PLAY Anyone remember Fat guy who did the parade

Okay, I remember some fat guy talking about the Thanksgiving parade growing up. No one else does. He sat by a fire. My recollection is that he looked rather like Victor French but I have no idea who he was. Does ANYONE else remember this? Know who he was/is?

Thanks,
A

Could it be Burl Ives?

amarilla said:

Okay, I remember some fat guy talking about the Thanksgiving parade growing up. No one else does. He sat by a fire. My recollection is that he looked rather like Victor French but I have no idea who he was. Does ANYONE else remember this? Know who he was/is?

Thanks,
A

Click to expand...

Need a little more data.

Do you mean (1) that he was talking about how the Thanksgiving day parade was becoming a more mature event? or (2) that he talked about the Thanksgiving day parade year after year and you remember him getting older as years passed? or (3) you remember that when you were growing up you heard him talking about the parade?

Can you supply a city name? Since we don't know how old you are, would the era be 1950's? 1990's? Local TV or national? Newsreels?

It does seem like I remember that vaguely. Burl Ives comes to my mind as well. Wasn't it during the Macy's parade?

It would have been the mid 70's or early 80's. I'm pretty sure he had dark hair. He was fairly portly. He sat next to a fireplace and commented on the parade. We got the Chicago stations but I think it was probably the Macy's parade not a local Chicago parade. He was alone. We used to watch the other channel with the the duos hosting parades, like the Hawaii 5 O guy too.

A

Willard Scott??

How about Sebastion Cabot?

Was it Frazier Thomas? I remember growing up with his "Garfield Goose" show every afternoon when I was a child in Chicago. And later, he was on "Family Classics" movies on Sunday afternoons, and he sat by a fireplace and introduced movies.

http://www.tvparty.com/lostgarfield.html

Burl Ives is the one you are talking about for Holiday memories for me. He's associated with the voices of the narrators for the claymation Christmas cartoons (Rudolf, Frosty, The Year Christmas Almost Wasn't etc).

He never did the Parade that I know of. Famous past hosts of the parade are Lorne Greene, Betty White, Bryant Gumbel, Mary Hart, Sandy Duncan, Deborah Norville, Katie Couric, Al Roker, Willard Scott. The only ones from that list of past hosts that would be "portly" were Lorne Greene, Al Roker (he's lost weight now) and Willard Scott. None of them were by a fire as it is a live commentary event and no fire outside.

Are you sure the parade you are thinking of is the Macy's Thanksgiving parade and not the Rose Bowl (New Years Day)? It would be much colder then and in need of a fire and a lot more stars guest host that one. One of the most notable would be Ernest Borgnine.

MissyFlex, I remember watching Frazier Thomas on those Sunday afternoon movies, every week. I even had a neighbor who showed up on Bozo circus, on TV. Did he do parade commentary, though?

Skeeter, it might have been Sabastian Cabot. I don't remember but the guy looked rather like him. No one else remmbers the guy in my family. Probably because I was "out of the way" watching the parade and they were all making food....

A

Was it Santa Claus?