The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (412)

Happy Holidays to us all

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with the 1940 Merrie Melodies cartoon Holiday Highlights directed by Tex Avery.



"Tain't funny, McGee" refers to the tagline from the long running radio show, Fibber McGee and Molly.


Before the start of our feature presentation, in case you are already overwhelmed by the holidays, ACME Eagle Hand Soap would like to share with you this treat during this holiday season from the BBC: QI December Christmas Special -:



It should be mandatory that we watch Stephen Fry every holiday season!


The holiday season is once again upon us, we here at Acme are proud to continue sharing with you the Seventeenth Annual Holiday Video Festival. This weekend, perhaps you are starting to send out your holiday cards (most of the staff of ACME sent out their holidays before Thanksgiving; they wanted to start all of their friends holiday seasons by being the first card they receive.) Why not put The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour on in the background and watch this Lifetime Christmas film, On The 2nd Day Of Christmas, starring Mary Stuart Masterson, Mark Ruffalo, Lauren Pratt, and David Hewlett. So get those holiday cards out, get your mailing lists together and turn on tonight's movie, On The 2nd Day Of Christmas.



On the 2nd Day of Christmas doesn't break the mold of a 1990s romantic TV movie, but it manages to be a somewhat enjoyable time in spite of its genre's limitations. If you're a sucker for Lifetime's holiday programming, this is basically must-see entertainment.


Today’s second theme – A family is a risky venture, because the greater the love, the greater the loss...

The family you come from isn't as important as the family you're going to have. - Even kids abused by their domineering father



Today's second Christmas special - A Beach Boys Christmas




Toy Drive Public Service Announcement




Alone on Christmas Day –



The song was intended to appear on the never released 1977 Merry Christmas from the Beach Boys album.


Child of Winter (Christmas Song) –



This song was released two days before Christmas and thus had no chance of commercial success. It is now an almost impossible single to find and was released for the first time on album for the 1998 Ultimate Christmas set, though it was intended for the 1977 Christmas album.


Santa’s Got An Airplane –



The song uses the same instrumental track from Al Jardine's Loop De Loop, Flip-Flop.


I’ll be home for Christmas –



This was written by Walter Kent (music) and James Kimball “Kim” Gannon (words). Though Kent and Gannon collaborated on other songs, none reached the same level of popularity as this song.


Another Christmas song they got around to sing in between the verbal abuse from their father

The Man With All The Toys –



As a single in 1964, the song had limited success (No. 6 on the Billboard Christmas chart), but built sales over successive Christmases and is listed by Billboard in the Top 100 selling Christmas songs in history.





There is no place like home for the holiday.



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Sage words indeed

Santa Claus had the right idea. Visit people only once a year.

Today's first theme - our first guest programmer, the birthday girl.

As always, she has an interesting mix this year::


Simple Song from Mass Leonard Bernstein-



MASS is a musical theatre work composed by Leonard Bernstein with text by Bernstein and additional text and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy, it premiered on September 8, 1971, conducted by Maurice Peress. The performance was part of the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.


We Three Kings -



We Three Kings was composed in 1857 by American clergyman and hymnodist, John Henry Hopkins Jr., stands out for its vivid storytelling, offering a perspective from the Magi, or Wise Men, who traveled to see the newborn Jesus. The carol's lyrics describe their journey, gifts, and adoration, while the music complements the reverence of the scene. The song has been recorded by many artists over the years, and it remains a popular Christmas carol to this day.


O Holy Night - Josh Groban



This carol has the distinction of being the first song ever to be played live on a radio broadcast. On December 24, 1906 a Canadian inventor, Reginald Fessenden, broadcast one of the first ever AM radio programs, and the first ever to feature entertainment and music for a general audience, from his Brant Rock, Massachusetts station. After playing Handel's Largo on an Ediphone phonograph, he proceeded to play O Holy Night on his violin, singing the last verse as he played. He finished the broadcast by reading various passages from the Gospel of Luke, before wishing his listeners a Merry Christmas.


Silent Night in various languages -



The music was originally written in 1818, but a young priest named Father Joseph Mohr had written the lyrics — a six-stanza poem — two years earlier while working at a pilgrimage church in Mariapfarr, Austria. The song was written in German, and the title was Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht.


