speaker 1: The sweat Soaked Life of a Glamorous Rocket. Writer Susan

1337
01:14:53,840 --> 01:14:56,719
Speaker 1: Dominus describes these women as leaving their homes at six

1338
01:14:56,800 --> 01:14:59,639
Speaker 1: in the morning and not arriving back until quarter past

1339
01:14:59,680 --> 01:15:03,120
Speaker 1: the lane, heating up a frozen pizza, feeding their baby,

1340
01:15:03,560 --> 01:15:05,599
Speaker 1: and getting up to do it all again the next day.

1341
01:15:05,760 --> 01:15:09,080
Speaker 1: Six days a week, they have to perform ultra quick

1342
01:15:09,240 --> 01:15:14,760
Speaker 1: changes backstage. The fastest is just seventy eight seconds. That's

1343
01:15:14,800 --> 01:15:17,040
Speaker 1: between the March of the Toy Soldiers and New York

1344
01:15:17,040 --> 01:15:21,120
Speaker 1: at Christmas. And this change includes shoes, hats, and earrings

1345
01:15:21,600 --> 01:15:25,000
Speaker 1: while all crammed in the dressing room with seven other dancers,

1346
01:15:26,360 --> 01:15:28,880
Speaker 1: and what I consider to be the ultimate indignity, they

1347
01:15:28,920 --> 01:15:31,879
Speaker 1: all have to do their own hair and make up themselves. Jesus.

1348
01:15:32,479 --> 01:15:35,519
Speaker 1: I know Radio City management don't comment on what the

1349
01:15:35,600 --> 01:15:38,120
Speaker 1: Rockets earn, but dancers told The New York Times and

1350
01:15:38,160 --> 01:15:41,040
Speaker 1: this aforementioned two thousand and five piece, that they typically

1351
01:15:41,080 --> 01:15:43,840
Speaker 1: get paid on par with other Broadway dancers. So it's

1352
01:15:43,880 --> 01:15:46,800
Speaker 1: a salary that roughly breaks down to one hundred and

1353
01:15:46,840 --> 01:15:49,200
Speaker 1: thirty five dollars a show, and that was in two

1354
01:15:49,200 --> 01:15:51,160
Speaker 1: thousand and five, so that's closer to two hundred and

1355
01:15:51,240 --> 01:15:55,439
Speaker 1: thirteen dollars today sounds I mean, I guess it's ninety

1356
01:15:55,479 --> 01:15:57,320
Speaker 1: minutes worth of work. But that's a hell of a

1357
01:15:57,360 --> 01:16:00,280
Speaker 1: lot of work, oh my god. But because they form

1358
01:16:00,560 --> 01:16:02,479
Speaker 1: more than one time a day, and then they get

1359
01:16:02,560 --> 01:16:06,160
Speaker 1: overtime and all sorts of other little perks, it's a

1360
01:16:06,240 --> 01:16:11,240
Speaker 1: well paying gig. It's also apparently they get health insurance

1361
01:16:11,280 --> 01:16:15,120
Speaker 1: all year too, which is kind of cool. Yeah, I

1362
01:16:15,240 --> 01:16:19,439
Speaker 1: know right. One of my favorite anecdotes from one of

1363
01:16:19,479 --> 01:16:21,519
Speaker 1: the many rock Ass profiles I read was that they

1364
01:16:21,560 --> 01:16:24,560
Speaker 1: would often get pumped up before showtime by listening to

1365
01:16:24,680 --> 01:16:27,960
Speaker 1: Blondie Duran Duran, and just before the curtain went up

1366
01:16:28,240 --> 01:16:34,760
Speaker 1: the final countdown by Europe. Well sure, yeah. Also, their

1367
01:16:34,840 --> 01:16:38,400
Speaker 1: shoes are micd up so that the synchronous steps are

1368
01:16:38,439 --> 01:16:42,559
Speaker 1: audible to the crowd, and every Christmas Spectacular season they

1369
01:16:42,680 --> 01:16:47,679
Speaker 1: run through fourteen ninety six double A batteries. I'm told

1370
01:16:47,720 --> 01:16:51,160
Speaker 1: the numbers don't really translate well on TMI. That's something

1371
01:16:51,200 --> 01:16:53,760
Speaker 1: that people glaze over for. They usually like like the

1372
01:16:53,880 --> 01:16:56,559
Speaker 1: stories like the woman running into the balloon in mid air,

1373
01:16:56,640 --> 01:17:00,439
Speaker 1: But I don't know, I like some of these numbers. Well,

1374
01:17:00,960 --> 01:17:02,760
Speaker 1: good because we got more of them coming your way.

1375
01:17:03,439 --> 01:17:05,120
Speaker 1: Planning for the parade takes about a year and a

1376
01:17:05,160 --> 01:17:09,599
Speaker 1: half or I don't know what, five hundred some odd days. Yeah,

1377
01:17:10,120 --> 01:17:10,640
Speaker 1: that's about right.

1378
01:17:11,160 --> 01:17:15,000
Speaker 2: Fifty thousand hours of labor. Fifty thousand hours of labor.

1379
01:17:15,040 --> 01:17:17,759
Speaker 2: More than thirty skilled artists work year round to prepare

1380
01:17:18,080 --> 01:17:22,040
Speaker 2: the parade. Floats require three hundred pounds of glitter Jesus,

1381
01:17:22,800 --> 01:17:25,880
Speaker 2: two hundred and forty gallons of paint, more than half

1382
01:17:25,960 --> 01:17:29,800
Speaker 2: a mile of hand sewn skirt and fringe wrap, plus

1383
01:17:30,040 --> 01:17:31,759
Speaker 2: two hundred pounds of confetti.

1384
01:17:32,040 --> 01:17:33,040
Speaker 1: Oh, I love this story.

1385
01:17:34,560 --> 01:17:36,639
Speaker 2: They managed to cut some corners though on this step.

1386
01:17:36,720 --> 01:17:40,120
Speaker 2: In twenty twelve, for reasons that are still undetermined, shredded

1387
01:17:40,200 --> 01:17:43,680
Speaker 2: documents from the Nassau County Police Department ended up as

1388
01:17:43,760 --> 01:17:48,960
Speaker 2: confetti in the parade. These included clearly visitible sensitive information

1389
01:17:49,160 --> 01:17:53,559
Speaker 2: like people's social security numbers, license plate number, and banking data,

1390
01:17:53,840 --> 01:17:58,160
Speaker 2: as well as details about undercover officers. Also found for

1391
01:17:58,240 --> 01:18:01,120
Speaker 2: notes about Mitt Romney's motorcade from the final presidential debate,

1392
01:18:01,160 --> 01:18:04,920
Speaker 2: which took place at Hofstra University. A Macy spokesperson defended

1393
01:18:04,960 --> 01:18:07,760
Speaker 2: the company by saying they only use multicolored confetti and

1394
01:18:07,880 --> 01:18:10,759
Speaker 2: were investigating how the private documents ended up in the parade.

1395
01:18:11,880 --> 01:18:16,400
Speaker 2: He said Macy's uses commercially manufactured multi colored confetti, not shredded,

1396
01:18:16,520 --> 01:18:18,120
Speaker 2: homemade or printed paper of any kind.

1397
01:18:18,160 --> 01:18:18,639
Speaker 1: In the parade.

1398
01:18:19,280 --> 01:18:22,080
Speaker 2: It is not unusual for spectators to bring and throw

1399
01:18:22,160 --> 01:18:25,000
Speaker 2: their own confetti in the direction of parade participants from

1400
01:18:25,040 --> 01:18:28,679
Speaker 2: the sidelines. So some in Long Eye, Long Island cop

1401
01:18:29,479 --> 01:18:34,120
Speaker 2: showed up with his dirty laundry paperwork and hawked in snoopy.

1402
01:18:34,600 --> 01:18:35,320
Speaker 1: That's my theory.

1403
01:18:35,680 --> 01:18:40,360
Speaker 2: God, I love this country. Macy's team designs about seven

1404
01:18:40,439 --> 01:18:42,880
Speaker 2: hundred new costumes every year, creating an overall wardrobe of

1405
01:18:43,000 --> 01:18:46,759
Speaker 2: forty two hundred costumes valued at an estimated two million dollars.

