thanksgiving childhood memories...

Our final entry for our Thanksgiving playlist should come as no surprise- The Thanksgiving animated specials. These days they only really play A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, but back in the day specials like A Garfield Thanksgiving, Bugs Bunny's Thanks-for-giving Special, The Mouse and the Mayflower and others received regular rotations. Every once in a while an oddball special like B.C.'s The First Thanksgiving or The Thanksgiving that Almost Wasn't would air on the weekend before Thanksgiving day itself. Occasionally you can catch an airing of one or two of these specials on Cartoon Network, and the Garfield special has hit DVD, but most of them seem to relegated to old VHS copies and the memories of childhood days gone by. Sad, isn't it?
Some clips exist here and there-and they serve to remind one that they weren't always great, but nonetheless they contributed to the spirit of the season and are a part of our holiday childhood memories. Here are a couple of clips, and then a full special itself for our Thanksgiving rotation- a trip back to years gone by...

First up: The Mouse and the Mayflower- it's sad that this special isn't on DVD considering the huge library of Rankin/Bass specials that exist out there on DVD. Tennessee Ernie Ford sings and narrates this tale about a mouse named Willum who is there to witness the Pilgrim's voyage across the sea and first year in a new world.



Here's an odd that's only available on Youtube: B.C.'s The First Thanksgiving. The characters from the long running comic strip B.C. pursue a turkey to try add some actual flavor to their regular Rock Soup, resulting in the "First" Thanksgiving. It's a little strange and has a slow pace, but different and has some funny moments. You can watch it on YouTube in three parts, and for the sake of space we won't embed it, but rather link to it here. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

Sometimes Disney and of course, Looney Tunes, compiled clips of their holiday-themed shorts and threw them together for a Primetime special. The Bugs Bunny Thanks-for-Giving special is a perfect example of this, but many times only edited portions of the shorts were shown. I like actually finding many of the Looney Tunes, Disney, and MGM studios shorts and watch them in the entirety instead of watching the special. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Jerky Turkey:



Holiday for Drumsticks:



Finally, Pilgrim Popeye



And of course, my personal favorite, which you probably have on DVD and/or have seen on TV already - A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Hulu has the entire special posted, and case you haven't seen it- check it out there.

That's all for today's installment, folks- on behalf of everyone here at The Shelf we wish to you and your family a very safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday.



I haven't even finished eating all of my Halloween candy!

jack benny's gobblers

For today's entry on our Thanksgiving Playlist, I thought I would share a couple of great Thanksgiving episodes of the Jack Benny Radio Show. Jack is very well known for his hilarious Christmas episodes- especially where Jack goes Christmas shopping and runs into the luckless salesman played by Mel Blanc. But just as funny were the many Thanksgiving shows that Jack and his cast performed. Jack's skinflint ways, vanity and wam heart under it all was a perfect foil to play against for the holidays.
For me, two of my favorite Thanksgiving episodes came back to back in the same year: 1947. This is Jack's classic cast: Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Don Wilson, Dennis Day, Rochester, the Sportsman Quartet and of course who can forget Mel Blanc, Frank Nelson ("Yesssssss?"), Artie Auerbach (Mr. Kitzel) and Bea Benaderet and Sara Berner (aka: Gertrude and Mabel the phone operators) in great supporting roles. Jack attempts to pull off a nice Thanksgiving for the gang- with great hilarity.

First up is the 11-24-1947 show: Jack begins the show talking about his attempt to get a studio to film his Life story, but that eventually leads Mary to telling the rest of the cast (in radio flashback mode) about her shopping trip for a Turkey for the Thanksgiving dinner for the gang:
Click here for the episode.

Next we have the very next episode where Jack recounts having to "dispatch" the turkey he bought with Mary, which leads to Jack, too much of a softie to do it himself, to assigning the grim task to Rochester. All this weighs a little on Jack's conscience, so that when he takes a nap, we great a hilarious dream sequence where Jack is on trail for executing the turkey.
Click here for the episode.

There are several other great and fun Thanksgiving OTR- check out some of friend's sites like OTR Perk and others around the web for more. And stay tuned for more entries on our Thanksgiving playlist!



There's only five real people in Hollywood. Everyone else is Mel Blanc.

i've got plenty to be thankful for...

It's only a little over a week away from one of my favorite holidays of all- Thanksgiving. We've done our level best here at The Shelf to defend and promote Thanksgiving over the years and we think it's a wonderful holiday where the focus should be on family and gratitude for the things we have. In fact, I think in a country where we have the freedom and the Constitution that we have, it's altogether fitting that we should have a day set aside for a national day of gratitude.