Carol of the Bells –



Most people automatically associate Carol of the Bells with Christmas, but its origins tell a different story. It's actually based on a traditional Ukrainian folk chant that celebrated the season of rebirth and anticipated a prosperous New Year. In 1916, composer Mykola Leontovich borrowed the four-note melody for a new choir song called Shchedryk, which debuted in the US at Carnegie Hall in 1921. When American choir director Peter Wilhousky heard the song, he wrote new lyrics and introduced his version, called Carol of the Bells to holiday audiences. He copyrighted and published it in 1936.


Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle  -



The carol is an Italian Christmas Carol written by St. Alphonsus Ligouri in 1732.


Mary would like to wish all the readers, both old and new, a very Happy Holiday!


A complete change of pace.
Ike was absolutely correct, we truly need to beware ‘the military-industrial complex.’ I had been highly suspicious of the follow statistic – the US has been involved in some form of ‘armed military‘ conflicts 228 out of the 245 years of it’s existence. But I’ve tracked it across a number of different sources, for example 1, 2 & 3, and a consensus seems to be that we are a very war-like nation. So it is very easy to see how the true reason for the holidays is lost in the fog of war –

The Christmas Truce on the Western Front of 1914 –




I'm Sending A Letter To Santa Claus Vera Lynn -




World War II Christmas Radio with Ginger Rogers




Christmas message 1952 -




There's Peace In Korea Sister Rosetta Tharpe -




Christmas in Viet Nam Soul Searchers -




I Want To Come Home For Christmas Marvin Gaye –



What set the Christmas songs of the Vietnam War apart was their naked honesty concerning the plight of the soldier. These guys weren’t very happy to be there – at least, they didn’t stay that way very long after going “in country.”


Bob Hope USO Christmas Special from the Persian Gulf –




Christmas in Fallujah  Billy Joel –




Christmas Day from Afghanistan 2017 –




Happy Xmas (War Is Over) –





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The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.

The holiday season is once again upon us and with the month nearly being over, we here at ACME are proud to bring you the Sixteenth Annual Holiday Video Festival. This week could be the start of the holiday season for some people (most of the staff of ACME start working on the holidays well before Thanksgiving but after Halloween; we're not insane,) and you may be decorating the house this week.

Go to Rio where they don't have Thanksgiving.



Here is a brief history of the holiday you may wish to share with your loved ones:



In the winter of 1620-1621, a group of immigrants in Massachusetts experienced a devastating winter. The weather was fierce. Food was scarce. Many died. At last spring came, then summer, and by the time of the autumn harvest things were looking about as rosy as they ever look in Massachusetts.

At a fundraising dinner that fall, Governor Bradford stood up and gave a speech:

“Thank God we survived last winter,” he said. “Thank God this harvest gives us a fighting chance to survive the coming winter. And thank you for your support in the last election, please make checks payable to the Committee to Re-Elect the Governor, God bless America, amen. Let’s eat.”

The ensuing winter didn’t turn out too badly, so the superstitious immigrants concluded that Governor Bradford’s magic spell of “Thanksgiving” had done the trick.

The holiday was intermittently celebrated for years, with an enthusiasm scaled to the previous winter’s weather, until November 26, 1789, when President Washington issued a proclamation calling for a nationwide day of thanksgiving for the establishment of the Constitution.

Washington’s proclamation wasn’t much different from Bradford’s:

“Thank God we survived last winter,” he said. “Thank God we’ve got a fighting chance to survive the coming winter. Thank God we’ve got our own damn country now and don’t have to put up with a bunch of meddling European bastards. And thank you for your support in the last election, please make checks payable to Federalists for Washington, God bless America, amen. Let’s eat.“

Washington, the Constitution, and many of the immigrants (who were now Americans) survived the winter, so this new spell was also deemed effective.



President Lincoln later proclaimed the last Thursday of November, Thanksgiving Day in 1863 (although he did not survive to see the next Thanksgiving),



but moved it back to the fourth Thursday of the month in 1939 to extend the time available for holiday shopping.

President Ford proposed making it the third Wednesday in September, in order to really extend the time available for holiday shopping, but he only made the proposal to his golden retriever, Liberty, so the suggestion never reached congress.



And so we celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November every year, in honor of having survived last winter, having got rid of those meddling European bastards, having invented our own rules and having plenty of time to shop before the holidays.



I know it sounds trite but please, take a moment to remember all of the people around our country who are homeless and out in the cold this evening.



