Time to dig out the Groundhog Day Carols!

Groundhog Day is coming around again; It's celebrated in the U.S. and Canada every February 2nd.

As folks begin to anxiously anticipate an end to the Winter season, it's time to haul out a traditional batch of tunes honoring an often under-appreciated friend of ours.

Whether viewed as folklore's harbinger of Spring or as maligned garden pest, whether as a euphemism for a
triflin' woman (?!?), as merely a handy lyrical device or just plain good eatin', the groundhog stands tall in American song.

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!!






- Click here for a
big mess o' Groundhog Day Carols...
(posted for a limited time)

- ... and here's a playlist.
(follow link)


See also:
- Groundhog.Org: The Official Site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club

Pearl S. Buck's 'A Christmas Miniature', illustrated by the Disney Studios (1956 magazine feature)

In addition to all of her other works during her long career, Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck wrote several 'juvenile fiction' Christmas-related stories.

This 'storybook insert' originally ran in the December, 1956 issue of Family Circle magazine (the same issue that provided last week's
Peter Lind Hayes & Mary Healy 'Night(mare) before Christmas'
photo-spread post).

The story was published in hardback form the following year, with different (non-Disney) artwork.

Other than "Visualized by
Walt Disney and Staff", I'm not finding any credit for individual artists on this piece.

If you have any insights or clues, I'd love to hear about it - - leave a comment or drop a line.

In 1956, Disney was running full-steam with their brand-new Anaheim theme park and two popular TV shows.

More and more of their visual output on TV and in theaters was live-action. Disney animation was still producing theatrical shorts, had released the feature-length 'Lady and The Tramp' the previous year, and began production in '56 for the 1959 release of 'Sleeping Beauty'.

So far, I see no evidence to suggest that there had been any plans by the Disney studios to produce an animated version of Pearl Buck's 'A Christmas Miniature'. Again, any info you might have on the topic is appreciated.

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(Click on images ⬆ to ENLARGE in a new window)

The Post of Xmas Past

As the Xmas season is well and truly upon us, it seems the right moment to direct you towards some previously-posted Holidaze-themed items that you may not have seen the first time around...

First up is a two-part podcast taken from a pair of shows I did for Radio Boise back in 2006.

I have full confidence that absolutely no one heard them when they were broadcast then, so I'm pleased to seize an opportunity to give them an airing again.
Each has been slightly re-tooled, with all the local interruptions and my then-pertinent and topical announcements removed.

What remains is essentially a holiday 'mix-tape' affair, an assortment of primarily un-traditional Xmas music (and some spoken-word), heavy on whimsy and cynicism, veering occasionally into
'Bah, Humbug' territory, but hopefully somehow retaining a gentle balance of sentimentality.

Each unwieldy audio file runs just short of 2 hours in length, perfect for some alternative household muzak or perhaps as a download for the trip over the hill and through the woods to Grandmother's house...

⬇ (Posted only for limited time) ⬇

UPDATE, 1/4/09: Time's up!
If you're still in a mood for Xmas tuneage, try looking for this old two-part special over here.

- Big Annoying Xmas special ...Part 1 ?!?
- Click here for a playlist (Radio Boise, week of 12.11.06)


- Big Annoying Xmas special ...Part 2 !
- Click here for a playlist (Radio Boise, week of 12.18.06)


Next are just a few highlights of posts from around this same time last year;
(Follow links)

◀ - Cab Calloway's Letter to Santa, 1944

Someday, hopefully soon, Cab's war-time sentiment will once again seem out-of-date.

















- Xmas cards from Hank Ketcham and 'The Dennis The Menace Gang', 1985 - 1989 ▶


◀ -'Merry Soul Christmas', featuring George Conedy at the Hammond Organ
















- And still receiving a surprising amount of kind comments from folks with fond memories, it's The de Paur Chorus' 1956 'Calypso Christmas' LP ▶

Hope the rest of the Holiday Season is good to you, and that we can all remember to be good to ourselves and to each other in 2009 and beyond.

