With wonderful songs by Irving Berlin, it was the first movie ever filmed in VistaVision. Wow. Uploaded by timeout.com.
Viewing a special movie on Christmas Eve is a tradition in many families. Some watch It’s a Wonderful Life (Great American Things, December 1, 2009), or A Christmas Story (Great American Things, December 9, 2009). At our house, though, it’s the 1954 classic, White Christmas.
Bing Crosby (Great American Things, December 19, 2009) and Danny Kaye are two Army buddies who form a hugely successful musical act. They then fall in love with a sister act (Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen) and scheme how to save their commanding general’s Vermont inn.
Uploaded by theparamount.net.
As you might expect, though, it’s the music that makes the movie. Great, memorable songs by Irving Berlin, including “Sisters,” “It’s Cold Outside,” “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep,” and of course, “White Christmas.”
Some interesting facts about the movie:
* Danny Kaye’s part was originally written for Fred Astaire, then Donald O’Connor, then rewritten for Kaye.
* The film’s recording rights were with Decca, but Rosemary Clooney was contracted to Columbia. As a result there were two “White Christmas” albums. Peggy Lee sang Clooney’s parts on the Decca version. On the Columbia version, Clooney sang “Sisters” with her real-life sister, Betty.
* “White Christmas” did not first appear in this movie. In fact, this was the third movie to include the song.
* It was the top-grossing film of 1954.
The first Coca-Cola Santa created by artist Haddon Sundblom in 1931. Uploaded by thecoca-colacompany.com.
Throughout history, around the world, people have had vastly different images of “Sintirklass,” “St. Nicholas,” and “Father Christmas”. In America, we’ve been influenced by the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”: “He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf…”
Haddon Sundblom self-portrait. Uploaded by thecoca-colacompany.com.
That’s pretty much the way it was before an artist named Haddon Sundblom and the Coca-Cola Company. The Coke folk wanted people to know that their drink was just as good in the winter as in the heat of summer. What better spokesman for such a message than Santa?
Sundblom did indeed take inspiration from Clement Moore’s poem. Starting in 1931, and annually for the next 33 years, Sundblom created the image of Santa that prevails today.
Here are some of the famous Coca-Cola Santas: 1938
Written more than 100 years ago, the story is still performed regularly by theater groups. Uploaded by theatreworksjax.com.
Though it takes a distant back seat to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as our favorite Christmas literature, The Gift of the Magi has two distinct advantages over Scrooge and the Spirits. First, it’s an American story, written by Greensboro native O. Henry (William Sydney Porter). And second, it’s a short story. Very short.
Author O. Henry. Uploaded by img.tfd.com.
Most everyone knows the basic plot. Poor wife sells her beautiful hair to buy a chain for her husband’s prized pocket watch. Poor husband sells prized pocket watch to buy combs for wife’s beautiful hair. Both are disappointed, and yet realize the love that’s demonstrated by their gifts. It’s a typical O. Henry surprise twist ending.
The story has been told and retold in many forms in the century since it was written. At least four versions have been filmed, the most recent being a Finnish adaptation. You can read the whole thing from start to Finnish (oh, I’m so sorry) in just a few minutes here.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is an engineering masterpiece. Uploaded by virginia.org.
The Chesapeake Bay is about 200 miles long, from the Susquehanna in the north to the Atlantic Ocean. It touches six states and the District of Columbia, and is North America’s largest estuary. And it is a national treasure.
Everyone seems to agree that its name comes from the Algonquian Chesepiook. Some would translate that as “village at a big river,” while others assert it’s “great shellfish bay.” Our understanding of the name goes back to 1585 or 1586, when members of the Roanoke Colony first explored the Bay.
Uploaded by baydreaming.com.
I vote for the shellfish interpretation, because we love the Chesapeake’s treasure of seafood. Oysters… blue crabs… rockfish… scallops… clams. The Bay’s oyster population has been damaged due to environmental issues and over-harvesting, but it’s slowly rebounding due to careful attention to this valuable resource.
