Holly Jolly: Celebrating Christmas Past in Pop Culture by TwoMorrows Publishing

, as indicated within. & © their respective owners

Break out the candy canes!

ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-097-7 ISBN-10: 1-60549-097-0 54395

9 781605 490977

PRINTED IN CHINA

All characters & properties shown are TM

‘Holly Jolly’ celebrates Christmas from its religious origins to its emergence as a multimedia phenomenon. Relive the movies (‘Miracle on 34th Street,’ ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’), music (‘White Christmas,’ ‘Little St. Nick’), TV (‘Rudolph,’ ‘The Grinch’), books (Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’), decor (1950s silver trees), comic books and more. Featuring interviews with Charles M. Schulz (‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’), Andy Williams (TV’s ‘Mr. Christmas’), Darlene Love (‘Christmas, Baby Please Come Home’) and others, ‘Holly Jolly’ is a time-trip to Christmases past that you will cherish all year long!

TwoMorrows Publishing Raleigh, North Carolina ISBN 978-1-60549-097-7 $43.95 in the U.S.

Celebrating Christmas Past in Pop Culture INITIUM

BOOKS

PERIODICALS

Children’s books 32 Jean de Brunhoff’s ‘Babar’ 34 Ludwig Bemelmans’ ‘Madeline’ 38 Dr. Seuss’ ‘The Grinch’ 41 Caroling books 42

DECORATIONS Introduction 4 Overview 8 Timeline 10 The Firstest Noël 14 The ‘Two’ Christmases 16

Outdoor Christmas lights 44 Christmas trees 48 Objet d’art 50 Nativity sets 54

EARLY MEDIA Christmas crystalizes 18 Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ 20 Victorian-era Christmas cards 22 Classic Christmas cards 24 St. Nick, soldier boy 31

Magazines 68 Advertising 72 Newspaper comic strips 76 Comic books 80 Santa Claus Funnies 81 DC Comics 84 Fawcett Publishing 88 Disney comics 90 Bugs Bunny and friends 91 Kiddie comic books 92 Archie Comics 93 Merry monsters 94

TOYS & GAMES Antique playthings 56 Defining ‘Christmas toys’ 58 Toy and game classics 60 Character toys 62 Broadcast-themed games 64 Toy story: Remco 66 Insets: Victorian card © current copyright holder; “Babar and Father Christmas” © Random House and Jean de Brunhoff; Gumby and Pokey © Art Clokey; advertisement © Cadillac & General Motors; Batman © DC Comics Inc.

MUSIC

TELEVISION Christmas TV episodes 150 ‘The Honeymooners’ 152 ‘I Love Lucy’ 154 ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ 156 ‘The Twilight Zone’ 157 ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ 158

The Ones I Used to Know 96 Darlene Love 101 Novelty and kids’ stuff 102 Music videos 103 ‘Bing & Bowie’ 104

MOVIES Celluloid cheer 106 The silent era 108 ‘Babes in Toyland’ 110 ‘Scrooge’ (1935) 112 ‘A Christmas Carol’ (1938) 113 ‘Holiday Inn’ 114 ‘Christmas in Connecticut’ 115 ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ 116 ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ 118 ‘Scrooge’ (1951) 120

Written and designed by: Mark Voger Publisher: John Morrow

‘The Brady Bunch’ 161 Variety shows 162 Andy Williams 165 Animated TV specials 166 ‘Mr. Magoo’ 167 ‘Rudolph’ 168

Proofreader: Scott Peters Front cover: Santa Claus Funnies, a.k.a. Four Color #958 (1958) cover illustration by uncredited artist © Dell Publishing; elf decoration, spinning light for aluminum Christmas tree, and Humpty Dumpty decoration, manufacturers unknown © current copyright holders; “Rudolph the RedNosed Reindeer” book © Little Golden Books/ Western Publishing Company, Inc.; “leg lamp” novelty item based on “A Christmas Story” sequence © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Frosty Sno-Man Sno-Cone Machine © Hasbro Back cover: Santa doll © Bijou Toys; Tri-Ang Gyro Cycle © Tri-Ang; Classics Illustrated © Gilberton Co. Inc.; “Santa Claus” (1959) © Azteca Films; “The Spirit of Christmas” © Bell Telephone Co.; “Dominick the Donkey” © Roulette Records Every effort has been made to verify the ownership or source of all illustrated material. We regret any errors of attribution, and will make the appropriate corrections in future editions.

