Tuesday, December 09, 2008

you betcha virginia

One of my favorite Holiday specials that has never made it to DVD and is very difficult to find on VHS is Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus. It's a charming early 70's holiday animated special from Bill Melendez and narrated by Mr.Magoo/Mr. Howell himself, Jim Backus. One of the things I love about it, besides the animation (fans of Peanuts specials will, of course recognize the style) - is the message and story which really tackles the spirit of hope and goodwill of the season no matter what you believe. It is based on a true story (which you can read more about here) and set in 1890's New York City- and reflects the ethnic melting pot that America was becoming. In fact it's spirit of coming together to me is so much at odds with today's imputus to label and separate ourselves into categories, that I wish it was shown regularly like it was when I was younger.
So without further ado- our first entry, in what we hope will be a series, of Holiday Specials you don't see anymore on TV: Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.

Part 1:




Part 2:




Part 3:




Enjoy!

Oh, I know it's a penny here and a penny there, but look at me. I worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

The older you get, the less there is to believe in.


2 comments:

Ivan G Shreve Jr said...

I have to say, this one brought back a lot of memories--I only remember seeing on network TV once before it was banished to syndication. Thanks for sharing it!

J.C. Loophole said...

Same here Ivan. I remember that it went to syndication prison and then *poof* it was gone. During the syndication time, it was often part of the SFM Holiday Network Holiday specials that would show up on my local station on Saturday afternoons around Christmas, along with several others. Thank goodness for enterprising folk and YouTube!

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