1406
01:18:47,200 --> 01:18:49,719
Speaker 2: About two hundred costume fitters are on site the morning

1407
01:18:49,760 --> 01:18:52,040
Speaker 2: of the parade to help everyone get into costume, including

1408
01:18:52,080 --> 01:18:55,920
Speaker 2: the custom made costumes for Santa and Missus Claus and

1409
01:18:56,000 --> 01:18:58,360
Speaker 2: now one of the balloons themselves, the real star of

1410
01:18:58,400 --> 01:19:02,439
Speaker 2: the show. It is just about the balloons, Jordan. For

1411
01:19:02,600 --> 01:19:04,519
Speaker 2: years all of the Mac's balloons were made at Macy's

1412
01:19:04,520 --> 01:19:07,640
Speaker 2: parade studio, a former Tutsie roll factory in Hoboken.

1413
01:19:09,400 --> 01:19:13,320
Speaker 1: I know. That's the universal theory of TMI. The Tutsi

1414
01:19:13,400 --> 01:19:22,040
Speaker 1: beast stirs. That's a balloon. I would see the beast Yeah, braining.

1415
01:19:21,760 --> 01:19:24,839
Speaker 2: Tutsi rolls out of its distended anus.

1416
01:19:26,360 --> 01:19:31,360
Speaker 1: Uh he must roll.

1417
01:19:32,120 --> 01:19:35,960
Speaker 2: They have since moved to a gergantuan thirty thousand square

1418
01:19:36,000 --> 01:19:38,320
Speaker 2: foot warehouse in Monachi, New Jersey.

1419
01:19:39,720 --> 01:19:41,920
Speaker 1: Designers are buried under there.

1420
01:19:42,320 --> 01:19:45,839
Speaker 2: Yeah right. The designers are effictually known as balloon attics,

1421
01:19:46,479 --> 01:19:52,040
Speaker 2: balloonatics balloonatics by the way I said, it could also

1422
01:19:52,160 --> 01:19:58,760
Speaker 2: mean that thing balloon addict. The term comes from the

1423
01:19:58,800 --> 01:20:01,479
Speaker 2: praise where oh is that where the term comes from.

1424
01:20:01,720 --> 01:20:04,120
Speaker 2: The term comes from the parade's very first balloon covered

1425
01:20:04,160 --> 01:20:06,600
Speaker 2: float from nineteen twenty six, which was decked out in

1426
01:20:06,680 --> 01:20:10,240
Speaker 2: traditional balloons and called balloonatics. They didn't just get it

1427
01:20:10,320 --> 01:20:14,240
Speaker 2: from the easy, lazy pun or whatever Macy's loves to

1428
01:20:14,320 --> 01:20:17,280
Speaker 2: myth make this. Macy's had to come up with other

1429
01:20:17,360 --> 01:20:22,160
Speaker 2: new words to describe its balloon creations. There are falloons, falloons,

1430
01:20:22,479 --> 01:20:28,160
Speaker 2: or balloon or balloon floats. Falloons like a racial slur,

1431
01:20:29,640 --> 01:20:34,720
Speaker 2: balloonicles balloonicles sounds like a medical condition. You got to

1432
01:20:34,720 --> 01:20:37,040
Speaker 2: go in and get your balloonicles drained. The nurse is

1433
01:20:37,080 --> 01:20:39,080
Speaker 2: going to row you over and check you for balloonicals

1434
01:20:40,760 --> 01:20:44,440
Speaker 2: and trikalloons or balloon tricycles.

1435
01:20:44,600 --> 01:20:45,559
Speaker 1: That's not even a pun.

1436
01:20:48,320 --> 01:20:52,000
Speaker 2: The balloonatics begin with pencil sketches of each character, which

1437
01:20:52,040 --> 01:20:55,000
Speaker 2: takes into account both the aero dynamics and engineering. These

1438
01:20:55,000 --> 01:20:57,519
Speaker 2: sketches are made into scaled down clay models that are

1439
01:20:57,600 --> 01:21:00,160
Speaker 2: used to create casts of the balloons. Speaking do you

1440
01:21:00,200 --> 01:21:02,519
Speaker 2: hear that Wallace in Gramt is? There's only going to

1441
01:21:02,560 --> 01:21:04,880
Speaker 2: be one more Wallace in Gramt movie because the company

1442
01:21:04,960 --> 01:21:08,360
Speaker 2: that makes their clay went out of business and there's

1443
01:21:08,400 --> 01:21:10,720
Speaker 2: literally only enough to make one more movie coming out

1444
01:21:10,760 --> 01:21:16,160
Speaker 2: next year. That's a proprietary it's a proprietary clay formula

1445
01:21:16,240 --> 01:21:19,559
Speaker 2: that holds up especially well for stop motion. And when

1446
01:21:19,600 --> 01:21:21,600
Speaker 2: they announced that they were going out of business, the

1447
01:21:21,720 --> 01:21:24,519
Speaker 2: company just bought the entire stock and there's only enough

1448
01:21:24,560 --> 01:21:26,400
Speaker 2: of it left for one more movie.

1449
01:21:26,439 --> 01:21:29,120
Speaker 1: And they won't sell them. The recipe of Maygate I

1450
01:21:29,160 --> 01:21:31,800
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know. UM that's gonna be a

1451
01:21:32,240 --> 01:21:36,000
Speaker 1: like a some change dot org petition these bunch of nerds.

1452
01:21:38,880 --> 01:21:41,679
Speaker 2: Two miniature replicas are created, one that's marked with technical

1453
01:21:41,760 --> 01:21:44,680
Speaker 2: details and one that's painted in the balloon's colors. The

1454
01:21:44,760 --> 01:21:47,280
Speaker 2: models are immersed in water to figure out how much

1455
01:21:47,360 --> 01:21:50,400
Speaker 2: helium they'll need to float. And then finally, the schematics

1456
01:21:50,439 --> 01:21:52,760
Speaker 2: are scanned by a computer and the fabric pieces are

1457
01:21:52,880 --> 01:21:55,439
Speaker 2: cut and heat sealed to create the various air chambers

1458
01:21:55,520 --> 01:21:58,719
Speaker 2: of the balloon. For years, the balloons were made of rubber,

1459
01:21:58,840 --> 01:22:02,800
Speaker 2: but these days they made of polyurethane fabric. Overall, the

1460
01:22:02,880 --> 01:22:06,080
Speaker 2: process takes roughly between five months to a year. When

1461
01:22:06,120 --> 01:22:08,799
Speaker 2: the balloons are finished, they are tested rigorously at the warehouse.

1462
01:22:09,200 --> 01:22:12,479
Speaker 2: This includes six hours of inflation and a skin stress

1463
01:22:12,600 --> 01:22:16,799
Speaker 2: test known by the highly technical term thumping. These balloons,

1464
01:22:16,840 --> 01:22:19,400
Speaker 2: which regularly weigh around four hundred pounds, are then deflated,

1465
01:22:19,600 --> 01:22:21,960
Speaker 2: packed up, and driven through the Lincoln Tunnel, which is

1466
01:22:22,120 --> 01:22:25,600
Speaker 2: briefly closed to traffic just before midnight the Wednesday before Thanksgiving,

1467
01:22:27,640 --> 01:22:32,000
Speaker 2: thus stymying the duires of the world. I was thinking

1468
01:22:32,080 --> 01:22:35,080
Speaker 2: that in order to fit through the tunnel, the balloons

1469
01:22:35,120 --> 01:22:37,080
Speaker 2: and floats must be packed down into boxes that are

1470
01:22:37,120 --> 01:22:39,160
Speaker 2: no more than twelve and a half feet high and

1471
01:22:39,360 --> 01:22:43,280
Speaker 2: eight feet wide, which is obviously a challenge. Then once

1472
01:22:43,320 --> 01:22:45,800
Speaker 2: they arrive in Manhattan, they'll get parade ready in front

1473
01:22:45,800 --> 01:22:49,320
Speaker 2: of the American Museum of Natural History, where people assemble

1474
01:22:49,400 --> 01:22:51,960
Speaker 2: to gather and watch the inflation. Does it take place at.

1475
01:22:51,960 --> 01:22:52,759
Speaker 1: Like four in the morning.

