White Christmas (1954)

White Christmas was supposed to be a sequel of sorts to Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn which starred Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. In fact, the set for General Waiverley's Inn is an exact remake of the Inn from Holiday Inn.

After reading the script, Astaire turned down the role. Donald O'Connor was originally tapped to replace him but had to bow out due to illness.

So producers at Paramount turned to Danny Kaye and so was born White Christmas. The cast also included Vera-Ellen and Rosemary Clooney. It also had great character actors like Dean Jagger and Mary Wickes.

White Christmas was produced by Paramount Pictures and was directed by Michael Curtiz who directed such classics as The Adventures of Robin Hood and Casablanca. It features a musical score written by Irving Berlin including the perennial favorite, White Christmas. This was the first movie to be released in Paramounts VistaVision™ which was a new wide screen filming process at the time. This movie is filled with vibrant colors which were an integral part of musicals in the 1950's and adds to the holiday theme of the picture.

Here is a number from the film featuring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen, and Rosemary Clooney.

Enjoy!

I almost forgot.....

I almost forgot to mention some cartoons that were not part of the classic camp but were, in fact, Christmas Specials of some favorite characters.

Whether you were a fan of Scooby Doo or of Yogi and Boo Boo, each cartoon at one time or another had a Christmas special. From Mr. Magoo to The Flintstone's Christmas Carol, there are plenty of obscure cartoons that we look forward to each year.





My personal favorite is Bugs Bunny's™ Looney Christmas Tales. It originally aired on CBS television on November 27th, 1979. It featured Bugs and the gang in three shorts with Holiday themes intercut with Bugs trying to get the group to sing Carols properly.

I've included a short with Bugs Bunny™ and Yosemite Sam™ doing their version of A Christmas Carol©.

As always, Enjoy!

The Bishop's Wife (1947)

The Bishop's Wife stars David Niven, Lorretta Young, and Cary Grant. It centers around the story of the angel, Dudley. Dudley is sent to earth to help Niven's character deal with building a new cathedral and the stresses involved as well as his wife (Young) and the toll Henry's work has taken on their marriage.

This is a great movie. It's simple and never leaves the Christmas background. David Niven's rousing sermon at the end can even rival those of well known clergymen today. It's underlying tones of human frailty and the tendency of human beings to focus on the less important things in life while ignoring the most important ones is brought out in Dudley's relationship with Julia (Young).

The movie was released by RKO in 1947. Niven was originally cast as the angel, Dana Andrews as the bishop, and Teresa Wright as his wife. However, Wright had to bow out due to pregnancy. According to Robert Osborne, Andrews was lent to RKO in order to obtain Loretta Young. Koster then brought in Cary Grant, but he wanted to play the angel, so the role of the bishop was given to Niven.

from Wikipedia™

Arthur Ferrante dead at 88

I am reprinting this via one of my blog followers as I think many of us missed this one. This happened last month. Thanks to The Blue Carbuncle for this story. Please check out his blog.


Arthur Ferrante, one half of the piano duo Ferrante and Teicher whose lush orchestral recordings of 1960s movie themes propelled them to popular and commercial success, has died. He was 88.

Ferrante died of natural causes early Saturday at his home in Longboat Key, Fla., his manager, Scott W. Smith, said Sunday. Lou Teicher died in August 2008 at age 83.


"Although we were two individuals, at the twin pianos our brains worked as one," Ferrante said last year after Teicher's death. ... (continued...)

Operation Christmas Child

I just wanted to encourage you to participate in Operation Christmas child this year. This is a great organization that ships Christmas gifts around the world to war torn countries.

Here is a brief video of the fun we had last year building these shoeboxes.

A Christmas Story (1983)

Now a cult classic in it's own right, A Christmas Story was released in 1983 by MGM/UA and was based upon the short stories from the book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd.

It stared child actors Peter Billingsley and Scott Schwartz as well as seasoned actors Darrin MacGavin and Belinda Dillon who most remember from her role in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

The movie is a depression-era story about a 9 year old boy's quest for what he deems to be the perfect Christmas Present: A Red Ryder 200 shot range model air rifle. The movie is a farce of sorts and wasn't that well received when first released. It has since gained cult classic status with constant airings every holiday season on TBS and TCM (Turner Classic Movies).

The movie was directed by Bob Clark who up until that point had been famous for directing the Porky's© movies.

Here is one of the most famous clips from that movie: The tongue on the lightpole scene, enjoy!

Scrooge (1970)

Scrooge is a musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring Albert Finney and Sir Alec Guinness.

It was directed by Ronald Neame and musical score by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley who also brought us the score for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory the next year. In 1971, Albert Finney won a Golden Globe award for best actor in a musical/comedy.

Here is a number from that movie.

Enjoy!