For Kim

‘The Lemon Drop Kid’ 123 ‘White Christmas’ 124 The Mexican ‘Santa Claus’ 126 ‘Conquers the Martians’ 128 ‘Scrooge’ (1970) 130 ‘A Christmas Story’ 132 ‘Christmas Vacation’ 134 Animated film shorts 136 Non-Christmas movies 144

‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ 172 Charles M. Schulz 174 ‘The Grinch’ TV special 176 ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ 180 ‘Frosty the Snowman’ 181 ‘Comin’ to Town’ 182 ‘The Year Without’ 183

’TIL NEXT YEAR Celebrity memories 184 Epilogue 188 Index 190 Acknowledgments 191

ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-097-7 First printing, November 2020 Printed in China All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from Mark Voger, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Inquiries should be addressed to Mark Voger c/o: TwoMorrows Publishing.

Published by: TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, North Carolina 27614 www.twomorrows.com

Insets: “A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra” © Capitol Records; “Scrooge” © Renown Pictures Corporation; “I Love Lucy” © Desilu Productions; “A Charlie Brown Christmas” © United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

INITIUM

Introduction In a way, your first memory of life is when your life begins. Think about it. Before that, you’re an amoeba, a mere speck. You don’t know nuthin’ about nuthin’ except eating, crying and eliminating. Then one day, something crazy happens that imprints itself on your brain for the rest of your life ... and your life begins. My earliest memory — my very first memory of life — came a few days before Christmas in, I’m guessing, 1960. I would have been going on 3 (it’s a very foggy memory), putting my sister Bobbi at 3 months and my brother Brian at yet-to-come. My parents had stashed all of our Christmas toys into the downstairs powder room, where they’d be handy to put under the tree on Christmas Eve. One afternoon that week, I was wandering around the house, when I stumbled into this room full of toys. Whoa! My young eyes had never seen anything like this. Toys everywhere! It was a fantasy-land. One of the toys was a Popeye Punch-Me — a cheap, inflated, plastic punching bag for kids. It was a lot taller than me. I bumped into it, causing it to teeter back and forth. I was transfixed by Popeye’s scowling mug as he teetered backward and forward, backward and forward. My eyes were wide and my jaw was dropped. I was in an altered state. I made some sort of exclamations. I don’t know if they were in English. My mom rushed in, calmly ushered me out of the room, and without a word, closed the powder-room door behind her. It all happened so quickly that I couldn’t swear that it happened at all. Well, I didn’t possess much logic yet. I didn’t know, honestly, anything about Christmas. Adults in my presence were probably saying, “Christmas is coming,” and there were pretty lights and decorations around the neighborhood, and I was maybe seeing the scary (to a toddler) bearded face of Santa Claus at the supermarket or on our snowy, black-and-white TV. But I hadn’t yet grasped the concept of Dec. 25th. When the Big Day finally came, my parents woke us, gathered us at the top of the rec-room

Why, you! Popeye Punch-Me. © King Features Syndicate 4

stairs and said, “It’s Christmas morning! Go down and see what Santa left you!” We were half asleep, and I had no idea what they were talking about. I walked warily down the steps (my dad carried my sister) and into the rec room. Suddenly, I spotted it: the Popeye Punch-Me. It was surrounded by all the other toys, and behind them was a sparkling tree that wasn’t there before. Instantly, that weird euphoria came back. Only this time, Popeye and his fellow toys didn’t go away. They stuck around all morning — Christmas morning. My dad demonstrated how to punch Popeye, and then I did it, and the teetering thing happened again. My subconscious thought was: I must have made a wish, and it came true. THE FOLLOWING YEAR IS WHEN I BEGAN putting it together — that once it got colder outside and I started seeing pretty lights and decorations and Santa’s scary bearded face, it meant that this thing the adults called “Christmas” was coming. Christmas, the Day of Many Toys. And I started noticing that, besides seeing Santa Claus everywhere, there was a glowing baby in a hay crib with a golden circle around his tiny head and a winged lady floating above him and a bunch of animals and people from the olden days standing around, staring at him. I thought: Is that some kind of magic Christmas baby? THE WONDROUS AND MYSTERIOUS thing about Christmas is that for one day a year, we live in the past as well as the present. (Is this phenomenon attributable to Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” with its Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present? I’ve always wondered.) We break out the same decorations, many that go back decades. We observe the same traditions. We’re always saying things like, “Remember that Christmas back in ’78?” or whenever. But each year, we add a few new decorations, traditions and memories — which, of course, are revisited in ensuing Christmases. It’s like one day that we live again and again. Following are some of the memories that, for me, keep coming back ...

