Everyone tunes in' How Macy's festive parade became a national symbol

It was a sight to behold: elephants marching through New York City streets, thousands of spectators crushed four and five deep on the pavements hoping to get a glimpse of the creatures.

- Nora Neus

It was Thanksgiving Day 1924, and the elephants, accompanied by bears, monkeys, tigers, camels, donkeys and lions, were residents of the Central Park zoo, trotted out for a brand new parade, sponsored by the department store Macy's.

The parade, which also featured clowns, festive nursery rhyme-themed floats and Santa Claus himself, was such a hit that the store decided to hold the parade annually.

That's how the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, now often called "America's parade," started 100 years ago.

But the parade was not only a publicity stunt. It was started by employees of the store, many of whom were first-generation immigrants.

"Most of them were European immigrants who wanted to celebrate American Thanksgiving with a European parade tradition," Valerie Paley, senior vice-president at the New-York Historical Society.

"The first parade...it just had a kind of festive, but very homegrown, Macy's aspect to it."