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December 9, 1965 –A pre-teen drama about the bi-polar kid and his wacky friends first experiences of the depressive nature of the holiday season premiered on this date – A Charlie Brown Christmas broke many of the rules prevalent for animated holiday specials during the 1960s: it didn’t make use of a laugh track; realContinue reading “… Sleigh bell in the air …”

December 9, 1960 – The world’s longest running soap opera, Coronation Street, got it’s start on this date, airing on ITV in England. The program was broadcast live on that date. The series chronicles the lives of the residents of a backstreet terrace in Weatherfield, a fictional town in the north of England. William RoacheContinue reading “Coronation Street premiered”

The first Christmas card was created in England on December 9, 1843. Like most of us, Henry Cole, an Englishman, was too busy to write personal greetings for all of his Christmas greetings in 1843. Cole hired artist John Calcott Horsley to design a ready-to-be-sent card. The hand-colored card Horsley designed was lithographed on stiff,Continue reading “Get those cards out”

Useless Christmas Trivia: The lighting of candles and decorating with candles has always been popular, but also one of biggest sources of danger during the Christmas holidays. In 1895 a New England Telephone employee, Ralph Morris, while looking at the newly installed string of lights made for the telephone switchboard decided to take some homeContinue reading “Should this come up in conversation”

The theme of this week is that it is the week of Peace. The old ladies, saying rosaries in the back of church (to whom I turn to in all matters of religious instruction) tell me that this week is supposed to remind us that the person who arrived on Christmas came to be theContinue reading “Today is the start of the Second Week of Advent.”

I believe some of you are really going to need an old lady in church, saying the rosaries on a Tuesday afternoon in the back row of your church to explain this one to you: Pius IX promulgates the doctrine of Immaculate Conception (Ineffabilis Deus) – the Virgin Mary is free from original sin (andContinue reading “Believe me, it is connected to TV”

December 8, 1957 –The CBS series, The Seven Living Arts aired, The Sound of Jazz, live from their NYC studios: an all-star program featuring swing era and contemporary jazz artists, including Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, and many others, on this date. The show’s performance of Fine and Mellow reunited Billie HolidayContinue reading “The Sound of Jazz premiered”

December 8, 1976 –Asylum release the fifth studio album of the Eagles, Hotel California, on this date. Hotel California would go on to sell 16 million copies in the U.S. and double that figure worldwide.

December 7, 1979 –Kurtis Blow’s Christmas Rappin‘ by becomes the first rap song released on this date, by a major label – Mercury Records. It sells about 400,000 copies and provides the template for his next single, The Breaks, which becomes the first rap Gold record.

December 7, 1969 –Another Rankin/Bass production, Frosty the Snowman, premiered on CBS-TV on this date. June Foray was the original voice of Karen during the special’s first few airings in the early 1970s. However, an unknown actress replaced Foray’s voice for subsequent broadcasts. Foray was also the voice of Cindy Lou Who on How theContinue reading “He was alive as he could be for a cartoon character”