Editing Duluth, Minnesota (section)

====Christmas City of the North Parade====
Each year in November, the Christmas City of the North Parade takes place in Duluth. The parade dates to 1957, when the holiday shopping season ran particularly short. Wanting to extend Christmas shopping days, Bob Rich—who owned the former WDSM-TV at the time, now [[KBJR-TV]]—came up with the idea. Since then, the parade has marched through downtown Duluth annually on the Friday night before Thanksgiving. The event has survived pouring rain, snow, and frigid cold. Even in years when instruments were too cold to produce music, the bands became choirs to provide music instead. Recorded by [[Merv Griffin]] in 1962, the "Christmas City" song is the parade's signature sound. According to Rich's grandson, the song was written by a local resident, and his grandfather asked his friend Griffin—at that time not the well-known TV personality he became—to sing the song and put it to music.<ref>[http://christmascityparade.com/ Christmas City of the North Parade:<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130904072214/http://christmascityparade.com/ |date=September 4, 2013}}</ref><ref name=autogenerated1>[http://christmascityparade.com/2010/11/grandson-of-christmas-city-parade-creator-shares-history/ Grandson of Christmas City Parade Creator Shares History | Christmas City of the North Parade<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902015321/http://christmascityparade.com/2010/11/grandson-of-christmas-city-parade-creator-shares-history/ |date=September 2, 2013}}</ref>