The Detroit Parade Big Heads: How They Are Made

The Detroit parade big head collection is the biggest in the world. Boasting more than 300 big heads, they even have their own club: The Big Head Corp. How did all the big heads come to be? The process is fascinating and meticulous. One new Detroit parade big head is made for each year. Last year saw the debut of Miggy.

Initially, our parade big heads were bought from a company in Viareggio, Italy. From the very first parade in 1924, big heads have been a part of Detroit's big parade at Thanksgiving. Who thought of this? Charles Wendel. He was the display director for J.L. Hudson in the '20s. He had seen the big heads while taking in Carnival in Italy.

Eventually, the Italians taught our Detroit artists how to make their own big heads. You can tell a difference between the Italian and American big heads. The Italian big heads ten to be more realistic (but also creepy) and the Detroit big heads are more cartoonish. Here's a picture of a couple of the Italian made big heads.

Also, the view porthole is in the chest rather than the neck on the Italian big heads. The person wearing the Italian big head is dressed like pants. lol... The Italian big head is the entire upper body. The Italian big heads are cool... but also nightmare fuel. Here are some Detroit made parade big heads:

Each year, people volunteer to be big heads for a fee. The money goes back into helping The Parade Company stage America's Thanksgiving Parade Presented by Gardner White. Your donation also gets you some amenities including VIP grandstand seats, breakfast the day of the parade and more. You can find out the full details on theparade.org.

Each big head comes with a costume made at The Parade Company. Arlene King is the Director of Costuming. She has been with the Parade Company for 40+ years! This picture shows the Three Little Pigs in costume as they walk the parade route. The big head volunteers are in costume for about two and a half hours.

The Big Head Crop organizes the wearing of the big heads and which new big head will be made for the following parade. If you were a big head volunteer the year before, you can claim the same big head for the following parade. Everyone else is first come / first serve.

Each big head starts out as a sculpture. The sculpture is used to make a Paster of Paris mold. The plaster mold is composed of 17 layers of papier-mâché. Some of the parade big heads have been made using papers that match their character. An example: using the sports section for sports characters.

Newspapers are getting harder to find since the internet has made for more of a virtual newspaper scenario. If you have newspapers that you don't know what to do with, you might want to contact The Parade Company and see if they can them.

After the parade big head has finished its papier-mâché layers. The big head get it's paint job and any other accessories. Stevie Wonder's signature beaded braids are a part of his parade big head and Aretha Franklin became the first big head to have 3D eyelashes.

The Detroit-made big heads have more of a cartoon or caricature look to them when compared to the Italian-made parade big heads. Also, the Detroit-made big heads are just that... the head only. Over-sized costumes provide the rest of the body. The costumes are deliberately made big so one size fits most.

No. About half are used in any given year. Some parade big heads are retired for preservation purposes. Other big head stay behind because they didn't get selected by any of the volunteers that year. What is it like wearing a big head? Doni and Joel get a little taste of the glory. CLICK HERE to check it out.