No man is a failure who has friends.

December 20, 1946 -
The Frank Capra film It's A Wonderful Life had a preview showing for charity at New York City's Globe Theatre, (a day before its official premiere) on this date.





But wait ...



The film is no longer available online – please enjoy the 1947 Lux Radio Theatre broadcast.



The film is regarded as a classic and is a staple of Christmas television around the world, although, due to its high production costs and stiff competition at the box office, financially, it was considered a flop.



There have been countless parody of this classic film -













(Another, more adult alternate ending of the film) -



This is truly a strange little film.




ACME Eagle Hand Soap would like to share with you another of their annual salute to the holidays via Rock and Roll (well, some Rock and Roll).


Run Rudolph Run  Chuck Berry –



The song holds the record for the longest amount of time between a song hitting the charts and then breaking into the Top 10. When it was released in December 1958, it went to #69 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2019, it re-entered the chart at #45, and in January 2021 - 62 years and two weeks after its chart debut - it reached its peak at #10.


Christmas All Over Again  Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers –



The song was recorded for A Very Special Christmas 2, benefiting the Special Olympics.


What Would Santa Do   The Monkees –



Yes I know, they're almost all gone now.


Please Come Home For Christmas  The Eagles –



Charles Brown was a Texas blues musician who recorded the popular R&B Christmas song Merry Christmas Baby in 1947. Please Come Home For Christmas is a very melancholy Christmas song, as the singer has lost his girl and finds himself unbearably lonely over the holidays. Brown wrote it with Gene Redd, who was a New York producer that went on to guide the career of Kool & the Gang.


Father Christmas  The Kinks –



In England, Father Christmas is the personification of Christmas, in the same way as Santa Claus is in the United States. Although the characters are now synonymous, historically Father Christmas and Santa Claus have separate entities, stemming from unrelated traditions.


Here's a holiday song I'm guessing you haven't heard - Carol of the Bells, featuring Stephen Colbert and Henry Rollins:



The internet meme Ding! Fries Are Done is the anthem of a Burger King worker named Billy set to the tune of Carol of the Bells. It originated in 1993 on the mysterious singer's cassette album A Very Spastic Christmas and gained attention the following year on the Dr. Demento radio show. In 2006, Peter Griffin covered the song on the Family Guy episode Deep Throats. Despite the cartoon's popularity, interest in the song waned not long after the episode aired.


And, of course, Santa Claus Is Comin To Town  Bruce Springsteen –



Bruce Springsteen released the song as the B-Side to My Hometown in 1985 ( he had been playing it in concert for years,) and it quickly became a holiday staple. Strangely, many people consider it one of the worst Christmas songs.

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... if you want something done, ask a woman ...

Acme's annual salute to the holidays via Rock and Roll.  First up - Do you hear what I hear?: Female Performers:


River   Joni Mitchell –



The song is about the recent split of a romantic relationship, with the singer needing to escape her immediate surroundings and emotional connections as they are too painful. It is said to be inspired by Joni Mitchell's 1968 to 1970 relationship with fellow artist Graham Nash.


Run Rudolph Run   Norah Jones –



Chuck Berry based this tale on Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, giving Rudolph a bit of an attitude as he delivers the toys. Unlike Santa, however, Rudolph is copyrighted, and Berry had to give the publishing rights to Johnny Marks, who wrote the original Rudolph. Perhaps if Berry had used "Randolph" (another reindeer he mentions), he could have kept the publishing.


Underneath the Tree   Kelly Clarksons -



Accompanied by various instrumental sounds, the song prominently incorporates a Phil Spector-like Wall of Sound treatment along with sleigh bells and bell chimes to resonate a holiday atmosphere


Snow   Tracy Thorn –



This song is one of many songs Randy Newman wrote in the days before he became a recording artist of his own songs and was writing songs for other artists to record. Another beautiful version of the song was recorded (but never original released) by Harry Nilsson. Newman has never recorded the song himself.


2000 Miles   The Pretenders -



While many people believe the song's title and lyrics refer to two long-distance lovers who miss each other over the holidays, it was actually written for James Honeyman-Scott, the group's original guitarist, who died the year before the song was released.


Silent Night    Annie Lennox -



It is believed that the carol has been translated into over 300 languages around the world, and it is one of the most popular carols of all time.


Merry Christmas Baby   Sheryl Crow -



Although the song is credited to Johnny Moore and Lou Baxter, blues songwriter and singer Charles Brown insisted he was really the song's co-writer, not Moore.


Let It Snow  Lucious Jackson –



This was written by the lyricist Sammy Cahn and the Broadway songwriter Jule Styne in 1945. Although this song is associated with Christmas, there is no mention of the holiday in the lyrics. It's about making the most of a snowy day by spending it with a loved one by the fire.


