Every year, after Santa's 60 foot-long sleigh float rolls up
in front of Macy's Herald Square
store on Thanksgiving morning, 50 million television viewers turn off their
sets and say "Well, that's it for this year's parade."
Not exactly.
Though NBC's broadcast of this NYC tradition ends promptly
at 12 p.m. ET, Macy's employees will
then spend much of Thanksgiving afternoon deflating the 16 balloons and
dissembling those 27 floats which traveled that 2.65 mile-long parade. Once
everything's packed up small enough to fit through the Lincoln Tunnel, all of
these assets are then trucked back to Macy's Parade Studio in Moonachie,
NJ. Where most will then tucked away inside
of this nearly 72,000-square-foot structure for a long winter's nap until the
100 or designers, carpenters, painters, animators, metal fabricators and
electricians who actually build & maintain Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
then begin working on the 2015 edition.
Copyright Universal Orlando Resort. All rights reserved
Now please notice that I said "most." Because a
select group of balloons, floats and costumes aren't immediately put into
storage. These assets actually hit the road on Black Friday. They travel in a
two truck convoy all the way down to Central Florida so
that they can then be featured in Macy's Holiday Parade. Which began marching
through the streets of Universal Studios Florida Saturday evening as part of the
Universal Orlando Resort's month-long "Oh What Fun It Is" holiday
program.
"We've actually been doing this since 2000," John
Piper, Vice President of Macy's Parade Studios, said. "The first year that
we sent our balloons via truck down to Universal Studios, there was this
surprise snowstorm up in North Carolina
which then closed all of the highways. So my crew and I were all down here
without a parade. We missed one day of prep. We had to put in a little extra
overtime in order to get that year's edition of the Macy's Holiday Parade up
& running. But ever since then, it's all gone off without a hitch."
Mind you, Macy's Parade Studios doesn't send its biggest
balloons down to Orlando. Taking
into consideration that the streets at Universal Studios Florida are far
narrower than New York's super-wide city streets (More to the point, given that
the designers of this particular theme park used tricks-of-the-trade like
forced perspective to make their recreations of Hollywood Boulevard and Central
Park seem a lot bigger than they actually are), they opted to only bring down
the parade's mid-sized balloons.
Backstage at Universal Studios Florida as the Macy's Parade Studios team gets ready to
inflate their Chloe The Holiday Clown balloonicle. Photo by Nancy Stadler
"Now when I say 'mid-sized,' please keep in mind that we never do anything
small at Macy's. So even our mid-sized balloons are upwards of 30 feet
tall," Piper continued. "More to the point, the balloons that we
bring down to Universal Studios Florida each year are the ones that have
historic significance when it comes to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. So we're
talking about classic characters like the Toy Soldier, Chloe The Holiday Clown
and our iconic Elf balloon which dates back to the early, early days of the
parade. These are the kinds of major pieces that we send down to Universal
Orlando."
Which isn't to say that the balloons featured in Macy's
Holiday Parade at Universal Studios Florida are on the old side. In fact, as
part of this year's edition of the parade, a brand-new balloonicle version of Chloe
The Holiday Clown will be making her USF debut.
But what exactly is a balloonicle?
As cold air is rapidly pumped into Chloe The Holiday Clown, this balloonicle begins
to take shape. Photo by Nancy Stadler
"It's the combination of a balloon and a vehicle. I always like to tell
people that we call these things balloonicles because vehicloons just sounds
weird," Piper laughed. "Now when it came to designing Chloe The
Holiday Clown, since we knew that we wanted to bring this balloonicle down to
Universal with us, we actually took into consideration some of the dimensions
that we would have to deal with backstage at the theme park. So Chloe's height
was specifically designed so that she could then fit in the structure at
Universal Studios where she is stored overnight from parade to parade."
Speaking of which: Rather than doing what they do with the giant balloons that
are marched through New York City
(i.e., these balloons are inflated the day before Macy's Thanksgiving Day
Parade and then deflated right after they float past the cameras in front of
the Herald Square store), the mid-sized balloons are kept inflated for the
entire time that they're down in Florida.
"Each day, all of the balloons receive a top off of
helium for any that was lost through diffusion or change of temperature
overnight. So they're topped off right before they go into Universal's parade.
Which is just what we do in New York
on Thanksgiving morning just before each balloon is then marched into the
line-up for that year's parade," Piper enthused.
And here is Chloe The Holiday Clown in all her glory.
At 25 feet in height, she just barely fits inside of the
outdoor parade float storage facility that Universal
maintains backstage at its studio theme park.
Photo by Nancy Stadler
Now you'd think — given that John and his Macy's Parade
Studio team actually spent their entire year getting the next edition of Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade ready — that to then have to decamp for the Universal
Orlando Resort and stage a theme park-sized version of this NYC tradition every
day for a month might be something of a hardship. Especially given all the time
that Piper & Co. have to spend away from their
families during the holiday season. But John actually feel that he owes this to
all the people who've been watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on
television for all these years.
"For a lot of folks who live in Florida or the southern
part of the country, it's just not realistic to expect that they're eventually
going to be able to get up to New York City and see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day
Parade in person. I mean, it's only presented one day a year and — given how
changeable the weather can be in November — it's a tough time to travel,"
Piper explained. "But by bringing these balloons down at Universal Studios
Florida and then presenting Macy's Holiday Parade in that theme park — this
year for 29 days in a row — I feel like we're then able to help a lot of
people take something off their bucket list. Or should I say their holiday wish
list?"
"And the best part is — given the New York backlot structure that Universal
had built at this theme park, which looks just like Fifth Avenue & Sixth
Avenue, not mention Herald Square with a Macy's store where they've
painstakingly recreated our memorial entrance — when those balloons go
marching by … Man, those medium-sized balloons in this setting look just like
the parade does up in New York does with its giant balloons. It's this
wonderful mixture of movie magic and Macy's magic all at the same time,"
John concluded. "So for folks who can't quite make it to New
York or haven't gotten to that point on their bucket
list yet, Orlando's a great place
to go this time of year. You can have a lot of fun and see the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade live and in person for all the holidays.
Copyright Universal Orlando Resort.
All rights reserved
Universal Orlando Resort's month-long "Oh What Fun It
Is" holiday program — which includes a daily presentation of Macy's
Holiday Parade at the Resort's Universal Studio Florida
theme park — runs December 6, 2014
through January 3, 2015.
This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post's entertainment page on December 6, 2014