MERRY EVERYTHING and HAPPY ALWAYS!!!

Time for my final posting of 2008. I have greatly enjoyed contributing to the library's blog and am thrilled to know the blog has followers! Keep reading in the New Year!

OFFBEAT HOLIDAY FLICKS

Most people have favorite holiday films. Personally, I enjoy the old-school standbys; It's A Wonderful Life, The Bishop's Wife, and White Christmas are right up there in my top five. Add in A Christmas Story, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and Elf, and you've got some great movies that truly convey all kinds of warm, funny, and wonderful Christmasy sentiment. There are other movies that add their own unique stamp on what the season means, some of them being relatively little-known. Here are a few examples:

WARNING---WARNING--WARNING: *MASSIVE SPOILERS*!!! So don't keep reading if you wish to be "surprised"...


ALL MINE TO GIVE, 1957

Unfortunately no local library has this DVD in their collection. The DVD cover art, which is original to the movie's release over fifty years ago, has a tagline that reads: "Six kids on a true and wonderful adventure!" This is one of the most misleading teasers in cinematic public relations history. It has the reader imagining a sextuplet of young ones perhaps sledding on particularly icy mountains or facing down some Scrooge-like, anti-Christmas archnemesis. In fact, it's about children losing both parents to highly contagious diseases and having their family rent permanently asunder.

This tale is based on a true-life story set in Wisconsin. Robert and Mamie Eunson (Cameron Mitchell and Glynis Johns) are Scots who have just landed in America (the year is 1856), having been invited there by Mamie's uncle. They arrive in the tiny logging village of Eureka, only to be informed that both uncle and his cabin have been incinerated in a house fire. The Eunsons are assisted by the friendly locals in reconstructing the house and Robert takes to tipping timber. It should be noted Mamie is heavily pregnant upon their reaching Eureka; she delivers baby Robbie soon after the cabin is completed. Robert eventually starts a successful boat building business and Mamie gives birth to five more children: Jimmy, Kirk, Annabelle, Elizabeth, and Jane. The Eunsons are prospering and happy--until little Kirk is diagnosed with diptheria. Mamie and Kirk are quarantined while Robert takes the other children away. The boy recovers, but the goodbye kiss he gave Dadda before his departure proves fatal, and Mr. Eunson succumbs.

Mamie takes to working as a seamstress and Robbie becomes the man of the house. Things stabilize, but only briefly: tired and work-worn, Mamie contracts typhoid. Knowing she won't survive, she charges her eldest with finding good homes for his siblings. After her death, Robbie does exactly that, dispatching his brothers and sisters to kindly townsfolk. Stoic and resigned during the process, he does break down when he's alone and sees the tree outside the homestead where his father had carved the names of the children into the bark. Baby Jane is the last to be handed over--Robbie stands at the door of a house and asks the woman who answers, "Will you take my sister, ma'am?" Pathos, lachrymose, mourning, and gloom! (It reminds me that in Great Britain, this movie was released under the title The Day They Gave Babies Away...*gulp*!)

He then turns and trudges, solitary and struggling, up a hill in a snowstorm. You may ask, "What does this horribly sad tale have to do with Christmas?" Robbie is breaking up the clan on Christmas Eve, wisely thinking people are more likely to accept taking in an orphan while filled with the holiday spirit.

I remember having my grade school show this film when I was a kid and half the auditorium was weeping openly by the end. While many people would avoid something this maudlin during a time of year we're enjoined to be merry and bright, I find it triumphant and warm-hearted. It was finally released to DVD just last month--I hope one local library decides to add it to their Christmas video collection.



THE GREAT RUPERT, 1950

This is a DVD the Main has in its collection. It stars Jimmy Durante as Mr. Amendola, a vaudeville performer who's come upon very hard times just before Christmas. He, his wife, and their lovely 20-something daughter, Rosalinda, are forced to take up residence in what amounts to a drafty, broken-down garage. Mr. Dingle is the tight-fisted landlord; his son, Peter, strikes up a romance with Miss Amandola.

