After posting color pictures of a couple of the 1967 Camaro RS/SS convertibles used to pull floats in the 1966 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as a reply to another thread I thought I would make a new thread on the subject so it can be found in the future by the subject line and so any new information/pictures can be added in the future.
On November 24, 1966, several 1967 RS/SS Camaro Convertibles were used to pull multiple different floats in the 1966 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. After doing more research on the subject, I found some black and white film footage taken of the parade on Youtube that shows at least thirteen different Camaros officially involved in the parade. Interestingly, in an old thread on the Camaro Pace Car web site about these cars Geoff Smith stated, "There is a GM memo somewhere commenting on the Chevy cars to be used here. From memory there was about 20 Camaros and a hand full of Impalas too." Since no Impalas show up in the film, who knows how many other Camaros or other Chevy products were used in the parade but not filmed.
Chevy made a wise decision to use the parade as a way to get their brand new Camaro in front of a huge audience of potential customers. According to Wikipedia, "more than 44 million people watch the parade on television on an annual basis." In addition, an average of 3.5 million people watch it in person. These figures are probably for modern times. They might have even been larger back in 1966 since only three networks existed back then and not the proliferation of channels and other media that can be viewed today. While the parade lasted three hours in person, the NBC network broadcast a two-hour telecast of the event in color. Lorne Green and Betty White were the hosts. It would be cool to see this color broadcast but alas I have not been able to find it anywhere. If anyone has any information, personal pictures or home movies of this event please share. Thanks.
The first picture is part of an article that appeared in the September 2013 edition of Racer Magazine on the 1966 racing movie starring James Garner entitled Grand Prix. The caption for this picture states, "Prior to its Dec. 1966 opening, Grand Prix takes center stage at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York. Yes, that is a somewhat bemused '66 Formula 1 World Champion Jack Brabham on the float."
The second is from home movie footage of the parade that can be seen on Youtube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...TQLHuWhqFt6q--N0IcK7 Two different Camaros can be seen towing floats. I took a picture of the Camaro towing the Grand Prix float that can be seen at 1:50 in the footage.
The third picture was provided by the aforementioned Geoff Smith in the Camaro Pace Car site thread
