1982 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (found NBC broadcast of parade; 1982)

From The Lost Media Wiki
Revision as of 14:44, 24 June 2018 by Happy Brian (talk | contribs) (Minor edit)
Jump to: navigation, search
Macy.jpg

A new Woody Woodpecker float first unveiled at the '82 parade.

Status: Partially Found

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 1982 was the 56th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and was held on November 25, 1982, in New York City, and shown to viewers live on NBC that same day. It was hosted by Bryant Gumbel and Sarah Purcell. Participating celebrities included Milton Berle, Andy Gibb, Sammy Davis Jr., the Oak Ridge Boys, Paul Williams, Laura Branigan, Ricky Schroeder and the Pointer Sisters.

Availability

While almost all of NBC's parades since 1980 have been widely bootlegged, the 1982 parade is the only one since 1980 that has yet to surface in full. This is especially odd since it (like all the other parades during this time period) aired during a time when nearly everyone in North America had some form of home recording media, though for some reason no one wants to share the whole thing on the Internet. Only a handful of clips have made their way to YouTube, including the one seen at right. (The other uploaded clips are of two other marching bands and of Andy Gibb's performance of "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.) Some other clips were also shown in the parade's 85th-anniversary special, which aired in November 2011 and can be found in its entirety on YouTube.

One of the 1982 clips that can be found online is of the Clinton High School marching band from Clinton, Tennessee, and was uploaded by one Amy Jeffers. She claims to have the entire 1982 parade on VHS, however, she hasn't contacted anyone in regards to leaking it. (As an additional note, the clip in question was recorded using a video camera taping the television set, so it's likely that Jeffers does not have a video capture USB device.)

Impact

This year's parade is especially notable for Sesame Street fans as it was the last public appearance of Will Lee, who played Mr. Hooper since the show started in 1969. Though he was ill with cancer, Lee performed the best that he could. He was hospitalized a few days later and passed away on December 7th. The next Thanksgiving, Sesame Street aired a sobering episode that openly addressed Mr. Hooper's death and helped the cast deal with it. The 1982 parade is also important because it featured the debut of the Olive Oyl balloon, which was the first female giant balloon to appear. The other balloon to debut that year was Woody Woodpecker, who became a parade mainstay for over a decade.

Videos

Hanover H.S. Marching Band performance.

Clinton H.S. Marching Band performance.

WABC-TV's coverage of the parade.

The intro for the 1982 parade, followed by the first marching band performance of the morning.