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Watch
HD video about this Painting
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Important
national events of the 1920s to mid-1950s that profoundly affected the way
we celebrated Christmas will be included. The youth of today will
experience the sadness of the Depression and World War II. They will see
how we survived really hard times. One rather amazing event in the plans
will be a re-enactment of the re-supplying of our troops by air in the
Battle of the Bulge during Christmas of 1944. The actual types of aircraft
that gallantly flew then are ready and waiting in Texas. They have
uniforms, actors, a camera plane, and everything else we need to go back to
1944.
This will contrast with the utter jubilation of 1949, when we were blessed
with eight new Christmas songs at once. One of them was Rudolph.
We did go a bit wild, making Rudolph statues out of plywood for the front
yard.
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Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town:
One of the first new Christmas songs depicted in the movie
was written on a subway car in New York. A painting was commissioned in
order for us to see this romantic scene at the time of creation. On October
13, 1933, a famous songwriter, Haven Gillespie wrote Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town on the back of an envelope. He
was on his way to the publisher, Leo Feist. Ethel
Shutta sang it on the Eddie Cantor radio show two
weeks before Thanksgiving. It became a national sensation. By the 5th of
December, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town had
sold more sheet music than any song in history. It was the first Christmas
song to hit via radio.
There is actually a lot more to this story. We will hear about the
creation of more than 20 other songs during the course of the show. Some
were an instant hit like this one, while another took 10 years to get from
a book to becoming a song. Most people who have heard these stories were
riveted with fascination as the tales were being told.
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Jingle Bells was written by James Pierpont
in this house in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1850. Oddly enough, the song
was not a big hit amongst most of the townspeople. It was sung mostly by
school children and folks in the sleigh races. By the Christmas seasons
of 1855 and 1856, James Pierpont was down south in Savannah. Everyone in
Savannah loved this jolly song from the snowy north. Pierpont decided to
send in for a copyright in December of 1856.
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Medford
Savannah
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Christmas Eve 1822, Chelsea, New York. Clement C. Moore reads his
new poem to his family, 'Twas
the Night Before Christmas. Seen are his wife, Eliza,
Margret in white 7, Charity in red 6, Ben 4, Mary 3, Clement Jr. 2, and
Emily 8 months.
Painting by Denver artist Harold Shuler. Commissioned by Christmas
historian Thomas H. Carlisle.
Watch
HD video of this Painting
See
America's Christmas Museum http://nationalchristmascenter.com
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