And of course the holiday favorite - Christmas Wrapping The Waitresses -



When Chris Butler wrote this song, he was not feeling very festive. The Waitresses were signed to ZE Records, whose boss, Michael Zilkha, asked the bands on his roster to each come up with a Christmas song that would go on a holiday compilation issued by the label. The Waitresses were in the middle of a grueling tour, and weren't happy about the task, especially since it was July and they weren't exactly in the Christmas spirit.

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Christmas came, just the same

We are smack dab in the middle of the holiday season, given Christmas is a mere week away! Why not join The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour in celebrating that How the Grinch Stole Christmas! written by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel was published as a book by Random House in December of 1957. The book criticizes the commercialization of Christmas and the holiday season.

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! the CBS animated special based on the book of the same title by Theodor Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss), directed by legendary cartoon director Chuck Jones, premiered on this date. The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour would like you to join us in watching this fun holiday special, so push away from pile of gifts you are wrapping, if you can, get comfortable and enjoy the show.



The special is notably the first prime-time animated television special based on a Dr. Seuss book, it features narration by Boris Karloff (who also voiced the title character) and music written by Albert Hague.



Here's a brief interview with Chuck Jones involvement with the special -



Boris Karloff was picked to voice the Grinch after Chuck Jones heard a recording of him reading Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book stories (which Jones was a fan of).



Here's a 'making of' documentary of the special, hosted by the late Phil Hartman -



and finally some very rare original commercials from the original broadcast -



Much like the Coca Cola sponsor plugs from A Charlie Brown Christmas, the original broadcast of How The Grinch Stole Christmas was sponsored by the Foundation for Full Service Banks and featured plugs for them at the beginning and end of the special. These have since been edited out of subsequent airings and are quite difficult to find, however they recently resurfaced in 2021.



So, welcome, Christmas, bring your cheer. Cheer to all Whos far and near. Christmas Day is in our grasp, so long as we have hands to clasp. Christmas Day will always be just as long as we have we. Welcome Christmas while we stand, heart to heart, and hand in hand.


While the Grinch is now a beloved holiday classic, it is a strange little tale. This got us thinking about how strange some Christmas songs really are - so our second feature of the day is Odd Christmas songs:

Merry Something To You  Devo -



“Believe what you want to,” sings Gerald Casale, “nothing’s really true.” That's the Christmas spirit.


Santa Claus The Original Hippie   Homer & Jethro -



Patent leather boots? Check. Psychedelic clothes? Check. Granny glasses? Check. Pot belly? Yep, the “thinking man’s hillbillies,” as Knoxville, Tennessee’s Henry “Homer” Haynes and Kenneth “Jethro” Burns were known, nailed Santa’s underground origin on this laid-back track.


Christmas At The Airport  Nick Lowe -



Set during a nightmare layover, Nick Lowe combats the frozen hellscape and creeping ennui with music-hall humor and a little jangly guitar.


Flappie   Todd Rundgren -



Please note that no rabbits were eaten during the recording of this song.


I Wanna Goat For Christmas  The Wilder Brothers -



I have no idea why this kid wants a goat. And I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.

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Say boy, what day is it?

Will you profit from what I've shown you of the good in most men's hearts?

Today is the 191th anniversary of the publication of Charles Dicken's story - A Christmas Carol.


There are literally dozens of adaptations of A Christmas Carol. Let's take a look at a few of them:

A Christmas Carol (1910) -



This is one of the earliest film adaptations of the story. It featured Marc McDermott as Ebenezer Scrooge and Charles S. Ogle as Bob Cratchit.


Scrooge (1935) -



This film is the first live action production to include the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come's scene of Scrooge's shrouded corpse as in the book.


The Christmas Carol (1938) -



Carl Barks' Uncle Scrooge McDuck was probably based physically on this version of Ebenezer Scrooge, with the fringe of hair and the small tuft of hair on the top of his head.


The Christmas Carol (1949 TV special) -



This is a very rare example of a 1940s television broadcast still surviving in entirety. In the infancy of television, programs were always broadcast live because videotape recording technology did not yet exist.Although crude (a film camera was pointed at a television monitor filming the broadcast,) it was the only available method to record a live broadcast during the earliest days of television.


Scrooge (1951) This is the favorite in the Caligari manse-



Scrooge was likely based on a real person named John Meggot (born John Elwes), who was a local celebrity, a member of Parliament, and a famous miser from Charles Dickens' part of England. Meggot was dead by the time Dickens was born, but he heard quite a bit about "Scrooge" from locals where he grew up.


Scrooge (1970) -



Not noted for being a singer, Albert Finney nevertheless insisted that the final number be sung live instead of synced like the other songs in the film. Finney played the last song with an earpiece giving him his musical cues and he nailed it on the first take.