From left: Cousin Alfie, my sister Bobbi, Santa, my brother Brian (in vest) and myself in 1963. Family photo ONE YEAR WHEN I WAS LITTLE, I GOT A WOODburning kit for Christmas. My advice to parents: Never give your child a device that plugs in and gets hot enough to sear human flesh unless you determine, with a high degree of certainty, that your child fully comprehends the device’s purpose and safe usage. I looked at the box blankly. My dad said, “It’s a wood-burning kit.” I didn’t know what he was talking about. (My parents probably bought it for me because I could cartoon a little as a kid, and wood-burning was an “artistic” activity.) My dad told me that you plug it in and the tip gets hot, and it comes with these little squares of balsa wood with designs on them that you press the hot tip against, and it burns the designs into the wood, and that’s about it. That’s what it does. So my dad plugged it in. “It’s very, very important that you never touch this part of the wood-burner,” he said, pointing to the tip. “Don’t ever touch that.” But I wasn’t catching his drift, exactly. I thought what my dad meant was: “Don’t touch it, or you will get in a whole lot of trouble.” I didn’t know that what he really meant was: “Don’t touch it, or it will sear your flesh.” My dad watched as I burned some designs into a balsa-wood square. It wasn’t much fun, or particularly creative, but it smelled nice. Satisfied for the moment, my dad then went upstairs.

The minute he was gone, I called out to my little brother, “Here! Grab this!” and held out the wood-burner. Oh, boy, I thought, is he going to get into trouble when Dad finds out he touched the tip of the wood-burner! Brian trustingly wrapped his tiny hand around the tip, and it seared his flesh. He screamed, as anyone would whose flesh has been seared. My dad was back in a flash, and saw my screaming brother’s red, blistered hand, and looked at me like I was the anti-Christ. He got ice on my brother’s hand, swatted me, grabbed the wood-burning kit, and threw it out the front door. There was snow outside, and steam rose up from the spot where the wood-burner landed. WE WERE AN IRISH-CATHOLIC FAMILY WITH OUR own live-in Irish-Catholic immigrant, my maternal grandfather, Henry Patrick Kelly, who hailed from the tight-knit farming village of Gort in County Galway. It was Henry who once tearfully insisted to my mother that we little ones attend Catholic school. Soon after I was enrolled at Holy Rosary School in the Diocese of Camden in New Jersey, I found out who that magic Christmas baby was. The fact that there were “two” kinds of Christmases — the Santa Claus kind and the Baby Jesus kind — was a bit confusing. But when toys and cookies are at stake, you don’t ask questions.

Old-timey greetings Christmas cards from the Victorian and early postVictorian eras have a charm all their own, and the evolution of Santa Claus can be charted therein. The cards above and at left are by Ellen Hattie Clapsaddle (1865-1934), whose illustrations of children made her one of the most prolific greetingcard artists of her time. The top-right card on the opposite page was printed by Frederick Warne & Co., publisher of many books by Beatrix Potter. All cards © respective copyright holders

