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Stories from GG’s Toy Box
By Grahame Grassby
Story 13 — The Balloon Guy – Treb Heining
Throughout your life you meet so many and varied people that it’s impossible to remember who they all are, what they all do or where they all come from and mostly because of this they are forgotten to you.
But from time to time, you come across someone that does something that sticks in your mind and somehow things just keep reminding you of that person.
One such person in my life is Treb Heining – the balloon guy.
I don’t actually know Treb – I think he might have come along to the Fred & Grazza Show that Fred Gaffney and I staged in Santa Monica, LA in February 2024 but I’m not even sure if Treb was actually there or if he was just on the invite list.
You see, Treb is an American who is a close friend and ex-work colleague of another American balloon guy, Henry Unger, who, in turn, is a good friend of my good friend Fred Gaffney.
So Treb is a friend of a good friend’s good friend.
Now Treb is famous for his balloons and is the subject of a couple of documentaries which you can see on the internet – search “treb balloons” on YouTube – but in short, if you see a huge event in the US and there are lots of balloons involved, then chances are these balloons have been dropped by Treb.
Treb does the balloon drops at the Republican Party Conventions including in 2024 with Donald Trump & his family on stage.
Treb does the balloon drops at the Democratic Party Conventions including in 2024 with Kamala Harris on stage.
Treb doesn’t take political sides with his balloons – if you can afford it, Treb will drop his ballons for you.
And Treb is not just dropping balloons – Treb also drops all the confetti at midnight on every New Year’s Eve Times Square ball drop for over 20 years.
Amazingly all that confetti is dropped by hand using hundreds of volunteers who come back year after year to drop confetti handful by handful on the thousands gathered down below in Times Square to bring in the New Year.
If you see balloons at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games held in the US they’re done by Treb.
Treb has been dropping his balloons for more than 40 years! But where did it
all begin?
Where else? Treb was a balloon seller at Disneyland from the age of 15.
Treb Heining – Balloon Guy extraordinaire!
Still dropping his balloons after all these years! Way to drop, Treb!
This article originally appeared in Edition 14 of The Toy Universe Magazine
