1931: On Thanksgiving, an Eventful Plane Flight – Involving Parade Balloons and an Aviation Pioneer – Takes Place in the Skies Above New York City

November 26, 1931

Thanksgiving Day in 1931 proved to be memorable in New York City. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade started at 1:30 that afternoon in Manhattan at 110th and Broadway. The large helium balloons being carried in that year’s parade included a turkey, a dragon, a two-headed Martian, the popular cartoon star Felix the Cat, and another character named Jerry the Pig.

In keeping with what had become the custom by that time, these balloons were untethered at 34th Street after the parade was done and allowed to float into the air. Macy’s offered $25 rewards for the return of each balloon released in this manner. At least three planes hovered above in the vicinity of 34th Street to collect on that reward money, but the Felix the Cat and Jerry the Pig balloons managed to drift away from there without being nabbed.

Both balloons were eventually seen floating way above Brooklyn by none other than ace pilot Clarence D. Chamberlin (1893-1976). Chamberlin, who is pictured in the accompanying photo, had established a reputation by that time as one of the world’s greatest aviators. His considerable achievements included being only the second pilot to fly a fixed-wing aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean without any back-up or relief.

By the early 1930s, Chamberlin was giving plane rides to the public in New York City. This is what he was doing on that Thanksgiving afternoon, having departed from Floyd Bennett Field in southeast Brooklyn in a plane filled with sightseers. Chamberlin, urged on by his passengers, went after those two fugitive balloons. He reportedly managed to snare Felix on a wing of the plane and lasso Jerry. “Chamberlin in Plane Gives Foolish Feline a Lift,” proclaimed a headline in the next day’s edition of the New York Times. The following year would be the final one in which the parade’s helium balloons were deliberately released.

Photo Credit: Public Domain

For more information on Clarence D. Chamberlin’s 1931 Thanksgiving flight, please check out https://hatchingcatnyc.com/2013/11/26/cat-plane-macys-thanksgiving-parade/

Additional information on Chamberlin is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Chamberlin