b'Tony Sarg was many things, but his unselfish desire to motivate, educate, and mentor others is his greatest legacy.BALLOONS OVER BROADWAY Tony Sargs visionary work established the annual Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade as an icon of American culture and a unique and important aspect of the companys professional brand. In 1924, Macys in New York City commis-sioned him to create animated window displays to support the department stores new holiday parade. Three years later, the parade added its first giant balloons, designed by Tony Sarg. For more than ten years, he introduced new bal-loons to the parade every yearworks that pup-PH8-69-2 peteer Bil Baird described as giant upside-down Developed from sketches and drawings, Sargs balloons for the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade took shape usingmarionettes. Baird worked with Sarg to super-a combination of cylindrical and spherical shapes, like this 1931 cat design. vise construction of the balloons by the Good-year Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio. A PASSION FOR PUPPETS EXPERIMENTS INTHE SARG BRANDTony Sarg considered himself an illustratorANIMATION Charismatic and driven, Tony Sarg skillfully first, but it was marionettes that brought himNever one to let a flourishing career keeptranslated his personal interests in comic illus-widespread fame. Sarg began designing mario- him from launching another, Sarg built upontration and puppetry into marketable prod-nettes and holding small performances whilehis name recognition as a puppeteer to createucts. His decorative decoupage storage boxes, supporting himself as a commercial artist inTony Sargs Almanac, a series of animatedclocks, ceramics, furnishings, wallpapers, lin-London. This practice of parallel work as an illus- silhouette films or shadowgraphs releasedens, and fabrics reflected the prevailing taste trator and puppeteer continued in New York,between 1921 and 1923 that remained in cir- for Americana and a romanticized view of where, in 1917, he established a national travel- culation for many years. The films were uniquewhite colonial culture during the first half of the ing troupe, Tony Sargs Marionettes. Steady pub- in their focus on original stories and in the waytwentieth century. Sarg worked with publish-licity and a diverse output of instructional booksthey combined puppets and stop-motioners to produce illustrated puzzles, storybooks, and articles, vocational courses, and widely cir- technology. The use of Sargs name in thegames, and toy marionettes, while his name culated toy puppets and theaters, contributedfilms as a stamp of quality foreshadowed theand likeness were used to endorse an array of to Sargs reputation as the person responsibleWalt Disney approach to marketing in theproducts including automotive parts, butter, for reviving the marionette artform in America. sound era that followed. and whiskey.18 This is Hy-Line'