1476
01:22:53,000 --> 01:22:56,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's some ungodly are Balloons traditionally last about eight

1477
01:22:56,120 --> 01:23:00,280
Speaker 2: years before they need to be replaced or retired just

1478
01:23:01,000 --> 01:23:02,800
Speaker 2: someone walks out and shoots it in the back of

1479
01:23:02,840 --> 01:23:06,760
Speaker 2: the head. The price to design and build a brand

1480
01:23:06,760 --> 01:23:09,200
Speaker 2: new character balloon is one hundred and ninety thousand dollars,

1481
01:23:09,280 --> 01:23:13,439
Speaker 2: with subsequent appearances costing ninety thousand dollars a year. Macy's

1482
01:23:13,720 --> 01:23:16,160
Speaker 2: will not disclose how much the parade costs each year,

1483
01:23:16,280 --> 01:23:18,600
Speaker 2: saying it's a gift to the city, and as with

1484
01:23:18,760 --> 01:23:21,760
Speaker 2: any gift, you don't leave the price tag on you.

1485
01:23:21,960 --> 01:23:22,439
Speaker 1: Firs.

1486
01:23:22,520 --> 01:23:24,320
Speaker 2: How much money do you get from the city to

1487
01:23:24,400 --> 01:23:26,759
Speaker 2: run that show? That's pretty good doesn't cost them anything.

1488
01:23:27,120 --> 01:23:29,000
Speaker 2: In addition to the three million people who turn out

1489
01:23:29,040 --> 01:23:31,519
Speaker 2: in person each year, more than forty four million watch

1490
01:23:31,600 --> 01:23:34,679
Speaker 2: the parade annually on TV. First broadcast by a radio

1491
01:23:34,760 --> 01:23:38,280
Speaker 2: in nineteen thirty two. Jesus Christ, that is depressing, I know.

1492
01:23:39,760 --> 01:23:41,680
Speaker 2: Next we have a really big balloon that's sort of

1493
01:23:41,720 --> 01:23:42,719
Speaker 2: a racist character.

1494
01:23:43,439 --> 01:23:44,240
Speaker 1: Next, there's.

1495
01:23:45,760 --> 01:23:49,599
Speaker 2: Is that Babe Ruth next to marching band from Topeka.

1496
01:23:50,439 --> 01:23:53,360
Speaker 2: Look at them go and next the crew a PYGMS.

1497
01:23:55,080 --> 01:23:58,080
Speaker 2: Yeah right, look at that a spirit?

1498
01:23:58,520 --> 01:23:59,680
Speaker 1: How are they? How are they?

1499
01:24:01,560 --> 01:24:06,400
Speaker 2: They'll never see their glistening homeland again. I don't know

1500
01:24:06,439 --> 01:24:11,160
Speaker 2: why he's talking like FDR in this. I mean, we're

1501
01:24:11,200 --> 01:24:14,040
Speaker 2: doing the Hindenberg explosion guy. Yeah, yeah, we're doing the

1502
01:24:14,120 --> 01:24:15,120
Speaker 2: O humanity guys.

1503
01:24:15,360 --> 01:24:15,639
Speaker 1: True.

1504
01:24:17,960 --> 01:24:20,240
Speaker 2: It was televised locally in nineteen thirty nine as an

1505
01:24:20,280 --> 01:24:23,519
Speaker 2: experimental early TV broadcast, and finally went national in nineteen

1506
01:24:23,600 --> 01:24:28,400
Speaker 2: forty eight. It's had a host of hosts, most notably

1507
01:24:28,479 --> 01:24:31,280
Speaker 2: TV news anchors, though from nineteen sixty nineteen sixty two

1508
01:24:31,320 --> 01:24:33,680
Speaker 2: to nineteen seventy one it was co hosted by the

1509
01:24:33,760 --> 01:24:39,320
Speaker 2: first Lady of Television, Betty White, alongside Bonanza star Lorne Green.

1510
01:24:39,920 --> 01:24:42,920
Speaker 1: How about that? You're the only person that want Planet Earth?

1511
01:24:42,960 --> 01:24:45,759
Speaker 1: You care about that other than me? About Lorne Green?

1512
01:24:46,720 --> 01:24:47,519
Speaker 1: For the folks.

1513
01:24:48,280 --> 01:24:50,879
Speaker 2: Since nineteen fifty five, NBC has been the official broadcast

1514
01:24:50,920 --> 01:24:53,839
Speaker 2: partner of the parade, but that hasn't stopped those rascals

1515
01:24:53,880 --> 01:24:57,879
Speaker 2: at CBS from trying to hog the glory. Per Wikipedia, CBS,

1516
01:24:57,960 --> 01:25:01,920
Speaker 2: which has a studio in Times Square, unauthorized coverage as

1517
01:25:02,000 --> 01:25:06,240
Speaker 2: the Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS, the Macy's Parade committee

1518
01:25:06,280 --> 01:25:08,960
Speaker 2: has their hands tied with this situation. While they can

1519
01:25:09,160 --> 01:25:12,400
Speaker 2: endorse an official broadcaster, they cannot award exclusive rights like

1520
01:25:12,439 --> 01:25:16,120
Speaker 2: a sports broadcast since the parade takes place in public,

1521
01:25:17,080 --> 01:25:20,160
Speaker 2: So instead they re routed the parade away from CBS's

1522
01:25:20,160 --> 01:25:24,000
Speaker 2: studio camera, thus making it significantly more difficult for the

1523
01:25:24,080 --> 01:25:27,040
Speaker 2: network to horn in on their racket. God love them

1524
01:25:27,360 --> 01:25:31,280
Speaker 2: ough this country. As we mentioned earlier, the popularity of

1525
01:25:31,280 --> 01:25:33,280
Speaker 2: the parade was enhancespite its inclusion of the film Miracle

1526
01:25:33,320 --> 01:25:37,560
Speaker 2: on thirty Fourth Street starring Little Matilda. What do you

1527
01:25:37,600 --> 01:25:38,320
Speaker 2: think of that remake?

1528
01:25:39,200 --> 01:25:40,519
Speaker 1: I don't really remember the remake.

1529
01:25:41,200 --> 01:25:45,360
Speaker 2: Richard Attenborough or Borough one of the Attenboroughs is Santa

1530
01:25:45,439 --> 01:25:46,400
Speaker 2: in that right? Yeah?

1531
01:25:46,840 --> 01:25:47,040
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1532
01:25:47,200 --> 01:25:49,559
Speaker 2: The original was released in nineteen forty seven. The movie

1533
01:25:49,640 --> 01:25:52,760
Speaker 2: featured footage from the actual parade. Cameras were placed both

1534
01:25:52,800 --> 01:25:54,640
Speaker 2: along the parade route and on the third floor of

1535
01:25:54,680 --> 01:25:57,519
Speaker 2: a nearby apartment to capture shots of what you describe

1536
01:25:57,520 --> 01:26:02,360
Speaker 2: as the electric atmosphere of the nineteen four six parade. Hilariously,

1537
01:26:02,400 --> 01:26:05,600
Speaker 2: the film's leading lady, Marin O'Hara, best known to you

1538
01:26:05,920 --> 01:26:08,280
Speaker 2: as the mom in the original Parent Trap, requested a

1539
01:26:08,360 --> 01:26:10,880
Speaker 2: police escort to shop in Macy's after they filmed the

1540
01:26:10,920 --> 01:26:14,719
Speaker 2: parade segments. The assistant director responded, I know New Yorkers,

1541
01:26:14,960 --> 01:26:16,800
Speaker 2: they aren't going to pay any attention to you. And

1542
01:26:16,880 --> 01:26:19,320
Speaker 2: don't wear bandana around your head or dark glasses.

1543
01:26:19,600 --> 01:26:20,240
Speaker 1: Just be normal.

1544
01:26:21,200 --> 01:26:23,439
Speaker 2: Good advice not to go too deep on Miracle on

1545
01:26:23,520 --> 01:26:25,920
Speaker 2: thirty fourth Street. I will never do an episode on this,

1546
01:26:26,160 --> 01:26:29,439
Speaker 2: so this is all you're getting. Twentieth Century Fox had

1547
01:26:29,520 --> 01:26:32,200
Speaker 2: Daryl F. Xenik insisted that it'll be released in May

1548
01:26:32,600 --> 01:26:34,479
Speaker 2: because he believed that more people go to the movies

1549
01:26:34,520 --> 01:26:39,240
Speaker 2: in warmer weather. What I think, because movie theaters were

1550
01:26:39,280 --> 01:26:41,120
Speaker 2: the like al air conditioned places.

