Simple Gifts - Part IV

This final gift I've left to unwrap until Christmas Eve is from R. O. Blechman himself.

In his distinctive style that is well known from The New Yorker,  Esquire, Punch, commercials and books he puts a sardonic, modern twist on the journey to Bethlehem.   Would this be the way it would really be for a man and his pregnant wife seeking a place to lay their heads in our modern world? 

As I said at the beginning of this series of posts I'm at a loss to understand why this gentle little special has not reappeared more often.  But perhaps it is better not to wonder but to simply repeat what Coleen Dewhurst says:

The failure to recognize a gift when it is offered to us shows us something within ourselves.  Let us leave that something open.  Let's us make room at the inn.

Thanking you for sharing this time with me and wishing you a Christmas of simple gifts richly bestowed and warmly received.

December 24 -  1955: NORAD Tracks Santa for the first time in what will become an annual Christmas Eve tradition.

Simple Gifts - Part I

This time of year those of my visitors who own televisions are not doubt inundated by seasonal specials - Rudolph, Frost, Peanuts et al.  It seems the same things turn up every year.  But there were some wonderful Christmas specials out there that made one or two appearances and then disappeared from sight.  Two years ago I mentioned A Child's Christmas in Wales but I also remember A Gift of Love, a gentle, touching TV movie with Angela Lansbury, Lee Remick and the much under-appreciated Polly Holliday,  PeeWee Herman's Christmas Special (the Christmas special to out special any special) and Simple Gifts, Six Episodes for Christmas.

Created for PBS in 1977, Simple Gifts was produced by illustrator, cartoonist and graphic novelist R. O. Blechman.  The premise was a simple one: actress Colleen Dewhurst offered us six "gifts" in the form of spoken word, music and animation vignettes with the hope that we would open our hearts and receive them in the spirit they were being given.

As well as contributing a segment himself, Blechman called on fellow artists Maurice Sendak, James McMullan, Seymour Chwast, and Charles B. Slackman to create graphics  to match words by writers as varied as Sendak, Virginia Woolf, a young Teddy Roosevelt, Moss Hart and Sir Edward Hulse.  The stories were voiced by Hermione Gingold, José Ferrar, Paul Dooley; amongst the musicians was the familiar name of Willian Bolcom.

Fortunately a broadcast by PBS Cleveland has been preserved and posted on YouTube by David Hansen - a big thank you to David for giving us this gift. And in the spirit of the piece I'd like to share that gift with you over the next few days.


The style of Maurice Sendak is unmistakable in the Prologue that introduces the episodes. 

During what is referred to as the "Little Ice Age" winters in England reached the coldest in the country's recorded history and the Thames River froze over 26 times between 1408 and 1814.  Though it was known that Queen Elizabeth enjoyed target shooting on the frozen river in 1564 and other sports were played on it's ice bound surface, the first Frost Fair was held in 1608.  In Orlando Virginia Woolf sets the episode of the young nobleman and his Russian Princess during this great event.  In adapting it for Simple Gifts Chwast and Blechman change the period and soften some of the social aspects of Woolf's tale - said to be based on the love life of her own lover Vita Sackville-West.
 

It's a remarkable series of short films and I'm at a loss as to why it hasn't become a holiday tradition. Well perhaps by posting them here I can start one.

A left click on the Gift Tag will open the next gifts:

December 10 - 1884: Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published.

Lunedi Lunacy

Well I may as well stop trying to fight it and give in - Christmas is only a few weeks away and the decorations are up in most places.  The carols are piping over the sound systems in stores, malls, train stations and I would gather airports.   I understand that the Christmas "specials" are appearing on television (I keep thinking that we really should get one but then I think, why bother?).  The endless annual repeats of Rudolf, Charlie Brown's Christmas, The Grinch and Frosty the Snowman are once again thrilling young and old.  Bing is singing about all our Christmases being white,  miracles are happening on 34th Street, wonderful lives are being revealed to despairing bankers and babes are getting lost in Toyland.

 So I thought I'd start the season, for me at least, with one of my favourite Christmas "specials" back from the days when a "special" really was "special".  The guest stars are fabulous if in some cases faded,  the bonhomie is as fake as the snow and the host is as venal in his search for gifts as we all really would like to be.

Here's the opening number from PeeWee's Playhouse Christmas Special.

Now you explain to me why this hasn't become a annual event on television? Oh well alright there was that episode with PeeWee in the "playhouse".... okay lets not talk about it! After all its Christmas in the Playhouse.

December 10 - 1902: Women are given the right to vote in Tasmania.