Some fascinating and charming towns can be found along the bay. You could easily spend a vacation on a driving tour along the Bay’s coastline. From tiny fishing villages like Urbanna, to historic towns like Havre de Grace, to charming Annapolis and richly diverse Baltimore. And the bay offers lots of opportunities for boating and sailing, with abundant marinas and frequent races and regattas.
Brian Regan is almost as funny to watch as to hear. Uploaded to Flickr by jeremyhall.
I don’t think everyone knows Brian Regan’s comedy, which is a terrible shame. He’s clean, he’s visually fascinating, and he’s flat-out hilarious.
Brian has been doing stand-up for about 20 years, and that’s all he does. No movies, no screenwriting, no sitcoms. Just stand-up.
Uploaded by myunderthesun.com.
He has that knack that all great comedians have of seeing everyday life from a different perspective. Whether it’s the instructions on a box of Pop Tarts (Great American Things, May 28, 2009), buying a refrigerator, or playing Little League baseball (Great American Things, July 26, 2009), Brian brings out the funny side of life.
It’s silly to try to describe comedy, especially when you can see it. So here are some of his best bits available on YouTube:
Suave. Cool. And it wouldn't be Christmas without him. Uploaded by redteatral.net
How popular was Bing Crosby? Well, he sold more than a half billion records. In addition, he was a megastar in movies and on radio and TV. His “cool” style set the pace for everyone from Frank Sinatra to Michael Buble.
And when it comes to the holidays, Bing Crosby gave us the music of Christmas.
Uploaded to Flickr by captnyro.
Bing was the first person to be given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Grammys. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, and won for Going My Way. As for ticket sales, it’s estimated that 1.07 billion tickets were bought for Bing’s movies, making him the third-most-popular movie star of all time, behind Clark Gable and John Wayne.
The very peak of Bing’s career may have been 1948, when he was voted the most admired man alive – even ahead of the Pope. And that year Music Digest estimated that Crosby recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music. That’s hard to grasp.
But now it’s Christmas, the time most associated with Bing Crosby music today. His “White Christmas” is the best-selling single of all time, and his “Merry Christmas” is the all-time number one Christmas album. We love us some Bing Crosby at Christmas.
I wouldn't want to live where it snows all winter, but I love the one or two we get each year. Uploaded by cavanaughcarriages.com.
Okay, I have to admit that, as I write this, the first snow of the season is pouring down outside. And “it doesn’t show signs of stopping.” It’s a week before Christmas, we have a fire in the fireplace, and I hope we don’t have to go out for days.
Uploaded by grandamerica.com.
“Let It Snow!” (as we’ll call it for brevity purposes) is one of those songs, like “Winter Wonderland”, that’s not really about Christmas, but has become adopted as part of the season. In fact, its authors, the brilliant Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, are both Jewish. And like “The Christmas Song” (Great American Things, December 5, 2009), it was written in the middle of summer.
The song was first recorded by Vaughn Monroe (“Racing with the Moon”) in 1945. Although no singer’s version is the “standard”, it’s become one of the best-selling songs of all time.
Here’s a cool video – a homeowner has synched Chicago’s jazzy version to his Christmas lights:
The piano scene in F.A.O. Schwartz was the, uh, heart and soul of the movie Big. Uploaded by blogs.amctv.com.
F.A.O. Schwartz on 5th Avenue in New York is a fun place to visit, as much an experience as a store. But the highlight is the huge floor piano, featured in the Tom Hanks movie Big.
Uploaded by leburke.com.
F.A.O. Schwartz started as a family toy business, was bought out, expanded, bought and sold repeatedly, and finally declared bankruptcy in 2004. It was revived, downsized, and is now owned by Toys”R”Us. Fortunately, current management is smart enough to realize that the piano is what people now identify most closely with the brand.
The notoriety, of course, comes from the scene in Big where Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia “dance” to both “Chopsticks” and “Heart and Soul.” It was a delightful moment in a charming movie, and now want people want to try it for themselves when they come to New York.
