Just seven months later, on July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts fulfilled President John F. Lindsay was reported in The New York Times to have overheard them say, “It’s a forbidding place… gray and colorless… It shows the scars of a terrific bombardment… certainly not a very inviting place to live or work.” Thinking they were talking about New York, he broke in and told them, “If you’re going to talk like that you’re not going to get your gold medals.” They’d been describing the moon. Riding with the astronauts in the motorcade, Mayor John V. Lovell, Jr., the first men to see the far side of the moon.
Lindsay’s first parade, on January 10, 1969, hailed Apollo 8 Astronauts, Lt. However, the spectacular success of America’s Apollo space program in 1969 cried out for ticker-tape celebrations and Lindsay couldn’t say no. When Mayor John Lindsay took office in 1966, he announced that his administration would discontinue the ticker-tape parade in favor of more informal receptions tailored to the special interests of the guest. Businesses in lower Manhattan complained of disruptions. In lieu of building tenants throwing ticker tape, the City had to deliver confetti and shredded paper to buildings along Broadway to ensure an appropriate cascade of paper. But by the 1960s, there had been so many parades (130 between 19 alone), that they came to be viewed as synthetic and routine. Their day ended with a state dinner hosted by President Richard Nixon in Los Angeles.įor many decades the New York City ticker-tape parade had been recognized around the world as the ultimate accolade for a job well-done. New York City had three and a half hours for the ticker-tape parade then it was on to Chicago for another parade. It would be a hectic day for the astronauts. The City, and the nation, had to wait until the astronauts emerged from an isolation ward at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston before celebrating their triumph. Buzz Aldrin with an exuberant ticker-tape reception to applaud their moon landing three weeks earlier on July 20. On August 13, 1969, New York City welcomed Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A.