1551
01:26:41,160 --> 01:26:41,800
Speaker 1: Then yeah.

1552
01:26:42,439 --> 01:26:45,439
Speaker 2: All mention of Christmas was scrubbed from the promotional materials

1553
01:26:45,640 --> 01:26:50,680
Speaker 2: for the film as a result of Xenik's brainstorm. The

1554
01:26:50,760 --> 01:26:53,360
Speaker 2: trailer features a fictional producer strolling a backlot where a

1555
01:26:53,360 --> 01:26:55,880
Speaker 2: bunch of the famous actors and actresses endorse the movie,

1556
01:26:56,240 --> 01:26:58,360
Speaker 2: and the Santa character is so small in the poster

1557
01:26:58,479 --> 01:27:02,360
Speaker 2: that he's mostly unidentifiable. The movie also features Natalie Wood

1558
01:27:02,439 --> 01:27:04,840
Speaker 2: in her child star face. She arguably made one of

1559
01:27:04,840 --> 01:27:07,160
Speaker 2: the most successful jumps from child star to adult actor,

1560
01:27:07,680 --> 01:27:10,439
Speaker 2: a transition affected by her role alongside James Dean in

1561
01:27:10,520 --> 01:27:13,519
Speaker 2: Rebel Without a Cause. Director Nicholas Ray was wary of

1562
01:27:13,600 --> 01:27:16,080
Speaker 2: casting her in that film due to her reputations a

1563
01:27:16,120 --> 01:27:19,360
Speaker 2: squeaky clean child starlet. But then while on a night

1564
01:27:19,400 --> 01:27:22,080
Speaker 2: out with friends, she got into a car accident. Upon

1565
01:27:22,160 --> 01:27:25,639
Speaker 2: hearing this, Ray rushed to the hospital. While in delirium,

1566
01:27:25,760 --> 01:27:28,479
Speaker 2: Would overheard the doctor murmuring and calling her a damn

1567
01:27:28,560 --> 01:27:31,680
Speaker 2: juvenile delinquent, at which point she yelled to Ray, do

1568
01:27:31,800 --> 01:27:32,640
Speaker 2: you hear what he called me?

1569
01:27:32,720 --> 01:27:32,920
Speaker 1: Nick?

1570
01:27:33,120 --> 01:27:35,760
Speaker 2: He called me a damn juvenil nile delinquent. Now do

1571
01:27:35,880 --> 01:27:39,439
Speaker 2: I get the part? And then Robert Wagner drowned her,

1572
01:27:40,720 --> 01:27:46,479
Speaker 2: and Christopher Walkin was there, and Christopher Walkin asked himself, do.

1573
01:27:46,880 --> 01:27:49,120
Speaker 1: You think he'll come clean about that? At some point.

1574
01:27:49,800 --> 01:27:54,840
Speaker 2: Wagner or walking either Walkin probably not Wagner, like a

1575
01:27:54,960 --> 01:27:55,879
Speaker 2: deathbed confession.

1576
01:27:56,400 --> 01:27:59,040
Speaker 1: Maybe. I don't know. He's had so many times to

1577
01:27:59,240 --> 01:28:02,759
Speaker 1: like do that and so many like very special interview.

1578
01:28:03,400 --> 01:28:06,280
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I think there was a documentary made by

1579
01:28:07,720 --> 01:28:09,880
Speaker 1: I forget if it was the daughter that they had

1580
01:28:09,920 --> 01:28:13,160
Speaker 1: together or if it was just Natalie's daughter from another marriage,

1581
01:28:13,200 --> 01:28:15,120
Speaker 1: But yeah, they had some documentary on Natalie would a

1582
01:28:15,160 --> 01:28:18,559
Speaker 1: few years ago. I remember watching it during pandemic freshman year,

1583
01:28:19,120 --> 01:28:22,160
Speaker 1: and yeah, it was like he had some big emotional

1584
01:28:22,360 --> 01:28:33,720
Speaker 1: like it wasn't me moment, it was walking, Uh, Jordan, Yes,

1585
01:28:33,880 --> 01:28:37,880
Speaker 1: speaking of disasters. Oh yeah, I mean I'm a disaster guy. Yeah.

1586
01:28:39,080 --> 01:28:42,680
Speaker 1: From large boat to large balloons. It has not been

1587
01:28:42,760 --> 01:28:46,840
Speaker 1: always smooth sailing for Oh, almost had a beautiful transition there.

1588
01:28:47,439 --> 01:28:49,880
Speaker 1: It has not always been smooth sailing for these Macy's

1589
01:28:49,920 --> 01:28:51,520
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving Day Parade performers.

1590
01:28:51,880 --> 01:28:55,320
Speaker 2: Speaking of Natalie Wood, it hasn't always been smooth sailing

1591
01:28:56,080 --> 01:28:59,479
Speaker 2: for the macy How dare you look?

1592
01:28:59,520 --> 01:29:04,599
Speaker 1: You wouldn't so I had to. Yeah, there's other things

1593
01:29:04,640 --> 01:29:11,120
Speaker 1: went wrong. Mistakes were made in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Now,

1594
01:29:11,320 --> 01:29:13,160
Speaker 1: most of the problems with the parade come down to

1595
01:29:13,240 --> 01:29:18,320
Speaker 1: the balloons. Specifically, balloons over the years have hit electrical wires, signs,

1596
01:29:18,520 --> 01:29:22,360
Speaker 1: tree branches, and street lights, deflating parts of the balloons

1597
01:29:22,439 --> 01:29:23,960
Speaker 1: and even entering onlookers.

1598
01:29:24,960 --> 01:29:25,080
Speaker 2: Uh.

1599
01:29:25,240 --> 01:29:27,960
Speaker 1: To kind of minimize this, the balloons are divided into

1600
01:29:28,080 --> 01:29:30,920
Speaker 1: several individual segments so that the show can go on

1601
01:29:31,120 --> 01:29:34,000
Speaker 1: if somebody, you know, losing an arm or a leg

1602
01:29:34,160 --> 01:29:38,000
Speaker 1: or something in nineteen thirty one, a balloon in the

1603
01:29:38,040 --> 01:29:41,280
Speaker 1: shape of the wrestler the Terrible Turk, burst after hitting

1604
01:29:41,320 --> 01:29:44,760
Speaker 1: a traffic pole. The New York Times described it thus,

1605
01:29:45,640 --> 01:29:48,960
Speaker 1: Terrible Turk does split as laughing children see him to

1606
01:29:49,080 --> 01:29:58,080
Speaker 1: plate in shame. It's like some old like variety headline

1607
01:29:58,200 --> 01:30:03,160
Speaker 1: or something. Buffo, Buffo, who've been together too long? My friends.

1608
01:30:04,800 --> 01:30:07,639
Speaker 1: There's a persistent rumor that a Felix the Cat balloon

1609
01:30:07,840 --> 01:30:11,000
Speaker 1: burst into flames after hitting some high tension wires in

1610
01:30:11,080 --> 01:30:14,280
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one. I've done some digging on this, and

1611
01:30:14,400 --> 01:30:18,120
Speaker 1: apparently there's some truth in the myth, but it is

1612
01:30:18,200 --> 01:30:21,200
Speaker 1: kind of a myth. This actually occurred days after the

1613
01:30:21,280 --> 01:30:24,360
Speaker 1: Macy's Day parade, after the balloon, which had been remember

1614
01:30:24,439 --> 01:30:25,720
Speaker 1: this was in the days when they just set the

1615
01:30:25,720 --> 01:30:29,839
Speaker 1: balloons free, came to rest in West nor with New Jersey,

1616
01:30:32,160 --> 01:30:35,400
Speaker 1: which was yet another reason why the plan to have

1617
01:30:35,479 --> 01:30:38,920
Speaker 1: these balloons just flowed away was really stupid. After the

1618
01:30:39,000 --> 01:30:41,240
Speaker 1: guy in the plane tried to hook it on its

1619
01:30:41,280 --> 01:30:44,800
Speaker 1: wing and missed and the balloon floated off. It flew

1620
01:30:44,800 --> 01:30:47,679
Speaker 1: over to New Jersey, connected with some high tension wires

1621
01:30:47,800 --> 01:30:52,519
Speaker 1: and burst into flames. A mini Hindenburg In nineteen fifty six,

