Merry Christmas 2016 - Vintage Ad For Coloring

Merry Christmas and God Bless Us Everyone!!! Here is a vintage sales ad topper from a 1961 newspaper. Print it and color it in for fun.

This Month In Children's Media : December 2016 (Part II)

50th Anniversary edition VHS from Republic Home Video

A 1985 Home Video Release from Hal Roach Studios

December 20, 1946 - It's A Wonderful Life hits theaters

While it thought of more as a family film in general, It's A Wonderful Life tells the story of a man with 4 children, who come to regret his life, and is reminded of the significance of it by his guardian angel, who also watched his life from the time he was a boy. Plus younger viewers tend to like this one too.

Cover of Chicago Tribune's TV Week, December 17, 1966

December 18, 1966 - How the Grinch Stole Christmas premieres on CBS

A little disappointed that there wasn't a special feature for the the 50th anniversary of the Grinch (like the one for last year's ABC special for A Charlie Brown Christmas). Oh well, there are still fond memories of the 30 anniversary special that premiered on TNT in 1996.

Motion Picture Herald, November 24, 1934
From the Media History Digital Library

 

Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales, December 10, 1961. This comic strip sometimes illustrated the latest Disney film, even beginning a run before a theatrical premiere.

Babes in Toyland (March of the Wooden Soldiers) (1934)

Babes in Toyland (Disney, 1961)

Not sure if it is just a coincidence but the two most famous film versions of Victor Herbert's operetta "Babes in Toyland" debuted on the same day (December 14) decades apart. Personally I prefer the Laurel and Hardy version, colorized or in black and white, but both are charming and have been shown on television (more infrequently in recent years) for decades. Recent generations were reintroduced at times to both films through cable presentations on WGN and Disney Channel. This blogger recalls the days in the late 1990s and early 2000s when both were shown at Christmas time on the WGN Superstation.

Babes in Toyland (1934 version) was retitled "March of the Wooden Soldiers" for re-release in 1949, and it was this version that began to appear on television around 1954. Disney's Babes in Toyland premiered on television as a two part episode of the Wonderful World of Disney on December 21 & December 28, 1969.

Christmas Past: The 1980s

Here are some treasures from my collections of film/tv related books & vhs tapes. Hopefully they will stir some fond memories. 

Robinson, Barbara, and Judith Gwyn Brown. 1973. The Best Christmas pageant ever. New York: Avon.

While this famous Christmas story was first published in 1972, the ABC TV Special starring Loretta Swit premiered in 1983. See the VHS cover below.

Swit, Loretta, and Barbara Robinson. 1986. The Best Christmas pageant ever. [U.S.]: Regency Home Video.

Hanna-Barbera Productions. 1987. The Nativity. New York, N.Y.: Hanna-Barbera Productions.

By many accounts Hanna & Barbera (William & Joseph) felt that their Bible series was the best thing they ever did.

Heckman, Don, and Bob Forward. 1989. He-Man She-Ra: a Christmas special. Charlotte, N.C.: United American Video.

This cartoon adventure usually makes the list of the strangest Christmas specials ever made.

Oliver, Mary. 1985. The legend of Santa Claus: Santa Claus, the movie. [Place of publication not identified]: McDonalds.

This film didn't catch on quite as well as "The Santa Clause" nearly a decade later. Does McDonalds still publish books?

This Month In Children's Media : December 2016 (Part I)

For the Christmas season let's start off with a few quarterly anniversaries of vintage children's media. For Part II, I will add many more classic films, radio programs, and television specials from the month of December.

25 Years Ago

The Wish That Changed Christmas, VHS Cover. From Christmas Specials Wiki

December 20, 1991 - McDonald's beloved Christmas special "The Wish That Changed Christmas" debuts on CBS. Based on the children's book The Holly and The Ivy the special was created to inspire children to have a love of reading. Being sponsored by McDonalds led to a minor controversy over who should sponsor certain children's programming. This special has not aired on television since an ABC repeat in 1993 (?). Never released on DVD, the VHS is still available at some websites like Amazon.