Here’s the original scene that made the piano an icon, followed by what some people have been able to do with it since:
While at Ohio State, Jesse Owens set three gold records and tied a fourth - all within 45 minutes. Uploaded to Flickr by LALO 5.6.
Adolph Hitler had it all mapped out. He was hosting the Olympic Games in Berlin, the perfect showcase for his claim of Aryan superiority. Only one thing went wrong with his plan: Jesse Owens.
Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics – the long jump, 100 meters, 200 meters, and the 4-by-100 relay. And though he foiled the Fuhrer’s public relations ploy, the German people admired and rallied behind him in his demonstration of athletic greatness.
Uploaded to Flickr by discoverblackheritage.
The long-held belief is that he was snubbed by Hitler. But Owens says he was indeed recognized by the German leader. “When I passed the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him. I think the writers showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany.”
He also said, “Hitler didn’t snub me—it was FDR who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a telegram.” FDR also never invited Owens to the White House to recognize his accomplishments.
His life after the Olympics spiraled downward, first in gimmicky sports promotions, then to bankruptcy and tax evasion. But he later picked himself up, and became a respected goodwill ambassador for the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Ford Motor Company.
The song Silver Bells first was heard in the Bob Hope movie The Lemon Drop Kid. Uploaded by midmart.com.
This reminds me of my childhood more than almost any other Christmas song. Its imagery calls to mind the way Christmas used to be. Before malls, when people shopped for Christmas downtown. And people actually dressed like Santa Claus to ring the silver bells at the Salvation Army kettles.
The REAL Santa Claus at Miller & Rhoads, Richmond. Uploaded to Flickr by Cindy Woods.
And when everyone knew the real Santa Claus was at Miller & Rhoads in Richmond.
“Silver Bells” was written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, and was first recorded by Bing Crosby and Carol Richards in 1950. Bing also recorded it with Ella Fitzgerald, with Rosemary Clooney, and by himself. Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell performed it in the 1951 film, Lemon Drop Kid.
Believe it or not, the song was originally written as “Tinkle Bells.” Fortunately, Jay Livingston went home and told his wife about the song. Mrs. L. informed her clueless husband what “tinkle” was slang for.
“Silver Bells” has been recorded by just about everyone who’s ever made a Christmas record, but here are some of the more unusual artists who have covered it: Jeannie C. Riley, The Brady Bunch, Regis Philbin, R.E.M., Boxcar Willie, and Twisted Sister.
Charlie Brown and the sweet, pitiful, genuine, thankless, encouraging, disheartening tree. Uploaded by blogs.pioneerlocal.com.
It’s almost nostalgic to remember back to the time when our primary concern was about the commercialization of Christmas. At least Charlie Brown got to do a Christmas play – in school, no less. Not a “holiday” program or a “winter” program. To show how far we’ve drifted, it’s a little surprising that the television execs haven’t renamed this A Charlie Brown Holiday.
This was the first attempt to bring Charles Schulz’s characters to the small screen, and it was almost the last. Network executives didn’t want the King James Bible being read, they wanted adult voice actors to speak the parts, and they wanted a laugh track. They were horrified at the idea of Vince Guaraldi’s jazz music on the track. Rumor has it that they were appalled when they saw the finished product.
Uploaded by voyagerslog.blogspot.com.
And yet, the show was both a critical and a popular hit. Harriet Van Horne of the New York World-Telegram said, “Linus’ reading of the story of the Nativity was, quite simply, the dramatic highlight of the season.”
We love to watch Snoopy dancing. We delight at Vince Guaraldi’s music. (“Christmas Time Is Here” is now a seasonal standard.) We feel Charlie Brown’s hope at the choice of his scrawny Christmas tree, and his despair as it’s ridiculed.
And we never get tired of the kids shouting, “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!” before singing “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing” at the end. What a great, great special.
John Mills, Jr. died young due to pneumonia complications. So his father, John Sr. took his place in the group. Uploaded by fleamarketmusic.com.
