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Goodyear created turkey balloon for 1954 Macy's parade
By Mark J. Price
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Monday, Nov 24, 2008
Motorists slammed on their brakes and gawked at an astonishing sight. An amazing, colossal turkey — nearly as big as a barn — raised its immense head and waddled across the horizon.
Like a mutant from a 1950s sci-fi movie, the fantastic fowl flew into the sky and cast a huge shadow over awed onlookers.
Gorgeous Gobbler, a 50-foot balloon made by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., provided a visual feast for the 1954 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.
Designed, built, tested and stored in Akron, the helium-stuffed turkey served as a holiday treat for nearly a decade.
Workers spent three months constructing the big bird in the ''balloon room'' at Goodyear's Plant One. From 1927 to 1982, the Akron company created every inflatable character for Macy's grand parade.
The turkey was made out of 850 yards of rubberized fabric, the same material used to build blimps. Draftsmen designed 250 patterns and assembled the parts like a three-dimensional puzzle. Cutting and seaming were done by hand.
''There are 28 pieces in Gobbler's body alone, 16 in the head and 42 holding patches have to be attached,'' Goodyear explained in a 1954 document on file at the University of Akron's Archival Services. ''The head, fan, tail, thigh and even the wattle are made up as separate balloons.''
The 305-pound turkey, which stood 50 feet tall and 42 feet long, required 13,500 cubic feet of helium and took three hours to inflate inside Goodyear's gymnasium.
More than 30 gallons of paint were needed to transform the lifeless fabric into a colorful caricature. The bird had a pink head with a gray body and pink feathers. Its wings and legs were red and
its feet and beak were yellow.
Besides being alliterative, the name Gorgeous Gobbler seems to have been inspired by 1950s pro wrestler Gorgeous George, a larger-than-life figure who preened in the ring and just happened to own a turkey farm.
Playing it up
Russell Gudgeon, a vice president at New York public relations agency H.A. Bruno & Associates, hatched an amusing way to publicize the new balloon.
In a 1954 letter to Goodyear PR manager Herbert G. Wilson, Gudgeon wrote: ''The turkey is our piece of resistance; what would a fowl of that size weigh? How much meat would be on the breast, legs, etc. How many persons would be fed?''
Wilson asked Goodyear engineers to do a few unusual computations. Their whimsical estimates appeared in newspapers around the country.
For the record: A live turkey the size of Gorgeous Gobbler would weigh 5,200 pounds and could feed that many people on Thanksgiving Day. Breaking the wishbone would likely give someone a hernia.
Furthermore, a turkey hen that large would lay an egg 10 feet long and 6 feet in diameter.
The national media showed up in full force for the balloon's test flight in November 1954 at Wingfoot Lake in Suffield Township. Television cameras rolled as workers filled the turkey with helium beneath weighted nets.
A crew of 42 handlers was needed to hold tethers as Gorgeous Gobbler ascended 20 feet off the ground.
Passing motorists did double takes as the giant turkey began its unusual trot across the field. Other spectators stood back and watched as the crew put the balloon through a battery of tests.
One notable onlooker wasn't even human.
A close inspection of Goodyear photographs reveals a live, 35-pound turkey walking loose among the balloon handlers. Some marketing genius brought a real turkey to view the test flight.
Its eyes must have bulged a little when it saw the big bird flying overhead.
Debut in New York
Gorgeous Gobbler debuted before a Thanksgiving crowd of 2 million in New York City. Millions more Americans watched the Macy's parade in a live NBC telecast featuring emcee Arlene Francis and co-host Hugh Downs, who like the Gobbler was born in Akron.
The turkey was one of six Akron-made balloons in the Broadway parade. Also floating through Times Square that day were a 70-foot spaceman, dachshund, fish, toy soldier and Mighty Mouse.
As a marching band performed patriotic tunes, Gorgeous Gobbler strutted its stuff. The crowd stared up at the colorful bird as it floated serenely down the street.
Commentators quipped that the helium balloon demonstrated ''the cost of inflation'' and was ''no more rubbery than a bride's initial Thanksgiving turkey.''
Holding a tether tightly, balloon handler John Fox told a journalist: ''After I get through, I'm going to buy myself a new right arm at Macy's.''
Gorgeous Gobbler turned out to be a crowd-pleaser. Macy's parade organizers invited it back the following year to lead the parade.
The Akron balloon continued the Thanksgiving tradition for the better part of a decade — delighting millions and millions of children — before bowing out in the early 1960s.
In the next several years, Goodyear designed balloons for characters such as Snoopy, Bullwinkle, Underdog, Popeye, Superman, Donald Duck, Elsie the Cow, Dino the Dinosaur, Linus the Lionhearted and Smokey the Bear.
When Gorgeous Gobbler called it quits, there wasn't any room for leftovers.
Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send e-mail to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
Motorists slammed on their brakes and gawked at an astonishing sight. An amazing, colossal turkey — nearly as big as a barn — raised its immense head and waddled across the horizon.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Fairlawn, OH
Posted 10:06 AM, 11/24/2008
Keep these Akron History fun stories coming, Mark.
You're doing a great job with them!
Posted 10:13 AM, 11/24/2008
More interesting Akron history. Thanks!
And yes, this is news. History is always news. This morning's power outage is news. News usually has already occurred by the time it is reported, but not always.
I was fortunate to visit Wingfoot lake once or twice as a child. What a nice place it was!
