I found great articles about the parade in the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History. More to the point, great stories about Jewish Detroiters who helped make the Parade a national wonder.
The spectacular “America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” will be held on Nov. 24. This will mark the 96th time that marching bands, floats, dignitaries and other assorted attractions will promenade down Woodward Avenue to celebrate Thanksgiving. This year’s parade theme is “Our Great City! Detroit!”
Detroit’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was the invention of its longtime sponsor, J.L. Hudson Company, owner of the city’s most famous department store, in 1924. The current sponsor is Gardner-White Furniture, also a historic Detroit company that was founded in 1912. The parade is now one of America’s premier Thanksgiving Day events. It will be viewed by millions in nearly 200 television markets.
Detroit’s Turkey Day parade is the second oldest in America (I understand that some city on the East Coast has the oldest parade, sponsored by Micies or Massies or something like that). It is produced by the Parade Company, which was first created in 1990 as a foundation to handle marketing and organizing for the parade.
I found great articles about the parade in the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History. More to the point, great stories about Jewish Detroiters who helped make the Parade a national wonder.
First and foremost, see the story about Marvin Schlossberg, aka Sonny Eliot. It is not an overstatement to say that, as a local radio and television celebrity, he was a bona fide Detroit legend. For 21 years, Sonny and his wife, Annette, jointly hosted the parade, with a special focus on children (Dec. 25, 1987, JN).
This year will be the 39th anniversary of the Distinguished Clown Corps. Over the past four decades, an estimated 2,000 clowns have appeared in the parade, entertaining viewers with their costumes, silly string, candy, confetti and other shtick. “At the Corps of It All” in the Nov. 22, 1996, JN is an article about the 70th parade and members of the Clown Corps such as Paul Borman, Howard Dubin, Melissa Orley Lax, Nancy Kanter and Nancy Levi. Twenty years after a diagnosis of breast cancer, Roz Cooper celebrated her victory by joining the Corps (Dec. 10, 2015). At the age of 88, after 30 years of clowning, Austin Kantor achieved “Grand Jester Status” (Nov. 17, 2016).
Side note: A documentary about the Clown Corps — Power Behind the Paint — produced and directed by Wayne State University student Lena Antoon, can be found on YouTube.
Beyond the clowns, many others have helped produce the parade. The law firm Dickinson Wright sponsors the 15-year-old Big Head Corps. Its members march wearing the world’s largest collection of papier-mâché caricature “heads.”
Suzie Gross worked on the parade for many years as director of special events for the Parade Company and executive director of the Michigan Thanksgiving Day Parade Foundation (Dec. 26, 1997).
Jason Brooks, Jeff Fox and his daughter, Jodi, and their friends, Jimmy Manchel and Brad Urdan, all worked on the parade’s “assembly” in 2006. They made sure all the floats, giant balloons, bands and other attractions were all properly lined up for the start of the parade (Nov. 23, 2006).
Everyone loves a parade. I may be a bit biased when I say we have the best of them all!
Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation archives, available for free at www.djnfoundation.org.
