Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (NY) (Images of America). This item is unavailable.Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (NY) (Images of America)

Through rare and historic images, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade offers readers a chance to reminisce, explore, and delight in eighty years of this thoroughly American celebration.

Let's have a parade is the phrase that begins a beloved American tradition, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. In 1924, employees of the R. H. Macy and Company store in Herald Square, many of whom were immigrants and first-generation Americans, chose to give thanks for their good fortune in a manner reminiscent of the festive parades held in their native countries. The excitement and praise from crowds lining the route that first year led Macy's to issue an immediate proclamation: the parade would become a tradition. Before the parade's first decade passed, Macy's welcomed the huge and spectacular helium character balloons that became its goodwill ambassadors. Since then, the parade has become a world-famous treasure.

Robert M. Grippo, a frequent participant in the parade, has been researching the history of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for many years. Driven by his passion for the event, he compiled this work with the help of Christopher Hoskins, a professional photographer, and the special assistance of Macy's Annual Events, the New York Daily News, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and the University of Akron.