Cincinnati's Thanksgiving Day Parade Was To Rival Macy's

WCPO Promotion Director Dreamed Of A Made-For-TV Extravaganza

On Columbus Day 1974, his first day on the job as promotion director at WCPO Channel 9, J. Albert Callahan presented a grand idea. He envisioned a parade on Thanksgiving Day, akin to the famous parade in New York. It would consist of floats, marching bands, and be broadcast not only in Cincinnati, but Lexington and Columbus and Louisville.

Not wasting an…