Writer of Pop Culture

1924: First Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

On this day in 1924, Macy’s department store in New York presented the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade – although then it was called a Christmas parade. The story goes that many of the store’s employees were first-generation immigrants who were proud to be American citizens and wanted to celebrate that fact through a Thanksgiving parade; an event that their parents had enjoyed in Europe.

From the very first outing, the parade included elaborate costumes, floats, professional bands and even live animals that were borrowed from the Central Park Zoo. At the end of the parade when Santa made his entrance, he was escorted to the balcony of the 34th Street store entrance where he was crowned the “King of the Kiddies.” Three years later the parade saw its first large balloon character – Felix the Cat. (Wikimedia)

---

1980: Tom Hanks Debuted in Drag

Who knew that when newcomer Tom Hanks would become big after his debut in the sitcom Bosom Buddies? Hanks, along with co-star Peter Scolari starred in what the creators meant to be a “male counterpart” to Laverne & Shirley.

Show creators Thomas Miller and Robert Boyett had pitched the show to become a sophisticated comedy similar in tone to a Billy Wilder movie and just sort of threw out the movie Some Like It Hot as an example. The executives at ABC loved it and that was it. So, the two leads played two single men struggling to make ends meet by pretending to be women so that they could live in an all-women apartment in New York. Essentially, men by day, women by night.

The show also starred Wendie Jo Sperber, Holland Taylor, Donna Dixon and Telma Hopkins. But the stunt was short-lived and Bosom Buddies was canceled after two seasons. However, NBC picked up reruns of the series to air during the summer of 1984 after Hanks had appeared in the movies, Splash and Bachelor Party.

Return to November Page >>>