Rupert is a talented performing squirrel (be aware he moves by very early stop-motion animation, which comes across as more than slightly bizarre--plus he smokes!) who is on hiatus with his human partner, Joe Mahoney, until a circus rolls into town with whom they'll perform. A seriously worthwhile question to pose here may be: just what IS Rupert in the film? Is he a mildly-lifelike-looking squirrel doll? Or, worst case scenario, is he---a taxidermized rodent...?! Oh, the possibilities...

Rupie discovers Mr. Dingle is hoarding bundles of cash in a wall and, brilliantly, starts throwing it down at the impoverished Amendolas, who take it to be a Christmas miracle. This movie is also known as The Christmas Wish, ostensibly because Rupert dispenses with the greenbacks on several occasions when Mr. Amendola shouts, "Rosalinda needs a new pair of shoes!" at the ceiling...oh yeah! Merry, merry!

SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS, 1964

This movie is exactly what gives science fiction a bad name. The Martians are nothing more than humans dressed in what look like pathetic third-rate Halloween costumes. The cheaply-constructed set--just check out the hysterical robot from the movie's poster, used as the DVD cover--looks as if, altogether, it cost about $500.00. And the actors are hammy and overblown beyond belief.

The storyline is that the children of Mars are collectively obsessed with watching Earth television, and are becoming deeply depressed because they don't have Santa Claus or Christmas on the Red Planet. Kimar, King of the Martians, and his wife Momar "Mom Martian", are distressed. The Grand Martian Council is convened and Kimar asks for their assistance. Voldar, a rather bellicose Martian, insists Santa Claus is a terrible influence, whose playful ways and amusing toys will only make the children of Mars "soft". Nonetheless, after seeking the counsel of Chochem, the oldest man on Mars (at 800 years), Kimar decides he and the council shall blast off to Earth and kidnap Santa Claus.

In describing this movie, I will use the phrase "special effects" with sarcastic quotation marks because they are so very, very badly done. Think of "Star Trek" and remove about 80% of the coolness of the original Trek world. The Martians arrive and meet Billy and Betty Foster, who explain that while the Martians had seen dozens of "Santas" through their telescope, the real one lives at the North Pole. The wee ones are promptly kidnapped and taken to Santa's Christmas workshop.

I should mention there is a dimwitted dolt Martian named Droppo whose bumblings help the tissue-paper-thin plot in a few instances. The actor who plays Santa makes for the oddest St. Nick ever seen: he chuckles dryly instead of ho-ho-ho-ing (f-r-e-a-k!). His overall presence may be likened to a socially backward bachelor uncle who makes everybody around him dreadfully uncomfortable; his hopelessly lame attempts at humor find Billy and Betty staring at him in disgust.

Santa and the kiddies are delivered to Mars, where Santa makes far-out space toys for the Martian children (of whom we see only Kimar's offspring, Girmar and Bomar. Wow, the effort that must have been expended in figuring out these Martian names...). One of the strangest scenes is when the four children "attack" Voldar with water pistols, foam dart guns, and wind-up toys. Santa Claus decrees Droppo the Idiot to be the official Martian version of himself and then he and the Fosters are returned to earth.

Perhaps there's only one good reason why this film needs to be visited: it's the epitome of kitschy and crazy, and the song "Hooray for Santy Claus" is certain to stick in your mind for some time (like it or not---actually, I found this jaunty little number to be the sole saving grace of this bizarre feature.)

While the Main does not possess this title, two county libraries do have it on DVD.



COME TO THE STABLE, 1949

The Sisters of the Holy Endeavor are not to be messed with, may be an apt summation of this old school Hollywood offering. Sister Margaret (Loretta Young, who also stars in The Bishop's Wife) has returned to America from France, where her religious order has its motherhouse; she'd served there in a hospital dedicated to kids during the horrors of World War II. Inspired by her order's mission, she comes to Bethlehem, Connecticut, with Sister Scholastica (Celeste Holm), intent on establishing a children's hospital there.

