The 2012 parade starts at 9:05 am on Woodward Avenue and Mack and ends at Woodward Avenue and Congress in downtown Detroit on Thursday, November 22. Thousands of parade viewers will be watching as the Parade makes its way through the town. The Grand Marshals for this year's parade are Congressman John D Dingell and Debbie Dingell.
America's Thanksgiving Parade, is an annual parade held on Thanksgiving Day in downtown Detroit, Michigan. The tradition started in the city in 1924 by the J.L. Hudson Company department store. It shares the title for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, and is four years younger than the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia.
The idea came from Hudson’s display director Charles Wendel after the success of the Eaton's Santa Claus Parade in Toronto. In addition to the usual floats and bands, Wendel obtained large papier-mâché heads similar to those he saw during a recent trip to Europe. The heads are made in Viareggio, Italy and remain a fixture of the parade to the present.
The parade was suspended in 1943 and 1944 due to material shortages caused by World War II, but Hudson’s resumed the event in 1945 and continued sponsorship of the parade until 1979 when the costs became burdensome. It turned the parade over to the Detroit Renaissance Foundation who produced it for four years. In 1983, Detroit Renaissance turned the parade over to the newly-created Michigan Thanksgiving Parade Foundation and the event became known as The Michigan Thanksgiving Parade.
Since 2006, the parade has taken place on Woodward Avenue, starting near Woodward and Mack Avenues, and ending at Congress Street. This is the route the first parade followed in 1924. The parade travels toward downtown from Mack Avenue, after crossing over I-75 it enters Foxtown, near Detroit's Fox Theatre, the Hockeytown Cafe, and Comerica Park. From Foxtown, the parade passes through Grand Circus Park then into the business district where it then enters the TV coverage area near Grand River and Gratiot Avenues. The route had been displaced from this route for several years during the construction of Campus Martius Park and realignment of Woodward Avenue and other adjacent streets. The construction was completed in 2004.
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