Today’s Al Roker looks unrecognizable in never-before-seen throwback at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

A PREVIOUSLY unseen throwback photo of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade co-host Al Roker has emerged.

In my second year participating in the parade, I was at the start of the route and stood alongside Roker for the ribbon cutting.

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Roker, who began co-hosting the Thanksgiving Day parade in 1995, was noticeably absent from the 2022 edition.

At the time, he was sidelined from his hosting duties while recovering from blood clots.

His Today co-hosts, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, gave him a shoutout during the 2022 broadcast as his presence was sorely missed.

“For the past 27 parades, at this moment, Savannah, we would turn to Al Roker, who is our Today show colleague and our best pal,” Kotb said.

“But as a lot of you have heard, Al’s recovering — he’s recovering very well from a recent medical issue.

“And we just want to say, we love you Al.” Wondering if you’re watching, but we wish you a full recovery.”

Roker is expected to return to the 2023 broadcast to resume his hosting duties.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

I participated in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2012 and 2013, resulting in the funny photo of myself and Roker at the start of the parade.

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Both years, I was clowning around the parade route, first as a medical team clown and then as a celebration clown.

My second parade was special because it was dedicated to the memory of my cousin, Scott, who worked as the Director of Events Administration for Macy’s Parade and Entertainment Group.

For many years, Scott was an integral part of the team of people who brought the parade to life year after year as he served as the voice of the parade as well as the Head of the Clown Program.

In 2012, after many years of talking about it, Scott assembled a group of about 15 of our family members to be clowns in that year’s parade.

We all attended Clown U in preparation for the big day and then went out to lunch.

Then, on the big day, we marched down Fifth Avenue in nearly 70-degree weather and sprinkled confetti on spectators while wearing giant grins.

Sadly, Scott passed away before we could all reconvene for the 2013 parade.

But that year, Macy’s dedicated the parade to Scott’s memory.

So the group of us who decided to return to march again were put into the celebration clown group to help kick off the parade.

I had the honor of holding the ribbon that was cut to signal the start of the parade.

In doing so, I stood alongside Roker for the moments right before the ribbon cutting, resulting in a funny snapshot from the broadcast.

I’ll never forget that absolutely frigid morning, the excitement and bittersweetness mixed together, the influx of messages from people spotting me next to Roker, and the joys of marching down Fifth Avenue on my favorite holiday.