The nuns have nothing in their favor as they go about their way. The local bishop refuses to endorse their proposed mission. After wandering about without shelter, they are housed by Miss Amelia Potts (Elsa Lanchester), a reclusive artist who takes pity on them. Conceiving a plan to beg monies from local rich folk, they land on the doorstep of mob boss Luigi Rossi, a prototype of every mafia don known to the camera, whose reaction to being visited by nuns is amusing. Mr. Rossi lost his only son in the war, and is won over to the cause when promised that a stained glass window dedicated to his son's memory will be part of the hospital's chapel. Slowly, surely, and with a great deal of faith in their cause, the Sisters find the funds to have the hospital erected. The dedication Mass occurs on Christmas Eve, hence the tie-in to the holidays.

Based on a short story by Clare Booth Luce, this delightful tale is not yet available on DVD (very regrettable!--this is not uncommon, though; after all, All Mine to Give only made it to DVD on November 11!), although the Main does have it on videocassette.

*************************************

Brave, newly-orphaned pioneer children, enterprisingly optimistic Roman Catholic nuns, freakshow Martians converted by an extraterrestrial St. Nick, and a benevolent, nicotine-addicted rodent: quite the cinematic array for the holidays! Happy viewing!

BOOK BUZZ

The Reading Public Library will be hosting two opportunities to discuss the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Both are scheduled for Wednesday, December 17th, at the Main Library. We will reprise our "Brown Bag Discussion" over the lunch hour, from 12:15 until 1:00 pm, with beverage and dessert provided by the Library. The second is an evening session, which will begin at 7:00 pm and last one hour. Please register ahead of time by visiting the Reference Desk or calling us at (610) 655-6355.

Set in North Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees is the story of Lily Owens, a 14-year-old girl whose quiet existence is shattered by a terrible accident. The strained race relations of the day are played out when her nanny, African-American Rosaleen, faces violence as she sallies forth to exercise her newly-won right to vote. Lily and Rosaleen then hurriedly embark on an exile-adventure which Lily uses as an opportunity to find the town she hopes will tell her about her mother's shadowy past.

CHRISTMAS: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

The History of Christmas, A & E Home Video, 2008
NEW DVD 394.2663 His

The History Channel has compiled this new DVD from four previously-aired documentaries relevant to Christmas. The first is Christmas Unwrapped: The History of Christmas, which was originally released in 1997. It traces the tradition of celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25 to the fourth century and how various cultures have developed unique ways in honoring the holiday. England's traditions around Yuletide became more and more raucuous and profane with every century between the early Middle Ages and the inception of the Industrial Revolution; one of the commentators states a contemporary observer would mistake British Christmas rites of these years for our Halloween or Mardi Gras. Debauchery, dipsomania, and depravity overruled any sense of divinity or devotion. Dear oh dear...

When the Puritan separatists established themselves in the New World, they outlawed Christmas entirely--as did Oliver Cromwell in England in the years following their exodus to America. Another historian on the program muses that one of the reasons for the Restoration of the Monarchy with the enthronement of King Charles II in 1649 was that the English missed their traditional Christmas revelries, which had been brutally suppressed by the Protectorate.

Due to its Pilgrim heritage, the United States would continue to largely ignore Christmas altogether. Congress even sat in session every 25th of December from 1789 through 1856. It was not until immigrants from other parts of Europe--Germany in particular, and, later, from southern and eastern regions--began arriving in large numbers starting in the mid-19th century that Christmas observances truly took root in America.

History Channel's Biography presents the life stories of famous people, and in 2003 it focused on the most recognizable ambassador of the Christmas season: Santa Claus. From the real-life St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (in modern Turkey; he died in 346), a patron of small children, came the modern-day elf. St. Nicholas has historically been significant during the Christmas holiday because his feast is kept on December 6. As a favorite help-mate of sailors, he found fervent fidelity among the Dutch, whose name for him--Sinter Klaus--was the forerunner of the English "Santa Claus". Another alias, Kris Kringle, comes from a German moniker--Christkindl--an idea of Martin Luther's, a patriarch of the Protestant Reformation. Luther taught that the Christ Child (Christkindl in German) was the bringer of children's Christmas gifts rather than St. Nicholas, whose Roman Catholic overtones he wished to dispel from his new church.

