Question about Dayton's/Marshall Fields annual Christmas display (Minneapolis, Tyler: hotel, theatre)

[queenswake]

This is going to be long shot but does anyone know who were the artists and designers that actually built the display every year? I know the Twin Cities has a lot of creative talent, but I'm hard-pressed to think of who these people actually were since it was such a unique talent that you don't see anywhere else around the Twin Cities. Were they a mixture of stage set design people and engineer types who could cobble together the electric motors driving the figures? Puppeteers? Or maybe they flew people out from Los Angeles to do it?

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by queenswake

This is going to be long shot but does anyone know who were the artists and designers that actually built the display every year? I know the Twin Cities has a lot of creative talent, but I'm hard-pressed to think of who these people actually were since it was such a unique talent that you don't see anywhere else around the Twin Cities. Were they a mixture of stage set design people and engineer types who could cobble together the electric motors driving the figures? Puppeteers? Or maybe they flew people out from Los Angeles to do it?

probably elves

[golfgal]

I googled it but didn't find anything...but did find a list of Themes when it was actually Daytons:

46 Years of Displays: Dayton's/Marshall Field's/Macy's Holiday themes | Star Tribune

1963: Santa's Enchanted Forest

1964: Land of Trolls

1965: Nameless, animated animals preparing for Christmas

1966: Dickens' London Towne

1967: Dickens' Village

1968: Under the Giant Christmas Tree

1969: Peter Pan

1970: Santa's Toy Workshop

1971: Santa's TV Studio

1972: Joy to the World (Joan Walsh Anglund)

1973: Nutcracker

1974: Grandma Moses' "Christmas in the Country"

1975: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

1976: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

1977: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Dr. Suess)

1978: Once Upon a Christmastime

1979: Babes in Toyland

1980: Alice's Wonderland Christmas

1981: Hansel and Gretel

1982: Pippi Longstocking

1983: Babar and Father Christmas

1984: Animalen, "The Peaceable Kingdom"

1985: The Velveteen Rabbit

1986: Santabear's First Christmas

1987: Santabear's High-Flying Adventures

1988: The Polar Express

1989: Cinderella

1990: Peter Pan

1991: Pinocchio

1992: Puss in Boots

1993: Beauty and the Beast

1994: The Wizard of Oz

1995: The Wind in the Willows

1996: A Christmas Carol

1997: Nutcracker

1998: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

1999: The 12 Days of Christmas

2000: Harry Potter

2001: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

2002: Paddington Bear and the Christmas Surprise

2003: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

2004: Snow White

2005: Cinderella

2006: Mary Poppins

2007: Nutcracker


I miss these!!!

[atler8]

Wow! I can't believe the timeliness of this thread! Just last night I was telling a friend about the Dayton's Christmas season window displays as well as the ones up on the auditorium floor level.
Our family attended conventions in downtown Minneapolis in early December of both 1963 & 1964 at a brand new hotel called The Capp Towers @ 13th & Nicollet. It is now named the Millenium I believe. This was before work had begun on converting Nicollet to a ped mall & the street was not closed off at the Millenium corner as it is today.
Anyway, that first year I recall that Dayton's Nicollet Avenue windows & perhaps all other street facing windows displays had the theme of the Nutcracker Suite, complete w/ moving puppets, mannequins, brilliant background displays along with the music from the Nutrachacker Suite.
Up on the auditorium level there was a large version of "Dicken's Olde London Towne" set up amongst which you could wander & pretend you were transported back over a century & across the pond.
On the main floor level, & elsewhere, carolers strolled in quartets & serenaded the shoppers.
I do not recall if the same theme was repeated for Christmas of 1964 but I do know that I had never seen anything like it before nor since then!
Thanks for posting that cool list here, golfgal. I've actually tried to do research on the store holiday themes & decorations before but have not been that successful. I thought that there might actually be soem footage of the displays at youtube but I had no success there.
And my props here to you queenswake for this thread idea!

[Kayekaye]

Yes those were great! I miss them too. They were always animated figures ever since I can remember.

Don't know who worked on them exactly but Daytons did have a big window dressing department full time year around, the Mary Tyler Moore show had Rhoda working in it supposedly. I always wanted to work in the window dressings department but ended up in the advertising department there. Bachmans (flower shop) did a lot of the flower and garden part for Easter on the 8th floor in the auditorium, and I seem to recall that some of the set designers from the Guthrie helped with the Christmas displays, but I could be wrong.

Come to think of it, we did some of the banners and signs that were used in the Auditorium for Christmas displays in the advertising department.

[Kayekaye]

These were the only two I could find on youtube. They didn't really allow cameras of any kind in Dayton's/Macy's, believe me I tried. Now they can't stop anyone with all their phones, it was such a big deal back then.


Macy's Christmas display Minneapolis, MN - YouTube
Christmas


Macy's Downtown Minneapolis Christmas Display (2007) - YouTube
Nutcracker

[golfgal]

I think when they did Joy to the World they had the huge displays in all of the "Dales" too. I remember driving around to all of them with my Dad, Uncle and cousins to see them...not sure if it was related to that or not but it was a "World" theme--I was remembering "It's a Small World" theme but not sure if that was right. I wasn't very old at the time.

[Kayekaye]

Sounds possible, the Dales were/are owned by one of the Dayton's sons.

[pete6032]

Mark Dayton does them.

[roselily]

I don't know who the designers were, but I know they were built and wired by technicians from our immensely talented theatre community. I know a few of the folks who have worked on it over the years.