🍂Happy Thanksgiving!🍁

Wishing Everyone A Very 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Movie Matinee #9: Miracle on 34th Street

My Kiddo's old VHS

*** Contains Spoilers ***

It's been 70 years since the movie Miracle on 34th Street was released in theaters, but for me, it has always been the go-to movie that ushers in the holiday season. 

The film was actually made in 1946, so it still the sense of the country coming out of its war-time deprivations. People were still hungry - not so much for turkey and all the trimmings, but for peace and prosperity. But Miracle on 34th Street is also a cautionary tale about the kind of commercialism doing without for so long can lead to, while still celebrating the idea of the American Dream - a family, a house in the suburbs - all it takes is a little faith. So, you could say that he real underlying theme of the movie is simply Peace on earth, Goodwill towards all people.

The movie opens with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The man hired to play Santa is found drunk by a charming, elderly, gentle well-dressed white bearded man, whose name just happens to be Kris Kringle. Kris is hired on the spot to replace drunk Santa by Doris Walker. Doris, a realist at heart, is ironically is in charge of making this fantasyland of a parade a reality. 

Meanwhile, Doris’s young daughter, Susan, a realist and a sceptic who does not believe in Santa Clause, is watching the parade from their apartment window with neighbor Fred Gailey, a handsome lawyer who just happens to be single and very interested in Doris when he learns she is divorced. 

Kris is such a great Santa, he’s hired by Macy’s to be their holiday Santa Clause stand-in. The only problem is that Kris isn’t much interested in Macy’s profit margin, but rather he’s more about making kids happy on Christmas morning. Poor Kris ends up in Bellevue’s mental hospital, to be psychologically evaluated. 

In the meantime, Kris has befriended Fred Gaily and little Susan, who is beginning to doubt her realist upbringing and think maybe there could be a Santa. So she tells him what she wants for Christmas - a house in the suburbs. All Kris can do is promise to do his best to deliver on her Christmas wish.

Eventually, Kris ends up in New York's Supreme Court defended by Fred, and things don’t look promising, but Fred manages to prove Kris is really Kris Kringle, thanks to the post office delivering 21 bags of letters addressed to Santa Clause - and it doesn’t hurt that the judges’s son is a big believer, too. 

Susan is very disappointed on Christmas morning when she finds nothing about a house under the Christmas tree (Fred’s influence). But sure enough, later in the day when she, her mother and Fred are driving out to visit Kris, there’s the house and there’s Kris’s cane in it. Did he or didn’t he? That is for the viewer to decide for her/himself.

(I like this whole movie, and the message is sends, but my very favorite scene in Miracle on 34th Street are when Kris is still Macy’s Santa and a little Dutch refugee is brought to see him. The look on her face when he begins to speak to her in Dutch is priceless.) 

Here are some interesting facts about Miracle on 34th Street:

The Macy’s parade scenes were really filmed during the 1946 parade, which a very cold morning. In the scenes of Santa waving to the crowd from his sleigh was really Edmund Gwenn, who plays Kris in the movie. And each of parade scenes only had one chance to get it all right. 

The scenes that take place in Macy’s were really filmed there, but after hours when there were not customers around.

It was so cold when the scene where Susan spots her dream house that the camera’s froze and they had to wait for the cameras to throw before they could continue. Neighbors invited the cast into their home to warm up.

You may recall that in the parade scene outside Susan’s front window, There were six balloons in the parade in 1946, but it is Harold the baseball player balloon is floating by Susan’s window. Harold hasn’t been seen again since 1946.. Well, this year, to mark the 70th anniversary of the movie, they are reintroducing Harold: 

You can find more interesting facts about Miracle on 34th Street HERE

You can find the original NY Times movie review by Bosley Crowther (June 5, 1947) HERE

The new 70th anniversary DVD 

Happy Thanksgiving 2016

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving

and a very large helping of 

happiness, peace and plenty!

Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving Paintings from WWII

Sunday Funnies #19: Thanksgiving Day Edition

I have a lot to be thankful for this year.  First, my Kiddo is happy and healthy and living in California with her new husband and I will be seeing them at Christmas when they come to visit.

