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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of five

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Speaker 1: Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Josh. There's Chuck. Jerry's out there dressed as a

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Speaker 1: turkey dresses a kilgrim weirdly and uh that makes us

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Speaker 1: of course. Stuff you should know. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day

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Speaker 1: Parade edition. That's right. This is an episode we've wanted

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Speaker 1: to do for a while and there's a lot here.

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Speaker 1: It's it's really pretty interesting. Do you watch, By the way,

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Speaker 1: I'm just curious too, if I missed one, I would

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Speaker 1: just be in Shamble's crime. I love the Macy's Thanksgiving

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Speaker 1: Day Parade for sure. I don't think I've ever watched one, really, Chuck, man,

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Speaker 1: you I'm really surprised, especially in the eighties too, that

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Speaker 1: you didn't watch it back back in the day. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's it's great, man. It is a very fun thing

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Speaker 1: to watch. It's like full of glad tidings and cornucopias,

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Speaker 1: pumpkins and stuff, and it's great. I mean, I feel

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Speaker 1: like it's on at houses that I go to, so

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Speaker 1: it's not like I don't have never seen bits of it,

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Speaker 1: but I've never like popped the popcorn and sat down

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Speaker 1: and be like, I get my parade on. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: some people do that weirdos. But for the most part,

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Speaker 1: it's meant to just kind of be seen as you

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Speaker 1: see it, you know what I mean, Like you'll you'll

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Speaker 1: see some of it and then while you're making your

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Speaker 1: trimmings and stuffing. Yeah, or you can sit down and

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Speaker 1: watch bits of it. But if you sit down from

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Speaker 1: nine to twelve, I'm quite sure there are plenty of

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Speaker 1: people out there who do do that. Um, but there,

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Speaker 1: you know, for the most part, it seems like something

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Speaker 1: you just kind of watch here there, you know. And

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Speaker 1: I know we talked about it at some point because

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Speaker 1: I did tell the story about Emily and I going

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Speaker 1: to We were in New York every Thanksgiving a couple

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Speaker 1: of times, and both times we went the day before

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Speaker 1: to watch the balloons being blown up. Yeah, that's a

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Speaker 1: lot of fun. That's an event in and of itself.

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Speaker 1: Inflation Day is what they call it now. Yeah. It's

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Speaker 1: really a good time and just little kiddos everywhere. And

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Speaker 1: I can't wait to go back with my daughter one

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Speaker 1: day once uh, once it's safe to do so. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And one of one of my friends Molly. Um, she

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Speaker 1: worked for Macy's for a very long time. Okay, well,

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Speaker 1: Molly has been in the parade. This is going to

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Speaker 1: be her fourth time as a matter of fact, And

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Speaker 1: she said some of her best member I was texting

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Speaker 1: her about asking her some questions, and she said some

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Speaker 1: of her best memories ever were formed because everybody is

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Speaker 1: just in the best mood and watching the parade and

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Speaker 1: you're just marching down the street waving and everything. She said,

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Speaker 1: it's just amazingly cool. Yeah, and I think can we

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Speaker 1: go ahead and drop the fact of the episode for

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Speaker 1: me since you said that? Okay, does that make you nervous? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Which one? Well I never knew this, but you know,

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Speaker 1: except for the performers and you know, the the host

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Speaker 1: and stuff like that, everyone you see in that parade

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Speaker 1: is worked for Macy's. Yeah. Or they're a friend or

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Speaker 1: a family member of a Macy's employee. Yeah. I never

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Speaker 1: knew that. And I'm sure like a straggler might get

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Speaker 1: in there, but it is. It is largely Macy's friends

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Speaker 1: and family and employees. Yeah. So, and that's actually um

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Speaker 1: to kind of get into the history of this. That

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Speaker 1: is a tradition from the very beginning, so like the

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Speaker 1: first ever Macy's parade wasn't even a Thanksgiving parade. It

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Speaker 1: was called the Macy's Christmas Parade, even though it was

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Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving. Still. Um. Back in Um there were a

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Speaker 1: lot of recent immigrants to the United States from Europe

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Speaker 1: who were working for Macy's who said, Hey, we've got

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Speaker 1: these parades that kind of celebrate things over in Europe.

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Speaker 1: We should start doing one here. And they actually led

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Speaker 1: to the first Macy's Thanksgiving well Christmas Parade, And so

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Speaker 1: all the clowns and the cowboys and the people pulling

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Speaker 1: the caged wild animals, um, they were Macy's employees, and

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Speaker 1: has always been the case ever since then. Created by

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Speaker 1: immigrants to the United States. Everybody, yes, rich American tradition.

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Speaker 1: I love it. So except for a three year break

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Speaker 1: during World War Two, they have been launching this Thanksgiving

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Speaker 1: Day parade for ninety six years. Uh. It is morphed

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Speaker 1: and changed over the years from sort of a small

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Speaker 1: thing to a very big thing to an event, one

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Speaker 1: might say, an entertainment event. About quarter of a million

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Speaker 1: people showed up on that first one, and I think,

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Speaker 1: what is it like three and a half million people now?

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Speaker 1: Go in person. Generally, Yeah, and we should say generally traditionally.

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Speaker 1: We gotta qualify with that because the parade, thanks to

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Speaker 1: the paint pandemic, is going to be different, and we'll

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Speaker 1: talk about it. But like, yes, under a normal year

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Speaker 1: in the last like decade or so, three and a

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Speaker 1: half million New Yorkers or people show up on the

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Speaker 1: streets of New York to watch this thing, and then

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Speaker 1: like fifty million more watch it on TV. Amazing, so

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Speaker 1: quarter of a mill at that first one, um, ads

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Speaker 1: read a marathon of mirth is coming to this Macy's

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Speaker 1: Christmas Parade. And it was about a six mile route

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Speaker 1: in that first year, and it was it was pretty

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Speaker 1: long for a while, and then they narrowed it down

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Speaker 1: there like we can't go six miles anymore, this is

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Speaker 1: getting ridiculous. No, it started in Harlem and went all

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Speaker 1: the way down to Harold Square where Macy's flagship stories,

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Speaker 1: which is where it ends. Like yeah, six miles and

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Speaker 1: and on that first um, that first marathon of mirth, UM,

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Speaker 1: like I said, they had caged animals that they dragged

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Speaker 1: along and they did that for the first few years, UM,

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Speaker 1: and then they realized like actually the animals. They're scaring

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Speaker 1: all the little kids. They're not delighted like we thought,

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Speaker 1: so they stopped borrowing them from the Central Park sero.

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Speaker 1: It also wasn't much fun for the animals, I'm sure

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Speaker 1: as well. Um, and so they replaced the animals with

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Speaker 1: floats I think in nineteen twenty seven, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And you know, that was a good idea that because

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Speaker 1: they're like, what do kids not like? Are angry tigers?

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Speaker 1: What do kids like? Are happy balloon type? Yeah? Especially

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Speaker 1: when it's cold out you don't want your pants to

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Speaker 1: be wet, that's right. By the mid sort of nineteen

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Speaker 1: thirties is when the Christmas Parade really made the transition

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Speaker 1: to the Thanksgiving Parade that we know and love, and uh,

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Speaker 1: that's when pop culture started to be a thing and people,

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Speaker 1: you know, Felix the Cat was a very first character

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Speaker 1: balloon in ninety seven, and traditionally, UH, celebrities started taking

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Speaker 1: part uh in about nineteen thirty four. I think Eddie

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Speaker 1: Canter was the first big celeb who was a pretty

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Speaker 1: interesting guy. If you want to look, come up old

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Speaker 1: ban Joe eyes Eddie Canter. He so not only was

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Speaker 1: he the first celebrity to take part. He's also the

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Speaker 1: one and only celebrity to have a balloon based on

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Speaker 1: him too. Yeah, I'm kind of surprised by that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that that's the only one. Yeah, you'd think would have

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm hoping that this really tips the

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Speaker 1: scales in our favor, though, Man, that would be amazing.

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Speaker 1: Mine would be mostly beard, you know, would be cool

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Speaker 1: as if they made a balloon n of us as

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Speaker 1: the thing with Two Heads with Rosie Greer and Ray Milan. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: do you remember that movie? Sort of do? Like? Its

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Speaker 1: like Ray Milan is like a terrible like horrible racist,

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Speaker 1: like old rich guy who pays to have his head

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Speaker 1: put on Rosie Greer's body and they have to get

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Speaker 1: along the first deep fake I guess. I guess maybe

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Speaker 1: so parade wise, boy, that's a that's a deep cut. Um,

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Speaker 1: that's wise. He's shrunk, shrunk this thing down. Like I

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Speaker 1: said to about forty three blocks that we see today,

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Speaker 1: the balloons and the floods just got bigger and bigger.