Sometimes the voices of siblings are similar, yet individual enough that when joined together they produce a distinctive sound. Phil and Don Everly. The Osmonds. The Andrews Sisters. But perhaps the smoothest of them all was a group whose popularity stretched over four decades – The Mills Brothers.
Uploaded by a-1video.com.
They were discovered by Duke Ellington, who took them to see the great William S. Paley at CBS Radio. Paley was so impressed that he signed them to a contract and made them the first African-American group to host their own radio program.
There were originally four brothers, but one died in 1936. Who would they find with a compatible voice to take the fallen brother’s place? Why not dad? So John Mills, Sr. recorded and toured with his boys until finally deciding to retire in 1957. At that time, the Mills Brothers continued as a trio.
They produced some memorable recordings from the 30s until their last hit in 1968. Memorable songs by the Mills Brothers include “Lazy River”… “Paper Doll”… “Glow Worm”… “Standin’ on the Corner”… “Till Then”… “You Always Hurt the One You Love”… and “Cab Driver.”
Which Brando do you like better - young, sex symbol Brando or mature Godfather Brando? uploaded by questionidfeeling.wordpress.com.
IMDb says Brando is considered the greatest movie actor of all time. The AFI named him the fourth-greatest male star of all time. Personally, I wouldn’t rank him so high. But there’s no denying that he belongs in any discussion of Great American Things.
Seldom has an actor changed so much as he aged. It’s hard to believe the young Brando of On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire is the same person as the mature Brando of Apocalypse Now and The Godfather (Great American Things, June 21, 2009). His appearance changed, but so did his acting style, reflecting some of the problems that he experienced in his off-screen life.
Uploaded to Flickr by groovy wallpaper.
Even so, look at the films he’s been in. In addition to the four listed above, he starred in The Wild One… Guys and Dolls… Mutiny on the Bounty… and Last Tango in Paris. Most actors would have considered any of those as the movie of their lives, and Brando had eight. He won the Oscar for Best Actor twice, Supporing Actor once, and was nominated a total of eight times. (Of course, he didn’t always accept his awards, but that’s for another blog to explain.)
He essentially parodied his Don Corleone part in the movie The Freshman, but it’s always been one of my favorite small films. Even so, Martin Scorsese said, “He’s the marker. There’s ‘Before Brando’ and ‘After Brando’.” Brando became somewhat more cynical in later life, saying, “The only reason I’m in Hollywood is that I don’t have the moral courage to refuse the money.”
The Christmas lights display in Silver Dollar City at Branson was chosen America's best by America's Best and Top Ten. Uploaded by img232.imageshack.us.
Today, we’re tipping the hat to America’s Best and Top 10, which has a ranking of America’s best Christmas light displays. We’re not talking about residential displays here, but commercial ones. Though pictures won’t quite do these justice, they’ll give you a pretty good idea. Here are the top six – if you’re close enough to visit, you probably already know them. (For those of you in the Winston-Salem area, the Tanglewood display in Clemmons, NC was selected as an Honorable Mention.)
1. SILVER DOLLAR CITY, Branson, Missouri
Uploaded by graphics8.nytimes.com.
2. OGLESBAY FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS, Wheeling, West Virginia
This version adds bagel chips and Cheese Nips. Okay. Uploaded by chicaandjo.com.
Wheat Chex made its debut in 1937. The Corn and Rice varieties followed shortly thereafter. But legend has it that they found their true raison d’etre when the wife of a Ralston Purina executive needed something different for a Christmas party. If she’d known what her creation would mean to hubby’s company, she might have called it cha-ching mix.
You can find the approved recipe on any of the cereals’ boxes. Or you can go to the Chex Web site and get the skinny on 15 different versions. Well, maybe “the skinny” isn’t quite the right phrase here. There are mixes that are microwavable, salty, sweet, and gluten free. Hot and spicy, Oriental, cinnamon apple, cookie pizza, snickerdoodle, and more. Those crazy product development people.
Uploaded by toucandy.com.