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Notes from the ACME kitchen -

We'll be starting the 17th Annual Holiday Countdown spectacular tomorrow  (I hope,) but let's deal with the matter at hand - Thanksgiving Dinner:



If you are of a certain age and lived in the NYC area, this is what was playing on WPIX in the afternoon after the parade ended. (They are playing it again this Thanksgiving morning.)

I've posted an entire menu (it's basically here for my family but you're welcome to check it out.) Sorry I'm not with you this Thanksgiving; If you can't reach me by phone, here are the recipes you're probably looking for (I actually can promise you, if you start shopping today - Wednesday afternoon - with these recipes in hand - you can get this entire meal on the table by late Thursday that all your family will be very impressed with):


Shrimp Dip

Appetizers:
Carrots/ Celery Sticks
Pre-cubed Cheese from local deli
Olives

Vegetables:
Green Beans
Ginger Carrots
Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Potatoes
Here's a carb for your meal

Turkey w/ Stuffing

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Dessert
home made

or

Vanilla Ice Cream
Butter Pecan Ice Cream
Coffee/ Tea

(Make your guest bring beverages/ wine/ beer etc.)

Have a great Thanksgiving and hopefully you've remembered to check your guns at the door!

Words of wisdom -

Just in time for the holidays

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Kvetch —

- to complain, especially chronically



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Another early holiday suggestion

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ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (411)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Daffy Duck Looney Tunes cartoon, the 1967 Rodent to Stardom, (co-starring Speedy Gonzales,) directed by Alex Lovy.




This cartoon is a remake of A Star Is Bored, with Daffy wanting to be a movie star, only to be cast as a stunt double for the studio's main star


Before the start of our feature presentation, the staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour getting ready for Thanksgiving. Before they all left, they asking is you would watch another episode of Puddles Pity Show -



Once again we have to look in to Lumberjack's Firewood Snacks becoming a sponsor.


We've picked another entry from the excellent reference book, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die by Steven Jay Schneider. Today's film is the 1971 psychological thriller, Straw Dogs, directed by Sam Peckinpah, and starring Dustin Hoffman, and Susan George. The film was highly controversial when released, is now considered one of Peckinpah's best films. Straw Dogs is an undeniably hard film to watch and was censored in some places and outright banned in others. The pushback came from the film’s disturbing violence, in particularly a challenging rape scene that upset people for a variety of reasons. So push away from the table, get settled in and join us in watching Straw Dogs.



In the scene where David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) first enters the local pub, director Sam Peckinpah was unhappy with the other actors' reaction to this stranger entering their world. Eventually, he decided to do one take where Hoffman entered the scene without his trousers on. He got his reaction, and these are the shots shown in the final film.



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Joan had a not so stray thought

When the hell is this photo shoot over?

I'm sitting on the stem of a huge pumpkin and I usually get paid a lot more when I do stuff like this.



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Just in time for the holiday season

Once again, this is why mom took those Mother's Little Helpers.



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Please have a job that you're willing to quit -

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Another outburst from youth -

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Kismet —

- fate or destiny



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Could be a young neighbors first book -

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ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (410)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Daffy Duck Merrie Melodies cartoon, the 1967 Speedy Ghost to Town, {co-starring Speedy Gonzales,) directed by Alex Lovy.




This is the first cartoon to be directed by Alex Lovy, who would direct all Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts after this cartoon until Chimp & Zee in 1968.


Before the start of our feature presentation, the staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour would like to talk about martinis. A few of the amateurs that work here like a dirty vodka martini. I say phooey. As many of you and the makers of Bombay Sapphire Gin know, it must be straight up, bone dry, olives. I have sent back more poorly made drinks then many of you have had hot meals, but I digress ... We would like you to watch this video of several different bartenders show us how they make a martini -



When the bartender referred to a very dry martini as just a glass of cold gin, I had to be restrained.


We've picked another entry from the excellent reference book, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die by Steven Jay Schneider. Today's film is the 1971 crime drama, Wanda, directed by Barbara Loden , and starring Barbara Loden, and Michael Higgins. . The film is both a personal and political film. I have to say none of us had ever seen the film. We all enjoyed watching it and wanted to share it today. So push away from the table, get comfortable and join us in watching Wanda.