DECORATIONS

Light up

Is there anything Thomas Edison didn’t innovate? As if the light bulb, the phonograph and the movie camera weren’t enough, Edison (1847-1931) invented electric stringed lights, which eventually became known and used as “Christmas lights.” In December 1880, the first electric stringed lights were hung outside of Edison’s laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. “These were his original incandescent lights, about 40 of them,” said Leonard DeGraaf, archivist for Thomas Edison National Historical Park in New Jersey, in 2019. “Some were strung on poles outside the lab complex, some in windows. The initial public demonstration Edison put on was for reporters and important financial people. He was under pressure to show these lamps and how they worked.” However, Edison’s intention regarding the stringed lights wasn’t necessarily as Christmas lights per se. “I haven’t seen any sources that say it was an exclusive Christmas display, so to speak,” DeGraaf said. Two years later, an Edison business associate, Edward Hibberd Johnson (1846-1917), assembled the first string of electric Christmas tree lights. He wired the 80-bulb strand by hand using red, white and blue bulbs — placing it on a rotating tree, yet. Johnson first displayed the lighted tree on Dec. 22, 1882, in the parlor window of his home at 136 East 36th Street in New York City. At first, electric Christmas lights were prohibitively expensive and required the services of electricians. But the lights were popularized by two U.S. presidents. In 1895, Grover Cleveland introduced a White House Christmas tree decorated with electric lights — more than 100 multi-colored light bulbs in all. In 1923, Calvin Coolidge upped that total considerably to 3,000 electric lights. The mass-marketing of Christmas lights began in earnest in 1903, when Edison’s company, General Electric, started promoting and selling affordable pre-assembled Christmas light kits. Varieties followed such as Satin Bright lights (“They shine even when they’re off!”); Tinsel Lights (lights encased in sparkle-y tinsel); Mazda Lamps (with scalloped edges); Lighted Ice (round lights with a crackly finish); Merry Midget lights; Lighted Bells; floodlamps in many colors; color-changing LED lights; and unconvincing (but charming) “window candles.” Though GE remained a leading purveyor of outdoor and indoor Christmas lighting for decades, it was once outsold by an all-but-forgotten competitor. Many developments in the realm of Christmas lighting were spearheaded by NOMA (National Outfit Manufacturers Association), an organization founded in 1925 as a consortium of around 15 businesses.

the night Among NOMA’s founders were the Sadacca brothers, of which Albert Sadacca (1901-1980) was the chief cheerleader for Christmas lights. In 1926, the group incorporated as the NOMA Electric Corporation (later NOMA Lites, Inc.), and began marketing Christmas light sets the following year. NOMA continued this specialty through the 1960s, introducing innovations that were useful beyond holiday lighting, such as parallel-wired lights; all-rubber cords; and fused safety plugs. But NOMA’s commercial innovations are what aficionados remember best, such as Bubble-Lites (“Watch them bubble”); character “bell” lights (with the likenesses of Mickey Mouse, Pinocchio and other Disney characters); illuminated tree-top angels and stars; and “halo-effect” window candelabras. Lighting companies were forced to suspend the production of Christmas lights during World War II, and NOMA manufactured bombs within a special division, according to OldChristmasTreeLights.com. NOMA’s bombs damaged Japanese factories, some of them manufacturers of Christmas lights, according to the website. It noted with irony that those factories rebuilt after the war, and the cheap export of their products to the U.S. contributed to NOMA’s filing for bankruptcy in 1967. The following year, NOMA ceased as a manufacturer, continuing instead as a trademark. (At least the name still had juice.)

TIME, AND TECHNOLOGY, WERE MARCHING ON LIKE TOY SOLDIERS. B.F. Goodrich introduced Christmas lights with wiring made from Geon polyvinyl materials — whatever they were — in 1949. Westinghouse introduced Permacote, which discouraged outdoor bulbs from chipping, in 1952. Once a year, these products transformed the common dad into an exterior designer. Ever-evolving options include candy canes lining a walkway ... a giant Santa face hanging over the garage . . . front-lawn Nativity scenes ... plastic figures of Santa Claus, Mrs. Santa, snowmen, Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the Wise Men, lit from within ... grazing animatronic reindeer and other figures in motion . . . giant inflatable “snow globes” (which deflate into crumples overnight) ... lighted “icicles” hanging from gutters that appear to “drip” ... tie-in figures of characters from “Peanuts,” “Rudolph,” “The Grinch” and others ... the projection of multicolored dots, stars and holiday icons on house fronts ... bells, stars and “Seasons Greetings” signage hanging from lightposts along bustling downtown thoroughfares ... And the most low-tech decoration of all: a simple, green wreath hanging on the front door, as if to say, “Come on in for a cup of hot chocolate and a cookie!” (Yeah, that was corny. And a recipe for diabetes.)