Blackadders Christmas Carol (1988) -



It has been noticed by some that Robbie Coltrane's costume and character in this Christmas special, has a nearly identical portrayal to his much later role as Hagrid, in the film versions of J.K.Rowling's series of Harry Potter books. Also, its been claimed that JK Rowling herself had said Robbie Coltrane was always intended to have been cast as Hagrid in the films, suggesting that this Blackadder episode may in part have inspired the creation of Hagrid.


A Christmas Carol (1999) -



During the 1990s, Patrick Stewart wrote and starred in a one-man play based on A Christmas Carol, performing it in various places in the United States and the United Kingdom. He performed it again for the survivors and victim's families of 9/11, and again in 2005. In the play, he performed over forty different characters.


Please join us in watching what could be the greatest mash-up ever, or at least the most labor intensive. Heath Waterman spent 18 months putting together this labor of love, retelling the story of Ebenezer Scrooge in his video A Christmas Carol Encyclopedia, Stave 1 (which is an update of his original Twelve Hundred Ghosts - A Christmas Carol in Supercut.)




Mr. Waterman uses clips from over over 850 sources to make this holiday classic. (Make it your business to watch this!)


And there is no better way to get into the holiday spirit than drinking spirits -

Eggnog is usually thought of as a Christmas beverage and to tell the truth I am not a huge fan of Eggnog. So I find it amusing that the recipe that I'm posting is for Eggnog (Above is a copy of my family recipe - my father sent it to his sister in 1962.)

Coquito, a Puerto Rican twist on the classic, is a family favorite and I thought I'd share it with you and perhaps you can try it out on your family.

Please note: these drinks go down quite smoothly and are very potent - they could be administered as a calmative for frayed nerves during the holiday season.

Ingredients:

* 4 large egg yolks
* 1/4 cup of sugar
* 1/2 can of (14-ounces) condensed milk
* 1 14-ounce cans evaporated milk
* 1 1/2 cans of 15-ounce cans cream of coconut
* 1/2 of a Fifth of white rum (or more)
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1 teaspoon coconut (or vanilla) extract


Tools:

* Drink Blender
* Can opener
* Glass


Directions:


Add the egg yolks, sugar, spices and vanilla into the blender. Mix until well blended.

Add the evaporated & condensed milk to the blender and briefly mix. (Condensed milk is very thick - you may want to open the can up all the way and scrap out all of the milk with a spatula.)

Vigorously shake the can of cream of coconut (it tends to separate.) Pour the cream of coconut into the blender and mix well. Scrap out any remaining coconut stuff from the can.

Add the rum and mix. Taste. If you think you need more rum, add it.

Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. Serve cold.


A Christmas Carol Tom Lehrer -

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I got these choices just under the wire

Happy Holidays! I'm sure you are just starting to run around doing your holiday shopping. So why not sit back and relax (quick, find the most comfortable seat on the sofa,) get a snack (perhaps, some popcorn,) and a beverage before our special starts, here's our final guest programmer with her favorite Christmas jingles (once again, I had to gently press her for two days to get her to give me this list.)

Here's another guest programmer with her favorite Christmas jingles (once again, I had to gently press her to get her to give me this list.)

Remember, it's the holidays (there are no bad choices, especially if the guest programmer lives in my house. There also seems to be some duplications between some of the guest programmers)


Christmas Time Is Here    Vince Guaraldi Trio -



Originally, this was an instrumental piece that Vince Guaraldi wrote to open A Charlie Brown Christmas. About a month before it aired, Lee Mendelson, who produced the special, decided it might work better with some words, so he wrote the lyric in about 10 minutes sitting at his kitchen table.


Drummer boy   Justin Bieber -



This Christmas classic was originally a Czech song that Katherine Kennicott Davis translated to English in 1941. Under the title Carol Of The Drum, it was covered by the Austrian Trapp Family Singers (of The Sound Of Music fame) a decade later, but a new arrangement titled The Little Drummer Boy was popularized by the Harry Simeone Chorale in 1958.


Jingle Bells   Frank Sinatra -



The words and music for this Christmas classic were written by James Lord Pierpont, a popular American composer, in 1857 with the title of One Horse Open Sleigh. Pierpont was a member of a staunch Unitarian Church family, and his father was a minister. It was originally written for a local Sunday school entertainment on Thanksgiving Day in Savannah, Georgia. Its catchy tune was soon taken up by Christmas revelers.


