During the Balloon Inflation, the night before the the parade, in blustery weather and high winds, the crew from The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company attempted to inflate the balloons. Tarps were laid out end to end, dotted with hundreds of sandbags and the deflated balloons were carefully laid out in their scheduled order of appearance. Three of the 10 balloons (Snoopy, Smokey Bear, and Happy Dragon) managed to be inflated, but then came trouble. During inflation, Happy Dragon's head was severely damaged. Out of the three, Smokey Bear suffered the least damage. Despite surviving the night, his hat was damaged so badly that it required partial replacement and extensive repair. The worst damage of all came to Snoopy, who was mostly inflated at the time of the incident. The winds were so fierce that they wrapped him around the cab of the helium truck. Goodyear and officials from Macy's made the decision to cease inflation, removed all of the balloons for safety reasons, and declared that the 45th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade would go on without them.
Despite all of the balloons not being able to fly, videotapes from the 1970 Parade were used except for Mickey Mouse and Smile, where they had to show their test flight footage.