Thursday, December 20, 2018

25 More Days of Old Time Radio Christmas - Day 20: Kraft Music Hall's Christmas Show with Bing Crosby (1944)

For today's episode, let's stay in the 40s and go to one of the best variety shows around.  The Kraft Music Hall was an amazing variety program that featured great music.  And when you think of great music from the Golden Age of Radio...you often think of Bing! If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148).  He does a great job of showcasing great holiday themed episodes, especially as we get close to Christmas.


238/365/2429 (February 4, 2015) - Squirrels on a Snowy Winter's Day at the University of Michigan (February 4, 2015)

Did you know that Planters Peanuts is part of the Kraft Heinz Company? 
Squirrels on a Snowy Winter's Day at the University of Michigan (February 4, 2015)

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 21st, 1944, the Kraft Music Hall was hosted by Bing Crosby in a thirty minute long program for Christmas.  The program opens with Bing Crosby singing just a line from this famous song Where the blue of the night meets the gold of the day.  He then sings his classic version of Adeste Fideles in Latin and English.  We know this beautiful carol as "Come All Ye Faithful." This was the 9th consecutive year he opened the program with Adeste Fideles.  Joining Bing on that holiday show were an wonderful cast of singers who shared Christmas and other timely songs.  The music was from John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra, and featured songs from Eugenie Baird, The Chariotters and the Kraft Choral Club (from Chicago) under the direction of Charles Henderson.  In addition to the Christmas songs, you also here the Chariotters sing a song called, "A Slip Of The Lip Can Sink A Ship."  Seems appropriate for a country just learning about the Battle of Bulge in Europe.  They closes the show with a beautiful version of Silent Night with Bing and the other singers on the show. He also shares his heartfelt thoughts of the sacrifices being made by American solders in the name of world peace.  Enjoy!

Kraft Music Hall (December 21, 1944)
25 More Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2018) & Other Links
Another 25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2017) 
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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