Monday, December 4, 2017

Another 25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas - Day 4: Kraft Music Hall with Bing Crosby (1942)

Celebrating the holidays this year by highlighting a different Christmas episodes from Old Time Radio by showcasing a program a day (well, I will try).  I expect to have some repeats, but also some new shows featured as well.  If you have Sirius XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148).  Or you can see my previous OTR Christmas entries (or drop to the bottom of this message).

So I decided to stick with the variety show them and (for that matter), stick with the long-running Kraft Music Hall.  Rather than Al Jolson, lets head back five years earlier and showcase an episode featuring the great Bing Crosby as he spread Christmas cheer back during the wartime year of 1942.  
Facepalm (Christmas 2000)
Santa paying a visit in 2000!

The Kraft Music Hall made its debut on the NBC radio network in 1933 and would be a staple in their entertainment lineup for around 17 years. They used this variety show to sell all the Kraft Food products, especially their cheeses and Velveeta.  From the Wikipedia article, there were very careful in this show to have the announcers make the commercials for the Kraft products, not the stars.  This could be a distinct difference between Kraft Music Hall and others that used the stars to hawk the goods.  

 On December 24th, 1942, the Kraft Music Hall was hosted by Bing Crosby in an hour-long special for the holidays.  Joining Bing was Fay Bainter, Janet Blair, Jack Carson and Andrew Tombes.  They were joined by announcer Ken Carpenter, John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra, The Music Maids and The Charioteers.  The program opens with Bing Crosby singing Adeste Fideles in Latin and English.  We know this beautiful carol as "Come All Ye Faithful."

Jack Carson was talking fondly about his days in retail sales - and their new store where they only sell items that cannot be acquired during the war.  At one point, Jack Carson tells a customer "I hope you don't see anything you like - but if you do, I am sure we don't have it."  While played for laughs, it is interesting to see how people put up with shortages that were commonplace during World War II. This show features the standard fare of comedy and music to get people ready for Christmas.  Bing also sings the contemporary hit "Why Don't You Fall in Love with Me?"

 One of the nice parts of the show was Fay Bainter reading the famous letter from the New York Sun back in 1887 too see if there was indeed a Santa Claus. The great editorial by Francis P. Church has been shared over and over again since. Thanks to the Newseum, we have the text of the letter. They had her on the shows in year's past, but it is great to hear that wonderful reading of Church's editorial - found here:
DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
In the second half, there is a dramatic...well comic telling of Santa getting readying for his long night of work.  The interesting twist is that Santa has kids...and they are 'helping' him get prepared to give gifts to everyone - especially the movie stars that are on his travels.  For more Bing, see my earlier blog posting on other Christmas episodes he recorded. I hope you enjoy this wonderful episode from 75 years ago.


Another 25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2017) & Other Links

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2016) 

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2015) & Other Links

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2014)
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