Balloons Over Broadway

 Sweet, M. (2001). Balloons Over Broadway: The true story of the the puppeteer of Macy's Parade. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Tony Sarg was a puppeteer. He created beautiful marionettes and put on wonderful shows. His fame spread and he was hired by Macy's to create a holiday window display. He created mechanical marionettes for the window and it was a huge success. Macy's later hired Tony to create some kind of puppet for their annual Thanksgiving Day parade. What Tony developed are the balloons that we love to watch today. The rope handlers below could make his balloons move, just as a puppeteer could move its puppet. Those balloons are now an integral part of the Macy's parade.

As I write this, it is just two day's past Thanksgiving. I grew up in a suburb of New York City and the parade was always a part of our Thanksgiving. You could go into the city and see them being inflated the night before. Or you could watch it on the news. We never watched the parade in person. It was too hard to get into the city and find parking on such a crazy day. I stayed in my pajamas in front of the TV and waited for my favorite balloons to come by. Underdog and Felix the Cat were mine!  I still watch the parade in my pajamas every year. Now that I have read this book, I have a much greater appreciation for those balloon I loved as a child.