I'm thankful for my friends and family, even if I don't get to see them very often.  And I am thankful for my online friends, even though I haven't met many of them.  One of the things I love about blogging is getting to know so many people all over the world, an opportunity that can be found in few other ways.   Thank you to all my followers and readers.  Your presence on my blog is much appreciated.

Thanksgiving was hit hard in WWII because of rationing and it wasn't lost on the people who drew comic strips for the newspapers, as you can see:

November 25, 1943 Rationing on the Home Front:

November 25, 1943 Rations on the Front Lines:

I wish everyone a happy and bountiful Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

Weekend Cooking #23: Victory through Cranberries

I was telling a friend of my about a 1941 ad I found in which Ocean Spray had offered a red plastic turkey shaped cranberry cutter that could be gotten with only a label and a dime.  She started laughing heartily.  Her grandmother had apparently sent in the required label and dime, and had received her cranberry cutter.  Many years later, the cutter had been passed on to her mother and it became my friend's job every Thanksgiving to cut out the cranberry turkeys - year after year.

Back in 1941, it must have seemed like kind of a fun, festive addition to the traditional Thanksgiving table.  No one suspected that in a very short time America would be drawn into the war that was already being fought in most of the world after being attacked.

With the country had been at war for a while and things were scarce.  In 1942, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade was cancelled for the first time.  Turkeys and all the trimmings were scarce and places at the table left empty by family members serving their country were filled with other members of the armed services invited to share a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner.  But while tables at home may not had had the kind of abundance they had in previous years,    overseas the troops did have a full Thanksgiving dinner, no matter where they were.  And with women off working in factories and munitions plants, often there was no one home to make the dinner.

Amazingly, despite shortages, the cranberry turkey cutter was offered again in 1943, but this time with a difference.  Metal was needed for the war effort, so the familiar cranberry can was replaced with a glass jar, but not just any glass jar.  By now, Ocean Spray, like every other company in the US,  had caught Victory fever and so its new glass jar was a victory glass jar, with the same cranberry contents as before, but also with many reuses.

But with things getting scarcer and scarcer amazingly enough, cranberries were still available, but now at a much higher price than the year before.  And, of course, with war plants again staying open on Thanksgiving, many woman many women were either working or just didn't have the time or energy to make a Thanksgiving dinner.

By 1944, the food that make up a traditional Thanksgiving dinner were really

in short supply, with cranberries being the scarcest.

But, in1945 Americans were celebrating their first peaceful Thanksgiving and the cranberries were abundant, the turkeys were plump and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade was back.

 

Nevertheless, some nice cranberry recipes were still being offered to cooks during the war.  I found this one in a 1943 article about Thanksgiving dinner in New York Times and I am planning on trying it this year.

Spiced Cranberries
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
2 two-inch sticks cinnamon
1 teaspoon whole cloves
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Grated rind of one lemon
4 cups fresh cranberries

Combine the sugar, water, spices, lemon juice and rind, and boil together
for five minutes.  Add the cranberries and cook slowly, without stirring, till
all the skins pop open.  Chill thoroughly before serving.
(Makes one quart)

During the war, the Red Cross did a lot to help not just servicemen and women, but also refugee children and their families, those left homeless from bombings and prisoners of war.  Thanksgiving 2012 will be a difficult time for so many who lost everything in Hurricane Sandy.  While you are giving thanks for your blessings, please remember those who are not so fortunate at the moment.  If you feel like you want to help, you can text REDCROSS at 90999 to make a $10.00 donation to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief.

And I hope everyone has a happy, cranberry-filled Thanksgiving.

Weekend cooking is a weekly event hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Victory Through Balloons - some Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade history

Early Parade Announcement

When we were kids, every Thanksgiving Day my mother would give each of us a bag of walnuts, a nutcracker and a bowl and place us in front of the television to shell the nuts and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  We thought we were helping out somehow, even though walnuts never appeared in any of the dishes served that day.  Later, I discovered it was my mother's scheme to keep up out of her way and prevent any sibling squabbling. And it worked, and, to this day, every Thanksgiving I have an urge to watch the parade and shell walnuts.

The parade was always memorizing, punctuated with commercials for toys, games and dolls we were urged to want for Christmas.  I don’t think I have ever not watched the parade, or at least had it on while I did other things.  There has already been news coverage of this year’s parade, and it got me thinking about its history.