TOYS & GAMES

State of play Just imagine Christmas toys in the olden days. Well, you’d have to imagine. In the time before battery-operated toys, a great deal of imagination was required. Still, even at the dawn of the 20th century, some toys featured automation (the TriAng Gyro Cycle, Schoenhut’s Cracker-Jack the clown, Sherwood’s Whirling Wilmer) with a bit of assembly, and ingenuity, on the consumer’s part. Once the industrial revolution took hold, toymaking became a serious operation that advanced way beyond Santa’s North Pole shop. Chief manufacturers of toys and games during this golden age included Milton Bradley (founded 1860); Parker Bros. (founded 1883); Lionel (founded 1900); Ideal (founded 1907); Trans-O-Gram (founded 1915); Marx (founded 1919); Hasbro (founded 1923); Fisher-Price (founded 1930); Mattel (founded 1945); Kenner (founded 1946); Wham-O (founded 1948); Remco (founded 1949); and Deluxe Reading (founded in the ’50s).

Antique toys, from top: The Four Dare-Devils (a “fascinating game”); the Game of Hide and Seek; the Tri-Ang Gyro Cycle (“invention of a famous aeroplane designer”), which was made by Lines Bros. Ltd. of London. © Current copyright holders; photos by Mark Voger and Kathy Voglesong

Top row, from left: The Wonderful Game of Oz (1921); Cracker-Jack the Clever Clown (1903); the Peter Rabbit Talking Storybook Game.

Bottom left: Lionel’s Donald Duck Rail Car. Above: Sherwood’s Whirling Wilmer.

“The Wizard of Oz” © Parker Brothers Inc.; “Peter Rabbit” © Frederick Warne & Co.

COMIC BOOKS

Sequential Santas

Holiday entertainment for a thin dime (at first) NOT TO SOUND CROTCHETY, BUT THERE WAS A time when a simple thing like some newsprint — with illustrations printed in cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink, held together by two staples — could create excitement on Christmas morning. (Back then, the old folks groused that all they ever got for Christmas was an apple and some nuts, so it’s all relative.) The comic books of yore sometimes featured Christmasthemed editions, many of which found their way into stockings or under the tree. For the most part, such books honored the separation of church and state; they were more about candy canes and reindeer than hay-strewn mangers and gift-bearing wise men. Notable exceptions were Educational Comics’ Picture Stories From the Bible, New Testament Edition #1 (1944) and Complete Life of Christ Edition (1945), published by Max C. Gaines, the acknowledged “father” of the comic book. Another was the Classics Illustrated special edition The Story of Jesus (1955). CHRISTMAS EDITIONS WERE A MAINSTAY OF DELL Publishing, via its long-running Four Color Comics. (The title — a reference to the aforementioned cyan, magenta, etc. — was a “catch-all” for this anthology series.) The most visible of Four Color Comics’ holiday editions was its annual Santa Claus Funnies, which ran for 20 years beginning in 1942. Typical issues of Santa Claus Funnies featured stories about — surprise! — Santa, Mrs. Santa, the elves and the reindeer, set at the North Pole. Some stories focused on original characters such as Winky the Toymaker, Petey Polar Bear, Betsy Mouse or Hippity and Hoppity Rabbit. There were prose stories (“Christmas in Many Lands”), adaptations of Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Andersen, puzzles, connect-the-dots, how-to activities, Christmas carols and poems. A recurring back-cover feature was the Bright Twins (mischievous redheaded boy, precocious blond girl). The interior art ranged in style from cartoony to semi-realistic. Artists who drew for Santa Claus Funnies include Mel Crawford, Dan Gormley, Arthur E. Jameson, and Walt Kelly. (Besides his work in Santa Claus Comics, “Pogo” artist Kelly was also behind Four Color’s Christmas With Mother Goose series of 1945-49.) More resources were dedicated to the all-important covers. Most Santa Claus Funnies covers depicted Santa in traditional settings, but modernity crept in. Santa rode an Army jeep (1942), a rocket-powered sleigh (1959), and a convertible (1960). The uncredited cover artists occasionally imitated Haddon Sundblom, whose painted incarnation of St. Nick sold a lot of Coca-Cola. Carl Barks (1901-2000) — the revered Donald Duck artist — introduced Donald’s wealthy uncle, Scrooge McDuck, in Four Color #178 (1947), in an unprecedented origin: a Disney character that debuted in a comic book and later crossed over into film. “Uncle Scrooge was needed as part of the plot for Donald in (the story) ‘Christmas on Bear Mountain’ in 1947,” Barks said in

