West 35th street & 7th Ave - behind Macy's Dept store in Midtown

In the early 70's I use to enjoy shooting the "backstage" events of the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Underdog was one of my favorite balloons and on this particular day I was lucky to capture the deflation. Things were much simpler in those days without all the excessive security so getting into this area was not difficult especially if you had a large 6x6 camera hanging off your neck. I recently scanned the original negative from circa 1974 or 75 to make a digital print of it as a gift. I don't know any of the people in the shot other than that the bulk of them were more than likely Macy's employees waiting to let the air out of the balloon on the tarp in front of them.

Photo by Patrick Merino