1622
01:30:52,720 --> 01:30:56,200
Speaker 1: Mighty Mouse lost his battle against forty five degree Wins,

1623
01:30:56,720 --> 01:31:01,760
Speaker 1: veering into a street sign and collapsing dramatically near Columbus. Afterwards,

1624
01:31:01,800 --> 01:31:04,120
Speaker 1: the balloon was retired from the parade. I guess it

1625
01:31:04,200 --> 01:31:08,599
Speaker 1: was that badly damaged. In nineteen fifty six, the Popeye

1626
01:31:08,680 --> 01:31:13,439
Speaker 1: balloon made a splash after heavy rains accumulated in the

1627
01:31:13,479 --> 01:31:17,080
Speaker 1: brim of his hat and overflowed and drenched the crowd below,

1628
01:31:17,840 --> 01:31:19,760
Speaker 1: and a similar thing happened a few years later in

1629
01:31:19,840 --> 01:31:22,920
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two with the Donald Duck balloon, who also

1630
01:31:22,920 --> 01:31:26,560
Speaker 1: wore a hat. This was a relatively minor mishap, but

1631
01:31:26,640 --> 01:31:30,519
Speaker 1: major problems can occur. In nineteen seventy one, the balloons

1632
01:31:30,520 --> 01:31:33,120
Speaker 1: were grounded for the first time in the parade's history

1633
01:31:33,280 --> 01:31:37,519
Speaker 1: due to heavy rains and strong winds. In Thanksgiving nineteen

1634
01:31:37,560 --> 01:31:40,599
Speaker 1: eighty five, one of the rainiest on record, Kermit the Frog,

1635
01:31:40,840 --> 01:31:44,360
Speaker 1: was blown into a tree and ripped. The following year,

1636
01:31:44,520 --> 01:31:47,160
Speaker 1: Superman's right arm ripped off in the middle of the

1637
01:31:47,200 --> 01:31:50,679
Speaker 1: parade after getting blown into a tree, and in nineteen

1638
01:31:50,720 --> 01:31:53,400
Speaker 1: ninety three, Sonic the Hedgehog the very first video game

1639
01:31:53,520 --> 01:31:56,479
Speaker 1: character to get their own balloon. Knocked over a street lamp,

1640
01:31:56,800 --> 01:32:00,680
Speaker 1: injuring a spectator in the process. But this is all

1641
01:32:00,760 --> 01:32:06,440
Speaker 1: preamble for the Thanksgiving disaster of nineteen ninety seven. Macy's

1642
01:32:06,680 --> 01:32:13,799
Speaker 1: Annis harrillibus horribilius. How do you say that? Whatever you said, Annis,

1643
01:32:14,520 --> 01:32:17,120
Speaker 1: I did, yeah, which is fitting because nineteen ninety seven

1644
01:32:17,280 --> 01:32:19,879
Speaker 1: was the year that Beavis and butt Head had a balloon.

1645
01:32:21,479 --> 01:32:23,840
Speaker 1: It wasn't actually flown, though, they just tied it to

1646
01:32:23,880 --> 01:32:25,800
Speaker 1: a building that was on the parade route, which is

1647
01:32:25,920 --> 01:32:30,000
Speaker 1: pretty funny. There was a Kurt Loader hosted special Beavis

1648
01:32:30,040 --> 01:32:33,320
Speaker 1: and butt heead Do Thanksgiving, which I would like to watch.

1649
01:32:33,360 --> 01:32:39,479
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's on YouTube. Maybe not. But this was

1650
01:32:39,640 --> 01:32:43,320
Speaker 1: a very blustery day with winds reaching up to forty

1651
01:32:43,400 --> 01:32:46,479
Speaker 1: miles an hour, and the balloons were difficult to control.

1652
01:32:47,600 --> 01:32:51,600
Speaker 1: NYPD officers were enlisted to stab both Barney and the

1653
01:32:51,720 --> 01:32:56,639
Speaker 1: Pink Panther balloon over safety concerns and to fully explore

1654
01:32:56,720 --> 01:33:00,400
Speaker 1: the scope of this truly disastrous parade. I would like

1655
01:33:00,439 --> 01:33:02,080
Speaker 1: to cite I don't think we've ever done this before

1656
01:33:03,040 --> 01:33:06,160
Speaker 1: in full on New York Times article by Douglas Martin

1657
01:33:06,600 --> 01:33:09,840
Speaker 1: published on November twenty eighth, nineteen ninety seven under the

1658
01:33:09,880 --> 01:33:13,920
Speaker 1: headline Macy's Parade of Balloons gets one thing it doesn't need,

1659
01:33:14,800 --> 01:33:16,439
Speaker 1: wind take us away.

1660
01:33:17,560 --> 01:33:21,040
Speaker 2: Sudden bursts of punishing wind spun havoc at Macy's Thanksgiving

1661
01:33:21,120 --> 01:33:24,320
Speaker 2: Day parade yesterday, as many of the parade's signature helium

1662
01:33:24,360 --> 01:33:27,479
Speaker 2: filled balloons were damaged, and as four spectators were hurt

1663
01:33:27,560 --> 01:33:30,160
Speaker 2: when one of the giant balloons struck a lamppost, plunging

1664
01:33:30,200 --> 01:33:31,439
Speaker 2: the top part of it into the crowd.

1665
01:33:32,600 --> 01:33:37,479
Speaker 1: Nineteen ninety seven, not nineteen thirty seven. I'm kidding, fine, no,

1666
01:33:38,600 --> 01:33:42,480
Speaker 1: reading it as your heart desires. Two people were hospitalized

1667
01:33:42,520 --> 01:33:48,960
Speaker 1: with severe head injuries. The accident was a strange I

1668
01:33:48,960 --> 01:33:50,600
Speaker 1: should have let you get that one in there. And the.

1669
01:33:52,360 --> 01:33:54,639
Speaker 2: Accident was a strange and grim counterpart to a sunny

1670
01:33:54,680 --> 01:33:56,760
Speaker 2: day of high festivity in which most of the two

1671
01:33:56,800 --> 01:33:59,599
Speaker 2: million spectators were far away from the accident and had

1672
01:33:59,640 --> 01:34:03,240
Speaker 2: no idea it happened. God the New York Times clowns,

1673
01:34:04,800 --> 01:34:08,040
Speaker 2: they cheered, clapped, and squealed as fourteen marching bands from

1674
01:34:08,080 --> 01:34:13,839
Speaker 2: thirteen states strutted, past or marched, as six hundred clowns

1675
01:34:13,960 --> 01:34:17,360
Speaker 2: and twelve hundred cheerleaders enthusiastically did their thing.

1676
01:34:18,880 --> 01:34:23,080
Speaker 1: Paper record. You can't say a marching band, march it's

1677
01:34:23,120 --> 01:34:26,600
Speaker 1: please allow myself to introduce myself. Okay, crown jewel in

1678
01:34:26,680 --> 01:34:27,080
Speaker 1: the crown.

1679
01:34:27,960 --> 01:34:31,639
Speaker 2: Surely you could say a clown gamboled or or a cheerleader. Yeah,

1680
01:34:31,680 --> 01:34:37,760
Speaker 2: I mean did their thing whatever most emphatically, as the

1681
01:34:37,840 --> 01:34:41,759
Speaker 2: immense six story balloons of instantly recognizable cartoon characters glided

1682
01:34:41,800 --> 01:34:45,360
Speaker 2: past the brick, glass, and concrete of Manhattan. Only at

1683
01:34:45,479 --> 01:34:48,519
Speaker 2: times the balloons were not gliding, but instead were careening

1684
01:34:48,680 --> 01:34:50,840
Speaker 2: as their handlers on the ground struggled to keep control

1685
01:34:50,920 --> 01:34:53,439
Speaker 2: in winds that reached as highs forty three miles an hour.

1686
01:34:54,479 --> 01:34:57,120
Speaker 2: For a while, the balloons seemed to be falling like flies.