Descriptions of Claus varied wildly (I particularly enjoyed the sketch of a Santa looking like an inebriated vagrant being drawn in a sled...by a huge turkey...) until Clement Clarke Moore's poem, "A Visit From St. Nicholas", appeared in a New York newspaper in 1823. Most of us would recognize the most famous Christmas poem of all time by it's first line: " 'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house", etc. His appearance as jolly, portly, and merry set the tone for his personality; Moore also both introduced and named Santa's legendary flying reindeer. The clergyman also founded Santa's modus operandi for entering domiciles: down the chimney.

Weird U.S. is another History Channel program, with hosts Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman roving across America in search of odd and bizarre historical tidbits, folklore, and traditions.

"It's A Wonderful Time to Be Weird" (aired in 2005) focuses on sundry off-kilter Christmas activities seen across the land. They visit NORAD (the national aerospace defense system) in Denver, Colorado, where Santa's celestial progress is monitored and reported annually. The federal agency's place in the national Xmas schema dates to the mid 1950s. Denver-area children began calling a local telephone number advertised as a direct line to Santa Claus, but due to a misprint, the newspaper had advertised NORAD's emergency line instead. The staff, delighted to be given the opportunity to play Father Christmas' go-between with the youngsters, have charted his global positions every year since, and now incorporate it into their official website on Christmas Eve.

Mark and Mark also embark on a pilgrimage to Minnesota to explore the traditional Yuletide dish of lutefisk among Norwegian Americans. Translated literally, the dish means "lye fish"--truth in advertising, as the jellied end product is indeed whitefish treated with the harsh chemical (a key ingredient in drain cleaners--good heavens!). Humorist Garrison Keillor, a native Minnesotan, recalls this pungent dish in an excerpt from his famous Lake Wobegon Days:

"Every Advent we entered the purgatory of lutefisk, a repulsive gelatinous fishlike dish that tasted of soap and gave off an odor that would gag a goat. We did this in honor of Norwegian ancestors, much as if survivors of a famine might celebrate their deliverance by feasting on elm bark. I always felt the cold creeps as Advent approached, knowing that this dread delicacy would be put before me and I’d be told, 'Just have a little.' Eating a little was like vomiting a little, just as bad as a lot."

Their peregrinations take a local turn when the duo interviews Pastor Harry Walther, a radio personality and minister from Media, a suburb of Philadelphia. Pastor Harry enthusiastically decries the very mention of Santa Claus in any manner, claiming he is an incarnation of evil (and yes, he is in earnest, although I found him and his lunatic-fringe creed impossible to take seriously). He even sells burnable effigy Santa dolls on his website, encouraging people to light poor Santa's likeness aflame in revolt against "the Satanic lie of Santa" (and I'm quoting him directly!). Mark and Mark react with great indignation and amusement upon leaving Harry and his Santa-driven tirades behind them.

The final selection, Christmas Tech, checks out the nuts-and-bolts backstories to some of the season's outward manifestations. It explains how the massive evergreen found each year in Rockefeller Center is selected, acquired, moved, and erected. The much-touted street-level windows of the great Macy's Department Store of Manhattan are graphically described, from idea conception to final implementation. And the processes used to create such ordinary Christmas festoons as tree lights, glass ornaments, and fruitcake (I know--most people recoil when faced with the prospect of this traditional Yuletide confection, but I happily anticipate nibbling on some every December) are exhaustively researched.

All in all a very thorough, entertaining, and erudite (the Marks from Weird U.S. even visit a Columbia University Professor of Physics, who calculates how Santa Claus gets around the world in time to deliver hundreds of millions of Christmas treats--a segment I walked out of the room during because I break out in a rash if exposed to anything mathematical...) treatment of all things Yule, and one I think most would enjoy.

EYE SPY

We recently added a clever new tome to our nonfiction: A Natural History of Seeing: The Art and Science of Vision, by Simon Ings (W.W. Norton, 2008)--catalogued NEW 612.84 Ing. It arrived on our shelves in mid-October and is a broadly painted survey of all things related to human sight.

I haven't read this book through but did pick through it and found it illuminating. The cover is a tad creepy--all these variegated orbs peering out of the dust jacket--but the subject matter is one with a paucity of coverage in our collection. I have relatively poor vision and cannot function without my glasses. I know a lot of people who find it odd I've never considered contact lenses, but since age nine I've had spectacles, and I have never wanted to relinquish them. I am quite eager to hear that my newest frames are ready for me to collect, as they should be any day now.

