Clement Moore's poem, "A Visit From St. Nicholas", has been adapted and/or parodied many times since Moore wrote the piece nearly 200 years ago. The Troy Record has faithfully reprinted the poem, which was first published in another city paper, the Sentinel, every year, for example, and the story has been adapted into an animated cartoon on more than one occasion.
One such case was in 1968, and, to tell you the truth, I don't even remember seeing this when it first aired, so I'm going to be seeing this as something relatively new, just like most of you. From what I've been able to ascertain, The Night Before Christmas was originally hosted by TV legend Art Linkletter (House Party), but the live-action framing sequences with Linkletter have, sadly, been lost to the mists of time. The voice cast is filled with familiar names to most TV fans, including Hal Smith (ex-The Andy Griffith Show), whose cartoon credits include Space Angel & Davey & Goliath, just to name a couple; Olan Soule, who had a recurring role on Dragnet at the time as a forensic scientist, and was also breaking into voice work (Filmation's first Batman series); and Virginia Gregg, who, like Soule, was a member in good standing of Jack Webb's repertory company with several appearances on Dragnet.
Hard to believe Christmas is a month away already......
2 comments:
I loved this special and it's said that it and other Christmas specials from the past don't get regular airings on commercial TV nowadays.
Sure, many of them are on DVD now, but as someone who looked forward to that special night of Christmas programming, it's something very much missed.
I can't believe it's been 200 years since the poem firat appeared in print!
Amazing, isn't it, how a simple poem has stood the test of time.
Post a Comment