• Scrim curtain lets out much more lush sound
• Holiday organ music to accompany certain shows
• Exposed case to be floodlit

The Store’s famous light show has always been one of Philadelphia’s most hallowed traditions, ever since its inception in November 1955, when it was devised by Frederick Yost, a theatre-lighting graduate of Yale University who came to John Wanamaker to create many of the beautiful Grand Court displays that helped make the historic store famous.

Yost was following a long tradition. Previous years, stretching back to the days of John and Rodman Wanamaker, featured fanciful Christmas and Easter displays that ran the full height of the Grand Court, and Yost expanded on the decorating schemes at Christmas by adding lights, fountains and the Magic Christmas Tree to produce a sound-and-light spectacular that continues to the present day. The show runs from Black Friday following Thanksgiving through to the New Year and is offered several times each shopping day.

The Store has always tried to keep the show up-to-date, and the latest edition, produced by Macy's, is no exception. While retaining all the beloved elements of the show, the revamped production — being dubbed the Millennium Edition by its designer Larry Kerecman — modernizes much of the equipment while for the first time allowing the Grand Organ to cast its holiday spell in its full glory.

Historically, as far as the Organ was concerned, the main problem of past Christmas shows was that the Grand Court was draped in thick plush curtains, muffling the Organ’s sound and robbing the Grand Court of any trace of reverberation. Until the Grand Court was repainted, about 1975, this dampening effect continued throughout the year as curtains covered seasonal tableaux of the Nativity and a huge Christmas Cathedral opposite the Organ. Those tableaux were permanently removed that year.

The new show replaces the thick drapery that covers the front of the Organ with a covering of identical appearance made of scrim, which should let much more of the Organ through without muffling the pipes. Also, the organ case itself will be left uncovered, with the Magic Christmas Tree standing before it. Spotlights will illuminate the case in brilliant shifting holiday colors. By placing the Organ in the forefront of the show, it allows the Reigning Monarch to weave its spell in special productions that feature the Tree and Organ with imaginative lighting effects as Peter Richard Conte plays festive Yuletide music. The result should be something that rivals any of the displays in other cities, including the famous Radio City show and the great Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York.

The redesign of the show should also lessen the common retail criticism that Christmas comes earlier and earlier each year, as the show will be able to be taken up and brought down much more quickly. In previous years the curtain was installed in late September and removed in early February. Macy's installed special winches in the ceiling and is putting in other equipment to enable the Yule show to be set up and taken down in much less time.

This work has been entrusted to Larry Kerecman of Control Dimensions, Inc. In many ways he is an ideal choice. Like other native-Philadelphia-area baby boomers, the new light-show designer fell in love with the Store Yule show as a child. At Christmastime, his parents would bring him in to the Grand Court, and he quickly fell under the spell of the Magic Christmas Tree, fountains and the antics of the animated characters. So enamored was he that young Larry pestered his father to help him buy the electrical components, including relays and strings of lights, that would enable him to set up the Wanamaker Yule display in miniature in his own home.

Somehow it never all came together to the same degree, but the interest it sparked ran deep. Kerecman became an electrical engineer, and in fact last year set up a miniature Magic Christmas Tree at his home in Colorado. Kerecman marvels at the workings of the Show. The lighting for the tree itself is derived from the wiring program for placing telephones in office buildings, he notes, and the fountains, which were built before variable-speed pumps were commonplace, use an ingenious system to achieve the same effects from motors designed to operate at a single speed by some very clever German technology using very large power resistors.

Kerecman says he almost cried when he looked at the circuitry for making the tree different colors — the old-fashioned relays were the same kind he had purchased as a child. Because of the age of these components, however, an overhaul has long been needed.

The Light Show statistics are impressive. The tree contains an estimated 23,500 lights, many custom-tinted in shades of pink and purple just for the Show, and the figures contain 29,000 lamps. The fountain system uses 3000 gallons of water. The total electrical consumption during the 21 seconds when the entire show is lit at the climax is a staggering 288,000 watts.

Because of its complexity, the show took the continued efforts of at least three men working after Store hours to install it between mid-September and Thanksgiving. Just hauling up Santa’s train to the very top of the Court could take from closing ’til opening the following morning. The newly installed winches make this work a cinch.

The Show itself was computerized in the ’70s but nonetheless required two operators, something that will be much more simple with the revamping — it will be entirely automated.

During the off-season the show is stored in the passageways around the Organ, making the area look like Santa’s workshop. In a chamber to the right of the organ case are kept the train and largest figures, pumps, control panels and other equipment. In a shop behind the Organ and to the right behind the ladies department is where the pump manifolds for the nozzles are kept with all the branches for the tree. One room looks like a meat cooler because of the eight reindeer suspended, with toy soldiers standing guard. Elsewhere, tree branches are orderly arrayed as if in a giant cold storage, in an arrangement that looks like a winter wonderland.

With the Organ now a featured part of daily shows, the experience is one all Friends will want to visit again and again! We give thanks to Macy's, to Arthur Snoznik and Patrick Hamilton of the Engineering Department, to lighting engineer Larry Kerecman and also to the vision of Curt Mangel for making so much of this wonderful redesign possible!

Macy's Holiday Light Show:
Fun Facts and Figures

• The Magic Christmas Tree has approximately 23,500 7-watt light bulbs and is fed with 1200 amps of power (an actual lamp count is being conducted this year).
• The Tree has three sections, each with six colors of light bulbs: red, green, blue, amber, pink, and purple. The pink and purple bulbs are specially made for the show.
• There are 85 individual branches on the Tree, topped by a cone-shaped section, then crowned with the star, which has white, amber and blue lights.
• The figures have 23,635 individual 7-watt light bulbs.
• The vertical strings of lights have 5906 light bulbs, powered by 40 different circuits so that the lights can be programmed to “chase” in different directions.
• The train engine weighs 700 pounds and each of the two cars weigh 500 pounds.
• It takes six weeks to set up the show.
• The end of the Grand Finale uses 288,000 watts of electricity and lasts for 21 seconds.
• Not everything can be turned on at the same time during the Grand Finale; the power consumption would exceed the capacity of the cables feeding the Light Show from the transformer vaults in the basement.
• Restoration of the accompanying Dancing Waters® Fountain-and-Colored-Light Show on the balcony in front of the Organ case has reportedly been delayed for reasons of urgent electrical-safety. This famous feature of the Macy's show is slated to return beginning next year.

The John Wanamaker Christmas Cathedral, Philadelphia. Inspired by the beauty of famous churches and religious art throughout the world, this Christmas presentation is located in the Grand Court of the Philadelphia store. The Nativity tableau is placed in the central portal above which are stained glass windows portraying The Annunciation and The Flight Into Egypt. Figures of the Disciples and Prophets are set into the Cathedral front.

Towering high above the Wanamaker Grand Court, facing the Christmas Cathedral, the Magic Christmas Tree of a Million Lights adds brilliance to the holiday season. As though touched by a magic wand, the colors flash and change before your eyes while the Enchanted Fountains rise and fall to the accompaniment of Christmas music.