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Exhibit shows Akron man's balloons for Macy's
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal
Published on Friday, Nov 09, 2007
Bill Ludwick liked Popeye best.
Of all the balloons he designed for Goodyear in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade during a career that spanned more than three decades, it was the spinach-eating sailor cartoon character who was his favorite, said his widow, Audrey Ludwick.
''I think he was partial to Popeye,'' she said.
Beginning at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Bill Ludwick's collection of photographs from his balloon-designing days will be on display at the Akron-Summit County Public Library, 60 S. High St., as part of a Lighter Than Air Society event.
A panel discussion — Inside Macy's Parade — on Goodyear's role in creating the helium-filled balloons will be at 1:30 p.m. in the library.
The panel will include Macy's longtime balloon designer, Manfred ''Manny'' Bass, and Bill Smith, whose Smith Special Balloonworks has provided balloons for parades for more than 10 years.
Four of Smith's balloons will be part of Akron's Holiday Parade on Nov. 24 in downtown Akron.
Goodyear supplied balloons for the Macy's parade for more than 50 years, starting in 1927.
Bill Ludwick, who died at 82 in 2002, was a Navy Seabee dur
ing World War II.
After the war, he went to trade school and was hired at Goodyear in the early 1950s.
He was a project engineer, and one of his jobs was to design the big balloons.
On Thursday, Audrey Ludwick sat at a table in her Akron apartment and leafed through dozens of black and white photographs of his work.
''This is kind of cool,'' she said as she looked at a photograph of a Bullwinkle balloon.
Along with the photos were old newspaper articles, blueprints for some balloons and a few photo albums full of other pictures related to her husband's work at Goodyear.
Because he was so involved in the Macy's parade, he was out of town every Thanksgiving, she said.
Her husband did not spend most of his time on the balloons, but worked on many other projects, including fuel cells for Goodyear's Indianapolis 500 race car business, she said.
On 12 pages of graph paper, written in long-hand, Ludwick wrote an explanation of how the balloons were made.
If all of them get past the NBC television cameras, he wrote, ''you can start to relax and you get the good feeling of accomplishment.''
He described a humorous situation that happened with the Popeye balloon when it rained during the parade.
There was an indentation in Popeye's sailor hat, he wrote, and when it rained hard, water would fill up the indentation, pour off the balloon and onto pedestrians watching the parade.
Ron Syroid, a member of the board of directors of the Lighter Than Air Society, called Ludwick's collection ''a unique, precious treasure trove.''
Syroid said he could tell that Ludwick had a passion for the work by reading his writing.
''Here is a guy who was thoroughly involved with it,'' Syroid said.
Another event planned by the Lighter Than Air Society this weekend is an annual fundraising dinner for the society at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Martin Center, 105 Fir Hill St., on the University of Akron campus.
Ticket prices are $35 and $50 for patrons.
For more on the Lighter Than Air Society, go to http://www.blimpinfo.com.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
Bill Ludwick liked Popeye best.
Get the full article here.
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