(Clockwise from left) Santa and his elves at the 1970 Thalhimers Christmas Toy Parade, the Thalhimers float in the 1965 parade, and a train float in the 1970 parade (Photos courtesy The Valentine)
Thalhimers invented Richmond’s Christmas Parade.
More accurately, the city’s major homegrown retailer announced a “Street Parade of Toys” in 1930 with an illustrated advertisement in the Nov. 27 newspapers. The parade started at 10:30 a.m. at the fairgrounds (where The Diamond is now) and proceeded down Broad Street to Sixth, ending at the seasonally decorated windows of Thalhimers department store and its next-door competitor, Miller & Rhoads. It was the first of many, many parades.
Thalhimers employees worked like busy elves for months in preparation for the theatrical occasion. They built floats, sewed costumes, scouted routes and organized volunteers. By the 1934 event, the effort involved 350 people, 39 groups, 11 floats, four animals “the size of streetcars” (these were balloons) and three elaborately costumed bands. That year, rain caused a postponement from Friday, Nov. 30, to Monday, Dec. 4, but the crew and audience maintained the cheer despite a light drizzle.
The parade’s participants included “girls dressed as butterflies with wings three feet wide,” a musical group of clowns, toy pirates, an enchanted castle on a float and Noah’s Ark. At the end came Santa Claus riding in a 60-foot-long float painted silver, trimmed royal blue and drawn by six white horses. When arriving at Thalhimers, the jolly old elf would address the crowd with season’s greetings and enter the store’s second floor via a ladder or even a crane.
World War II silenced the jollity in the streets, but the parade resumed in 1946. In her memoir, “Finding Thalhimers,” Elizabeth Thalhimer Smartt recalled how the parade “delighted Richmonders with more than a dozen marching bands, scores of floats, forty giant balloons” and Santa in his sleigh.
In 1972, the parade was again postponed due to rain, rolling from Mulberry and Broad streets at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26. Characters in the mix included Dorothy and her “Wizard of Oz” companions, a contingent from “Alice in Wonderland,” Old King Cole and his Fiddlers Three, and — reflecting the changing times — a float carrying “Sesame Street” characters. All this, and Thalhimers’ Snow Bear, too. Near the store, a spectator threw popcorn into the face of Acca Temple Shriner George N. Pruden, who was driving his mini car. He lost control, the car flipped over, and he injured a shoulder.
(Clockwise from left) A balloon featuring Lucy from “Peanuts” in the 1970 parade, marchers in the 1975 parade and baton twirlers in the 1982 parade (Photos courtesy The Valentine)
And then the parades stopped. Repeated weather postponements dampened attendance, and Thalhimers, which ultimately closed in 1992, needed to concentrate on its business.
The hiatus lasted 13 years. The Jaycees, a civic group, took the lead to support downtown revitalization, with the sponsorship of another Richmond-born retailer, Best Products, and support from the Retail Merchants Association (today known as InUnison), The Richmond News Leader’s Katherine Calos reported. On Saturday, Nov. 30, 1985, Channel 12 broadcasted the parade live as it marched from the Broad Street Department of Motor Vehicles to the Coliseum.
This time, rain didn’t dissuade attendance. Spectators — including an Abraham Lincoln look-alike — came with their umbrellas to see the celebrity grand marshal, Olympic gymnast Julianne McNamara, and the rest of the parade. The following year’s grand marshal, hometown football star Willie Lanier, rode the parade route in a vintage car, until it conked out. A quick-thinking volunteer grabbed the sign bearing Lanier’s name and carried it as Lanier followed behind, waving to the crowd.
In 1987 Norfolk native Tim Reid, then starring on the sitcom “Frank’s Place” and known for his role as Venus Flytrap on “WKRP in Cincinnati,” headlined the parade, and the Jack-in-the-Box balloon was slashed and deflated by a tree. The following year, Petersburg native and Richmond theater actor Blair Underwood, then a cast member in “L.A. Law,” was grand marshal.
In 1990, star power caused unanticipated and, for some, annoying parade delays. Director Gary Weis, known for his work on “Saturday Night Live,” came to town to shoot a Virginia Lottery commercial. While he was there, Weis inquired of the Virginia Film Office if “any parades were scheduled soon,” the News Leader reported, because he wanted to shoot a music video for Paul Simon’s “Proof,” a track from his album “The Rhythm of the Saints.” Weis got Steve Martin and Chevy Chase in on the act.
Simon’s float featured a large, gold-painted figure of Justice created by Richmond artist Paul DiPasquale, known for the Arthur Ashe statue and the colossal Neptune statue in Virginia Beach, as well as the smaller version at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. A 1962 Ford camera truck overheated, and costume changes caused further delays. Some frustrated downtown spectators left before the parade came along. But the resulting video is a document of the times and the place; there’s even a glimpse of a Bill’s Barbecue bow-tied dancing pig.
Scenes from the 2023 Richmond Christmas Parade (Photos by Jay Paul)
The 1999 parade featured Pokemon, while the 2001 version, sponsored by Ukrop’s Super Markets and the Retail Merchants, presented grand marshal Kenny Rogers in 70-degree weather and drew an estimated 200,000 people; the general consensus was that some joy was needed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In 2005, reserved grandstand seating near the DMV was introduced to help raise funds to support the parade.
Neither the Jack-in-the Box mishap in 1987 nor a 1992 injury to Gumby were recorded for posterity. However, during the 2010 Dominion Christmas Parade, Henrico residents Lisa and Andy Salita were videotaping their son and daughter, who were marching with the Mills E. Godwin High School band, when suddenly Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, punctured by a Meadow Street traffic signal, collapsed. The incident went viral, leading Salita to field calls from news outlets as far away as Japan.
And now, somehow, it’s 2024, and the end of the year at that. The annual Dominion Energy Christmas Parade sets off at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, from the Science Museum of Virginia and will march down Broad to Seventh Street. See you there!
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