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Speaker 1: Of course, the rockets started kicking their way in in

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Speaker 1: nine and then in seventies seven, uh, with the addition

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Speaker 1: of Gene McFadden who was the macy Stay planner, the

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Speaker 1: parade planner, that's when they started doing the big Broadway

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Speaker 1: perform Mints is Yeah, Jim McFadden. She was from Texas

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Speaker 1: and so of course everything is bigger in Texas. She

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Speaker 1: injected that idea into the Macy's Parade, which was already

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Speaker 1: like a big deal by the time she came along,

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Speaker 1: but she really blew it up and turned it into

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Speaker 1: like this, this incredibly huge event that it is today.

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Speaker 1: And she also will see brought in sponsors to UM,

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Speaker 1: which definitely altered the complexion of the parade for the

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Speaker 1: better and the worst. Really, yeah, I think so. Um.

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Speaker 1: They planned the parade for about eighteen months, so if

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Speaker 1: you do the math there, there's about six months where

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Speaker 1: there are two parades um being planned at the same time.

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Speaker 1: Which did you imagine? Yeah, I bet you. It's pretty sigmented.

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Speaker 1: Though it's confusing. I would be totally bald, I think

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Speaker 1: if I were in charge of that. Uh. And then

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Speaker 1: last year in nineteen it was the nine parade. They

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Speaker 1: had twenty six floats, sixteen giant helium character balloons, and

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Speaker 1: forty heritage and novelty balloons, and eleven marching bands. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's a that's a lot, um, I mean, especially up

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Speaker 1: from four horse drawn floats to you know where they've

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Speaker 1: got now twenty six and those those giant character balloons,

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Speaker 1: those are the ones you always see. But in addition

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Speaker 1: to those, there's all those other balloons you mentioned too.

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Speaker 1: Like there's a lot going on in this parade. I

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Speaker 1: mean it's a three hour parade for Pete's sake, that

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Speaker 1: over two and a half miles. It still takes three

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Speaker 1: hours or so much to it. Yeah, and it's interesting.

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Speaker 1: There are a lot of balloons and over the years, Um,

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Speaker 1: you know what happens is this parade acts like a

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Speaker 1: time capsule. So whatever's going on in twenty nineteen, they're

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Speaker 1: gonna try and feature like like very twenty nineteen things

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Speaker 1: and over the years that is paid off. Um. You know,

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Speaker 1: you've got your your timeless characters that are always there.

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Speaker 1: But um, sometimes you're gonna have characters like in ninety

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Speaker 1: nine when they had the ask Jeeves float or I'm

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Speaker 1: sorry the balloon and uh you know that one didn't

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Speaker 1: age so well. Asked Jeeves went away is retired, right,

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Speaker 1: he retired for sure. But at the same time, like

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Speaker 1: fortunate lyst somebody like videotape that and you can go

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Speaker 1: on the internet now and see footage of the Ask

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Speaker 1: Jeeves the balloon, you know, like it's kind of the

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Speaker 1: point though, it's like it does transport you to ninety

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Speaker 1: nine when you see something that exactly kind of was

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Speaker 1: only or if you go on, if you watch the

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Speaker 1: two thousand and eight parade, you'll see Rick Astley Rick

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Speaker 1: rolling the parade, like he comes out and sings like

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Speaker 1: never gonna give you up, And that is about as

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Speaker 1: two thousand eight as it gets, you know, so like yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's it's like these these time capsule and you can

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Speaker 1: go watch and entire parades on YouTube right now. One

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Speaker 1: of my favorites the parade, remember the Where's the Beef balloon?

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Speaker 1: She was great and she was great, or that I'm

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Speaker 1: not going to pay a lot for this muffler lady, yeah,

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Speaker 1: or the them It's time to make the donuts guy,

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Speaker 1: or ninety nine. I think they also had the Fight

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Speaker 1: Club float, which was fantastic. It was it was just

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Speaker 1: Edward Norton staring at his hand with a lie chemical

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Speaker 1: burn growing on it. We're getting about all this, by

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Speaker 1: the way, although I wouldn't be surprised if they wears

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Speaker 1: the beef Lady might have. She was pretty big. She

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Speaker 1: was very big. Uh, so maybe we should take a

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Speaker 1: break and really get into these balloons after this. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so um balloons, like we said, first, came about to

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Speaker 1: replace those poor animals from the Central Park Zoo. Um,

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Speaker 1: which was a good move. And there was a guy

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Speaker 1: who really put the first stamp on the Macy's Thanksgiving

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Speaker 1: Day parade. His name is Tony sarg and this guy

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Speaker 1: is just such an amazing character. He has his own

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Speaker 1: American Experienced documentary about him. Watched that. I have not

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Speaker 1: seen it. I saw a clip of it to make

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Speaker 1: sure we were pronouncing his name correctly. How is it good? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's good. It's short and sweet. Did you see the

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Speaker 1: beginning part, that little stunt he did about the sea monster. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty great. And I mean that was that was

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Speaker 1: a Macy's Day float. I mean, it wasn't a Macy's

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Speaker 1: Day float, but it's essentially what what it was. I

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Speaker 1: think it was originally and he borrowed it. I'm pretty

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Speaker 1: sure it was used in the parade and he repurposed it.

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Speaker 1: So so I guess for those of you the million

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Speaker 1: of you who don't know what we're talking about. This

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Speaker 1: guy Tony Sarry. He was a puppeteer, a designer, and

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Speaker 1: he was responsible for creating the first floats and balloons

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Speaker 1: in the Macy's Parade. Um. He was also a bit

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Speaker 1: of a prankster, and he took one of these a

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Speaker 1: sea monster balloon from the Macy's Parade and had it

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Speaker 1: come ashore on Nantucket as like a sea monster. It

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Speaker 1: was like this early, like nineteen thirties prank. But he

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Speaker 1: was just this whimsical, great guy who really kind of

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Speaker 1: took this you know, hum drum parade and turned it

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Speaker 1: into like a major annual event for the first time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah he was Uh, he said he was a puppeteer.

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Speaker 1: He is the father of American puppeteering, so very big

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Speaker 1: figure in puppeteering in the United States. Um, and yeah

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Speaker 1: he's he's what really I think I think it was

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Speaker 1: basically in the history of the parade, you can look

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Speaker 1: at Tony sarg and you can look at Gene McFadden

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Speaker 1: is kind of being the two people that really injected

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Speaker 1: the most. Uh. I don't want to see enthusiasm because

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Speaker 1: everyone's always been enthusiastic. Yeah, magnificence, it's the Sorg McFadden effect.

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Speaker 1: It's a good band name. Uh So in nineteen eight

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Speaker 1: they had a little promotion. It's kind of funny to

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Speaker 1: look back on these promotions over the years and little

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Speaker 1: things that you try that don't necessarily work out, But

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Speaker 1: this was one of them. They said, here's what we're

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Speaker 1: gonna do. We're gonna release five balloons, like release them

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Speaker 1: and they have slow release valves, and they're going to

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Speaker 1: just sort of float around the country and get lower

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Speaker 1: and lower and lower, and about a week later, they're

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Speaker 1: the land. And if you gather this thing up, travel

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Speaker 1: to New York City and bring it back to Macy's.

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Speaker 1: I guess, could you bring it back to your local Macy's.

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Speaker 1: I wonder I think you had. I don't know. Anything

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Speaker 1: I say would be a guess. Okay, but you bring

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Speaker 1: it back to Macy's and you get a hundred bucks.

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Speaker 1: And uh That ran for four years until a dangerous

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Speaker 1: thing happened, which was people started using their airplanes to

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Speaker 1: try and go catch these things. And they said, you

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Speaker 1: know what, let's we did it for four years. Maybe

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Speaker 1: we'll just kind of trim that down now, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: think it was either Civil Air Patrol or Tuskegee Airman

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Speaker 1: episode where we talked about like that was about the

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Speaker 1: time when flying was like this cool new thing that

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Speaker 1: people were trying, and they were also dummies, so they

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Speaker 1: would do horrible daredevil stuff like that, which you know

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Speaker 1: that is to Macy's credit that they stopped doing it

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Speaker 1: rather than they're like, yeah, let's see what happens, let's

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Speaker 1: keep this going. Have you ever been to that Flagship

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Speaker 1: store I have? They have like the original escalators in there.

