Left: America's Thanksgiving Parade has the world's
largest collection of papier mache heads, handmade
from Viareggio, Italy. The heads weigh 10-60 pounds
each and feature the likes of Rosa Parks, Joe Louis,
Bob Seger, George Bush and Gerald Ford.
Left: Thirteen-year-olds
Liza Lax, Lisa Kantor and
Melissa Levy are Junior
Jesters. Their parents,
Melissa Orley Lax, Nanci
Kantor and Nancy Levy,
are longtime friends who
have been Distinguished
Clowns together.
Below left Make-up artist
Josh Dawson prepares
eight-year veteran Silver
Clown Howard Dubin for
duty. The 140
Distinguished Clowns will
have their make-up
applied by more than 20
artists, beginning at 7 a.m.
Thanksgiving morning.
THURSDAY, NOV. 28, EVENTS:
7:30 a.m. — Lil' Gobbler's Fun
Run (12 and under)
7:45 a.m. — Hens & Roosters
Fun Run (13 and older)
8:20 a.m. — 14th Annual
Turkey Trot 10K Run
$15 registration in Detroit
Hall, Cobo Center from 6:30-7:30
a.m. Call Motor City Striders at
(810) 544-9099.
people along the parade route, fI]
get the adrenalin back. And all the
long hours and hard work pays off.
For the first time this year, the
Distinguished Clown Corps will
have its own float that will hold up
to 30 clowns. The other 110 clowns
will walk south on Woodward, from
Mack to Jefferson, with their clown
kits — bags of candy, confetti and
cans of Silly String — in hand.
"The Silly String freezes when
it's too cold," cautions eight-year
Silver Clown veteran Howard Du-
bin. "So I now use the hand warm-
ers that skiers use inside their
gloves. But I put the hand warm-
ers at the bottom of my prop bag to
keep the Silly String warm enough
till right before you get to the TV
cameras."
Shtick around. There's more
where that came from. ❑
impommonwr
WHAT TO EXPECT THIS YEAR
•
•
•
•
•,000 people to` stage America'
Thanksgiving Parade.
400 yards of silk taffeta are used for the
Distinguished Clown Corps costumes.
Over 30 gallons of glue hold the parade
together.
242,000 cups of hot chocolate are consumed
along the 2.2 mile parade route.
26 floats — 7 are new this year, includ-
ing the Distinguished Clown Corps float.
• All floats are produced in-house at the
parade studio's 60,000-square-foot
warehouse located in Detroit.
• Each 15-foot-high helium balloon takes
25 people to hold it down. Balloons
will be inflated beginning at 3 a.m. and
will use 3,000-4,000 cubic feet of helium.
• The 10 equestrian units in the parade
will help to fertilize 600 back-yard
gardens.
9:15 a.m. — Parade Step-Off,
traveling south on Woodward from
Mack to Jefferson. America's
Thanksgiving Parade will air locally
; on WDIV-TV4 and be syndicated
nationally to 280 outlets. From 10-
10:30 a.m., the segment will air live,
coast to coast, on CBS.
10:30 a.m. — The new Distin-
guished Clown Corps float will be
featured on TV.
noon-4 p.m. — Indoor Amusement
Park Opens, Cobo Center, $14 all
day. Weekends through Dec. 15.
(313) 923-7400
on .will be Field 6 10 p.m. Wednesday, Nov.
t Cobo Center. It will feature the Nutcracker on Ice touring show, dine
floats, indd4 carnival rides and games. Black tie or Distinguished Clo
Corps ruffles. Tickets are $250/adults, $100/children. Call. Susie Gross a
- (313 -WA-7400. -
tor, and longtime friends Nancy Levy and Harvey Sol-
way. Their kids — Liza Lax, Lisa Kantor and Melissa
Levy — are Junior Jesters in the Parade.
"It's an Orley tradition," says Melissa Orley Lax,
whose father, Joe Orley, ignited the family involvement
in 1986. Since then, her mom, uncle, daughter and sis-
ter-in-law, Harriet Orley, have all been a part of the
clown mishpachah at one time or another.
"Every kid wants to touch you, like you're so impor-
tant, because you're in the parade," says Orley Lax. "It's
-
great to see Detroit so alive, with people from every eth-
nic background sitting together and enjoying them-
selves."
Orley Lax's friend Nancy Levy couldn't agree more,
as she prepares for her second year in clowndom.
"My mother passed away about four years ago before
Thanksgiving, and the holiday had been a very sad time
of the year for me. So I thought it would be uplifting
and fun to be a clown," says Levy. "Now I know what
Mickey Mouse feels like at Disney World." ❑
Using Styrofoam as her base, parade staff float artist Gwyn
Carlson sculpts a toad for the Hudson's Wind in the Willows float.