1687
01:34:57,800 --> 01:35:00,479
Speaker 2: Barney suffered extensive damage and had to be he removed

1688
01:35:00,640 --> 01:35:03,800
Speaker 2: and fifty first Street. The Pink Panther succumbed at forty

1689
01:35:03,840 --> 01:35:06,559
Speaker 2: second Street, Quick Bunny and the Cat and the Hat

1690
01:35:06,640 --> 01:35:09,639
Speaker 2: limped away. At thirty sixth Street. There was high drama

1691
01:35:09,920 --> 01:35:12,240
Speaker 2: as the balloon handlers and the police tried to control

1692
01:35:12,320 --> 01:35:15,840
Speaker 2: the airborne chaos. As the Pink Panther lurched about while

1693
01:35:15,880 --> 01:35:19,840
Speaker 2: simultaneously imploding, a police inspector shouted, somebody, give me a

1694
01:35:19,920 --> 01:35:23,479
Speaker 2: knife quick. An officer quickly handed him a five inch

1695
01:35:23,560 --> 01:35:25,960
Speaker 2: long knife, and he punched a hole through the feline's tail,

1696
01:35:26,560 --> 01:35:30,120
Speaker 2: a move that almost immediately stabilized the balloon. Joyce Rice,

1697
01:35:30,240 --> 01:35:32,439
Speaker 2: who held one of the panthers ropes, said she was

1698
01:35:32,560 --> 01:35:35,280
Speaker 2: terrified the balloon was caught on top of me and

1699
01:35:35,360 --> 01:35:37,760
Speaker 2: my daughter. We thought it was going to smother us.

1700
01:35:39,040 --> 01:35:41,479
Speaker 2: Some of the Panthers' handlers said one of their colleagues

1701
01:35:41,520 --> 01:35:44,000
Speaker 2: was knocked at conscious during the collapse, but the police

1702
01:35:44,000 --> 01:35:47,280
Speaker 2: would not confirm the report. The worst problem occurred at

1703
01:35:47,280 --> 01:35:50,000
Speaker 2: seventy second Street and Central Park West, when the sixth

1704
01:35:50,040 --> 01:35:51,920
Speaker 2: story tall cat in the Hat struck a lamp post

1705
01:35:52,000 --> 01:35:54,600
Speaker 2: on the northeast corner, causing the horizontal metal arm to

1706
01:35:54,640 --> 01:35:57,720
Speaker 2: break off. Pat Clem, who videotaped the incident and gave

1707
01:35:57,760 --> 01:36:00,000
Speaker 2: the tape to the police, said the lampost was wabbled

1708
01:36:00,200 --> 01:36:02,880
Speaker 2: in the wind even before the balloon struck it. Eric

1709
01:36:03,000 --> 01:36:06,560
Speaker 2: Neulan from Katana, New York, said, the balloon struck the

1710
01:36:06,640 --> 01:36:09,840
Speaker 2: lamppost's arm twice. You thought it was going to bounce off,

1711
01:36:10,120 --> 01:36:12,920
Speaker 2: he said, but the second time it snapped, it was

1712
01:36:12,960 --> 01:36:16,720
Speaker 2: suspended for an instant, then it spiraled way down the

1713
01:36:16,800 --> 01:36:20,400
Speaker 2: prade just stopped. He continued, There was a prolonged silence.

1714
01:36:21,120 --> 01:36:26,679
Speaker 2: Your thoughts go from happy, joyous thanksgiving to prayers. John

1715
01:36:26,720 --> 01:36:28,600
Speaker 2: Morley of Manhattan said the falling arm missed him and

1716
01:36:28,640 --> 01:36:32,519
Speaker 2: his four year old daughter surette Ugh by about a foot.

1717
01:36:33,160 --> 01:36:34,639
Speaker 2: He said the Cat in the Hat was the second

1718
01:36:34,680 --> 01:36:37,560
Speaker 2: balloon to strike that particular lamppost. When he realized the

1719
01:36:37,680 --> 01:36:39,679
Speaker 2: arm was teetering, he started to push through the crowd

1720
01:36:39,720 --> 01:36:40,799
Speaker 2: with his daughter to escape.

1721
01:36:41,320 --> 01:36:41,760
Speaker 1: It was coming.

1722
01:36:41,840 --> 01:36:43,880
Speaker 2: That's the guy who shoved other women and children out

1723
01:36:43,880 --> 01:36:46,240
Speaker 2: of the way to get on a lifeboat in the Titanic.

1724
01:36:46,640 --> 01:36:49,360
Speaker 2: It was coming right at me, he said. Ronnie Taffett,

1725
01:36:49,439 --> 01:36:51,920
Speaker 2: a Maze spokeswoman, said a number of adjustments were made

1726
01:36:51,920 --> 01:36:54,879
Speaker 2: because of the weather the balloon. The balloons were inflated

1727
01:36:54,960 --> 01:36:58,800
Speaker 2: less to reduce their balloons were inflated less to reduce

1728
01:36:58,800 --> 01:37:01,439
Speaker 2: their buoyancy, and flown lower and at an angle to

1729
01:37:01,520 --> 01:37:04,240
Speaker 2: make them harder for the wind to catch. Additional handlers

1730
01:37:04,280 --> 01:37:07,479
Speaker 2: were also added. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said the city

1731
01:37:07,479 --> 01:37:10,280
Speaker 2: would look into how to prevent such accidents in the future.

1732
01:37:10,880 --> 01:37:13,000
Speaker 2: If this is something that can be corrected in the future,

1733
01:37:13,320 --> 01:37:17,000
Speaker 2: we'll correct it. We'll find out what happened. I don't

1734
01:37:17,040 --> 01:37:19,759
Speaker 2: think we know enough to answer that yet, he spoke

1735
01:37:19,760 --> 01:37:22,160
Speaker 2: after visiting the two more seriously injured victim at Saint

1736
01:37:22,200 --> 01:37:25,640
Speaker 2: Luke Roosevelt Hospital. Anytime there's an injury like this, it

1737
01:37:25,760 --> 01:37:29,240
Speaker 2: makes you feel very, very bad, mister Giuliani said. At

1738
01:37:29,280 --> 01:37:32,360
Speaker 2: the same time, the parade has long, long history. It's

1739
01:37:32,360 --> 01:37:35,080
Speaker 2: a beautiful parade. It accomplishes a great deal for young

1740
01:37:35,120 --> 01:37:39,120
Speaker 2: people and for the city. What a mass did you

1741
01:37:39,200 --> 01:37:42,760
Speaker 2: say that at the hospital bed tragedy, But at the

1742
01:37:42,800 --> 01:37:44,920
Speaker 2: same time, beautiful parade.

1743
01:37:46,640 --> 01:37:48,640
Speaker 1: Before the parade, and that Missus Lincoln.

1744
01:37:50,479 --> 01:37:52,680
Speaker 2: Before the parade began. The often driving wind was the

1745
01:37:52,720 --> 01:37:55,880
Speaker 2: main topic of discussion. You can never tell which way

1746
01:37:55,920 --> 01:37:59,240
Speaker 2: the wind demons are going to get you, said Manfred G. Bass,

1747
01:37:59,760 --> 01:38:03,560
Speaker 2: the chief designer of what he terms air sculptures that

1748
01:38:03,840 --> 01:38:08,679
Speaker 2: should have won them Apolitzar. I need to know everything

1749
01:38:08,680 --> 01:38:13,679
Speaker 2: about mantred G. Bass. Meanwhile, captains for each balloon lectured

1750
01:38:13,680 --> 01:38:16,759
Speaker 2: their crews. All stressed the need to be extra vigilant

1751
01:38:16,800 --> 01:38:19,280
Speaker 2: because of the wind. Some of their advice was technical,

1752
01:38:19,479 --> 01:38:21,680
Speaker 2: such as where to position one's arms while gripping the

1753
01:38:21,720 --> 01:38:24,880
Speaker 2: spool of cord. Some were playful, such as the admonition

1754
01:38:25,040 --> 01:38:28,120
Speaker 2: not to wave to television cameras with both hands, and

1755
01:38:28,280 --> 01:38:32,439
Speaker 2: some remarks were prophetic. What is it, Betty Davis said,

1756
01:38:32,760 --> 01:38:35,240
Speaker 2: fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy ride,

1757
01:38:35,800 --> 01:38:39,400
Speaker 2: a captain shouted over the crescendoing wind. The crash of Barney,

1758
01:38:40,080 --> 01:38:43,639
Speaker 2: the purple dinosaur, beloved by preschoolers and loathed by some parents,

1759
01:38:44,280 --> 01:38:46,719
Speaker 2: was heart stopping for those at the end of its ropes.