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Speaker 1: That's a that's all I can think about when I

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Speaker 1: In fact, sometimes I'll go to New York and I

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Speaker 1: will ride that wooden escalator just to do it. It's

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Speaker 1: so cool because if you look through like the the

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Speaker 1: gap between the handrail and the stairs, you can see

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Speaker 1: the army of monkeys cranking the levers to make the

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Speaker 1: thing go up. No, the monkey poop. Um. So all right,

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Speaker 1: thanks to our buddies at Mental Flaws, we know that. Um.

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Speaker 1: How these balloons are done these days, Uh, they are

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Speaker 1: hand drawn at first, which you might, you know, kind

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Speaker 1: of assume, and it's kind of cool how they used

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Speaker 1: to do it. They used to create an actual model

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Speaker 1: and immerse it in water to see how much to

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Speaker 1: kind of calculate how much helium they would need to

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Speaker 1: float this thing. UM Today you can use just math

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Speaker 1: and science and computers to do all that and figure

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Speaker 1: it out. But you still start with that pencil sketch.

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Speaker 1: Then you UM submit it to a three D modeling

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Speaker 1: soft where you're gonna fine tune it, and then you're

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Speaker 1: gonna three D print a few of these things. They

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Speaker 1: probably do a bunch, because I would want to take

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Speaker 1: one home, but they print a couple of them to

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Speaker 1: use UM. One to use that the actual hand paint

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Speaker 1: to say like, here's how it's supposed to look like

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Speaker 1: every part of it is painted exactly right. And then

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Speaker 1: another one is a blueprint that's going to guide UM

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Speaker 1: the cutting of the fabric and the heat ceiling of

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Speaker 1: the fabric and everything like that. So the dimensions of

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Speaker 1: the balloons very obviously according to what kind of character

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Speaker 1: it is, but most of them are about five or

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Speaker 1: six stories UM, about sixty ft long, about thirty ft

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Speaker 1: wide ish, And they actually have to UM employ UH

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Speaker 1: engineers and aerodynamic experts just to make sure these things

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Speaker 1: do what they're supposed to do, which is float with

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Speaker 1: with you know, uh, guidance from their human friends on

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Speaker 1: the ground, which we'll talk about. But they don't want

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Speaker 1: that kermit arm dragging along down behind them like it's

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Speaker 1: a gimpy or something, or even worse like flying higher

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Speaker 1: than the head. No, and let's it's supposed to. Well,

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Speaker 1: sure if it's opposed to, but what kind of world

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Speaker 1: is that? Well, I don't know. You know, he waves

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Speaker 1: his arms about in a crazy way, and he does

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Speaker 1: case he wanted to do somethun like that. I've been corrected.

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Speaker 1: But they make these balloons. It's not just one big balloon.

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Speaker 1: It's a bunch of different chambers. And they do this

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Speaker 1: for a few reasons. One is because one like, let's

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Speaker 1: say you do want that arm. Let's say it's uh,

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Speaker 1: it's the where's the beef lady high fiving somebody. You're

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Speaker 1: gonna want that arm higher than the head in that case,

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Speaker 1: so more helium, less air. Um. And also if where's

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Speaker 1: the beef lady which never existed, um, the balloon that is,

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Speaker 1: like let's say her leg popped or something, the whole

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Speaker 1: thing wouldn't go down. They'd be able to still float her. Yes, um.

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Speaker 1: And that's the other reason to have it in chambers too.

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Speaker 1: Plus I believe it's easier to make in different parts

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Speaker 1: different components that you end up putting together too. So

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Speaker 1: where do they do this though? They have what's called

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Speaker 1: it's one of the most magical places on the planet

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Speaker 1: from what I can tell from videos I've seen Macy's

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Speaker 1: parade studio. And they used to have in a tutsie

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Speaker 1: roll factory in Hoboken, which is a pretty new Jersey sentence. Um.

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Speaker 1: And then they moved to a different part of Jersey

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Speaker 1: Moonaki not to be confused with one of our former

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Speaker 1: favorite words on the podcast, um. And they went from

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Speaker 1: sixteen thousand square feet and the tutsie roll factory to

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Speaker 1: seventy two thousand square feet in forty four ft high ceilings.

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Speaker 1: So now they can like build these balloons and test

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Speaker 1: them indoors in their enormous magical parade studio. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: here's another cool little fun fact um. Up until the eighties,

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Speaker 1: they would repurpose the balloon sometimes, which I think is

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Speaker 1: pretty cool and efficient. The Smile balloon, uh, the little

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Speaker 1: Smiley Face from nineteen seventy two, just one year as

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Speaker 1: Smiley Guy um was actually made from Elsie the Cow,

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Speaker 1: which was Borden's mascot, and then after that repurposed into

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Speaker 1: hot air balloon for Old Alban and the Chipmunks in

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Speaker 1: their float. I love that fact too, pretty neat. They

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Speaker 1: also have they have something kind of newer. I think

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Speaker 1: it's started in two thousand five. Maybe it's called a

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Speaker 1: Blue Sky Gallery, where they're like, how about you famous

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Speaker 1: artists submit some designs for a balloon that you would make,

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Speaker 1: And so there's like a Yayoi Kusama balloon. Um, there's

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Speaker 1: a Cause balloon to Kashi Murakami balloon. But then the

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Speaker 1: Balloon of Balloons, and I'm not sure how many times

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Speaker 1: it's flown, but its first flying first flight was in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and eight. Is a Keith Herring balloon. So

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Speaker 1: you know, like his little kinetic figures. Of course, it's

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Speaker 1: one of those, a black and white um kinetic figure

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Speaker 1: and he's holding a red heart over his head. So

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Speaker 1: I guess in that case you would want the arm

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Speaker 1: above the head um. And it turns out that apparently

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Speaker 1: Keith Herring had for a very long time wanted to

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Speaker 1: design balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but died

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Speaker 1: before he got a chance to. Yeah, he died of

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Speaker 1: complications from AIDS in nine and I think this is

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Speaker 1: a lovely tribute, um, you know, in two thousand eight,

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Speaker 1: on the fiftieth anniversary of his birth to do this,

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Speaker 1: I think, I think that was really really neat and

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Speaker 1: it was wrangled by his family, his father and his siblings,

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Speaker 1: which is really really beautiful. Yeah, and keep keep an

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Speaker 1: eye out for the Keith Herring balloon because it makes

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Speaker 1: another appearance later in this episode. That's right. So what

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Speaker 1: you were talking about was UM Inflation Day, right, where

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Speaker 1: people go and watch the balloons being inflated, and it's

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Speaker 1: the day before into the wee hours before the parade

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Speaker 1: UM and it's outside of the Museum of Natural History, Right, Yeah,

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00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:49,119
Speaker 1: it's really cool. It's um. I mean, don't expect to

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Speaker 1: go and have just a very leisurely uh you know,

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00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:56,600
Speaker 1: it's pretty hectic, you know there. If you think there

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Speaker 1: are a lot of kids at the parade, I felt

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Speaker 1: like there were even more kids at the UH Inflation Day.

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Speaker 1: But it's fun, it's relaxed that you walk around, the

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Speaker 1: opposite of what you said, Well, no, I mean it's

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Speaker 1: it's it's not like it's not an organized thing. That's

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Speaker 1: what I meant by relaxed. You can just kind of

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Speaker 1: wander about and um, how close can you get? I

388
00:21:16,359 --> 00:21:18,159
Speaker 1: mean you can get really close. We got over. We

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Speaker 1: have a great UM picture we recreated probably fifteen years

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Speaker 1: later in front of Kermits, so we did a nineteen whatever.

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Speaker 1: I don't even know the years, but they're about ten

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Speaker 1: or fifteen years apart. That's yeah, it's good. And they

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Speaker 1: use up something like four hundred thousand cubic feet of

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Speaker 1: helium to fill all those balloons every year. Yeah. And

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Speaker 1: if you listen to our helium podcast and we talked

396
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Speaker 1: about the helium shortage, UM, we're actually good right now.