Thanks for your time, thanks for visiting!

Reasons To Be Cheerful: week of 12/12/08

(This is a compiled repost of items culled from my soon-to-be-extinct subsidiary blog, 'Brief Window')

1. 1980s holiday viewing experience at BeTaMaXMaS!

This is pretty amazing - -
Click over to BeTaMaXMaS, hunker down in the basement, grab the remote, check the
TV Guide, and cruise the channels for Xmas programming from the '80s.

Old sitcoms, commercials and promos, animated Xmas specials and more.

Be sure to adjust the rabbit ears on the old TV to improve your reception.
A time-warp treat!

(via Intercourse with biscuits)


2. Follow link to a delightful and intriguing online collection of
Old Soviet Christmas New Year cards! (Correction; See below)




































(Click on images to ENLARGE in a new window)

(Found via Everlasting Blort and Martin Klasch)

- UPDATE, 12/20/08: But wait, there's more! Turns out the link above was only to the 'aerospace' portion of the collection. Follow this link to Mazaika.Com for several hundred more with many different themes!

- UPDATE, 12/21/08: Not only that, but...
Questions about these cards (including 'So what do they say?' and 'Didn't the Soviets ban religious celebrations?') has prompted some further research.

Sometimes it's great to be an ignorant westerner - - it affords you the chance to learn new things.

"С Новым Годом", as it appears on most of these cards, can be translated to english as
'Happy New Year'.

Christmas has begun to make a comeback in post-Soviet Russia, but the New Year's celebration has been the bigger event for decades.

- Follow link to a 1985 New York Times article and learn a little about how elements of banned Russian Christmas traditions were folded into the popular State-approved New Year's holidays - - which became civil celebrations, rather than religious or political in nature.

- Also check out an interview at Ephemera with Boris Glazer, the 'curator' of this collection.

- And no, that's not Santa in these cards. Click over to Wikipedia to read about 'Father Frost'
(a.k.a. Ded Moroz), the Russian counterpart to Mr. Claus.


3. Troy McClure Film or Actual Terrible Movie?
"You may remember him from such hits as 'Christmas Ape' and 'Christmas Ape Goes to Summer Camp', but how well do you remember Troy McClure’s other projects?"

Click over to the mental_floss website to take their quick quiz, and learn where truth is stranger than fiction, especially in the American film industry. (Found via IMDb)

Has-been Hollywood star Troy McClure was a beloved peripheral character on 'The Simpsons' TV show, though the character was retired in 1998 following the death of voice actor Phil Hartman.

Once you've completed the 'Troy McClure Film or Actual Terrible Movie?' quiz, then you're free to follow the link to
The Simpsons Archive's complete rundown on
'The Stellar Acting Career of Troy McClure'.



4. Vintage Cocktail Napkins

On his blog,
the Mt. Holly Mayor's Office,
Mayor Mike talks about his love for old cocktail napkins;

"The naive nudes, the
hand-drawn typography and the absolute corn beneath my glass of rye make me yearn for simpler times and a stronger liver."

Follow link to see items from his collection, The Jim Backus Memorial Cocktail Napkin Museum, on display at flickr.































































































5. A great gift idea!

Follow link to view a preview for the
self-published cookbook 'Natural Harvest -
A Collection of Semen-Based Recipes'

From author Fotie Photenhauer's
back-cover description:
"Semen is not only nutritious, but it also has a wonderful texture and amazing cooking properties.
"Like fine wine and cheeses, the taste of semen is complex and dynamic.
"Semen is inexpensive to produce and is commonly available in many, if not most, homes and restaurants.
"Despite all of these positive qualities, semen remains neglected as a food.
"This book hopes to change that.
"Once you overcome any initial hesitation, you will be surprised to learn how wonderful semen is in the kitchen.
"Semen is an exciting ingredient that can give every dish you make an interesting twist."