It's still a little too early to break out the Christmas music for me, and I've often wished there was some sort of compliation of "Thanksgiving" music to listen to over the weeks up to the big day. So, I've sort of made something of my own little playlist of Thanksgiving episodes of Classic Radio shows (Jack Benny has some particularly funny Thanksgiving episodes), Hymns that remind me of Thanksgiving and gratitude and some classic film songs and standards that hit the mood. So I thought that perhaps this year, in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, I would share with you some of the items on my Turkey day playlist in hopes that you will enjoy them and consider letting the Holiday and the spirit of gratitude take hold before the season of giving took over. Maybe there is something to learn there folks; in order to give from the heart, perhaps we need to really learn gratitude and what means to be grateful for things we couldn't possible make happen on our own. Maybe it's the grateful heart that truly gives. That's putting the horse before the cart, so to speak.

Allow me to give you the first item on my playlist; and these are two very underrated songs because they are overshadowed by being in a Christmas film. Both of these numbers are Bing Crosby tunes from two of his classic and most loved holiday films: Holiday Inn and White Christmas. Perhaps it's cheating a little, because I have the wonderful soundtrack that contains the songs from both of these films and technically it is Christmas music, but I've placed two particular numbers into my playlist. Here I am presenting clips of the numbers from the film, but the soundtrack, which I recommend highly, has the full songs.

First: Holiday Inn. Most of you know the story: Crooner Jim Hardy (der Bingle) is in love with fellow performer Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale) and has decided to propose, but dancer Ted Hanover has wooed her away with promises of stardom and an offer to be his partner. Lila follows Ted leaving Jim with a broken heart. Ted decides to get away from show business and move to a New England farm that eventually he turns into an Inn only open on the holidays. (So much for getting away from show business). It is there where Jim meets the talented ingenuine Linda Mason (played by the lovely Marjorie Reynolds) and falls for her. Linda and Jim have a great thing going, but Ted enters into the picture again. Despite his attempts to hide Linda from him, Ted tries to woo Linda away from Jim with offers of stardom and Hollywood. Linda, mad that Jim couldn't trust her to make up her own mind, goes to Hollywood- and Jim, with a defeated attitude, just gives in. It is at this point that Thanksgiving roles around and Jim is celebrating a lonely holiday with just his housekeeper, Mamie and her kids. Then the number comes in- in the form of Jim playing his latest composition: "I've Got Plenty to be Thankful for." The song is actually quite sincere (despite Jim's lousy attitude) and it takes Maime to tell him what he needs to hear to change his attitude and go after Linda.
Here's the clip (side note- the Thanksgiving holiday briefly went back and forth being declared on different weeks, to allow more Christmas shopping, until it was finally left alone on the last Thursday of the month- hence the little cartoon at the beginning) :



How many of us have actually "heard" the song- it sort of plays in the background during this scene, but it's words have a great message- "I may not be rich or famous, but I have so much to be thankful for." Here are the words to this great Irving Berlin song:

"I've got plenty to be thankful for
I haven't got a great big yacht
To sail from shore to shore
Still I've got plenty to be thankful for

I've got plenty to be thankful for
No private car, no caviar
No carpet on my floor
Still I've got plenty to be thankful for

I've got eyes to see with
Ears to hear with
Arms to hug with
Lips to kiss with
Someone to adore

How could anybody ask for more?
My needs are small,
I buy them all
At the five and ten cent store
Oh, I've got plenty to be thankful for"

It's a wonderful tune and is one of the first songs on my Thanksgiving playlist.

Next is a song that comes from that wonderful holiday film, White Christmas. Filled with great performances, culminating with the famous song "White Christmas" (which actually made it's debut in Holiday Inn), our next song is actually for me one of the more beautiful in the film. The soundtrack has the full song performed by Bing, but costar Rosemary Clooney also has a lovely version on one of her Christmas albums. This song has been included in Christmas music albums before, but it has all of the earmarks of a wonderful song for Thanksgiving. Don't believe me? Have you every really listened to it? Here are the words:

"When I'm worried and I can't sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep counting my blessings

I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads
And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds
If you're worried and you can't sleep
Just count your blessings instead of sheep
And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings"

In fact, our very own Mrs. Baravelli wrote a special article on how much she loves this song- why not revist that post to see why the song evokes so much about being grateful for the blessings we do have? To quote Mrs. B herself: "Somehow, however, when I heard this song again, it dawned on me – everything, even the bad, is a blessing to me. I have so many to be grateful for that I should start counting them instead of falling asleep while checking off my to-do list for the next day."
Yes, it's a perfect song for both holidays, if you ask me- gratitude shouldn't start and stop on Thanksgiving- it should tary within us all year. Perhaps it is gratitude that ties Christmas and Thanksgiving so well together.

Here is the clip- Bing's rich bass really delivers the emotion in this wonderful song:



Well, we hope you've enjoyed today's post. Stick around- we'll have more to add to our Thanksgiving playlist. Stay tuned...



You could melt her heart right down to butter, if you'd only turn on the heat!