50 Years Ago 

Chicago Tribune, December 16, 1966 - This edition is especially sad as Disney was
 born in the Hermosa community of Chicago. http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1966/12/16/ 

December 15, 1966 - Walt Disney dies from complications of lung cancer, ten days after his 65th birthday. Production of "The Jungle Book" (1967) would have to continue without him and Sundays nights on television weren't quite the same again.

December 18, 1966 - The popular animated special How the Grinch Stole Christmas premieres on CBS. Horror legend Boris Karloff is the Grinch and the narrator. He would win a Grammy two years later for Best Children's Album from a reading of The Grinch.

75 Years Ago

Cover to Radio Life, November 30, 1941. From American Radio History.
For the complete magazine as a PDF 

December 5 - 26, 1941 - Shirley Temple Time For Elgin (or Shirley Temple Time) was a four episode Christmas season radio program which featured the worlds most famous child star in her first regular radio series. Two of the four episodes have survived and are widely available as downloads or CDs. Each episode paired Temple with a popular Hollywood leading man. For the definitive guide to this series go to this page from the Digital Deli.

100 Years Ago!

Motion Picture Magazine, March 1917. http://www.archive.org/stream/motionpicturemag13moti#page/n247/mode/2up
From Media History Digital Library

December 25, 1916 - Snow White - The first film ever seen by Walt Disney - premieres in theaters. That this film left a lasting impression on the 15 year old Walt is a serious understatement. This adaption of the fairy tale was thought lost until a print was found in Amsterdam in 1992. For more information about the film visit this site from the San Francisco Film Festival.

It's Christmas Time and there will be much more coming up from this blog and my YouTube Channel this month.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Clip from Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 22, 1936. Junior Eagle Section. 

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 24, 1935, From the  Junior Eagle section

This Month In Children's Media: November 2016 (Part II)

Here are more highlights from the month of November

100 Years Ago Today

José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Meléndez (November 15, 1916 – September 2, 2008)

Image from Cartoon Research. http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/animation-anecdotes-182/

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and even Valentines Day wouldn't be the same without the wonderful Peanuts Productions by Lee Mendelson and the late Bill Melendez that have aired since 1965.

November 14, 1936

Robinson Crusoe on Clipper Island the fourth serial from the newly formed Republic Pictures is released to theaters.This Saturday matinee serial premiered (or was made available) 80 years ago today. Not necessarily the greatest serial, but fun at times, with spies, old fashioned dirigibles, an athletic hero, an island princess, loyal animals and lots of outdoor adventure. The first Republic Serial was "Darkest Africa" premiered February 15, 1936.  

November 23, 1968  

Birmingham Press, Saturday, November 23, 1968

From Rankin/Bass came the "Mouse on The Mayflower" which premiered on NBC, by Tennessee Ernie Ford. There many not have been that many Thanksgiving specials to speak of but it would be nice to see this one and others back on television again. There will be more from this blog about Thanksgiving media in the coming week.

This Month in Children's Media: November 2016 - Part I

I want to post more dates, but for now here are some notable premieres from the Golden Age of Television.

For reasons still unknown to the author November premieres seemed to cease after 1948.

November 1, 1948 - The TV version of Helen Parkhurst's "A Child's World" debuts on ABC-TV. Neither the radio or television version of this child's discussion series exists, but a book by Parkhurst is widely available in many academic libraries.

November 4, 1948 - The Adventures of Oky Doky, a children's adventures series about a puppet who gained extra strength in the nick of time from his "magic milk" premieres on the DuMont network. The program was later retitled "Oky Doky Ranch" in 1949 and ran until May 26, 1949

November 7, 1948 - Ireene Wicker, radio's famous "Singing Lady" debuts in a series over ABC television. Wicker appeared on television in character as early as 1939 and even earlier as an actress in 1939.

Radio and Television Mirror, June 1949

November 14, 1948 - Cartoon Teletales (above), a drawing/sketchpad storytelling series hosted and produced by brothers Chuck and Jack Luchsinger premieres on ABC. Jack was the narrator, while Chuck illustrated the stories. The series ran until September 24, 1950.

November 24, 1952 - The beloved "Miss Frances" and her "Ding Dong School" premiere over NBC and soon dominate the preschool audience.

November 29, 1948 - "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" premieres over NBC-TV