1760
01:38:49,080 --> 01:38:54,920
Speaker 2: Everything turned purple, said Antonella Laggiano of Mamaroneck, New York.

1761
01:38:58,000 --> 01:39:02,879
Speaker 2: That woman's racist Barney attacked us set a still stunned

1762
01:39:03,120 --> 01:39:07,960
Speaker 2: Isabella Fasciano of Hoboken, New Jersey, also a racist. After

1763
01:39:08,040 --> 01:39:11,160
Speaker 2: it fell, police officers rushed to puncture it with knives

1764
01:39:11,280 --> 01:39:11,839
Speaker 2: and relieved.

1765
01:39:11,880 --> 01:39:16,679
Speaker 1: The danger is not this is I was wrong.

1766
01:39:16,880 --> 01:39:20,559
Speaker 2: This is painting a beautiful, truly beautiful, viviage, vivid image.

1767
01:39:20,840 --> 01:39:23,280
Speaker 1: That's why I wanted to read it all. The miypd's

1768
01:39:23,320 --> 01:39:27,840
Speaker 1: stabbing Barney to death on the ground while children watch.

1769
01:39:28,640 --> 01:39:32,120
Speaker 2: The combination of cold and wind defined the parade for participants.

1770
01:39:32,600 --> 01:39:34,800
Speaker 2: The bare legs of the drilled team for the first band,

1771
01:39:34,960 --> 01:39:38,920
Speaker 2: Butler High School from butler pa were painfully pink, people

1772
01:39:39,000 --> 01:39:42,080
Speaker 2: in kangaroo costumes hopped about for warmth as much as

1773
01:39:42,200 --> 01:39:47,680
Speaker 2: dramatic effect, and the handlers holding onto the balloons, all

1774
01:39:47,720 --> 01:39:50,439
Speaker 2: of whom volunteered for the seemingly fun job, hung on

1775
01:39:50,560 --> 01:39:52,880
Speaker 2: for dear life. It's a lot more work than I

1776
01:39:52,960 --> 01:39:55,479
Speaker 2: thought it would be, said Brian Sherman, who clung tightly

1777
01:39:55,600 --> 01:39:59,320
Speaker 2: to a disturbingly frisky Peter Rabbit. Mister Sherman had volunteered

1778
01:39:59,320 --> 01:40:01,719
Speaker 2: at the urging of his girldfriend, who works in Macy's

1779
01:40:01,760 --> 01:40:02,919
Speaker 2: public relations department.

1780
01:40:03,080 --> 01:40:08,000
Speaker 1: Woo, you talked to who?

1781
01:40:12,800 --> 01:40:14,840
Speaker 2: And despite the winds and the problems they caused, the

1782
01:40:14,880 --> 01:40:18,719
Speaker 2: spectators got what they came for. Christina Benitez from Tucson,

1783
01:40:18,760 --> 01:40:22,760
Speaker 2: Arizonia pronounced it like the fucking guy doesn't what we

1784
01:40:22,880 --> 01:40:30,479
Speaker 2: do in the shadow, Tucson, Arizonia. Christina Benitez from Tucson,

1785
01:40:30,520 --> 01:40:33,479
Speaker 2: Arizona watched the parade with beaming pleasure at Broadway in

1786
01:40:33,520 --> 01:40:37,320
Speaker 2: thirty sixth Street. This is our culture, the American spirit

1787
01:40:37,400 --> 01:40:42,000
Speaker 2: of fun. I'm proud to be here. The tourists said,

1788
01:40:44,080 --> 01:40:48,080
Speaker 2: why you well, I tell you it's our culture. What

1789
01:40:48,280 --> 01:40:51,640
Speaker 2: a what a hideous collection of words? I was exposed

1790
01:40:51,680 --> 01:40:54,280
Speaker 2: to just now. I wish you'd let me all read

1791
01:40:54,320 --> 01:40:56,559
Speaker 2: it all in the newscaster voice. That would have been something.

1792
01:40:57,640 --> 01:40:58,519
Speaker 2: Oh continue.

1793
01:40:59,160 --> 01:41:01,800
Speaker 1: Following the trag, the city put a policy in place

1794
01:41:01,840 --> 01:41:05,519
Speaker 1: that dictates that balloons can't fly if winds are stronger

1795
01:41:05,600 --> 01:41:08,960
Speaker 1: than twenty three miles an hour and wind gusts are

1796
01:41:09,040 --> 01:41:11,400
Speaker 1: higher than thirty four miles an hour. I don't know

1797
01:41:11,439 --> 01:41:13,559
Speaker 1: the difference between winds and wind gusts.

1798
01:41:14,160 --> 01:41:17,720
Speaker 2: I think winds is the average, and then gusts as

1799
01:41:17,840 --> 01:41:20,960
Speaker 2: high as how I see it on like Aci Weather.

1800
01:41:21,240 --> 01:41:24,840
Speaker 1: You know. Apparently one of these injured women who was

1801
01:41:25,400 --> 01:41:28,679
Speaker 1: hitting the head by the falling street lamp, Kathy Corona,

1802
01:41:29,160 --> 01:41:32,439
Speaker 1: was in a coma for almost a month. When she awoke,

1803
01:41:32,680 --> 01:41:35,040
Speaker 1: she still had a dent in her skull as wide

1804
01:41:35,080 --> 01:41:39,400
Speaker 1: as a tennis ball. After she recovered, she'd sued Macy's,

1805
01:41:39,479 --> 01:41:41,360
Speaker 1: who settled out of court in two thousand and one.

1806
01:41:42,120 --> 01:41:45,759
Speaker 1: But here's where it gets truly weird. In two thousand

1807
01:41:45,760 --> 01:41:49,519
Speaker 1: and six, Yankees picture Corey Little was flying as private

1808
01:41:49,600 --> 01:41:53,040
Speaker 1: four seater plane when he accidentally crashed into a condominium

1809
01:41:53,120 --> 01:41:56,360
Speaker 1: complex on East seventy second Street called the Belaire Apartments.

1810
01:41:57,040 --> 01:42:00,120
Speaker 1: The afore mentioned Kathy Corona, the coma woman lived in

1811
01:42:00,200 --> 01:42:03,160
Speaker 1: this building and the engine from the plane landed in

1812
01:42:03,240 --> 01:42:08,600
Speaker 1: her bedroom. Presumably she moved out of New York after this.

1813
01:42:09,320 --> 01:42:12,479
Speaker 2: That is really one of those is there a God

1814
01:42:13,120 --> 01:42:15,200
Speaker 2: and does she hate me? Kind of things.

1815
01:42:17,640 --> 01:42:19,599
Speaker 1: I don't think she was home all the time. But still,

1816
01:42:21,439 --> 01:42:24,400
Speaker 1: despite this policy about not flying balloons in high winds,

1817
01:42:24,479 --> 01:42:26,640
Speaker 1: there have been a few mishaps in recent years. The

1818
01:42:26,720 --> 01:42:29,479
Speaker 1: last major incident involving injury took place in two thousand

1819
01:42:29,479 --> 01:42:32,559
Speaker 1: and five when the Eminem's balloon hit a lamppost near

1820
01:42:32,680 --> 01:42:35,360
Speaker 1: Times Square, causing the light to fall and hit two

1821
01:42:35,400 --> 01:42:37,920
Speaker 1: women in the crowd. I believe they both were okay.

1822
01:42:38,720 --> 01:42:40,719
Speaker 1: And then in two thousand and eight, a Keith Herring

1823
01:42:40,760 --> 01:42:43,759
Speaker 1: balloon took a turn a little too wide and rammed

1824
01:42:43,840 --> 01:42:48,080
Speaker 1: the broadcast booth with Al Roker, Meredith Fierra, and Matt Eliora,

1825
01:42:48,760 --> 01:42:52,400
Speaker 1: temporarily taking them off the air. There's got to be

1826
01:42:52,439 --> 01:42:54,000
Speaker 1: a clip of that on YouTube. I should have looked

1827
01:42:54,000 --> 01:42:54,320
Speaker 1: that up.

