The behemoth retailer used the parade as a living and breathing advertisement ahead of the Christmas season.
AP
Source: Insider
But then the Great Depression hit a few years later in 1929.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Source: History
Retailers relied on holiday sales so heavily that they petitioned President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 to move Thanksgiving up a week.
Keystone Features/Getty Images
Source: Time
Thanksgiving fell on the fifth Thursday of November that year, and an extra week would give Americans more time to shop, so he obliged in order to lift the slumped economy.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Source: Time
But he waited until October to announce the change, and many didn’t honor it, leading to essentially two Thanksgivings being held that year.
AP
Source: Time
But, eventually, the new Thanksgiving caught on.
General Photographic Agency/Getty Images
Source: National Archives
And in 1941, President Roosevelt signed a resolution forever establishing the fourth Thursday instead of the last Thursday of November as the national Thanksgiving holiday …
Sherman/Three Lions/Getty Images
Source: National Archives
By the 1950s, the phenomenon of Black Friday had yet to fully materialize, though the day after Thanksgiving remained a common Christmas shopping occasion.
Three Lions/Getty Images
The Friday before saw throngs of people pour into the city ahead of the game to shop, much to the chagrin of cops, who couldn’t take the day off and who were instead tasked with managing the chaotic congestion.
Three Lions/Getty Images
Source: BBC
They christened the Friday “Black Friday,” a name borrowed from a stock-market tizzy in 1869 that was spurred by plummeting gold prices.
Three Lions/Getty Images
Source: Britannica
The term was eventually embraced by Philadelphia business owners, but not before they attempted to rebrand the event “Big Friday” to remove any negative connotation.
Keystone Features/Getty Images
Source: CNN Money, History
Obviously, it didn’t stick, and Black Friday remained a quirky Philadelphia tradition.
Don Murray/Getty Images
Source: BBC
Although it is true that the holiday season is a profitable time for retailers, various reports debunk that story as the true meaning behind “Black Friday.”
George Frey/Getty Images
Source: History, CNN Money, BBC
Nevertheless, that’s the story that was used to explain the meaning behind the term.
Jack Taylor/Getty Images
Source: CNN Money