397
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Speaker 1: There have been three major shortages over the years, and

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Speaker 1: apparently we're doing great UM because of the pandemic. Oh,

399
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Speaker 1: people aren't buying like balloons and stuff as much. That's

400
00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:58,159
Speaker 1: what that's this article and that's what it said, and

401
00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:01,440
Speaker 1: said that we're like flush of helium right now. Well, yeah,

402
00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:05,600
Speaker 1: so apparently um Macy's used to be the number two

403
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Speaker 1: consumer of helium in the world after the US Armed Forces.

404
00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:13,040
Speaker 1: But apparently that UM is like that was true sixty

405
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Speaker 1: years ago or something. Since the advent of UM medical

406
00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:20,800
Speaker 1: imaging and aeronautics. They started to kind of use a

407
00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:23,800
Speaker 1: lot more helium than Macy's, but still, I mean, four

408
00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:27,280
Speaker 1: hundred thousand cubic feet of helium, it's nothing to sneeze at. No,

409
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Speaker 1: And I think they drop about a half a million

410
00:22:29,119 --> 00:22:33,680
Speaker 1: bucks on helium every year, don't they. Yeah, we should say.

411
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Speaker 1: Apparently they don't ever release numbers, Like every number that

412
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Speaker 1: I found, I guess is a guestimate, an estimate, or

413
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Speaker 1: just a straight up guess Mark Mark Twain's three Most

414
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Speaker 1: Hated Lives. So um the helium is actually, I think

415
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Speaker 1: is when they started using helium, which is pretty close

416
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Speaker 1: after the um the debut of balloons in the Prey

417
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Speaker 1: in the first place, I think it was seven that

418
00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:05,359
Speaker 1: they really started, right. Yeah, they used air at first

419
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Speaker 1: and had people with sticks and it was kind of

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Speaker 1: like a big marionette, which makes sense with Tony sarg

421
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Speaker 1: But I think everyone was like, this is for the birds, man,

422
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Speaker 1: we need to get some helium up in these things.

423
00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:19,200
Speaker 1: And they've used helium ever since except for I think

424
00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:25,160
Speaker 1: Night because of the first helium shortage, they went with air. Yes,

425
00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:28,320
Speaker 1: And so because you have helium, that means that those

426
00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:31,480
Speaker 1: balloons can float away, like if they're not held down,

427
00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:33,480
Speaker 1: and so they're held by ropes on that inflation day

428
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:36,400
Speaker 1: when they're when they're blown up, they throw netting over

429
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:38,800
Speaker 1: them and then put sandbags on the net and connect

430
00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:42,040
Speaker 1: the things to like support utility vehicles basically to keep

431
00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:44,960
Speaker 1: them from floating away overnight. But then you know, you

432
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 1: can't just keep it under a net during the parade

433
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,200
Speaker 1: and drag it along the ground. You wanted to kind

434
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:51,199
Speaker 1: of float up in the air a little bit. So

435
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:56,920
Speaker 1: they need something like eighty to nine handlers per gigantic balloon.

436
00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:00,480
Speaker 1: That surprised me, and there's usually in this is under

437
00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:04,640
Speaker 1: normal circumstances, up to three thousand balloon handlers. Again, all

438
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:08,240
Speaker 1: Macy's employees are friends and family at Macy's employees. That's right.

439
00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:11,120
Speaker 1: If you want to be a handler, uh, and you're

440
00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:14,480
Speaker 1: let's say you work in the cosmetics department at Macy's,

441
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 1: they're gonna size you up and say step on the scale.

442
00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:20,200
Speaker 1: You need to wait at least a pounds to carry

443
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 1: these things. Uh. They're gonna check your I. D. To

444
00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:26,359
Speaker 1: make sure you're over eighteen. Uh, it's like getting in

445
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:28,719
Speaker 1: the club that sort of they're gonna make sure you're

446
00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:31,800
Speaker 1: in good health. And uh, if you want to, you

447
00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:35,240
Speaker 1: can go to training, but I think only the team

448
00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:38,239
Speaker 1: leaders have to go to the training where they're going

449
00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:42,720
Speaker 1: to learn about aerodynamics and geometry and physics. Um, they're

450
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,800
Speaker 1: gonna practice, they gotta you know, they're gonna take you

451
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:47,919
Speaker 1: out to a field with a real balloon and and

452
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:51,600
Speaker 1: practice and say, as team leader, Um, you're gonna be

453
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:53,320
Speaker 1: in charge of this thing. You're gonna have a pilot

454
00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 1: and a captain and two drivers. And I think the

455
00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:59,679
Speaker 1: pilot is the person walking backwards that you see on

456
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:02,680
Speaker 1: TV kind of guiding it along with a rope. Right, yeah, yeah,

457
00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:06,560
Speaker 1: but while they're managing the balloon in that sense, they're

458
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:10,120
Speaker 1: not actually the leader. They they take their orders from

459
00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:14,760
Speaker 1: the leader leader. Right. And there's also apparently an NYPD

460
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:19,199
Speaker 1: representative or a cop basically who's also trained in balloon

461
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:23,359
Speaker 1: handling that marches along with everything balloon too, but they're

462
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:26,680
Speaker 1: they're like highly trained in balloon handling. The NYPD is

463
00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:30,040
Speaker 1: generally from what I understand, So, um, should we take

464
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:32,200
Speaker 1: a break. Yeah, I think we should take a break

465
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:35,120
Speaker 1: and maybe talk about some of the foibles over the years,

466
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:55,840
Speaker 1: because those are always fun. It is fun, alrighty, So

467
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:59,560
Speaker 1: we talked about foibles. Um, everyone watching this thing on

468
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:02,840
Speaker 1: TV in person loves to see a well timed, well

469
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 1: honed parade that goes off without a hitch. But sometimes

470
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:10,040
Speaker 1: it's kind of fun to see a balloon going a

471
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:13,840
Speaker 1: little crazy because because of the wind, it adds a

472
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:17,080
Speaker 1: little excitement, It adds a little something else, a little

473
00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:20,360
Speaker 1: air of the of the what is going to happen now? Maybe,

474
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:23,240
Speaker 1: and uh, I don't think people root for that, but

475
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:26,440
Speaker 1: when it happens, um, it's it's always kind of fun.

476
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 1: And in fact, if you want to see a crowd

477
00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:33,600
Speaker 1: react how a crowd reacts to an out of controlled

478
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:37,399
Speaker 1: giant character balloon in New York City, go look up

479
00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:43,440
Speaker 1: Barney the balloon Macy's Parade and just thank me later.

480
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:49,960
Speaker 1: That crowd is screaming and thrilled. It could be in

481
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:55,399
Speaker 1: in or it could be in ninet. It could be

482
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:59,360
Speaker 1: but they're like, they're clearly it's that kind of scared

483
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:03,639
Speaker 1: where you're you're it's like roller coaster. It sounds like

484
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:08,040
Speaker 1: several hundred thousand people on the same roller coaster right then, Yeah,

485
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 1: but that was this one year was a particularly bad year. Um,

486
00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:14,720
Speaker 1: there have been people who have been, you know, seriously

487
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:18,399
Speaker 1: injured when balloons go wrong. Um. One of the first

488
00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:22,879
Speaker 1: injuries came in UM when an off duty police captain

489
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:26,160
Speaker 1: was injured by a street light that fell on him

490
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:30,679
Speaker 1: when a sonic the Hedgehog balloon random mock and knocked

491
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:34,359
Speaker 1: the street light over onto the cop um and I

492
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 1: think he like broke his shoulder something horrid like that. Yeah, there,

493
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:41,080
Speaker 1: that seems to be sort of a UM's not common

494
00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:43,240
Speaker 1: because it doesn't happen that much, but it seems like

495
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:46,639
Speaker 1: lamp posting street lights, which really goes to show you

496
00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:50,200
Speaker 1: how big and heavy these things really are. Uh seven,

497
00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:52,880
Speaker 1: like you were talking about. Besides Barney the big wind

498
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 1: gus that year about forty miles an hour. But there

499
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:57,639
Speaker 1: was a cat in the hat balloon hit a lamppost

500
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:01,480
Speaker 1: and uh it knocked it knocked this decorative arm to

501
00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 1: the ground and actually put a woman in a coma

502
00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:07,760
Speaker 1: for about a month. And if you think that is interesting,

503
00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:13,320
Speaker 1: the same lady, her name was Kathleen Corona. She recovered

504
00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 1: and she went on to uh be the same lady

505
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 1: who's remember when that that Yankees pitcher Corey lidell Um

506
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:24,080
Speaker 1: crashed his plane into a building in two thousand ten

507
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 1: that was her apartment. So that's um man, that woman

508
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:34,480
Speaker 1: has a specific New York strain of bad luck, I know.

