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.