A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Christmas: The Spirit of Christmas (1953)

 

Puppetry has played an important part throughout the history of television.  From the early days of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie to the later work by Jim Henson, to the work of British puppeteer Gerry Anderson to the modern day and Crank Yankers, puppets and marionettes have been a constant on television since the beginning.

Marionettes play an important role in an early surviving special, The Spirit of Christmas.  Produced by the AT&T (which at the time had a monopoly on telephone service), and aired originally in Philadelphia, the half-hour special features two stories told by the marionettes, bridged by some live-action elements (the version I saw had a segment on how telephone employees helped bring braille books to blind children).

The first story, which gets a live-action intro by actors playing Clement C. Moore and his wife, was an adaption of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, which at the time hadn't had the numerous adaptions it would get.  The segment even incorporated a bit of The Nutcracker after the "visions of sugarplums danced in their heads" line (the special took that quite literally).  While the movement of the marionettes has a probably unavoidable jerky quality to them (particularly when the narrator was describing "away to the window I flew like a flash"), they were surprisingly expressive.

The second half was a retelling of the Nativity, from God telling Mary that she was going to have a baby, though the journey to Bethlehem, to the arrival of the shepherds, and the wise men visiting Herod before arriving at the stable as well.  It is well done, even if it takes a few liberties with the Biblical account.

Throughout both parts, what struck me was both how expressive the marionettes' faces were, even if they didn't actually move, and how well decorated the sets were and how well costumed the puppets were.  It's clear that the phone company put some money into the project, not least because it was filmed in color at a time when there were almost no color TVs, which allowed it to keep its rerun value once color TVs began to supplant black and white models.

The special would be shown annually on Philadelphia TV well into the sixties (though I don't know if it was ever syndicated to other cities) and still airs today on the city's PBS station, perhaps making it the oldest Christmas special to still be regularly broadcast today.

The Spirit of Christmas is old-fashioned, but effortlessly charming.  While I could do without the live action segments, the marionette segments are fine additions to the canon of television puppetry.

Next time: A very groundhog Christmas