509
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:35,879
Speaker 1: And it was a cat in the hat. So like

510
00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:41,080
Speaker 1: I don't know how many lives does she have. That's

511
00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:44,280
Speaker 1: a great she's she's on at least three now the

512
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:47,720
Speaker 1: third one. I think I might move. Uh, she may

513
00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: by this time. Um. And two thousand five there was

514
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: a big incident with the Eminem's balloon that yet again

515
00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 1: hit a street lamp and UM knocked it onto a

516
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:01,480
Speaker 1: pair of sisters who were injured. And then we said

517
00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:03,520
Speaker 1: before that the Keith Herrying balloon was going to make

518
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 1: another appearance, and it did in that two thousand and

519
00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:13,040
Speaker 1: eight parade. UM, because it's sideswiped the NBC broadcast and

520
00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:15,880
Speaker 1: apparently I haven't seen it, but it's scared Al Roker

521
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:18,400
Speaker 1: and Meredith Viera and Matt Lowerd quite quite badly for

522
00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:22,200
Speaker 1: a second there. M hmm. There's the urban legend is

523
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 1: that it knocked UM the broadcast off the air, but

524
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:28,960
Speaker 1: that's not true. Not true. Because of these accidents, you know,

525
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 1: they're always trying to make it safer. UM, Giuliani when

526
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:36,720
Speaker 1: he was mayor there. He appointed a task force to

527
00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:40,520
Speaker 1: review the ninety seven cat in the hat balloon accident,

528
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 1: and there were some rules that came out that said, um,

529
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:47,560
Speaker 1: you know what if it's uh, if the winds are

530
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:50,280
Speaker 1: twenty three miles an hour or higher, or if it's

531
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 1: gusting thirty four or higher than um, you can't fly

532
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:56,920
Speaker 1: these things. Yeah, so think about that. That was a

533
00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,880
Speaker 1: big enough incident. Again, a woman was put in a comba.

534
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 1: It was big enough incident that the administration of New

535
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:06,280
Speaker 1: York City got involved in appointed a task force to

536
00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:08,360
Speaker 1: figure out how to make this work. That says a

537
00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:10,040
Speaker 1: few things if you step back and think about it.

538
00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:13,480
Speaker 1: One like, these these balloons can pose a danger of

539
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:15,920
Speaker 1: just some extent if they if they go wrong, and

540
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:20,200
Speaker 1: they can under certain circumstances. But too the Thanksgiving parade

541
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:23,320
Speaker 1: is so beloved that they're like, we're not going to

542
00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:25,200
Speaker 1: stop this, so we need to figure out what to

543
00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:28,440
Speaker 1: do to make it less, to make it safer. New

544
00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:31,560
Speaker 1: York's not a nanny state, no, which is funny because

545
00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:37,040
Speaker 1: Mayor Bloomberg, who who created the soda tax, which is

546
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:39,800
Speaker 1: like the pinnacle of the nanny state in some people's eyes.

547
00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:44,240
Speaker 1: He still wouldn't change things. He appointed his own task

548
00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 1: force after that Eminem's incident, and they still were like,

549
00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:50,240
Speaker 1: we can just figure out how to how how high

550
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 1: each balloon should fly. That's another thing we should do.

551
00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:55,000
Speaker 1: So New York has taken steps. The City of New

552
00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:58,000
Speaker 1: York has taken steps to ensure that that parade keeps

553
00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:01,320
Speaker 1: going on regardless UM. And one of the things that

554
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:05,400
Speaker 1: they do that I saw, they have contractors that come

555
00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:08,760
Speaker 1: through the night before and they take street lights and

556
00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:11,520
Speaker 1: the arm the posts that go over the street that

557
00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:13,720
Speaker 1: hold the street lights. They take those down on the

558
00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:16,080
Speaker 1: parade route two and a half mile stretch of New

559
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:19,040
Speaker 1: York overnight, they take down all of those arms, and

560
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:21,520
Speaker 1: they take down other street lights, street lamps. They trim

561
00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:23,720
Speaker 1: trees that might get in the way. And from what

562
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:27,600
Speaker 1: I saw in those incidents where UM, at least with

563
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:29,520
Speaker 1: the M and M balloon, if not also the cat

564
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 1: in the hat balloon, UM, they got out, they went

565
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:36,080
Speaker 1: out of the way. I think they hand the handlers

566
00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:38,480
Speaker 1: didn't keep them in line because of the gusts, and

567
00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:41,600
Speaker 1: they went out of like their normal route onto a

568
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,680
Speaker 1: street lamper that that hadn't been you know, taken down.

569
00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:48,600
Speaker 1: Should have gone to that training, I guess so. Uh

570
00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:52,120
Speaker 1: so those are balloons. You've also got your floats, um.

571
00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:58,440
Speaker 1: These floats really started when nine, like the big Spectacle

572
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 1: floats Wind Float is under Manford Bass got on board.

573
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:04,200
Speaker 1: You know, this is another big, big moment. It was

574
00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:06,560
Speaker 1: Manford Bass was like, you know what, we can only

575
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:08,680
Speaker 1: make these things so big because they have to travel

576
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 1: from New Jersey to New York and we're not putting

577
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:13,360
Speaker 1: them on a barge. We're going through the Lincoln Tunnel.

578
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:15,760
Speaker 1: So he said, how about this, how about we figure

579
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:18,920
Speaker 1: out how to collapse these things and fold them down

580
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:21,680
Speaker 1: and then fold them right back up so we can

581
00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:23,719
Speaker 1: get them through the Lincoln Tunnel and then we can

582
00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:26,800
Speaker 1: just pop them right back up. And that collapsibility is

583
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:29,480
Speaker 1: what really changed the game in the nineteen seventies when

584
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:32,760
Speaker 1: these floats um, you know, got to be really really big,

585
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:35,360
Speaker 1: and you know it takes three to five months to

586
00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:39,320
Speaker 1: build them, up to a hundred thousand dollars to build them,

587
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 1: and it kind of goes the way of the balloons

588
00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:42,800
Speaker 1: as far as the sort of starting out with the

589
00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:45,680
Speaker 1: sketch and then eventually a little three D model. Yeah,

590
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:48,400
Speaker 1: they start out with architectural drawings from the sketch and

591
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:50,680
Speaker 1: then make the models, and then they start building and

592
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:52,320
Speaker 1: they make them out of like these things are like

593
00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:57,280
Speaker 1: well died metal structures. They're like really sturdy, and they

594
00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 1: have to be because like the Santa Clause float, the

595
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:02,280
Speaker 1: one the current incarnation that was designed by a guy

596
00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:08,360
Speaker 1: named Joel Joel napper Stick, I think n A P

597
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:11,960
Speaker 1: R S T e K. It's an amazing float. Like

598
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:17,280
Speaker 1: it's four small houses, snow covered roofs with Santa's reindeer,

599
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 1: you know, swooping down the roofs and Santa is on

600
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 1: the top of the sleigh, which you know, in in

601
00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:27,080
Speaker 1: in reality is like three stories up. Um and it

602
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,640
Speaker 1: I guess it's it's enough to keep Santa's bowl full

603
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:36,080
Speaker 1: of jello, you know. Intact. They're that sturdily made. You've

604
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:39,680
Speaker 1: also obviously got tons of costuming going on. Um. They've

605
00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:44,080
Speaker 1: got about five thousand costumes in their costume house. They're

606
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:49,240
Speaker 1: led by Kimberly Montgomery, and the costumes are estimated to

607
00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:53,320
Speaker 1: be about worth two million bucks um. Just the clauses

608
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 1: um each Mrs and Mr. Santa Clause. Uh, they cost

609
00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 1: about twenty grand each and they reside in a little

610
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:04,120
Speaker 1: specially made cedar chest all year long, and they add

611
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 1: about seven hundred new costumes a year and then end

612
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:12,960
Speaker 1: up dressing about individuals a year in costumes, which is

613
00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:15,400
Speaker 1: mind boggling. Yeah, and they do it in like a

614
00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:19,319
Speaker 1: couple of hours. It's his four hours. That's uh, you

615
00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:20,759
Speaker 1: really got to be on your game. I've been on

616
00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 1: the movie sets. That's yeah, that's very impressive. And then

617
00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:26,279
Speaker 1: there's one other thing that a lot of people don't

618
00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:29,920
Speaker 1: think about. Um, all of those costumes have to be

619
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:34,360
Speaker 1: washed and laundered after the parade, which I would not

620
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:36,319
Speaker 1: want to be on the wardrobe team just for that.