I had my eye exam last weekend at a place I'd never used before, which meant filling out requisite paperwork assuring the establishment that yes, indeed, I have insurance coverage. I got to the question inquiring as to my last checkup and filled in 2004. The optometrist was concerned. "You know you should be coming in every two or, at the most, three years to have your eyes examined", she pronounced solemnly.

Then I told her about my last experience in the clutches of an optometrist.

Over four years ago I merrily strolled into the eye exam room (is it just me, or are they always a shade claustrophobic? And what do eye doctors have against windows? Oh, of course. "It interferes with our testing procedures", etc. Still, most of them could certainly use some light...and fresh air) of an eye-care chain and subjected myself to the typical barrage of ocular ministrations. After several tests, the doctor ogled directly into my left cornea, daintily harrumphed, and then made several mysterious notations in my chart. Wondering what was going on, I asked if anything was wrong.

She looked slightly bemused as she informed me there was an abnormality in my left eye. I considered that I hadn't encountered any aberrant vision in that eye. I'd not felt any pain or discomfort in it, either. And, after having shared as much with the doctor, I asked what the problem might be. She looked mystified as she explained she didn't really know. "It could be anything from a minor ruptured capillary to an advanced retinoblastoma!", she chirped. Smilingly. And then rapidly made her egress. I sat there, waiting for her to reappear and perhaps lay out a plan for further examination, but she didn't come back.

Horrified, as I moved from the examination chamber to the Endless Wall of Eyewear, half-blinded with worry for my very life, I feebly attempted to select new frames. Rather than focusing on which style I might prefer, I instead envisioned myself first going completely blind, then succumbing to a particularly gruesome death involving an enormous eye-tumor.

Besides having dealt with an eye doctor with apparently little-to-no medical skill (or much of a bedside manner, to be sure), there was no follow-up---whatsoever. When I returned two weeks later for my glasses I had to specifically ask for her, then inquire as to whether or not anything more was learned about my poor eyeball .

"It was nothing!", she cheerfully enthused as she pirouetted swiftly away from me, ushering her next victim into her tiny eyeball closet. I dubiously made my way to the counter to retrieve my spectacles, wondering whether or not this woman's medical diplomas were all self-generated while simultaneously refusing to consider seeking a second opinion. I'd resign myself to a caulifloweresque tumor rupturing behind my eye socket before falling prey to another optometrist anytime soon.

So, when I recently made the acquaintance of a different optometrist at a department store who conducted the exact same tests, I was hardly surprised when she quietly murmured, "Well isn't that neat" as she stared into my dilated sinister eye. Bracing myself for something awful, she went on to ask if she could photograph my eyes. Considering this might actually illuminate what was so unique about Lefty, I readily agreed. The results were explained easily (some overlapping of my optic nerve, an anomaly that is, amusingly, not that unusual) and I was jubilant that I had a knowledgable professional who actually bothered explaining things.

I also got to keep a photo of Freaky Left. I am delighted, and am considering integrating it into a Christmas card and sending it to Former Optometrist, perhaps with the lyrics to the carol "Do You Hear What I Hear?" (highlighting the line: "DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE???") making up the seasonal message...

SOUNDS OF THE SEASON

One's Thanksgiving dinner has scarcely been digested when one realizes that Christmas is a scant twenty-odd days off, faithful blog reader! Over the weekend I brought out my collection of Yuletide CDs and realized that several of the albums I possess are also holdings in the Main Library's music offerings. I enthusiastically recommend each and every one of these CDs to anyone who wishes to be surrounded by joyful seasonal melodies...


A Christmas Gift For You by Phil Spector, 1963
R COLL CGY P 05

Phil Spector is more infamous as a murder suspect than recording artist in recent history, but his highly original "Wall of Sound" production technique with girl groups and other artists in the early 1960s led to an American music revolution. His ex-wife, Ronnie Bennett, was the original lead singer of the Ronettes, who feature prominently on this album.

