Christmas Specials and Cartoons

In the 1970's, The Carpenters were at the height of their success.  Richard and Karen Carpenter released A Christmas Portrait in October of 1978 with an ABC special to follow.  The previous Christmas, they brought us their first special, The Carpenters at Christmas.

The show featured Richard and Karen singing their Christmas favorites and featured guest starts such as Harvey Korman and Kristy McNichol.

Here is the complete show as brought to us by YouTube user arfies

In 1977, Bing filmed what would be his last Christmas television special.  Titled "Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas", it featured Bing and the family taking a trip to Merrie Olde England to visit a very distant relative, Sir Percival Crosby (played by Ron Moody).  The guests featured Mr. Ron Moody who was a famous British stage and screen actor who's most memorable role for American audiences was as Fagan in Oliver!  Also in the cast were model/actress Twiggy, British comedian Stanley Baxter and pop star, David Bowie.

Bowie performed his current hit at the time, "Heroes" as well as singing his now famous duet of "The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth" with Bing.

The special was filmed in October on location.  Bing had several appearances in London which would prove to sadly be his last.  Bing died on a golf course in Spain on October 14, 1977.

Here is the last time Bing sang White Christmas on television.

Here at the old blog, we wish all of you a very, Merry Christmas.

 

Jack Jones

Now, around here, we love Jack Jones.  A much forgotten singer, Jack is most famous for singing the theme to The Love Boat. But Jack is as good a jazz singer as Sinatra, Deano and the rest of the gang.

Here is Jack on Judy Garland's Christmas Show from 1963.  You will also notice our pal Mel Torme' among the guests.

Running from 1965 to 1974, The Dean Martin Show appeared on the NBC network featuring Dean and a plethora of guest stars.

Here's Deano and the Chairman of the Board singing their rendition of "It's a Marshmallow World"

Enjoy!

Now, I love Donnie and Marie.  Call it a guilty pleasure.  I watched every Friday night on ABC as a kid.  I also loved their Christmas specials.

Here is an excerpt from the 1976 special

 

The Hollywood Palace was an hour long variety show on ABC TV.  There were many guests hosts (much like SNL) but Bing Crosby made the most appearances - 31 in all including starring on the Christmas specials.  The show ran from 1964 thru 1970, with Bing hosting the final show.

Here's Bing singing his perennial hit on The Hollywood Palace Christmas show from 1968.

Here is Perry Como's Christmas show presented by Chesterfield Cigarettes on Wednesday, Dec 24th 1952.  I hope you enjoy this show

I love promos from Christmastime.  Like commercials, these bring back memories more than anything because they have a familiarity from long ago.  It's like a window to the past.

Here is a promo from NBC featuring Dino himself.

In the last few years of his life, Bob Hope made a series of Christmas retrospectives featuring Bob and all of the celebrity guests he spent Christmas with over the years.

Here is Bob and his wife Delores singing the holiday classic that he made famous, Silver Bells.

Here is another performance by Andy Williams and the Osmond Brothers from one of Andy's earliest Christmas shows.

Last year, the Bing Crosby estate release a second DVD containing the specials of Bing Crosby.  This time, the  Christmas specials.  A selection of four including The Bing Crosby Show produced in London in 1961, the first color holiday special from 1962 featuring Mary Martin and Andre' Previn, one from 1971 featuring the late Robert Goulet, and the last one from 1977, Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas featuring David Bowie and Twiggy.

This set also features some great bonus material including Happy Holidays with Bing and Frank, from ABC's Frank Sinatra Show.

You can find this on Amazon or your favorite DVD provider.

Below is a sample blend of Bing singing White Christmas on his various specials.

Offically, Christmas in July isn't until the 25th but I wanted to share this now.

Bing Crosby hosted many radio shows throughout the years and each one had a Christmas show.  Later, Bing would host a Christmas radio broadcast specifically and these are still broadcast every year on Sirius/XM radio during their annual airing of Bing Crosby Christmas Radio.

But, for this year's treat, here is the entire Bing Crosby Christmas show broadcast from 1942.

A Christmas Portrait was released by A & M records on October 13, 1978 and became an instant classic.

That same year, a television special was produced.  For this year's Christmas in July, here is part one of that special.  Want to send special thanks to Neroli8676 for uploading this special to Youtube.  Go out and give them a shout of thanks.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thought I would start the day by bringing you my favorite Christmas Carol.  Do You Hear What I Hear was inspired by the events during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  The Husband and wife team of Gloria Shayne Baker and Noel Regney wrote the song and the Harry Simeone Chorale were the first to record it in October of 1962.  But the next year, Bing Crosby recorded a version on November 22, 1963 - the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  Bing has been synonymous with the song ever since.

This song truly expresses what Christmas is really about.

Here is a clip of an Osmond family Christmas special featuring Mr. Andy Williams sometime in the early to mid '70s which is when I came on the scene, Ha.

Enjoy!

I updated the video on the Andy Williams Show post to a much better one.  I think you'll like it.

Born Pierino Ronald Como in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, Perry Como is a well-loved Italian-American crooner with a string of hits in the 40's and 50's.

Perry joined a list of crooners who became synonymous with Christmas such as Bing Crosby and Andy Williams.  In a way, Perry and Andy share a sort of commonality in that they both discovered musical acts and had them on their show.  In Perry's case, he very much liked Richard and Karen Carpenter.  In fact, on their album "Christmas Portrait", Richard and Karen did a version of "Christ is Born", a staple of Perry's christmas carols.

Perry's last special was taped in Ireland in 1994 and titled "Perry Como's Irish Christmas".

Here is a sample of Perry singing "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas"

Enjoy!

This was part of a series of specials Judy did for CBS television.

Had to share this.

Now, I know some people out there may not think of this as something that should be put up here. But I grew up watching this show and the Christmas shows were just as much a part of it as Bing Crosby.

The Osmonds were first playing at Disneyland in California when they were discovered by Andy Williams. They then appeared on his show for the duration and on all of his Christmas shows. Donny and Marie Osmond then branched out into their own TV show in the late '70s. Their Christmas specials were reminiscent of the Andy Williams shows Donnie had appeared in for years.

This is the opening to the 1978 special which was filmed entirely in Utah where the Osmond family had built a TV studio to produce the Donny and Marie show during it's final run.

Enjoy!