Barbara Loden got the idea for the movie after reading a newspaper article about a woman who thanked a judge for sentencing her to 20 years in prison for her participation in a bank robbery, as the woman said she had no sense of direction in her life and believed prison would give her stability. The woman's words resonated with Loden, who felt that she had lived much of her own life without a sense of stability, and who based the character of Wanda on herself at a younger age. Loden also drew inspiration from a book she read about the lives of prostitutes, one of whom recalled enjoying being bossed around by an abusive foster mother because it was the first time in her life someone had told her what to do.



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Oh Mickey -

You dirty dog

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I have only one question -

How high were they when they made these commercials?



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Remember, no experience necessary -

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Another stray thought on a Tuesday afternoon

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Kerplunk —

- a sound of something landing noisily



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First book for young marine biologists-

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ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (409)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Daffy Duck Looney cartoon, the 1967 The Spy Swatters, (co-starring Speedy Gonzales,) directed by Rudy Larriva.



This was the last of the three "buffer cartoons" produced by Format Films in between Warner Bros. ending its contract with previous Looney Tunes producers DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and re-establishing its own cartoon studio. Likewise, it is also the last short Rudy Larriva directed.


Before the start of our feature presentation, the staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour would like to watch with you another episode of Puddles Pity Show -



So by all means, please enjoy his show before the feature presentation. (It's a pretty good cover of the old Tony Bennett classic.)


We've picked another entry from the excellent reference book, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die by Steven Jay Schneider. Today's film is the 1971 blaxploitation crime drama (with the funkiest soundtrack ever!,) Shaft, directed by Gordon Parks , and starring Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John, and Lawrence Pressman. . The film became one of MGM's most profitable films that year, making over $13 million dollars during it's initial release. Richard Roundtree's portrayal of Shaft was groundbreaking for other black actor to be consider for leading men roles in Hollywood. While Shaft is now considered a quintessential New York movie, the studio fearing brutal NYC winters, nearly shot in Los Angeles. Through a combination of charm, perseverance, threats (that he'd quit if he had to film in Los Angeles), Gordon Parks convinced MGM executives to let him shot the film on location. Parks brought Shaft in on time and under budget ($500K). So push away from the table, get comfortable and join us in watching Shaft.



Isaac Hayes auditioned for the title role. Producers cast Richard Roundtree, but were so impressed with Hayes that they asked him to write the now legendary score to the film. Isaac Hayes was the first African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Song. In fact, he was also the first African-American to win an Oscar for a non-acting category.



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Dick had a stray thought -

If only I had an army of you guys,

I could have kept my damn job.



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Bunkies, if you're looking

to have that special relationship with a military man —



Remember to swim during a thunderstorm.



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Only very mature two year olds need apply —

It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.



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Even if you're not going to vote for Linus -

Do your patriotic duty and vote today!

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Juxtaposition —

Juxtaposition —





- the state of being close together or side by side



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This book could put a smile on your face -

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ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (408)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Daffy Duck Merrie Melodies cartoon, the 1967 The Music Mice-Tro, (co-starring Speedy Gonzales,) directed by Rudy Larriva.



This short is the second of three "buffer cartoons" produced by Format Films in between Warner Bros. ending its contract with previous Looney Tunes producers DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and re-establishing its own cartoon studio.


Before the start of our feature presentation, the staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour a warning from 70 years ago -



So remember, don't trust any flim flam man telling you the world is going to end unless you pay him.


We've picked another entry from the excellent reference book, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die by Steven Jay Schneider. Today's film is the 1971 crime drama, Get Carter, written and directed by Mike Hodges, and starring Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, John Osborne, Britt Ekland, and Bryan Mosley. The film had mixed reviews when released and seemed to languish in the drive-in circuit. The film eventually garnered a cult following, and was championed by directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie. In one of his most memorable roles, Michael Caine's Jack Carter is one of the most cold-blooded and merciless characters ever encountered. More than 50 year on, it still remains one of the best British gangster films ever made. So push away from the table, get comfortable and join us in watching Get Carter.



Mike Hodges was surprised that a star of Michael Caine's stature would want to play Carter. Caine said "One of the reasons I wanted to make that picture was my background. In English movies, gangsters were either stupid or funny. I wanted to show that they're neither. Gangsters are not stupid, and they're certainly not very funny." He identified with Carter as a memory of his working class upbringing, having friends and family members who were involved in crime and felt Carter represented a path his life might have taken under different circumstances: "Carter is the dead-end product of my own environment, my childhood. I know him well. He is the ghost of Michael Caine."



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Poor Linus —

Let down once again

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