Some of Tony Sarg’s balloons for the Macy’s parade were very big! Seen here is a series of photographs taken inside a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. warehouse in Akron, Ohio, where the puppeteer’s balloon creations were made. Puppeteer Bil Baird helped supervise the balloons’ construction at the Goodyear`s plant. And it was Baird who some say described the balloons as "upside down marionettes."
In one, a man is seen standing on a firetruck ladder, working at the very top of a giant figure. A note on the back of the photo says: “This figure is huge (would absorb about $300 worth of helium) and could be added to your parade if you have no overhead wires..."

Images:
Tony Sarg with his Macy’s parade balloons inside a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. warehouse in Akron, Ohio, 1933. NHA Collection, PH8-93-1; PH8-94-1; PH8-95-2; PH8-97-1; and PH8-98-1.

Newspaper clipping about Tony Sarg and his balloons, 1933
Published in the Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, Ohio ...

On this day in 1820, an enraged sperm whale rammed the Essex while the ship was whaling near the equator in the remote Pacific. The shipment promptly filled with water and rolled over. No whaling vessel had ever been attacked and sunk by a whale before. The twenty men in the crew were left in their boats, 1,300 from land.

Fearing danger on the closest islands—twenty to thirty days` sail away—Captain George Pollard Jr. and his mates, Owen Chase, and Matthew Joy, set course for South America, hoping to run 3,000 miles against contrary winds before exhausting the limited food and water their small boats could carry. Three months later, passing ships picked up only five emaciated survivors from two of the boats. Three other men were stranded on a remote island, and twelve men were dead.

Thomas Nickerson (1805-1883) served as a cabin boy on the Essex. After surviving the sinking, he returned to Nantucket and continued his career at sea. He drew these recollections of the sinking in the 1870s.

Illustrations of the ship Essex
Collection of Thomas Nickerson material, MS106 ...

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