But the original version is best. Reasonable people can have slight variations on what’s “original,” as long as they have peanuts (or preferably, mixed nuts), pretzel sticks, Worcestershire sauce, and butter. My wonderful wife likes to add Goldfish. And I look forward to having a big batch in another week or so.
If you want to know the ORIGINAL Original recipe, this is it. It’s taken from the cereal boxes in the 1950s:
* 1/2 cup butter or margarine
* 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
* 1-1/4 teaspoons seasoned salt
* 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
* 3 cups Wheat Chex square cereal
* 2 cups Rice Chex square cereal
* 1-1/2 cups peanuts
* 1-1/2 cups small pretzel rods
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Melt butter in a shallow pan. Stir in Worcestershire sauce, seasoned salt, and garlic salt (not garlic powder). Add Wheat Chex, Rice Chex, nuts (peanuts, pecans or cashews), and pretzel rods. Mix until all pieces are coated with the butter mixture.
Place on a shallow baking pan with sides. Bake for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Cool…enjoy!
I want an Official Red Ryder carbine-action two-hundred-shot Range Model air rifle! Uploaded by dirtyharrysplace.com.
Wonder if this movie will be on TV this year? Oh, yeah. About a thousand times. (That’s called hyperbole.) And you know what? That’s okay, because this movie is as much a part of Christmas in America as red nose reindeer.
It’s the brainchild of writer Jean Shepherd, who I happened to hear speak once. At the time he wasn’t happy that this film had become so popular. No, he was bitter because he thought the creators of The Wonder Years had stolen his idea of an adult doing a voiceover remembering his childhood. Who knows. Maybe they did.
Uploaded by youbuynow.com.
Like all great productions, the casting of A Christmas Story was inspired. Darren McGavin was a decent character actor who made his way through a number of small TV series and movies, but he was perfect as Ralphie’s Dad. Melinda Dillon was a great mom. And how could any kid other than Peter Billingsley have played Ralphie? I submit that they could not!
Of course, when we remember this movie, we remember the vignettes. The Old Man cussing up a storm while doing battle with the furnace. Ralphie getting his Little Orphan Annie secret decoder pin, only to be told to drink more Ovaltine. The Old Man winning “a major award.” Ralph accidentally saying the “queen mother” of all swear words. And my favorite, when Flick gets his tongue stuck on the flagpole.
And this is such a quotable movie, here are some of the memorable lines:
RALPHIE, AS ADULT: (Talking about his father) “He worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium; a master.”
RALPHIE: “I want an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle!”
SANTA: “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.”
RALPHIE, AS ADULT: “Some men are Baptists, others Catholics; my father was an Oldsmobile man.”
WAITERS IN CHINESE RESTAURANT: “Deck the harrs with boughs of horry, fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra.”
FLICK: “Are you kidding? Stick my tongue to that stupid pole? That’s dumb!”
SCHWARTZ: “Well I double dog dare you!”
We've had a National Christmas Tree every year since 1923. Uploaded by swamppolitics.com.
Okay, first let’s get this formality out of the way. It’s not a holiday tree. There are no trees associated with Hanukkah or Ramadan. And it’s not a religious symbol. It’s a part of the American cultural celebration, and it’s a Christmas tree.
We can’t think of much that Calvin Coolidge accomplished while in office, but he did start the tradition of the National Christmas Tree. He lit the first National Tree in 1923, and even chose the location it’s occupied for most of the intervening years, on the Ellipse in Washington, DC.
Uploaded by christmasnewswire.com.
Other interesting facts about the tradition include: The celebration was televised for the first time in 1946… For many years, it was called the National Christmas Community Tree… Although the President usually lights the tree, several Vice Presidents have had the honor over the years… In 1963, the tree wasn’t lit until December 22, after a 30-day mourning period for assassinated President John Kennedy… The ceremony surrounding the lighting is called the Pageant of Peace.
This year, the 40-foot Colorado blue spruce was lit on December 3 by President Obama along with the First Lady and their two daughters. Performers at the celebration included Sheryl Crow, Celtic Woman, and Jordin Sparks, and a special guy named Santa Claus showed up for the occasion.