Felix the Cat 1927

The parade began in 1924, going from 110^th Street in Harlem to Macy’s Herald Square on 34^th Street. a total of 6 miles.  At first, it was just people dressed up in various costumes, animals from the Central Park Zoo and gaily decorated floats, but in 1927 Felix the Cat made his appearance as the first balloon.  In 1928, the parade’s balloons were released into the air, until they deflated.  They had name tags sewn in them, so the finder could return it to Macy’s.  This scheme didn't work very well, though.

By 1939, the first year of the war in Europe, the parade was shortened, beginning at 106^th Street in Harlem.  That year, there were several balloons, including a crowd pleasing 50 foot Santa Clause and a very large Uncle Sam, who had to be re-pumped a little during the parade. Over one million men, women and mostly children lined the parade route, watching Macy's employees dressed up in costumes, the balloons and the 26 floats.  And for the very first time, the parade was televised on NBC from a camera mounted on the Museum of Natural History.

Superman

In 1940, an 80 foot Superman balloon was added to the parade. Superman almost escaped at Columbus Circle, when he began to list to one side and a rope got caught on a flagpole, but he managed to stay upright and make it to his final destination on 34^th Street, along with his other balloon  pals: Laffo the clown, a 35 foot Hippo and of course Santa and Uncle Sam.  Again, more that one million people lined the streets to watch the parade.  

The missing Uncle Sam

Thanksgiving Day 1941 was almost summer-like, with temperatures in the high 60s to 70.  This parade was slightly more patriotic than in the past.  When the store windows were unveiled by Santa Clause, “The Star Spangled Banner” was played and during the parade Dinah Shore sang “A Merry American Christmas” which was written just for this parade. Some new balloons were added: Dumbo, the pink elephant, the Reluctant Dragon, a giant goldfish, and a 75 foot tall football player (nice to know football dominated Thanksgiving than as it does now) joined a newly refurbished Superman and Laffo the clown, but alas, no Uncle Sam.  There was supposed to be 7 balloons altogether, but only six made the parade.  Just as the parade was getting underway the giant Santa Clause, which was supposed to lead the parade, suddenly collapsed.  A portent of things to come?  Just a few weeks later, America was at war.

Poor Santa

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was cancelled in 1942, 1943 and 1944. In 1942, the seven giant balloons were donated to the government’s rubber scrape drive.  The 60 foot dragon balloon was inflated with air, not the usual helium now also needed for the war effort, and New York's Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, dressed up as St. George, symbolically “slew” it with his dagger.  The seven balloons resulted in 650 pounds of rubber.

Dragon in livelier times

The parade returned, complete with balloons, floats, and bands in 1945, to the delight of the 2 million kids who watched in along the route, despite the cold, raw weather.  And it has been happening every year since then.

 I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving

**If you happen to be in NYC over the holidays, there is an exhibit on the 85th Anniversary of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade at the Children's Museum of Manhattan complete with models of parade balloons and includes original artwork from Melissa Sweet’s book Balloons Over Broadway, the story of Tony Sarg, “the puppeteer of Macy’s Parade,” a book that has been reviewed on a number of blogs this year.

THANKSGIVING

I was having dinner with an old friend last week and Thanksgiving Day plans came up. My friend said he was not planning on doing anything special that day. He felt that Thanksgiving had become a commercialized sham and that even the settlers who came to this country only came for economic gain and exploitation. Well, what he said was partly true. My dad came from Wales because this country offered more economic opportunities. He found them here, and was forever grateful. My mother’s Quaker ancestors came here back in the 1600s for religious freedom, economic opportunity and to live peacefully. My thoughts turned to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms address, which I have read so many times. This was a speech delivered to congress on 6 January 1941, ten months before the US was attacked and entered World War II. In 1943, during some very dark days when the war was raging in Europe and Allied Forces were fighting and dying to preserve freedom in the world, Norman Rockwell painted a series of four pictures, inspired by Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech.

And so I excerpt them here because they are good thoughts for Thanksgiving:

“In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world.

T he third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.”

A HAPPY AND PEACEFUL THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE