It appears this video of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from Thursday, Nov. 25, 1976, preserves the commercials, which should make it an excellent source for the start of my Christmas 2023 list.
— “Singer Barry Manilow” (with Lady Flash, named on screen but not mentioned in the announcement) — Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams “better known as Laverne and Shirley” — Evel Knievel — Paul Williams with the Bugsy Malone Gang — Roberta Peters and Justino Diaz (opera people) — “The spectacular Chinese Acrobats of Taiwan” — Shari Lewis — Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doodie — Martha Raye — Rockettes — West Point Cadet Glee Club — “Plus marching bands, beautiful floats, clowns galore and the one-and-only Santa Claus"
OK, the cosponsors of this event, along with Macy's, of course, are Ideal toys and McDonald's. That Ideal is engaged indicates the toy commercials are going to be lit, so, ... yes, on the Christmas23 list. Meanwhile, McDonald's is emphasizing that the hamburgers in its "Quarter Pounder" sandwiches are "100-percent beef."
The first commercial of the broadcast is from Ideal, but the toy that is featured is some horse doll set for girls. So that's a huge letdown. But here's Mariette Hartley on behalf of Nestlé to talk with us about chocolate-chip cookies, and I adored Mariette Hartley, so my enthusiasm for this activity has been quickly restored.
Our first parade entertainment is the Grace King Kolleens, a dance team from Metairie, Louisiana. "It's a lot of pretty girls," McMahon says. "They're a little chilly, but they're looking good!"
Here's a post from the Grace King Kolleens alumni Facebook page:
Hello Ladies! I’ve been toying with an idea of getting the Kolleens together for an alumni even and I’m feeling out willing participants. I was thinking of talking to the administration and seeing if we can perform for homecoming or something like that!! I know the school is very different now days but no matter what the year .... Once a Kolleen Always a Kolleen
As of this morning, this November 2019 post had received 27 views, 16 "likes" or "loves" and zero comments.
Now come the New York police on horses, behind the clowns of which Della and McLean were pretending to be part. Ed says this is the traditional parade-opening float. I figure this idea was hatched as probably a big show of compassionate order to indicate that the business and government communities are working together to foster a safe, functional and happy city.
Here's something else from the parade Wikipedia page:
In the next WPA guide to Kentucky, I want to have appendices with meticulous lists of when each town got its first McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, chain grocery, etc.
It makes sense. Ed's day job involves seeing terrific singers, comedians, etc. It follows that what would really float his boat on his own time is some broad, physical spectacle.
The in-studio schtick that NBC has put together for McLean and Della is that McLean is dull and Della is constantly annoyed with him. I don't think this was a wise move for a number of reasons, one of which is that McLean Stevenson always seemed pretty bright and Della Reese always seemed pretty affable and accepting to me.
The Morris Brown College Marching Wolverines come on to put on an electrifying sendup of the K.C. and the Sunshine Band hit "Shake Your Booty." "You can't get much more spirited than that," McLean remarks as they give way for the opera singers, and I agree with that.
OK, we've completed the first hour of the broadcast (I think it's a two-hour show), and so we have an extended commercial break that is totally in the wheelhouse of actual 1976 me.
We open with a homey, non-Mariette Hartley-infused Nestlé that features the jingle that Bailey Quarters made famous.
Now we get a terrific ad for the Evel Knievel Scramble Van ("Evel Knievel and his Stunt Cycle sold separately"), which I totally got from Santa Claus. One of the most popular original videos shared by one of my Facebook friends in 2023 was a guy having his old Evel Knievel and Stunt Cycle doing a leap off his Madisonville backyard picnic table.
Next up is Franco-American Spaghetti and Meat Balls. My family did not do any of the canned pasta meals, and I always thought the families who did were so much more modern than mine.
Finally, we get a promo for the newest entry to NBC's "Smilin' Saturday Morning" lineup: Speed Buggy. I never actually saw any of the Herbie movies, but I was a total Speed Buggy kid. I'm excited to rediscover that in 2023-24.
That was a totally satisfying break, and now we're back with McLean ...
The West Point Cadet Glee Club is here to sing from a riverboat, and McLean tells us that the club motto is, "No fun without music, no music without fun." That's pretty good.
Now we have a mashup float of Cootie and the Pink Panther, followed by Doodle Bug ridden by Della! She's singing (lip synching, of course) the big Al Green/President Obama hit "Let's Stay Together," and, man, she's terrific!
Here come Laverne and Shirley, sitting on the back of a hot rod with flames painted on the hood. They are being driven by two greaser-looking tough guys who are not Lenny and Squiggy, and they sometimes are lip synching and sometimes not lip synching to "The Doo Run Run" (I think that's how you spell it). This whole appearance seems a little half-baked. Nobody is exactly sure of what's going on, and, at one point, Penny Marshall appears to be a little annoyed with one of the drivers. Now the women start dancing with one another, and they have to scramble to catch up with their car as the parade route moves on. Canned laughter ensues, and NBC dutifully checks a box to cash in on some of that sweet ABC Tuesday-night craze.
More McDonald's, more girl-toy commercials and now a big Raggedy Ann and Andy float and musical performance. The Internet, of course, has brought back a lot of our childhoods, but, so far at least, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Cootie and Doodle Bug haven't executed the time jump.
Here's Paul Williams with the child cast of the Bugsy Malone Broadway show, and McLean wants us to know Williams also composed and performed his new sitcom's theme.
Polaroid is going strong to the hole for teen-ager Christmas lists; meanwhile, ... OMG! ... a toy I don't remember ever seeing!
Ideal is marketing a game called "Breaking Point." It has something to do with suspending marbles in a contraption over a catch. "Breaking Point is a game that requires nerves of steel, intense concentration, a keen eye and a delicate touch," goes the voiceover to the tense, dark commercial. "The game is now at the breaking point. Dad is down to his last piece. If he places it right, he wins!” Depicted as playing with the confident, sweatered and graying father are a fetching mother and scrubbed teen daughter and son, so we know how this is going to come out. “Breaking point ...,” the narrator says as the marbles fall and the exasperated father looks to the heavens, “… if you can’t take it, don’t play it."
You better bet that I just set up an eBay automatic search for this bad boy!
Evel Knievel comes on to perform wheelies and various other motorcycle tricks with his son, Robbie, and now is a good time to once again mention that I once was on hand to see Evel Knievel play in a Bowling Green charity golf tournament--with his first tee shot ricocheting off a rock and into the glasses being worn by a sportscaster friend.
Barry Manilow and his Lady Flash backup singers are on the back of a float dancing and lip synching to "It's a Miracle," and I've always liked this song.
Santa Claus comes on, and then ear-muffed Ed from Broadway offers one more push for the forthcoming McLean Stevenson Show. Della and McLean wrap up things in the booth, and then we get final tags from McDonald's and Ideal. We are told next on NBC is the Grandstand pregame show with "a look at football in America," which sounds amazing! Then we'll have Bills at Lions in the first game of our Thanksgiving afternoon NFL doubleheader. Wow! TV ... so good!
That clip, by the way, is from a Dec. 9, 1977, showing of The Year Without a Santa Claus, but I'm watching it because Channel 3 showed The Year Without a Santa Claus at 7 on Thursday, Dec. 14, 1976. That said, it does stoke my interest in watching It Happened One Christmas on Dec. 11, 2024.
Sorry, though, for the Carpenters tease at the end of the clip. Back on Dec. 14, 1976, Channel 3 has a replay of John Denver Rocky Mountain Christmas at 7:30, and I am committed in 2023 to 1976 fidelity.
It appears this video of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from Thursday, Nov. 25, 1976, preserves the commercials, which should make it an excellent source for the start of my Christmas 2023 list.
ReplyDeleteOh, wow, this is the 50th annual parade, so this should be a good one.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia, superbly: "In 1924, store employees marched to Macy's Herald Square, the flagship store on 34th Street, dressed in vibrant costumes. There were floats, professional bands and live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo. At the end of that first parade, Santa Claus was welcomed into Herald Square.[3][4] At this first parade, Santa was enthroned on the Macy's balcony at the 34th Street store entrance, where he was then crowned "King of the Kiddies". With an audience of over 250,000 people, the parade was such a success that Macy's declared it would become an annual event, despite media reports only barely covering the first parade.[5][better source needed]"
ReplyDeleteOur hosts today are—in order of announcement by NBC—McLean Stevenson, Della Reese and Ed McMahon.
ReplyDeleteAnd the lineup of guest stars:
ReplyDelete— “Singer Barry Manilow” (with Lady Flash, named on screen but not mentioned in the announcement)
— Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams “better known as Laverne and Shirley”
— Evel Knievel
— Paul Williams with the Bugsy Malone Gang
— Roberta Peters and Justino Diaz (opera people)
— “The spectacular Chinese Acrobats of Taiwan”
— Shari Lewis
— Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doodie
— Martha Raye
— Rockettes
— West Point Cadet Glee Club
— “Plus marching bands, beautiful floats, clowns galore and the one-and-only Santa Claus"
OK, the cosponsors of this event, along with Macy's, of course, are Ideal toys and McDonald's. That Ideal is engaged indicates the toy commercials are going to be lit, so, ... yes, on the Christmas23 list. Meanwhile, McDonald's is emphasizing that the hamburgers in its "Quarter Pounder" sandwiches are "100-percent beef."
ReplyDeleteAccording to this terrific Wolfe-Lipsky Retail Group of Marcus & Millichap video, 1976 is the year that McDonald's overtook Kentucky Fried Chicken as the top U.S. fast-food brand. So now I'm guessing the beef emphasis in the McDonald's tag is to differentiate against KFC, which makes sense given that chicken was still mired in its Depression rep as a poor person's alternative to healthy beef. Initially, I thought it would be trying to bury Wendy's and their rumored earthworm blend. But McDonald's wouldn't've been much sweating fledgling, way-down-the-list Wendy's in 1976; it was still in hand-to-hand combat with the Colonel.
I always assumed that McDonald's was much bigger than KFC.
DeleteThe first commercial of the broadcast is from Ideal, but the toy that is featured is some horse doll set for girls. So that's a huge letdown. But here's Mariette Hartley on behalf of Nestlé to talk with us about chocolate-chip cookies, and I adored Mariette Hartley, so my enthusiasm for this activity has been quickly restored.
ReplyDeleteOur first parade entertainment is the Grace King Kolleens, a dance team from Metairie, Louisiana. "It's a lot of pretty girls," McMahon says. "They're a little chilly, but they're looking good!"
ReplyDeleteHere's a post from the Grace King Kolleens alumni Facebook page:
ReplyDeleteHello Ladies!
I’ve been toying with an idea of getting the Kolleens together for an alumni even and I’m feeling out willing participants.
I was thinking of talking to the administration and seeing if we can perform for homecoming or something like that!!
I know the school is very different now days but no matter what the year ....
Once a Kolleen Always a Kolleen
As of this morning, this November 2019 post had received 27 views, 16 "likes" or "loves" and zero comments.
Now Della and McLean surprise Ed by coming out in clown costumes! "Congratulations on your new show, starting December 1 on NBC," says Ed.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited about The McLean Stevenson Show, as I love Evanston: "The series centered on Mac Ferguson, the owner of a hardware store in Evanston, Illinois (McLean Stevenson's birth state). Mac lived with his wife Peggy and two grown children, divorced daughter Janet, and son Chris. Also living in the household were Janet's two children, David and Jason, and Mac's mother-in-law."
Now come the New York police on horses, behind the clowns of which Della and McLean were pretending to be part. Ed says this is the traditional parade-opening float. I figure this idea was hatched as probably a big show of compassionate order to indicate that the business and government communities are working together to foster a safe, functional and happy city.
ReplyDeleteHere's something else from the parade Wikipedia page:
The Macy's parade was enough of a success to push Ragamuffin Day, the typical children's Thanksgiving Day activity from 1870 into the 1920s, into obscurity. Ragamuffin Day featured children going around and performing a primitive version of trick-or-treating, a practice that by the 1920s had come to annoy most adults. The public backlash against such begging in the 1930s (when most Americans were struggling in the midst of the Great Depression) led to promotion of alternatives, including Macy's parade. While ragamuffin parades that competed with Macy's would continue into the 1930s, the competition from Macy's would overwhelm the practice, and the last ragamuffin parade in New York City would take place in 1956.
And here's an A-1 headline from the Nov. 25, 1976, Courier-Journal & Times of Lousiville:
Prisoners of fear
Rising crime makes life a nightmare for elderly in Bronx
What a strong and lengthy hold on the culture Shari Lewis had!
ReplyDeleteToss Across, dawg! #Christmas23
ReplyDeleteFetching Mariette Hartley and her delectable chocolate-chip cookies are wearing us down!
ReplyDeleteIn the next WPA guide to Kentucky, I want to have appendices with meticulous lists of when each town got its first McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, chain grocery, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe first act which seems to genuinely thrill and impress Ed is the Chinese Acrobats of Taiwan, and they are mesmerizing.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense. Ed's day job involves seeing terrific singers, comedians, etc. It follows that what would really float his boat on his own time is some broad, physical spectacle.
ReplyDeleteThe in-studio schtick that NBC has put together for McLean and Della is that McLean is dull and Della is constantly annoyed with him. I don't think this was a wise move for a number of reasons, one of which is that McLean Stevenson always seemed pretty bright and Della Reese always seemed pretty affable and accepting to me.
ReplyDeleteThe Morris Brown College Marching Wolverines come on to put on an electrifying sendup of the K.C. and the Sunshine Band hit "Shake Your Booty." "You can't get much more spirited than that," McLean remarks as they give way for the opera singers, and I agree with that.
ReplyDeleteOK, we've completed the first hour of the broadcast (I think it's a two-hour show), and so we have an extended commercial break that is totally in the wheelhouse of actual 1976 me.
ReplyDeleteCourtesy of the Catalogs & Wishbooks website for which the Internet had to be created, here's the Sears Wish Book for the 1976 Christmas Season.
ReplyDeleteI love New York.
ReplyDeleteThe commercial break ...
ReplyDeleteWe open with a homey, non-Mariette Hartley-infused Nestlé that features the jingle that Bailey Quarters made famous.
Now we get a terrific ad for the Evel Knievel Scramble Van ("Evel Knievel and his Stunt Cycle sold separately"), which I totally got from Santa Claus. One of the most popular original videos shared by one of my Facebook friends in 2023 was a guy having his old Evel Knievel and Stunt Cycle doing a leap off his Madisonville backyard picnic table.
Next up is Franco-American Spaghetti and Meat Balls. My family did not do any of the canned pasta meals, and I always thought the families who did were so much more modern than mine.
Finally, we get a promo for the newest entry to NBC's "Smilin' Saturday Morning" lineup: Speed Buggy. I never actually saw any of the Herbie movies, but I was a total Speed Buggy kid. I'm excited to rediscover that in 2023-24.
That was a totally satisfying break, and now we're back with McLean ...
The West Point Cadet Glee Club is here to sing from a riverboat, and McLean tells us that the club motto is, "No fun without music, no music without fun." That's pretty good.
ReplyDeleteNow we have a mashup float of Cootie and the Pink Panther, followed by Doodle Bug ridden by Della! She's singing (lip synching, of course) the big Al Green/President Obama hit "Let's Stay Together," and, man, she's terrific!
ReplyDeleteHere come Laverne and Shirley, sitting on the back of a hot rod with flames painted on the hood. They are being driven by two greaser-looking tough guys who are not Lenny and Squiggy, and they sometimes are lip synching and sometimes not lip synching to "The Doo Run Run" (I think that's how you spell it). This whole appearance seems a little half-baked. Nobody is exactly sure of what's going on, and, at one point, Penny Marshall appears to be a little annoyed with one of the drivers. Now the women start dancing with one another, and they have to scramble to catch up with their car as the parade route moves on. Canned laughter ensues, and NBC dutifully checks a box to cash in on some of that sweet ABC Tuesday-night craze.
ReplyDeleteMore McDonald's, more girl-toy commercials and now a big Raggedy Ann and Andy float and musical performance. The Internet, of course, has brought back a lot of our childhoods, but, so far at least, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Cootie and Doodle Bug haven't executed the time jump.
ReplyDeleteMajorettes, same.
ReplyDeleteCampbell's Chunky Soup ... my family did a lot of Campbell's soups but never the Chunky models.
