Tag Archives: Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

Wrestling Memories

Oooh Yesss! That Time WWF Superstars Invaded the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (1994)

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Ahh, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The annual American tradition of oversized balloons haunting the streets of New York City while a bunch of Broadway singers and dancers praise a giant floating Garfield like some helium-infused god. And us as well, I suppose, as the parade is nearing its 100th year of being in action. America has long held this event as the official ushering of the Christmas holiday season while stuffing themselves into a food coma. While mom or Grandma is in the kitchen sweating over a twenty-pound bird, the kiddies watch their favorite pop culture icons wave at a crowd and the TV on elaborate floats. You know, like the Sesame Street gang, Ninja Turtles, Paul Bearer with his urn of death…

FUCK YEAH.

Honestly, who would have ever thought that the WWF Superstars would ever make an appearance at an event like this, is sort of beyond my own logical train of thinking. But I’m sure as shit was happy to see it when it happened. Although it wasn’t an official WWF float, but a float for the New York Daily News named The Big Apple, which would explain all the randomness happening all over that thing. Including a Hockey-Mask wearing Jason who was actually a columnist for the paper; or THE SLAMMER as he called himself, and was only known under that pseudonym.

The British Bulldog, Razor Ramon, Lex Luger, Doink, Dink, Paul Bearer, and the Undertaker appeared as special guest stars and they all look they’re having one hell of a time- well, minus the Undertaker who stayed in Kayfabe because god-forbid we see the dead man crack a grin!

I mean, shit, they look they’re having such a good time that I’m willing to bet that urn was filled with vodka. Knowing the stories behind the mat these days, it’s probably not that far off. Which is pretty hilarious. Kind of like little Dink there being almost completely out of sight because of some giant baseball bat and the star emblems of his fellow athletes.

That Time WWF Superstars Invaded the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (1994)

The wrestling era of 1994 was a pretty dim one looking back as the once premier agent for wrestling who had body slammed all of its territory competitors, was fighting for their lives against WCW, who was quickly becoming the bigger and badder boys of nationwide wrestling. And let’s face it, the WWF was still stuck in its Superhero era at the time with really shitty gimmicks for their “superstars” like The Dentist, Repo Man, and here’s a deep cut, Duke “The Dumpster” Droese. They were pretty piss poor characters and honestly very few wrestlers were keeping the company afloat and people watching like, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, and Razor Ramon of course. So, it’s not crazy I guess that Vince McMahon would throw his athletes into a Macy’s Parade for a little extra exposure to kids and parents since that was the primary target audience at the time.

Either way, it’s a refreshing break from Big Bird and Barney spotlights. Speaking of, right behind our wrestlers, is a behemoth of that annoying purple dinosaur ready to devour little Dink at any second.

For your nostalgic enjoyment, here’s an upload of the entire 1994 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! But if you want to just skip to Razor Ramon oozing machismo all over 34th street, the timestamp starts at 1:40:00 in.

Editorials

Sonic BOOM! It’s The 1993 Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade

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As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. KIDDING, but hey, I couldn’t help myself. But seriously, as far back as I can recall, many Turkey Day moons ago, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade was always a tradition in our house on Turkey Day. Waking up every year as a kid to my grandmother already roasting the turkey and my dad shucking clams in the kitchen for Clams Oreganata as the Macy’s parade began on the television, is one of my favorite pieces of memory nostalgia. I’m forever a Halloween girl, but Thanksgiving is really not far behind as the day was a huge event for our large New York, bred-mouthy Italian family. And it was never complete without, of course, said parade here at least serving as background noise.

Also, my brother and I could never watch the parade without this Charlie Brown junk food feast being served promptly at 10 AM; as per tradition and to this very day, I still put together this monstrosity for nostalgia’s sake and per the request of my own brilliant children from their blockhead of a mother.

For the past few years, I’ve selectively talked about a couple of Macy’s parades here on the blog for November, and this year ain’t no different folks. Today, we’re rewinding 30 years back to 1993 and the 67th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade held on November 25th, 1993 on a very windy Turkey Day morning that ended up causing a bit of chaos on the parade balloon front that would make this one of the more memorable parades of the past few decades for those that witnessed it.