621
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:38,960
Speaker 1: You know. I bet you they sent that stuff out

622
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:43,399
Speaker 1: or maybe they have in house. Uh yeah, you know so.

623
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:47,280
Speaker 1: Um remember Tony sarg the amazing puppeteer, sorry, the father

624
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:51,600
Speaker 1: of American puppetry, Thank you. He was, from what I

625
00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:54,080
Speaker 1: could tell, the first parade host. I don't know if

626
00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:56,479
Speaker 1: that's supported by the facts or not, but I saw

627
00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:59,280
Speaker 1: it mentioned in a couple of places, and I traced

628
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:02,279
Speaker 1: it back to one site that said it, and I

629
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:04,480
Speaker 1: can't find out if he was or not, but I

630
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:07,040
Speaker 1: believe he was. If not, the first parade host, one

631
00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 1: of the early parade hosts, UM because the pretty and

632
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:15,680
Speaker 1: pretty short order. Within you know, less than a decade,

633
00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:18,920
Speaker 1: that parade started to be broadcast at least locally on

634
00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:21,799
Speaker 1: the radio, I think, and starting in the thirties, and

635
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:24,160
Speaker 1: then very quickly after that it was broadcast in the

636
00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:27,239
Speaker 1: forties and uh CBS picked it up and started broadcasting

637
00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:31,040
Speaker 1: at nationally in the late forties early fifties. UM, and

638
00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:34,600
Speaker 1: then NBC picked it up. And when you have a broadcast,

639
00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:36,120
Speaker 1: you need to have a host. And so from what

640
00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:38,279
Speaker 1: I saw, Tony sarg was was the first host, and

641
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:41,239
Speaker 1: then eventually as the parade got bigger and bigger, he

642
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:45,440
Speaker 1: was supplanted by more nationally recognized figures. Yeah. And for

643
00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 1: many years it was kind of kid friendly stuff. UM,

644
00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:52,440
Speaker 1: not that they ever like you know, went Blue and

645
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:55,680
Speaker 1: like you know, Richard Pryor doing it or anything like that,

646
00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:59,880
Speaker 1: but a kid friendly meaning like Captain Kangaroo and stuff

647
00:35:59,920 --> 00:36:02,520
Speaker 1: like that. They did have Andy Kaufman like on one

648
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:05,480
Speaker 1: of the um yeah, one of the floats ones, but

649
00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:07,719
Speaker 1: he was ironically very kid friendly at times. You're right,

650
00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:11,239
Speaker 1: that's a dirty comedian UM. But that changed I think

651
00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:15,680
Speaker 1: in the fifties Jackie Gleeson, who was certainly not kid friendly. Um,

652
00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:18,560
Speaker 1: he was a host. And then basically it kind of

653
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:20,560
Speaker 1: just became like, you know, let's get as biggest celebrity

654
00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:23,960
Speaker 1: in here as we can. And they got bigger and bigger, um,

655
00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:26,440
Speaker 1: which of course, you know, there's a lot of eyeballs

656
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:29,239
Speaker 1: on this thing in person and at home, and so

657
00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:31,600
Speaker 1: they said, you know what we should do, We should

658
00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:34,720
Speaker 1: probably try like this then costs us a lot of money. UM,

659
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:37,200
Speaker 1: we should probably offset some of these costs by allowing

660
00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:41,080
Speaker 1: people to sponsor some of these balloons. So they did that,

661
00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:44,319
Speaker 1: and um, selling sponsorships has become a great way to

662
00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:46,759
Speaker 1: alleviate those costs. Yeah, and we should also say that

663
00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:49,640
Speaker 1: they are like adamant that that they're like, this is

664
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:52,880
Speaker 1: not we have never said that, So it's like, but

665
00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:54,680
Speaker 1: it's all out there. A bunch of people have done

666
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:58,239
Speaker 1: a bunch of um number crunching and stuff and reported

667
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:01,400
Speaker 1: that it costs about or and a half million dollars

668
00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:04,400
Speaker 1: to put on the parade um, and that they have

669
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:07,840
Speaker 1: something like nine million dollars in balloons and floats, in

670
00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:10,719
Speaker 1: studio space and costumes. And then again, like you said,

671
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:13,200
Speaker 1: about a half a million dollars worth of helium. So

672
00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 1: that's a that's a bunch of cash. And when Gene

673
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:18,279
Speaker 1: McFadden came in and said, wait a minute, you guys

674
00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:20,800
Speaker 1: aren't selling sponsorships. Let's get sponsors in here in the

675
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:26,600
Speaker 1: late seventies, that really changed everything. Um. And so now

676
00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:32,360
Speaker 1: from I think CBS News, if not Bloomberg, somebody reported that, um,

677
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:35,480
Speaker 1: the rumors companies pay about two grand to sponsor a

678
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:39,440
Speaker 1: new balloon, which I have to say, these are like national,

679
00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:43,879
Speaker 1: sometimes global companies. That seems low to me, don't you

680
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:46,799
Speaker 1: think so? Sure when you look at like advertising for

681
00:37:46,840 --> 00:37:50,239
Speaker 1: the Big Game. Yeah, fifty million people plus another three

682
00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:52,720
Speaker 1: and a half million in person, everybody's in really good mood,

683
00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:55,400
Speaker 1: all looking at the same thing. That just seems like

684
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:57,680
Speaker 1: a bit of a deal to me. Um, which makes

685
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:00,560
Speaker 1: me wonder if it's way more than that in reality.

686
00:38:00,640 --> 00:38:03,720
Speaker 1: And then CBS News also said that it supposedly drops

687
00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 1: to ninety grand after that initial year, because you know,

688
00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:08,719
Speaker 1: you don't have the cost of designing and building it.

689
00:38:08,719 --> 00:38:11,160
Speaker 1: It's just you know, it's been in storage for year

690
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:13,719
Speaker 1: and they just have to fill it up again. Yeah,

691
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:17,920
Speaker 1: and there's been a lot of celebrity appearances over the years. Um,

692
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:21,719
Speaker 1: some I think a little bit more. Uh. Some makes sense,

693
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:23,719
Speaker 1: some don't make as much sense. Yeah, I love the

694
00:38:23,719 --> 00:38:26,040
Speaker 1: ones that don't make sense. I didn't get what didn't

695
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 1: make sense though about Miami Vice. That's when I didn't get.

696
00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:33,440
Speaker 1: So to me, I picked this. It's Miami Vice in

697
00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:38,839
Speaker 1: New York in the fall, almost wintertime. It's the Big

698
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 1: Apple Float, which makes sense, but it's also Miami Vice

699
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:45,120
Speaker 1: on the Big Apple Float and then the speakers blaring

700
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:48,600
Speaker 1: Glenn Fries you belong to the city. That's like one

701
00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:52,080
Speaker 1: of the least holiday theme songs anyone's ever recorded. But

702
00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:54,400
Speaker 1: it's a Miami my song. I know, but it just

703
00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:57,400
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense. Like just have Philip Michael Thomas

704
00:38:57,440 --> 00:38:59,719
Speaker 1: on their waving at people. You know everybody loves to

705
00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:03,640
Speaker 1: srico tubs. Why have you belonged to the city like

706
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:08,640
Speaker 1: a real down or like like song playing in the

707
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:11,000
Speaker 1: in the Thanksgiving prayed It just struck me as weird.

708
00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:14,400
Speaker 1: And I loves the Miami by s theme. Would that

709
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:18,239
Speaker 1: be better? Much better? It's upbeat, it's energetic. Can you

710
00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:21,800
Speaker 1: imagine you belong to the city just dragging you down

711
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:24,759
Speaker 1: on a nice. You know, Thursday Thanksgiving morning, while you're

712
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:26,680
Speaker 1: standing out there, you'd be like, get on with that,

713
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:28,880
Speaker 1: keep going. I don't know. I mean I'm living in

714
00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:33,000
Speaker 1: a river of darkness under the neon lights exactly. Yeah.