1828
01:42:54,479 --> 01:42:56,479
Speaker 2: It's so funny to me that Keith Herring became this

1829
01:42:56,680 --> 01:43:01,479
Speaker 2: like live laugh Love graded like America thing, like so

1830
01:43:02,040 --> 01:43:05,080
Speaker 2: recognizable because so many other of his drawings have like

1831
01:43:05,640 --> 01:43:09,760
Speaker 2: huge dicks in them. Yeah, like frequently right next to

1832
01:43:09,880 --> 01:43:13,240
Speaker 2: that dog that's everywhere, And people were like, no, we

1833
01:43:13,360 --> 01:43:14,880
Speaker 2: just want the we just want the baby with the

1834
01:43:14,960 --> 01:43:15,960
Speaker 2: rays coming out of it.

1835
01:43:16,160 --> 01:43:19,080
Speaker 1: Thank you. He choose to engage with no other part

1836
01:43:19,120 --> 01:43:21,479
Speaker 1: of this man's legacy. I think the hospital down the

1837
01:43:21,479 --> 01:43:25,799
Speaker 1: street from where I live, Woodhall Hospital, has an original

1838
01:43:25,880 --> 01:43:29,160
Speaker 1: Keith Herring mural, because I think it was a I

1839
01:43:29,240 --> 01:43:32,120
Speaker 1: think at the time in the eighties it was on

1840
01:43:32,280 --> 01:43:35,280
Speaker 1: the i'd say the cutting edge of AIDS research, an

1841
01:43:35,280 --> 01:43:36,639
Speaker 1: age research. But it treated.

1842
01:43:38,160 --> 01:43:40,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a fascinating guy. I mean, he he It's

1843
01:43:40,680 --> 01:43:43,720
Speaker 2: it's funny too that people do would would get up

1844
01:43:43,800 --> 01:43:46,479
Speaker 2: in arms about him quote unquote selling out because he

1845
01:43:46,640 --> 01:43:50,240
Speaker 2: was a big sellout. He had like he was would

1846
01:43:50,880 --> 01:43:53,320
Speaker 2: sell his own stuff like prints and stuff out of

1847
01:43:53,439 --> 01:43:55,400
Speaker 2: like a pop up and soho. He was very much

1848
01:43:55,400 --> 01:43:57,960
Speaker 2: about like just making one and he wanted to make money,

1849
01:43:58,040 --> 01:43:59,280
Speaker 2: which good good on him.

1850
01:44:00,640 --> 01:44:07,160
Speaker 1: But yeah, a lot of dicks. So that was two

1851
01:44:07,240 --> 01:44:11,760
Speaker 1: thousand and eight. Due to COVID nineteen, organizers switched to

1852
01:44:11,880 --> 01:44:16,000
Speaker 1: a TV only parade in twenty twenty, eliminating spectators from

1853
01:44:16,040 --> 01:44:19,080
Speaker 1: the route and requiring the dramatically scaled down group of

1854
01:44:19,120 --> 01:44:22,519
Speaker 1: handlers to wear masks during the abbreviated parade route outside

1855
01:44:22,560 --> 01:44:27,360
Speaker 1: the Macy's flagship store. So the parade endured, but the

1856
01:44:27,479 --> 01:44:31,280
Speaker 1: biggest disaster may be still to come. Apparently there was,

1857
01:44:31,640 --> 01:44:35,519
Speaker 1: or maybe still is, a macy Thanksgiving Day Parade movie

1858
01:44:35,640 --> 01:44:39,760
Speaker 1: in the works, the premise of which involves oversized balloons

1859
01:44:39,840 --> 01:44:40,719
Speaker 1: coming to life.

1860
01:44:40,920 --> 01:44:44,840
Speaker 2: Yester, Yeah, yeah, I hope it's a horror.

1861
01:44:44,880 --> 01:44:49,000
Speaker 1: I hope it's a hard R horror. I imagine it's

1862
01:44:49,000 --> 01:44:51,799
Speaker 1: a kid's movie. Yeah. I don't think it's like Stefpoff

1863
01:44:51,840 --> 01:44:54,880
Speaker 1: marshmallow Man style. I mean that would be cool. It

1864
01:44:54,920 --> 01:44:55,759
Speaker 1: wouldn't be anything.

1865
01:44:56,200 --> 01:44:58,719
Speaker 2: If Macy's is actually signing off on it, it wouldn't

1866
01:44:58,760 --> 01:45:03,599
Speaker 2: be any uh anything vaguely edgy.

1867
01:45:04,880 --> 01:45:08,679
Speaker 1: Yeah no. But for this year, twenty twenty three, I'm

1868
01:45:08,760 --> 01:45:13,440
Speaker 1: thankful that this cherished piece of monoculture remains relatively untainted.

1869
01:45:14,200 --> 01:45:16,320
Speaker 1: So we've reached the end of our discussion of Macy's

1870
01:45:16,320 --> 01:45:20,439
Speaker 1: Thanksaving Day Parade. Hoigel, how do you feel? Did I deliver?

1871
01:45:21,240 --> 01:45:21,280
Speaker 2: You?

1872
01:45:22,080 --> 01:45:22,960
Speaker 1: Did? You? Did?

1873
01:45:23,240 --> 01:45:23,280
Speaker 2: You?

1874
01:45:23,439 --> 01:45:24,400
Speaker 1: Did? I can? I can?

1875
01:45:24,640 --> 01:45:29,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can wholeheartedly say. Between intrusive thoughts, Woman Pilot

1876
01:45:30,600 --> 01:45:34,040
Speaker 2: and the Woman, the Woman.

1877
01:45:33,920 --> 01:45:42,439
Speaker 1: The sky fell on twice. This was a truly beautiful episode. Well, folks,

1878
01:45:43,200 --> 01:45:46,479
Speaker 1: I am truly thankful that we get to be here

1879
01:45:46,800 --> 01:45:50,679
Speaker 1: and be giant nerds together, me and my dear friend

1880
01:45:50,720 --> 01:45:52,719
Speaker 1: Alex Hoigel. I get to spend this time with you, Alex.

1881
01:45:52,800 --> 01:45:58,120
Speaker 2: This is this is so nice, making truly foul jokes

1882
01:45:58,160 --> 01:46:05,519
Speaker 2: that will never see the light of air. Uh yeah,

1883
01:46:05,760 --> 01:46:09,920
Speaker 2: you know, I'd love to sometime, maybe even this Thanksgiving.

1884
01:46:10,080 --> 01:46:12,320
Speaker 2: Maybe we can just live stream it and share a

1885
01:46:12,360 --> 01:46:16,840
Speaker 2: piece of pumpkin pie before I get too drunk and

1886
01:46:16,960 --> 01:46:19,840
Speaker 2: start yelling at the football teams that I know nothing

1887
01:46:19,880 --> 01:46:22,160
Speaker 2: about who's playing?

1888
01:46:23,240 --> 01:46:28,040
Speaker 1: How the Patriots doing? Jordan that bad that I know? Yeah?

1889
01:46:28,240 --> 01:46:32,920
Speaker 2: Great, I love that all right. Well, thanks for listening, folks.

1890
01:46:33,400 --> 01:46:40,960
Speaker 1: This has been Massachusetts. The show will deliver that will

1891
01:46:41,000 --> 01:46:46,400
Speaker 1: deliver that message in person this Thanksgiving for you. I'm

1892
01:46:46,400 --> 01:46:49,040
Speaker 1: Alex Igel and I'm Jordan runs Hog. We'll catch you

1893
01:46:49,160 --> 01:46:57,679
Speaker 1: next time. Happy Thanksgiving. Too Much Information was a production

1894
01:46:57,800 --> 01:46:58,680
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio.

1895
01:46:58,960 --> 01:47:02,600
Speaker 2: The show's executives are Noel Brown and Jordan runtalg.

1896
01:47:02,360 --> 01:47:06,040
Speaker 1: The show's supervising producer is Michael Alder June. The show was.

1897
01:47:06,080 --> 01:47:09,760
Speaker 2: Researched, written and hosted by Jordan Runtogg and Alex Heigel.

1898
01:47:09,600 --> 01:47:12,759
Speaker 1: With original music by Seth Applebaum and the Ghost Funk Orchestra.

1899
01:47:13,160 --> 01:47:15,160
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave

1900
01:47:15,240 --> 01:47:18,200
Speaker 1: us a review. For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the

1901
01:47:18,240 --> 01:47:21,519
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

1902
01:47:21,560 --> 01:47:22,240
Speaker 1: favorite shows