Module 11: Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade

Ashland Elementary School (PWCPS). (2014, November 26).
Ashland Elementary: Balloons Over Broadway. YouTube.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
6hC95LQI8pQ

Book Summary: Tony Sarg loved toys, especially marionettes and puppets. When he immigrated to New York City, he was asked by Macy’s Department Store to help create a puppet-like contraption for their Macy’s Parade. After much thinking and several attempts, he created the very large balloon creations that are controlled by puppeteers from below via string/rope.

APA Reference:

Sweet, M. (2011). Balloons over Broadway: The true story of the puppeteer of Macy’s parade. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children.

Impressions: This was a fun book! I had no ideas that A) the Macy’s parade had such a long history, B) the giant balloon characters were created as an amalgamation of balloons and puppets, and C) the Macy’s parade was originally created as an homage/celebration for their workers, many of whom were immigrants. I wish businesses/corporations today were as conscientious towards their employers as they were in the 1920's. Additionally, the illustrations are beautifully intricate! I enjoyed the author's note at the end describing how she made all of the toys that are included in the illustrations. I thought that there was the perfect mix of history, specific details, and engaging illustrations in Balloons Over Broadway.

Professional Review:

Kirkus Staff. (2011, September 1). Balloons over Broadway [review of Balloons Over Broadway]. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/melissa-sweet/balloons-over-broadway/

This bright, brimming picture biography commemorates Tony Sarg, a brilliant, self-taught artist whose innovative helium balloons delighted legions of Macy’s parade watchers from 1928 on.

Sweet sketches Sarg’s career as a puppeteer and marionette-maker. Moving from London to New York City, where his marionettes performed on Broadway, Sarg engineered mechanical storybook characters for Macy’s “Wondertown” holiday windows. In 1924, he created floats and costumes for the first Macy’s parade, which celebrated both immigrant and American holiday traditions. When the annual parade’s lions and tigers (borrowed from the Central Park Zoo) frightened children, Macy’s commissioned Sarg to replace them. Ever innovative, Sarg eventually utilized rubberized silk and helium to create larger, lighter balloons that could be controlled from below.

Sweet’s charming mixed-media layouts form a playful bridge between her creative process and Sarg’s. She fashioned whimsical toys from painted blocks, buttons and fabric, combining them in photo-collages with old books, cut paper, imagined sketches for Sarg’s projects, watercolor images of parade scenes and much more. Endpapers inform and delight, too, with excerpts from a 1929 book about Sarg's marionettes and a front-page parade invitation in the 1933 New York Times. Backmatter is also a collage of treats, with an author’s note appending further biographical details and comments about the art.

This clever marriage of information and illustration soars high. (bibliography of adult sources, quote sources, acknowledgements, period photo) (Picture book/biography. 4-8)

Library Use: It would be fun to read Balloons Over Broadway as an introduction to a how-to in making balloon animals/creations.