715
00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:37,439
Speaker 1: What else? Nine There was Buckar Rogers himself Mr Gil

716
00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:42,439
Speaker 1: Gerard on the Ocean Spray Cranberry float. Right, I gotta

717
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:47,160
Speaker 1: put somebody up there, um, Andy Kaufman on the Rocking

718
00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:51,040
Speaker 1: Lion float. So two facts. One, Andy Kaufman was the

719
00:39:51,080 --> 00:39:53,680
Speaker 1: first celebrity to ever ride the rocking line, so instead

720
00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:57,080
Speaker 1: of a rocking horse as a rocking lion. Yeah, okay,

721
00:39:57,600 --> 00:39:59,800
Speaker 1: he was late, so they actually had somebody feeling I

722
00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:02,160
Speaker 1: don't remember who until he made it, you know, onto

723
00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:06,120
Speaker 1: the parade route. And then three that is one of

724
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:09,040
Speaker 1: the oldest floats still in the parades. When you see

725
00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:12,400
Speaker 1: the Rocking Lion on the on the parade, you can

726
00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:15,680
Speaker 1: be like Andy Kaufman went stood there. I know. There

727
00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:18,440
Speaker 1: was I think like five or six years ago there

728
00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:21,000
Speaker 1: was a bit of a kerfuffle with the rock band

729
00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:24,600
Speaker 1: kiss Uh. You know the parade is that they can't

730
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:26,880
Speaker 1: they can't sing live. You know, that's just not how

731
00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:29,840
Speaker 1: parades working. Give me lip syncing, and depending on how

732
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:31,719
Speaker 1: things are going and the weather and the wind and

733
00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:35,719
Speaker 1: the sound, sometimes the lip lip syncing is better than others. Um.

734
00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:37,759
Speaker 1: But I think the deal with Kiss was they got

735
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:41,400
Speaker 1: really kind of mad afterward, um, because they thought they

736
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:43,520
Speaker 1: were going to be on the Gibson Guitar float, which

737
00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:49,319
Speaker 1: was this make sense, huge, um kiss worthy float because

738
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:51,840
Speaker 1: Kiss does the big, big thing, and they were like,

739
00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:54,759
Speaker 1: Paul Stanley gotta pay play Gibson guitar up there. He's like,

740
00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:56,560
Speaker 1: I don't play Gibson guitars and never have. I'm not

741
00:40:56,560 --> 00:40:59,080
Speaker 1: gonna play Gibson. So they said, all right, well you

742
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:02,000
Speaker 1: can't be on the Gibson, but we gotta float for you,

743
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:04,200
Speaker 1: and they put him on. I mean, you can look

744
00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:07,400
Speaker 1: it up from it was. It was a little underwhelming

745
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:10,960
Speaker 1: for Kiss, but the Ocean Spray Cranberry float, No, it

746
00:41:11,040 --> 00:41:13,880
Speaker 1: was just a just sort of a flatbed with rails

747
00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:17,520
Speaker 1: and it was not not the most impressive float. But

748
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:20,680
Speaker 1: they at least have bales a hey on there. No,

749
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:26,560
Speaker 1: it's where it's worth watching interesting camera work, Um, cutting

750
00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:28,439
Speaker 1: way too the things that are not Kiss while they're

751
00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:31,560
Speaker 1: playing it was. They were pretty pretty upset about the

752
00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:33,880
Speaker 1: whole thing you you mentioned lip sinking. I mean like

753
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:36,560
Speaker 1: this parade is well known for bad lips sinking. Um.

754
00:41:36,640 --> 00:41:38,680
Speaker 1: There's a great one if you go watch again that

755
00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:42,040
Speaker 1: one of the guys from Little House on the Prairie,

756
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:46,239
Speaker 1: Deean Butler, is doing a horrible lip sinking job to

757
00:41:46,400 --> 00:41:49,520
Speaker 1: don't fence me in um, and it's definitely worth watching.

758
00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:53,120
Speaker 1: I think you said the starts of the mark, um,

759
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:55,719
Speaker 1: just go check it out. And then I guess John

760
00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:58,480
Speaker 1: Legend was on, and you know, he's well known as

761
00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:02,080
Speaker 1: a very very talented MUSICI and he felt compelled actually

762
00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:05,560
Speaker 1: tweet out an apology saying like, hey, I'm sorry, I

763
00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:07,480
Speaker 1: know I was lip sinking. I actually don't lip sync

764
00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:09,960
Speaker 1: at my concerts, but these floats are not set up

765
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:14,400
Speaker 1: for concert quality sound production. They just can't possibly handle

766
00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:17,919
Speaker 1: this equipment, and so we lip sync instead. And that's

767
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:20,640
Speaker 1: just part of the parade. Uh. And I guess he

768
00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:23,520
Speaker 1: was forgiven because everybody loves John Legend. Yeah, the whole

769
00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:25,960
Speaker 1: thing with live music at a parade. It works for

770
00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:28,960
Speaker 1: this because it's televised, but if you've ever been to it,

771
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,360
Speaker 1: like a local parade where they have bands on a flatbed,

772
00:42:32,080 --> 00:42:34,960
Speaker 1: it's just the worst because it sounds terrible, Well it

773
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:36,719
Speaker 1: sounds terrible. It's like, hey, do you want to hear

774
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:40,200
Speaker 1: seventeen seconds of a song? Right, because that's all you get,

775
00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:42,120
Speaker 1: and you know the bands up there having a good time,

776
00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:44,680
Speaker 1: but no one watching it enjoys it. So there was

777
00:42:44,719 --> 00:42:51,040
Speaker 1: another great lip syncing episode in the parade that you

778
00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:54,799
Speaker 1: can go watch. Just look up Melbourne Moore holding out

779
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:58,920
Speaker 1: for a hero Marvel Superheroes, and that was pretty great.

780
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:02,759
Speaker 1: And it's just weird. So Melbourne Moore is great Broadway talent.

781
00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:07,680
Speaker 1: She was also a huge disco queen, right and for

782
00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:10,719
Speaker 1: some reason, she's lip sinking to Bonnie Tyler's holding out

783
00:43:10,719 --> 00:43:13,440
Speaker 1: for heroes. She had plenty of her own hits um

784
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:16,560
Speaker 1: but it's a cheap Midi Cassio version of holding out

785
00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:19,839
Speaker 1: for hero. But then, bizarrely, chuck, have you seen this one?

786
00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:29,000
Speaker 1: I did so pre Marvel like Cinematic Universe version Marvel,

787
00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:34,799
Speaker 1: These puffy terrible costumes version Marvel Superheroes are all like

788
00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:39,400
Speaker 1: gyrating as her backup dancers for some reason and helping

789
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:43,239
Speaker 1: her dance. And it was named by the Advocate magazine

790
00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:46,600
Speaker 1: as one of the ten gayest moments in Macy's Thanksgiving

791
00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:50,279
Speaker 1: Day parade history and brother is it? I love it.

792
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:53,160
Speaker 1: I love the advocate. That's that's very fun. I think

793
00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:56,800
Speaker 1: you should take the most infamous one though. Well, in

794
00:43:56,920 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 1: nine yeah this wasn't lip sincing necessarily. But in ninety

795
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:02,400
Speaker 1: four is that the one? Yeah, this is when they

796
00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:06,560
Speaker 1: got the Munsters. They got Fred Gwynn and al Lewis

797
00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:11,239
Speaker 1: Grandpa and and Herman Munster to recreate their characters and

798
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:15,880
Speaker 1: dress up and ride parade float um. In fact, the

799
00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:19,560
Speaker 1: Munster coach, which was great, and apparently Fred Gwynn just

800
00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 1: got ripped oar and drunk. He brought a brown bag

801
00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:25,160
Speaker 1: bottle of liquor on board, said it was nerve tonic

802
00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:29,000
Speaker 1: to everybody, and just got hammered and was like cussing

803
00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:31,799
Speaker 1: at people, and he was cussing at the hosts, and

804
00:44:31,840 --> 00:44:33,719
Speaker 1: the driver of the car just had to, like I

805
00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:35,520
Speaker 1: think he was the show's producer, had to just crank

806
00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:37,600
Speaker 1: the music way up so no one could hear him. Yeah.