Do You Hear What I Hear?   Bing Crosby -



Married couple Noel Regney and Gloria Shayne Baker penned this Christmas carol in October 1962. Generally it was Baker who wrote the lyrics for their songs while Regney composed the music, but in this instance it was the other way around. Regney's lyrics are a plea for peace, and they were written during the Cuban Missile Crisis when the USSR was spotted constructing bases for ballistic nuclear missiles in Cuba. These weapons had the ability to strike most of the continental United States and a confrontation was only averted when they were dismantled at the US president's insistence. Baker stated in an interview with the Los Angeles Times years later that neither could personally perform the entire song at the time they wrote it because of the emotions surrounding the incident. "Our little song broke us up. You must realize there was a threat of nuclear war at the time."


Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree    Brenda Lee -



Brenda Lee was just 13 years old when she recorded this song. Known as "Little Miss Dynamite," she stood 4'9". Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree wasn't Lee's first Christmas single. Back in 1956 she recorded two novelty festive tunes: I'm Gonna Lasso Santa Claus, and Christy Christmas as "Little Brenda Lee."


Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays    *NSYNC -



The song was released on November 29, 1998 as the first and only single from their second studio album, Home for Christmas and was also featured on the end credits of the 1998 Disney Christmas movie I'll Be Home For Christmas.


Before you go - Once again, I'm going to play a perennial favorite bonus track (in our house, anyway) - the inspired mash-up of Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You and My Chemical Romance's Welcome To The Black Parade.



In case you've ever wondered what Thom Yorke would sound like singing a Christmas song



This is so perfectly matched that it seems it was written this way. I didn't think this one would work but give it a listen



Okay, maybe you've had enough of Mariah -



We'll end this session with the Mariah Carey/ Marilyn Manson mashup (by the brilliant Bill McClintlock.)


Sweet Dreams.



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There's no ego when you're a ukulele player.

When I was five my parents bought me a ukulele for Christmas. I quickly learned how to play it with my father's guidance. Thereafter, my father regularly taught me all the good old fashioned songs. – Tony Visconti

Let's make everyone a little happier - tonight's theme is a Uke Xmas


Mele Kalikimaka   Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters -




Carol of the Bells   Jake Shimabukuro -




Christmas Time Is Here    Cynthia Lin, Abe Lagrimas, Jr., & Ukulenny -




We Wish You A Merry Christmas    The Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain -




Silver Bells   She & Him -




Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree   Cynthia Lin -




ACME is proud to sponsor the annual U900 Christmas Special featuring Usagi-no U (Rabbit U) and Kuma-no Kulele (Bear 900)



- Nothing says Happy Holidays more that a pair of ukulele playing knitted puppets.



There's something about the ukulele that just makes you smile.

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ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (414)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our first holiday feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another ComiColor Cartoons cartoon, the 1934 Jack Frost, produced by Ub Iwerks.



The character Old Man Winter returned in the 1935 film Summertime.


Before the start of our feature presentation, in case you are already overwhelmed by the holidays, we another episode of The Puddles Pity Party Show, tonight featuring Jack Black:



Nothing says entertainment like Puddles and Jack Black.


As always, ACME wants you to join them in celebrating the holidays with your friends at The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour - the official soap of our nation's bald eagles. Remember if your bald eagle's talons are filthy, do we have a soap for you! We are smack dab in the middle of the holiday season, given Christmas is a mere week away! Why join The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour in watching the classic 1962 animated film Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol directed by Abe Levitow and features songs composed by Jule Styne, with lyrics by Bob Merrill. Jim Backus provides the voice of Magoo, with additional voices provided by Paul Frees, Morey Amsterdam, Joan Gardner, and Jack Cassidy. The special was the first animated Christmas special to be produced specifically for television



This version of A Christmas Carol is unique in that the first spirit to visit Scrooge is the Spirit of Christmas Present, followed by the Spirits of Christmas Past and Yet to Come, whereas in all other versions, Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past first, then Present, and then Yet to Come.


For the twelfth year in a row, the gentlemen from Bensonhurst were so moved by our themes concerning Frank and Dino that I have be persuaded (strong armed) by those gentlemen to present the 12th Annual Mobbed Up Christmas Special this year (our second theme of the evening).

(Let us be very clear - none of these singers are in anyway associated with organized crime.)

It's just that the usual suspects, Frankie Lupini, Molluschi Vincenzo, Joey Carrozza, etc, 'requested' these songs.


Merry Christmas Baby Dion -




Christmas In Herald Square Tony Bennett -




Silent Night Connie Francis -




It's Christmas At Our House Lou Monte -




Do You Hear What I Hear? Bobby Vinton -




Deck the Halls Vic Damone -




Christmas Tears Frankie Valli -




After many shots of Strega and plates of scungilli, baccalà alla vicentina and fried calamari, the boys want to wish everyone Buon Natale and Happy Hanukkah.

Demand Euphoria!