Gifts galore in Roy Rogers Comics #61 (1952). Opposite: Santa Claus Funnies toplines Four Color Comics #867 (1957). Roy Rogers Comics and Four Color Comics © Dell Publishing

my 1997 interview with him. “Everyone dreams of having a ridiculously rich uncle. I never gave a thought as to whether I would use Uncle Scrooge again. I was populating Duckberg with a cast of characters. These characters went on stage only as needed to suit a particular story. It was a surprise to me that a few months later, Uncle Scrooge fit right into another story.” In Four Color, Barks also produced Donald Duck in the Golden Christmas Tree (1948) and A Christmas for Shacktown (1952). Four Color published its Frosty the Snowman series between 1951 and ’62. Syndicated cartoonist Walt Scott had holidaythemed installments of his comic strip “The Little People” reprinted in Christmas Stories in 1958 and ’59.

MUSIC

The ones I used to Know THINK OF THE DOZENS OF CHRISTMAS ALBUMS released every year, each with 10 or so songs vying to become “classics.” And then think of “White Christmas.” Bing Crosby first sang the Irving Berlin-penned song over the radio on Christmas Day 1941, just weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Crosby soon recorded it for release, and wartime audiences found resonance in its themes of longing for home in an earlier time. Many decades later, we are still captivated by the song (though the version we’re most familiar with is the singer’s faithful redo of 1947). Crosby’s “White Christmas” is, by gum, old-fashioned — his Jiminy Cricket-style whistling solo alone drives this point home — but it never gets old. And “White Christmas” isn’t merely a holiday favorite. Back in the day, it was also a #1 hit. Yep, Christmas music could also be popular music — a novel concept in 1942. Many vintage songs heard on radio, in stores and at parties during the season debuted as bona fide hits. Movie cowboy Gene Autry scored hits with “Here Comes Santa Claus” (#5, 1947) and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (#1, 1949). Composer Johnny

Marks’ “Rudolph” was conceived as a mascot commissioned by the Montgomery Ward chain — a metaphor about commercialization? 1949 also saw the release of “Sleigh Ride” — the instrumental with the “horse-y” neighing and clopping — by the Boston Pops Orchestra (covered in 1963 in a bouncy version by the Ronettes). Also on vinyl through the years: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Judy Garland (#27 in 1944, the year she introduced the song in “Meet Me in St. Louis”); “Santa’s Secret” by Johnny Guarnieri with Slam Stewart (1944, with the lyric “He’s got a reefer 100-feet-long / smokes it from end to end”); “Silver Bells” by Crosby and Carol Richards (1950); “The Little Drummer Boy” by the Trapp Family Singers (1951); “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas” by Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters (1951); “Santa Baby” by Eartha Kitt (#4, 1953); “Zat You, Santa Claus?” (1953) and “Christmas Night in Harlem” (1955) by Louis Armstrong; “Be-Bop Santa Claus” by Babs Gonzales (1954); “Home for the Holidays” by Como (#8, 1954); “Mistletoe and Holly” by Frank Sinatra, which Sinatra co-composed (1957); “Let it Snow” by Dean Martin (1959); “The Christmas Song” by Nat King Cole

Classic crooners: Opposite from far left, Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” (1955), “A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra” (1957) and Robert Goulet’s “This Christmas I Spend With You” (1963). From top left: Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby” (1953), “Christmas at Liberace’s” (1954), Louis Armstrong’s “Armstrong as Santa Claus” (1958), Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song” (1961), “The Andy Williams Christmas Album” (1963) and “The Doris Day Christmas Album” (1964). “White Christmas” © Decca Records; “A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra” and “The Christmas Song” © Capitol Records; “This Christmas I Spend With You,” “Christmas at Liberace’s,” “The Andy Williams Christmas Album” and “The Doris Day Christmas Album” © Columbia Records; “Santa Baby” © RCA Records; “Armstrong as Santa Claus” © Brunswick Records