ReplyDeleteHere's Paul Williams with the child cast of the Bugsy Malone Broadway show, and McLean wants us to know Williams also composed and performed his new sitcom's theme.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, the new sitcom ... more from Wikipedia:
McLean Stevenson left M*A*S*H in March 1975. He was signed to a one-year contract by NBC after doing so. A variety show he hosted in November of that year was not successful. Stevenson was approached in the spring of 1976 with an idea for a sitcom. Mac Ferguson, a hardware store owner, was framed as a nice guy, assailed on all sides, a man caught in the middle, and a chronic victim of circumstances – similar to the character he played as Lt. Col. Henry Blake in M*A*S*H.
The first seven episodes were taped, with the cast and production staff expecting the series to begin airing in January 1977. Then, some of the NBC program executives changed out, and it was insisted that one of the primary actors be replaced. Shortly after this, the premiere date was moved up from January to December 1.
As Stevenson explained, "They scrapped the first seven episodes and started from scratch...We've been working morning noon and night ever since. The minute we finish a show it's on the air. We're running as fast as we can. Nobody knows when or if we'll ever catch up."
The series was cancelled for the first time in mid-January 1977, and it was announced it would be replaced on February 9. As Barbara Stuart explained, while a swan song party was underway for the cast and crew, word came through that The McLean Stevenson Show had instead been spared. "You would have expected us to start jumping up and down with excitement, but we all just sat there – probably because we'd all been through so much, we just couldn't get emotional about it any more."
Polaroid is going strong to the hole for teen-ager Christmas lists; meanwhile, ... OMG! ... a toy I don't remember ever seeing!
ReplyDeleteIdeal is marketing a game called "Breaking Point." It has something to do with suspending marbles in a contraption over a catch. "Breaking Point is a game that requires nerves of steel, intense concentration, a keen eye and a delicate touch," goes the voiceover to the tense, dark commercial. "The game is now at the breaking point. Dad is down to his last piece. If he places it right, he wins!” Depicted as playing with the confident, sweatered and graying father are a fetching mother and scrubbed teen daughter and son, so we know how this is going to come out. “Breaking point ...,” the narrator says as the marbles fall and the exasperated father looks to the heavens, “… if you can’t take it, don’t play it."
You better bet that I just set up an eBay automatic search for this bad boy!
Evel Knievel comes on to perform wheelies and various other motorcycle tricks with his son, Robbie, and now is a good time to once again mention that I once was on hand to see Evel Knievel play in a Bowling Green charity golf tournament--with his first tee shot ricocheting off a rock and into the glasses being worn by a sportscaster friend.
ReplyDeleteBarry Manilow and his Lady Flash backup singers are on the back of a float dancing and lip synching to "It's a Miracle," and I've always liked this song.
ReplyDeleteSanta Claus comes on, and then ear-muffed Ed from Broadway offers one more push for the forthcoming McLean Stevenson Show. Della and McLean wrap up things in the booth, and then we get final tags from McDonald's and Ideal. We are told next on NBC is the Grandstand pregame show with "a look at football in America," which sounds amazing! Then we'll have Bills at Lions in the first game of our Thanksgiving afternoon NFL doubleheader. Wow! TV ... so good!
ReplyDeleteThere are some other good ones out there, but I do believe Manfred Mann's Earth Band's "Blinded By the Light" is the best Bruce Springsteen cover. For my money, they mined stuff from that song that Springsteen hadn't yet discovered, in the same way that Bob Dylan talks about Jimi Hendrix and "All Along the Watchtower."
ReplyDeleteThe calendar game board was the genius stroke of the underrated Pay Day board game.
ReplyDeleteThat clip, by the way, is from a Dec. 9, 1977, showing of The Year Without a Santa Claus, but I'm watching it because Channel 3 showed The Year Without a Santa Claus at 7 on Thursday, Dec. 14, 1976. That said, it does stoke my interest in watching It Happened One Christmas on Dec. 11, 2024.
DeleteSorry, though, for the Carpenters tease at the end of the clip. Back on Dec. 14, 1976, Channel 3 has a replay of John Denver Rocky Mountain Christmas at 7:30, and I am committed in 2023 to 1976 fidelity.
Delete