Their rendition of "Sleigh Ride" completely revamped the seasonal favorite; their takes on "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" and "Frosty the Snowman" are similarly upbeat. Darlene Love lends her passionate style to one of my favorite recordings of "Marshmallow World"; she also covers "White Christmas" and was the original artist to perform "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", which was, sadly, a failure at the time (Bono and U2 would do much better with this maudlin ditty many years later).

The Christmas Gift's release date disastrously transpired on November 22, 1963--the day President Kennedy was assassinated. Due to that unfortunate coincidence the album originally had very sluggish sales; since then, however, the songs it shares have become American Christmas classics.


50 Most Loved Christmas Carols, 2005
The Sheridan Ball Singers with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
R SHER FML S 28

The sheer volume of carols this compendium offers makes it an ideal selection for Christmas listening. The fifty recordings cover all the standards--"Joy to the World", "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", and "The First Nowell", among many others--but, at least for me, also opened my ears to several tunes before which I'd never heard. Among them are the "Gloucestershire Wassail", whose lyrics are a bit difficult to grasp (I had to do some research on them before I learned their meaning), but the gist of its final verses are that if the butler of the house where the carolers have come doesn't bring them something to drink, they'll resort to stampeding down the door. Ah, the holiday traditions of merry Olde England...

"Break Forth, O Beauteous, Heavenly Light", played with a resounding pipe organ's accompaniment, was another treasure I delighted in discovering. "O Sing a Song of Bethlehem", whose verses relay the stages of the life of Christ from Bethlehem to Calvary, was a third, and I enjoy this collection especially because these two lovely carols are part of it.

Christmas Around the World with Andre Rieu, 2006
R RIEU CW R 19

Andre Rieu has revitalized interest in classical music like no other artist in recent decades, and his holiday musical performances are perennial hits. Rieu, his orchestra, and various vocalists lean heavily on German-derived carols on this album ("Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht", "Sah Ein Knab Ein Roslein Stehen", and "Abends Will Ich Schlafen Gehen"), but other nationalities (The United States, Italy, France, England, and the Netherlands among them) are indeed represented. A rollicking, sprightly performance, the likes of which Rieu fans have come to know and adore.


A Nostalgic Merry Christmas to You, various artists, original recordings from 1915-1949 (released 1999)
R COLL NMC A 15

Nat "King" Cole toodling "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." (the first line of "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You"), 1946. Pennsylvania's native son, Perry Como, extolling a "Winter Wonderland" (also from 1946). And for anyone who grew up among Americans of Eastern European descent (as did I), the galloping gleefulness of "The Merry Christmas Polka"--sung by Dinah Shore in 1949 on this album--most certainly inspires sentimental nostalgia.

However, it's the arcane tunes on this CD which I found of even greater interest. Arthur Tracy, a British baritone of lengthy career, recalls "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot"--a reminder that many children experience the same hardship and suffering on Christmas Day as they do the rest of the year, even if the aspersions cast on the jolly old elf seem rather gratuitous (who can imagine Santa actually overlooking one of his little devotees?). One of Ireland's premiere opera stars, John McCormack, gives a stirring (if static-ridden--but then, it was recorded in 1915) rendition of "Adeste Fideles" (the original Latin of "O Come, All Ye Faithful"). And Peter Dawson recounts "The Miner's Dream of Home", telling of a lonely miner whose unconscious mental meanderings find him back at his homestead at New Year's, reuinted with his long-since-seen mother and dad (recorded in 1930).

Bing Crosby's Christmas Classics by Bing Crosby, recorded from 1950 through 1977 (released 2006)
R CROS BCC C 20

Mr. Bing Crosby may well be referred to as "Mr. Christmas", so ubiquitous has his vocal presence been among holiday music since the 1930s. The first track is, appropriately, "White Christmas", Bing's signature Christmas offering, made wildly popular by the sentiments of American servicemen and women serving abroad in World War II; it also featured prominently in the film of the same name in which he starred in 1954.

Other wonderful ditties include "Do You Hear What I Hear", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", and "What Child Is This?". His now-classic duet with David Bowie, "Peace on Earth/The Little Drummer Boy", was recorded in September of 1977, a few short months before Crosby's death. Generations have happily welcomed Bing Crosby's crooning style into their lives at Christmastime, and if you haven't, I invite you to do the same!

HAPPY LISTENING!