Be sure to scroll through the page views available in the Lulu.Com preview window to catch a glimpse of recipes for Tuna Sashimi With Dipping Sauce, Man-Made Oysters, and the Almost White Russian cocktail, among other delectables.

(Another treat via the ever-vigilant eyes of the folks at Everlasting Blort)

1956 photo spread: Peter Lind Hayes & Mary Healy in 'The night(mare) before Christmas'

(click on images to ENLARGE in a new window)

Some 37 years prior to Tim Burton's musical Nightmare, this Xmas photo spread ran in the December, 1956 issue of Family Circle magazine.

Portraying the beleaguered parents were actors Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy, a husband and wife
song-and-dance team, veterans of vaudeville, recording artists and stars of radio, film and the early days of TV.

When this magazine spread appeared, Hayes and Healy were showing up fairly regularly on different television variety shows.

It had been three years since they'd co-starred with Hans Conried and Tommy Rettig in the splashy (and commercially unsuccessful) Technicolor Dr. Seuss musical extravaganza 'The 5000 Fingers
of Dr. T', and they were still a few years away from their TV sitcom 'Peter Loves Mary' in 1960.

(click on images to ENLARGE in a new window)

A Halloween Podcast return(ed) from the dead

Oh, that's right - - Halloween is upon us. Almost didn't notice.

Speaking of almost not noticing, is there an election coming up? I thought I might have heard something the other day.

I guess I'd better investigate. Might be important...

No, but seriously: Halloween.

I dug out a special spooky Halloween show that I programmed a couple of years back for Radio Boise.

Not many people (if any) heard it back then, so I thought I'd prop it up here, just for a limited time, you understand.

It's an ungainly huge audio stream - - a couple of hours long - - but it's loaded with strange and creepy and off-the-wall music and stories that might help with your Halloween mood or festivities.

It's also been stripped of the station I.D.s and other announcements, so at this point it plays more like a mixtape, I guess.

- Here's a playlist.

Enjoy, and have a great holiday!

- Click here to listen to a prohibitively long In Crowd Halloween podcast!

- UPDATE, : Halloween's gone from these parts for now, but if you're still curious, take a look around hereabouts, over in the audio annex.

The de Paur Chorus - Calypso Christmas (1956)

I've always found it just a bit surprising how many people are familiar with this old record.

What's not surprising is how many of them have such clear and fond memories of it.

I guess the first time I heard it I was expecting something more tropical and less sober, but was soon charmed by its sweetness.

As musical director of what had started as an infantry glee club in WWII, Leonard de Paur (1914-1998) became a driving force not only in male choral music, but also in the Folk Music revival.
Among his many other achievements following his work with the chorus, de Paur would go on to a career in television as a musical arranger and conductor, and as the director of community relations for New York's Lincoln Center.

See also:
- A very impressive list of de Paur's credits appear in his New York Times obituary.

- A Leonard de Paur bio page at the Columbia College Chicago website, which also yields a page for members of The De Paur Infantry Chorus.

- Leonard de Paur listed at the Internet Broadway Database.

- 'Beware of Pretty Chords' - A TIME Magazine article on de Paur's Infantry Chorus.

- A helpful illustrated history of Calypso music in its various incarnations can be found at
'Calypso: A World Music' - - An online exhibition from The Historical Museum of Southern Florida. There is mention of the de Paur Chorus in an interesting section on the 'Calypso Craze' in America.

From the 'Calypso Christmas' LP
(Columbia Records, 1956),
Listen to The de Paur Chorus -
Leonard de Paur, Conductor:

Christmas in de Tropics
De Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy
Sweet Little Jesus Boy
Mary Had a Baby
La Virgen Lava Panales
Christmas Present for Sallie
Mary's Little Boy Chile
Oh, Poor Little Jesus
Roun' de Glory Manger
Mary, Mary, Where Is Your Baby
What You Gonna Call Yo' Pretty Little Baby?
Ring de Christmas Bells

(click for audio)

- - OR download all 12 tracks in one 28.6 Mb zipfile.