More than 2,700 Americans died at Pearl Harbor. We're fortunate it wasn't a lot more. Uploaded by bergoiata.org.
Franklin Roosevelt said these memorable words: “Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
Just over 2,400 Americans were killed at Pearl Harbor; 1,177 of them were crewmen on the Battleship Arizona. The eight battleships in port were the primary target, and all were seriously damaged or sunk. All but the Arizona and the Oklahoma were eventually repaired and returned to service, however.
Uploaded by battlestory.org.
In 1953, the Admiral in charge of the Pacific fleet ordered that a flagpole be erected above the sunken remains of the Arizona, and five years later President Eisenhower approved the creation of the Memorial. It was dedicated in 1962, and today hosts more than a million visitors each year.
Even today, a small amount of oil continues to rise from the wreckage to the surface of the water. Some call this “the tears of the Arizona.”
I've never known anyone who's roasted chestnuts on an open fire like this. But Jack Frost has nipped at my nose. Uploaded by milenabregaglia.wordpress.com.
The most-performed Christmas song isn’t “White Christmas” or “Silent Night”, but “The Christmas Song”, written by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells in 1944.
According to Tormé, the song was written during the heat of summer. “I saw a spiral pad on his piano with four lines written in pencil,” Tormé recalled. “They started, ‘Chestnuts roasting … Jack Frost nipping … Yuletide carols … Folks dressed up like Eskimos.’ Bob didn’t think he was writing a song lyric. He said he thought if he could immerse himself in winter he could cool off. Forty minutes later that song was written.”
Songwriter Mel Torme. Uploaded by weblo.com.
When you hear it playing in your head, you hear Nat King Cole (Great American Things, November 2, 2009) singing the definitive version. Cole first recorded it in 1946 with his trio, recorded it again with Nelson Riddle in 1953, then recorded it a third time (in stereo) in 1961. It’s this last version that you hear in your head, in your car, in the mall, at the grocery store…
Maybe you know someone who’s roasted chestnuts on an open fire. I sure don’t. In fact, I think I’ve only had a chestnut once in my life, and it was pretty gross. But this picture of hearth and home, of kids waiting for Santa, evokes a nostalgia for what Christmas may once have been – and what we all want it to be again. All of us, from one to 92.
He was young, good-looking, smart, rich, and well-coiffed. He's still smart and rich. Uploaded by cache.gawker.com.
Steve Jobs is just one of the people whose innovative thinking led to our immersion in computers in every phase of our lives. He didn’t invent the personal computer, but he made it stylish, fresh, fun, and cool.
Of course, lots of people contribute to the creation of any product or company, but it’s not a stretch to assert that without Steve Jobs, there would be no user-friendly personal computer. (He developed the first, Apple Macintosh.) No miniature music player. (He created the iPod.) No online music store where virtually any song can be found and owned. (iTunes is his baby). No Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., or Cars. (He changed Pixar from a computer graphics company into a movie studio.) And no cell phone with a touch screen that could perform thousands of tasks. (The iPhone is revolutionizing the cell phone industry.)
Uploaded by capitalistbanter.com.
Jobs has surely made over a billion dollars personally from these inventions. As you’d probably expect, anyone with such an obsession with excellence is a Type A personality, and it’s said Jobs isn’t the easiest person to work for. Someone once said, “He would have made an excellent king of France.” In recent years, however, he’s experienced health problems, having to undergo a liver transplant in early 2009. Perhaps a greater recognition of his mortality has helped to mellow this genius out.
He’s received a slew of honors, including being named most powerful person in business by Fortune Magazine in 2007. And in November, 2009 the magazine selected Jobs as CEO of the Decade. He summed up his business philosophy this way: “There’s an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.’ And we’ve always tried to do that at Apple. Since the very very beginning. And we always will.”
Copyright 2009, Robin G. Chalkley. All material on these pages and the listing of items as Great American Things, is copyrighted. The exceptions are the photographs and videos, which remain the property of their respective owners.
Header photo used courtesy of photographer Axelle-.
