Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 

accessible at www.djnfoundation.org

62 | NOVEMBER 24 • 2022 

Detroit’s Thanksgiving Day 
Parade Marches On!
T

he 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.

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