George Conedy at the Hammond Organ - Merry Soul Christmas (circa 1972?)

Here's a nice instrumental LP that mixes holiday treacle with some deep soul.
At first, hearing George Conedy's organ puts me in mind of similar efforts from Booker T. and the MG's, but the overall sound here is understandably just a little bit more churchy - - and perhaps pleasantly less polished in places.

It's sincere, is what it is...

...AND it includes a smoky (if misspelled) version of Duke Pearson's 'Christo Redentor'.


The original album was issued on a gospel imprint of the Kent Records label out of L.A.

Judging by other matrix numbers near to this one, a guesstimate would place its release around 1972, give or take a year or so.

Back cover liner notes give a bit of info on George Conedy... ➤

(click on bio to ENLARGE text) ➤

Some web searching turns up very little else on Mr. Conedy, except for a page about
The Antelope Valley Inter-Denominational Crusade Choir.

Their information places him in the choir's backing band as recently as 1997, at their 2nd anniversary concert held at Highland High School in Palmdale, CA.

(Addendum, 7/2/08; Information has recently come through via a family member that George Conedy passed away "a few years ago".)

Musicians on this recording:
George Conedy - Hammond organ, piano
Horace “Hawk” Jones - bass
Elliott McKenzie - drums
Joe Youngblood - guitar

From George Conedy's 'Merry Soul Christmas' LP
(Kent Records, circa 1972?),
Listen to:

Come All Ye Faithful
Away In A Manger
We Three Kings
Christo Redento
Drummer Boy
Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
White Christmas
The Christmas Song
Silent Night

(click for audio)

- - OR download all 9 tracks in one 38.7 Mb zipfile.

(click to ENLARGE ⬆)

Holiday Cheese Cones (1970's print ad)

Oh, dear... Yeah, I remember my Mom proudly presenting concoctions like this on occasion.

I can still feel a bit of a gag reflex just looking at these constipation bombs.*

(click on image to ENLARGE recipes)

(* A.K.A. 'Nut-Encrusted Cheese Turds')

See also:
Several similar recipe reactions can always be found at Do What Now?

'Pee Wee The Pink Pine Tree', Rita Abrams, and my claim to fame (1976)

This was a little Xmas novelty tune that was recorded in San Francisco.

The 45 was produced and arranged by Rita Abrams, who'd had prior experience in the art of children's chorus wrangling. (Rita ➤)

She'd been an elementary school teacher before her plunge into the music industry.

Recording as Miss Abrams and the Strawberry Point 4th Grade Class, her song 'Mill Valley' had been a nationally-charting hit single in 1970.

- Follow this link to the 'Mill Valley' promotional music video posted at YouTube.

The video was shot in conjunction with Mill Valley's 4th of July celebration, and was directed by Francis Ford Coppola (two years after he directed 'Finian's Rainbow', and two years prior to 'The Godfather').


As a kid growing up in Mill Valley at that time, it was hard not to be familiar with Rita.
My memories are of her making the rounds at local schools and leading various singing activities with the kids.

She also recruited local kids to work on various projects she had following the success of the hit single.

I wasn't a student at Strawberry Point, but I was 'drafted' along with some fellow Old Mill School students to add some post-production back-up vocals to a 1975 single recorded for the upcoming Bicentennial, 'America, Let's Get Started Again' (now included as a 'bonus track' on the 'Miss Abrams' CD reissue).

That first 'professional' gig of mine led to this next one; as a member of The Pee Wee Children's Chorus.

Even at the time I recall thinking that
'Pee Wee The Pink Pine Tree' was a bit of a - - shall we say 'overt homage'? - - of 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer', but I don't know if the success of an Xmas novelty 45 has ever been hindered by being too formulaic.
I can't say for sure if that contributed to the lack of success for this one...

