Christmas Eve Stories
Most of the snow outside is gone. It’s been a slow melt since about December 23. It can stay this way as far as I’m concerned, but Lilly is pushing for more snow, the better to sled.
Driving home from Science & Industry on Christmas Eve—actually we were headed for the 4 p.m. service at St. Nicholas in Elk Grove Village, which I like because of its intelligent vicar—the College of DuPage radio station broadcast A Christmas Carol. Not just any version of that familiar story, but Orson Welles’ production of it, first broadcast on December 24, 1939, as part of Campbell Playhouse, which is what The Mercury Theater on the Air became after Campbell Soup picked up the sponsorship.
I really wanted Lilly to hear it, but she’d fallen asleep. Ann too. And Yuriko as well, so there I was driving in the rain on various expressways, listening to Welles as heard 66 years before to the day. He played (at least) the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present. Lionel Barrymore played Scrooge. A captivating pair of voices. A first-rate production in every regard, available (amazingly enough; the Internet still amazes me) to listen to here.
Later in the day, of course, Lionel Barrymore turned up in It’s a Wonderful Life as the only one (plus his henchmen) who didn’t sing “Auld Lang Syne” at the end. I was in and out of the room when that movie was on, since I’m familiar with its plot points. Unlike most of my generation, however, I never actually saw it all the way through until the early 1990s, when I rented it in Japan. That was one consequence of living through the 1980s without a TV (that, and I missed a lot of crummy sitcoms).
After everyone was asleep for the night and I’d done my present placement duties, I switched on the set and discovered Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. I had to watch that. Well, only about 30 minutes, which was enough. That was shown on TV in the 1970s, but somehow I’d never seen all of it. I still haven’t, but it’s one of those things you don’t actually have to sit through to appreciate.
posted by Dees Stribling @ 9:45 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Dees,
I lived most of my life oversees until 1977 (with barely any TV to watch at all most of that time), yet when I went to college in 1978 I was quite familiar with "It's a Wonderful Life." So you could easily have seen it before the 1980s, even given your tender age.
I think it is merely bad luck that kept you from seeing it. Nancy also hadn't seen it (not at all!) until she'd met me. I was flabbergasted. But I bet others are flabbergasted that I can't recognize even the names of the most famous football stars--unless they've been indicted for something.
Geof
Yes, I suppose I missed Wonderful Life life by chance in the 1970s, since its public domain period must have started before 1980. Somehow I missed The Wizard of Oz as well, until about 1992.
As for football, all the stars' names I'd recognize would be from the early '70s. I gave it up around junior high, when other people are picking it up strongly.
But you can, of course, name Gentleman Jim Corbett as your favorite boxer. ANK
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