807
00:44:37,960 --> 00:44:41,200
Speaker 1: Can you imagine seeing a drunk Herman Munster shouting at you,

808
00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:44,040
Speaker 1: shouting curses at you. And the hosts that year were

809
00:44:44,120 --> 00:44:47,480
Speaker 1: longtime hosts Lauren Green from Bonanza and Betty Watt. I

810
00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:49,640
Speaker 1: know it's like the two nicest humans, right, and he

811
00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:53,560
Speaker 1: apparently shouted like the mother of all exploitatives at them

812
00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:59,080
Speaker 1: and over the Munster's theme song, I love that Little

813
00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:02,600
Speaker 1: Great God bless Fred Quinn so Chuck. If you want

814
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:06,200
Speaker 1: to go, um under normal in a normal year, if

815
00:45:06,239 --> 00:45:07,920
Speaker 1: you wanted to go, there's a few things you should

816
00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:12,200
Speaker 1: remember right there. Some insider tips. Yeah, it starts at nine. Um,

817
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:15,680
Speaker 1: you should show up as early as six, they recommend.

818
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:19,560
Speaker 1: Insider tips say west side of the street on Central

819
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:23,359
Speaker 1: Park West from fifty nine is a good place. Uh.

820
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:26,759
Speaker 1: If you are sleeping in and having mimosas, you may

821
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:28,920
Speaker 1: want to go down to the toward the end of

822
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:31,759
Speaker 1: the route and catch things because they're gonna end up

823
00:45:31,800 --> 00:45:36,839
Speaker 1: there later obviously. Um. It's also less energetic further down,

824
00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:40,120
Speaker 1: like the highest energy stuff is closer to the beginning

825
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:42,839
Speaker 1: from that makes sense, and herman much is just gonna

826
00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:44,880
Speaker 1: be plowed by the time he gets to the end

827
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:47,120
Speaker 1: of the right exactly. So it's actually a reason maybe

828
00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:50,320
Speaker 1: that's what you want. Yeah. Uh, they don't sell tickets.

829
00:45:50,520 --> 00:45:52,080
Speaker 1: If you see people in seats at the end of

830
00:45:52,080 --> 00:45:56,400
Speaker 1: the route that is reserved for Macy's friends and family. Uh,

831
00:45:56,719 --> 00:45:59,000
Speaker 1: you know, bring your kids, but don't bring your strollers

832
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:01,680
Speaker 1: because they're just a nice mayor. You can bring a

833
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:03,600
Speaker 1: blanket if you want to sit on the curb. You

834
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:07,560
Speaker 1: don't have to burn it afterwards. Um, but Gene mcfatten said,

835
00:46:07,560 --> 00:46:10,560
Speaker 1: you know what you do is bring plastic garbage bag

836
00:46:10,600 --> 00:46:13,680
Speaker 1: because you can wear it as a raincoat, as a

837
00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:15,719
Speaker 1: wind breaker. You can sit on the curb with it.

838
00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:18,759
Speaker 1: You don't have to burn it. And uh at the

839
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:20,160
Speaker 1: end you can pick up a little trash and be

840
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:21,880
Speaker 1: a good New York citizens. Yeah. I thought that was

841
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:25,720
Speaker 1: pretty great. Totally. So for this year's parade. For parade,

842
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:29,000
Speaker 1: because of the pandemic, they're actually not going to have

843
00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:32,680
Speaker 1: the parade wine two and a half miles through New

844
00:46:32,760 --> 00:46:34,479
Speaker 1: York in front of three and a half million people

845
00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:38,080
Speaker 1: packed cheek to jowl on the street. Um. Instead, it's

846
00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:41,040
Speaker 1: gonna be TV only that's not gonna be anybody watching

847
00:46:41,080 --> 00:46:43,600
Speaker 1: the parade in person. And the whole thing is going

848
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:46,319
Speaker 1: to just be shot and take place in front of

849
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:49,680
Speaker 1: that Macy's Harald Square flagship store. And apparently they're all

850
00:46:49,719 --> 00:46:52,120
Speaker 1: gonna socially distanced to wear masks and it's gonna be

851
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:55,640
Speaker 1: pandemic riffic, but the show is still gonna go on. Yeah.

852
00:46:55,680 --> 00:47:00,319
Speaker 1: I thought this was a good compromise. And uh, while

853
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:01,839
Speaker 1: you won't be able to go in person, I think

854
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:04,520
Speaker 1: people on Thanksgiving Day that love to watch it in

855
00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:06,919
Speaker 1: full or have it on in the background, it'll still

856
00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:09,839
Speaker 1: be there. That comfort food will still be there on

857
00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:13,440
Speaker 1: your television. And hats off to them for figuring this out. Yeah,

858
00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:17,320
Speaker 1: I agreed. So that's the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. You

859
00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:20,080
Speaker 1: got anything else? I got nothing else. If you want

860
00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:21,920
Speaker 1: to know more about it, go on to YouTube and

861
00:47:21,960 --> 00:47:24,799
Speaker 1: watch old parades and then watch the one this Thanksgiving.

862
00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:27,759
Speaker 1: It's gonna be. Since I said that, it's time for

863
00:47:27,880 --> 00:47:35,800
Speaker 1: listener mail, I'm gonna call this Australian voting. Okay, hey guys,

864
00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:39,480
Speaker 1: I was just listening to the Voter Suppression podcast. I

865
00:47:39,520 --> 00:47:42,560
Speaker 1: thought i'd touch base. Where is that from? Is that

866
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:47,239
Speaker 1: from like a Wallabies corner accent? I don't know. It's

867
00:47:47,239 --> 00:47:49,680
Speaker 1: a good one, yeah, totally. I'm just trying to to

868
00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:52,200
Speaker 1: put my finger on it. The system we have in

869
00:47:52,239 --> 00:47:56,080
Speaker 1: Australia works super well. Voting is compulsory, it's on a

870
00:47:56,120 --> 00:47:59,440
Speaker 1: Saturday there's always a sausage sizzle going on, so you

871
00:47:59,440 --> 00:48:02,319
Speaker 1: can get to snack as well. It's great. So this

872
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:05,280
Speaker 1: stops voter for old everyone is accounted for and well fed.

873
00:48:05,960 --> 00:48:08,120
Speaker 1: And for people who say it should be a person's

874
00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:10,640
Speaker 1: democratic right not to vote. If they don't want to,

875
00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:12,960
Speaker 1: then they have the option of putting in a dummy

876
00:48:13,040 --> 00:48:16,120
Speaker 1: vote or just getting a fine of about two hundred dollars.

877
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:19,640
Speaker 1: Most people in Australia are amazed at how silly the

878
00:48:19,760 --> 00:48:23,120
Speaker 1: U S system is. It is and the US does

879
00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:26,520
Speaker 1: have good podcasts. So there's something. I just went into

880
00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:28,200
Speaker 1: something weird at the end there. I'm not sure what

881
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:34,839
Speaker 1: that was. Uh, and that is from Jackie Jackie, that's great. Um, yeah,

882
00:48:35,160 --> 00:48:37,520
Speaker 1: I was really I didn't realize that other countries have

883
00:48:37,719 --> 00:48:42,000
Speaker 1: compulsory voting where you're eighteen, you're automatically registered just from

884
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:44,759
Speaker 1: turning eighteen and then you have to vote in every

885
00:48:44,800 --> 00:48:48,040
Speaker 1: election from that point on. I love it, and um,

886
00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:52,839
Speaker 1: thank you for Jackie in Yeah, it feels so weird too,

887
00:48:53,040 --> 00:48:56,480
Speaker 1: for to do the opposite of trying to not to

888
00:48:56,560 --> 00:48:58,960
Speaker 1: get people to not vote, you know, doing the opposite.

889
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:01,759
Speaker 1: That seems right. Yeah, I agree, And as it turns

890
00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:05,720
Speaker 1: out Jackie is a is a pretty prominent Australian artist,

891
00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 1: Is that right? Oh? Well, thanks for listening Jackie. Hopefully

892
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:11,440
Speaker 1: we've had some influence in your art and that it

893
00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:15,000
Speaker 1: wasn't one of your darker periods. If you want to

894
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:17,279
Speaker 1: be like Jackie and get in touch with us from

895
00:49:17,320 --> 00:49:21,120
Speaker 1: your home country, uh that Chuck might do an accent

896
00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:23,640
Speaker 1: of we would love that. You can send us an

897
00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:30,320
Speaker 1: email to Stuff podcast at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff

898
00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:32,319
Speaker 1: you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio's How

899
00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:35,040
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit

900
00:49:35,080 --> 00:49:37,799
Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

901
00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:38,720
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.