Listen to: The Pee Wee Childrens Chorus -
Pee Wee The Pink Pine Tree
CCP 45, prod. & arr. by Rita Abrams, 1976

(click for audio)

I can still sort of hear my pre-pubescent voice in the mix.

I was involved with one or two other projects of Rita's after that, but that was it.
I suppose perhaps that not unlike the 'Menudo' system, I was cycled out as I got older and my voice changed.

Last year I reconnected with another former member of the PWCC.
We were considering a new reunion tour for the song, maybe take it to Scandinavia, maybe Japan...

...but then it turns out there was a glitzy NEW version of the song recorded in 2005. Go figure!

Rita Abrams is still on the go around Mill Valley, and still very busy from the looks of things...
Click here to link to Rita Abrams' website.

Cab Calloway's Letter to Santa, 1944

Hi De Ho Ho Ho!

During the Xmas season of 1944, bandleader and jazz legend Cab Calloway took out the full-page ad space shown below in an issue of Downbeat magazine.

It makes perfect sense to me that he and Santa would be on a first-name basis.

It's just a shame that a wishful war-time sentiment is still sounding appropriate this season.


See also:
The Official Cab Calloway website

(click on image to ENLARGE)

Xmas cards from Hank Ketcham and 'The Dennis The Menace Gang', 1985 - 1989

It was my 3rd grade elementary school teacher who suggested that to better hone our handwriting skills, my fellow students and I should begin sending letters.

She suggested that if we wrote to some of our heroes or other famous people we might be able to obtain autographed pictures or other booty.

I remember sending off a few - - I got a signed photo from
Carol Burnett, one from Darren McGavin, and I got some stickers and a neat catalog from Mattel toys when I told them how much I liked their Hot Wheels cars.

The biggest pay-off was from my letters written to cartoonist Hank Ketcham, creator of Dennis The Menace. ➤

I was a big fan of the newspaper strip and the comic books, and I had a bunch of the paperback collections. At the time I had no clue that Ketcham was not the sole artist on all things Dennis.

I never got a personal response, but I received a photo and some 'form' cartoons that had my name inserted.

I also managed to get on Hank Ketcham's Christmas card list.

This was the very early 1970's.

Before long I'd ceased correspondence, and my interest in Dennis The Menace became less avid over the next few years - - but still, every December I'd receive a card.

This went on for about six or seven years running before they stopped coming.

Sadly, sadly, sadly, I no longer have those cards I received in the '70's.

(Click on image to 'open' card) ⬇

The ones I've scanned and posted here are from a second run of cards I received.

I'd been out of high school a few years when I mysteriously began receiving Hank Ketcham Xmas cards again.

I guess an old mailing list resurfaced - - ?

I'm especially fond of that characteristic 'Dennis Script' font that shows up time and again, even on the envelope's return address tags.

I think it's also interesting that Ketcham begins to fade from the forefront a bit over time, and the cards are from the 'makers', or 'the gang'.

⬅ Text on the back of this card says the art "...was especially designed for the Boy Scouts of America celebrating their Diamond Jubilee 1910 - 1985."























(Click on image to 'open' card) ⬇




































-Sigh- - I still just wish I had some of those older ones to show you. Some were pretty nifty, as I recall.

One of the '70's cards I hazily remember was an elaborate fold-out 'Gothic-Dennis' triptych, and there was another that was printed on a translucent plastic sheet, as sort of a
'stained glass' affair.

Anyone else out there happen to receive or remember any Dennis/Ketcham cards?
How about other cartoonists?

Drop a line!














































See also:
My previous post - -
'A Different Side of Hank Ketcham, circa '46 - '54'
(click to link)











⬇ Detail from '89, which was a large fold-out poster featuring twelve Xmas-themed Dennis dailies. ⬇