Joining the alumni balloons of Ronald McDonald, Garfield, and Bart Simpson were parade first-timers Rex (We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story), that loveable Saint Bernard Beethoven, and of course, the newly crowned console king-Sonic the Hedgehog as SEGA was massively outperforming Nintendo in 1993. However, the hedgehog’s huge head over the console war domination would be deflated courtesy of strong winds blowing over 6th Avenue, leaving spectators scrambling out of fear and injuring two people in the process.

Of course, this was never shown on live TV, but most people knew about the incident and saw pictures via the news of the deflated balloon on the ground. However, footage of the big pop itself went mysteriously missing for years up until 2019 when ABC7NY released archival footage showing the pop that really did sound like a sonic boom, ironically.

Another fatality of the weather that day was ol’ boy Rex. Fate would have it that Rex’s inclusion in the parade would be a perfect example of irony because the movie’s main set piece is a musical number set during the Macy’s Parade where Rex pops a dinosaur balloon. Hilariously enough, the Macy’s Rex head popped at pretty much the beginning of the parade route and instead of removing the balloon entirely, those determined bastards at Macy’s let a headless Rex roam down 6th Avenue and beyond, not giving any fucks about it. The live program swapped in footage from the test flight prior to the parade (notice the complete lack of buildings and different color sky?) and towards the end, cut to a live shot carefully framed to try and hide the deflated noggin of the cartoon dinosaur.

Fantastic.

I mean, the whole parade wasn’t a complete nightmare. We had world-renowned singing artists Shari Lewis with Lambchop and Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas singing Christmas songs!?

Umm, Ok. Maybe it was pretty bad. But hey, let’s watch the shit show together, shall we? At least Bart Simpson rode those winds like the pro he was, even though the winds carved through his ribs like a Thanksgiving turkey.

Grab your plate of popcorn, toast, and jellybeans for this one!

Editorials

The Addams Family, TMNT, and Captain Planet! The 1991 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!

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Hard to believe it’s been 30 years since the first real, and fuckin’ awesome, Addams Family flick. As surreal as that all seems, the first time I saw the perfectly cast Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams was not in the film itself, but rather the 1991 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade along with Pugsly (Jimmy Workman), Grandmama (Judith Malina), Lurch (Carel Struycken), and of course Cousin It riding a float mocking their 001 Cemetery Lane home.

The Addams Family film was a huge affair (I mean, it was for me anyway) during the 1991 holiday season and opened up officially in theaters just days before Thanksgiving that year. So naturally, banking on the tremendous advertising campaign the Macy’s parade brings as millions watch from home with the smell of turkey basting in the oven, Paramount used the traditional event to promote the movie- and man was it ever long overdue as the original cast of the 60s’ series never got the Macy’s treatment like their parallel monster family, The Munsters and it was a damn travesty- at least until 1991. Still, it would have been sweet as hell to see John Astin and Carolyn Jones in a Thanksgiving Parade during their heyday.

Anyways, beyond the fact The Addams’ infiltrated the sacred Tom Turkey-led march of helium madness, it was a VERY special year for the annual event as it was celebrating its 65th anniversary! Hosted by Willard Scott and Katie Couric, the lineup was every bit as entertaining with Ninja Turtles in cars, a stiff as hell Captain Planet, and a drunk Kermit the Frog balloon!

Ok, not drunk but winds provided some challenges that day and poor Kermit’s head got popped during the walk down Broadway.

Besides getting to see The Addams crash the parade, one of my favorite things about this particular year was the Ninja Turtles. In their second year appearance after the explosively cool 1990 film, the foursome donning Santa hats cruised down the parade in a couple of 1961 Cadillac convertibles like the true gangsters they are. Now that’s really all there is to it, but it was pretty awesome nonetheless.

The final highlight for me was the Captain Planet float. Again, nothing crazy spectacular going on here performance-wise but rather a stiff-looking Captain Planet on a very pretty Earth-themed float decorated with flowers and just aesthetically pleasing to my senses. Although it was years before Jingle All The Way, Captain’s stance is giving me serious Turbo Man vibes.

*Sorry for the ultra pixelated snapshots here guys.

The full parade can, of course, be found on YouTube- uploaded into two parts by user Major League Pong Gods. Time Stamps for the above highlights are all located in Part 2, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll just watch the whole damn thing in all its cheesy glory.

Addams Family float at 19:05

TMNT at 12:37

Captain Planet at 39:40