Whether you missed the Thanksgiving parade because you were out partying late last night, busy cooking your thirty pound turkey or had to get ready for tomorrow’s RETAIL ARMAGEDDON 2K11, don’t worry. I’ve scoured the net to find some great clips of Thanksgiving parades of yesterday, with all of your favorite Ridiculously Awesome stars!
We’ll start out with this great clip from New York City’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from way back in 1940. About 1:30 into it, the first ever Superman balloon makes his debut. Two years into his existence, the last son of Krypton was already a huge cultural icon.
This clip is from the 1987 Macy’s Parade, which has all kinds of random characters that you would never expect to see in a parade, including White Queen and Luke Cage. Things get really weird when Robocop comes out to make an appearance, and Captain America has to throw the Hulk off the roof! Also, the whole sequence is choreographed to John Williams’ theme from Amazing Stories.
They brought out the Marvel Universe float again in 1989, this time in a really creepy dance number featuring Melba Moore singing “Holding Out For A Hero.” The less said about this the better.
Speaking of Marvel, it seems every year the Spider-Man balloon comes out. Having volunteered at the 2005 Boscov’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia by helping “pilot” a giant sized Pink Panther balloon through Center City, I can vouch for how difficult it really is.
1985 brought us the debut of the He-Man and She-Ra themed Masters of the Universe float. Growing up in the eighties, I can only tell you how awesome this was to a four-year old Chris. “Night of the Valkyries” was never this cool.
The next year, He-Man and company were back, this time with special guest narrator Dolph Lundgren who at the time played the role of our super macho hero in the Masters of the Universe film. Poor Dolph seems to have needed some aquavit to get through this script.
Anyway, I’m off to go play some Mortal Kombat vs. DC! Have a great Thanksgiving!
Ridiculously Awesome 