Singing cowboy Gene Autry

(1961, his fourth, most popular version); “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams (1963); “Holly Jolly Christmas” by Burl Ives (#10, 1964); and “Do You Hear What I Hear?” by Robert Goulet in his “Camelot”-level baritone (1968). Novelty songs include “All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)” by Spike Jones (1948); “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” by Jimmy Boyd (#1, 1952); “The Chipmunk Song” by Ross Bagdasarian Sr. (#1, 1958); “Dominick the Donkey” by Lou Monte (1960); “Snoopy’s Christmas” by the Royal Guardsmen (1967); and, ugh, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” by Elmo and Patsy (1979). An out-of-left-field trend was holiday music from ... tire companies. Compilation albums from Goodyear (1961-77) and Firestone (1962-68) were eagerly anticipated annual events. Goodyear’s contributors included Crosby, Sinatra, Williams, Doris Day, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr. and Maurice Chevalier. Firestone’s contributors included Julie Andrews, Gordon MacRae, André Previn and the, ahem, Firestone Orchestra and Chorus. Rubber, synthetic polymers, antiozonants and Christmas. Now that’s a sure-fire formula for holiday cheer.

‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas!’ (1966) CHUCK JONES KEPT ASKING THEODOR GEISEL TO let him make a TV special out of Geisel’s 1957 book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, kept saying no. It’s not like Geisel wasn’t aware of Jones’ many accomplishments in the field of animation. Jones (1912-2002) was a driving force behind Warner Bros.’ “Merry Melodies” and “Looney Tunes” animated shorts featuring Bugs Bunny and cohorts. It also wasn’t like Geisel hadn’t already known Jones as a collaborator. During the years of World War II, the two men partnered on 11 out of 26 “Private Snafu” cartoon training films made between 1943 and 1955, with Jones as director and Geisel as writer. (Sharp-eyed Seuss-o-philes cite some decidedly Seuss-ical character design in the 1944 short titled “Rumors.”) But Jones finally wore Geisel down, and we are the richer for it. The 1966 animated special “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” — written by Geisel, directed by Jones — accomplished two seemingly disparate things at once. It was wholly true to Geisel’s 1957 book. And it was a marked departure from same. First on Jones’ itinerary was to flesh out the book to accommodate the special’s running time. “It was a good story. We felt we could add business to it,” he said in a 1994 short film about the special. Jones called upon Geisel to make additions to the book’s “script” in the form of extra verses, names for the Whos’ toys, and lyrics for three songs. It then fell to Jones to create animationfriendly character designs and — the most significant liberty of all — add color to Geisel’s intrinsically black-and-white world. Jones’ Who-ville is practically psychedelic. Recalled Jones in the 1994 film: “I finished the drawings on the Grinch. Why, Dr. Seuss — Ted — takes a look at them. He said, ‘It looks like you.’ And I said, ‘Well, it happens, you know.’ ” Casting horror star Boris Karloff as the narrator and the Grinch was an inspiration. The Grinch is unrepentantly evil; he’s a bigot (he hates Whos for being Whos); treats his dog Max more like a slave than a pet; and steals candy from babies. Karloff played some diabolical characters in his career, but the Grinch can standalongside Hjalmar Poelzig, Mord the executioner and the Wurdulak. Karloff switches between his two roles on a dime, reading the Grinch with maximum mean-

176

Max’s little snow mishap gives the Grinch an idea. Below: The Grinch, too, uses a chimney. © Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. ness, while maintaining a genteel, grandfatherly tone in delivering Geisel’s text. (A filter is added to Karloff’s voice when in Grinch mode.) Truth be told, you kind of see why the Grinch finds the Whos so annoying. The Whos are the happiest, singingest, nicest group of beings anywhere. They have tails, webbed feet and weird hairstyles. Women wear pink mohawks, men wear Brooklyn-hipster beards. Cindy-Lou looks like an insect in the 1957 book; in the 1966 special, the blond-haired, blue-eyed Cindy-Lou is more humanoid, antennae notwithstanding. Two indelible sequences in the special are a little bit creepy. One is ... “The Smile.” What is The Smile in “The Grinch”? It’s the moment when he sees Max covered in snow, and gets the Grinchy idea to dress as Santa and burglarize Who-ville. The resulting smile, which seems endless, is totally creepozoid. But the sickest, most brain-twisting scene comes when the Mean One extracts candy canes from five sleeping Who children. The Grinch’s shadow crossing their bed is like something out of “Nosferatu.” He removes the candy almost lovingly. Even the Wurdulak might have sensed a kindred spirit.

The Sloo-Slonker

The Jing-Tingler

The Floo-Floober and Tar-Tinker

The Who-Whoover

The game Zoo-Zizzer-Karzay

The Blum-Blooker 177