December 23, 2019

What's on TV? Sunday, December 25, 1960

Isn't that a delightful header? It comes from the days when TV Guide celebrated Christmas not only with a headline spread across two pages, but by labeling the day as such, rather than simply saying, in this case, "Sunday." That last part is a trait that they continued even after they stopped doing the header, by the way. By the end of TV Guide's days—at least the TV Guide that we all knew and loved—they'd ceased to recognize Christmas in any meaningful sense. It reminds me of one of our hometown newspapers, I can't remember which one—there's one on each side of the river. In any event, on Christmas morning, above the masthead, the person in charge of the layout had splashed, in big letters, "Happy Holidays!" It was the source of much ridicule in the days to come; one liberal commentator observed that, no matter how you felt about it, December 25 was undeniably Christmas Day, and the paper could hardly have gotten in trouble by stating a declarative fact. This is, however, the city that once banned red poinsettias in government buildings; you could have white ones, or pink I suppose, but red was "too" Christmasy. Might offend someone, you know. Me, I'll quote one of my favorite writers, that "Offend" should be my middle name.

Today's listings come from New York City, with a touch of Connecticut thrown in. And, as promised, there's plenty of Christmas commentary thrown in.




 2  WCBS (CBS)

    MORNING   

    7:55
NEWS

    8:15
PREVIEWS

    8:20
GIVE US THIS DAY—Religion

    8:25
NEWS

    8:30
MY LITTLE MARGIE—Comedy

    9:00
PEOPLE’S CHOICE—Comedy

    9:30
WAY TO GO—Religion

  10:00
CHRISTMAS, U.S.A.   SPECIAL 
“Lamp Unto My Feet” and “Look Up and Live” will not be seen this morning

  11:00
UN IN ACTION—Novins

  11:30
CAMERA THREE

  AFTERNOON 

  12:00
CBS TELEVISION WORKSHOP

  12:55
NEWS—Harry Reasoner

    1:00
MOVIE—Comedy
“The Emperor Waltz” (1948)

    2:30
MOVIE—Drama
“David Copperfield” (1934)

    3:45
THIS IS WCBS-TV

    4:30
NEW YORK FORUM

    5:00
CHRISTMAS STARTIME   SPECIAL   COLOR 
“Amateur Hour” and “G-E College Bowl” will not be seen today

     EVENING    

    6:00
BURNS AND ALLEN—Comedy
Last show of the series

    6:30
TWENTIETH CENTURY
Admiral Byrd

    7:00
LASSIE—Drama

    7:30
DENNIS THE MENACE

    8:00
ED SULLIVAN—Variety
Guests: Alfred Drake, Roberta Peters, Odetta, the Baird puppet, the Robert Shaw Chorale, Marji Lee

    9:00
G.E. THEATER—Drama
“The Other Wise Man”

    9:30
JACK BENNY—Comedy

  10:00
CANDID CAMERA
Guest: Dorothy Collins

  10:30
WHAT’S MY LINE?

  11:00
NEWS—Walter Cronkite

  11:15
MOVIE—Drama
Late Show: “Remember the Night” (1940)

    1:00
MOVIE—Comedy
Late Late Show: “Larceny, Inc.” (1942)
Time approximate

    2:50
NEWS

    2:55
GIVE US THIS DAY

Christmas, U.S.A. is CBS's presentation of Christmas celebrations from around the country, including Valley Forge, New York City, San Diego, and Salt Lake City. Ed Sullivan is definitely in the Yuletide spirit tonight, with appearances from the Baird Puppets, musical comedy star Alfred Drake, opera singer Roberta Peters, and the Robert Shaw Chorale. This show would have been a winner no matter what episode of Hollywood Palace would have been up against. it.


WCBS ends the evening with a pair of Christmas movies: Remember the Night, with Fred MacMurray as a sympathetic D.A. looking after shoplifter Barbara Stanwyck; and Larceny, Inc., a delightful comedy with Edward G. Robinson as the leader of a gang that buys a luggage store to use as a front for robbing the next-door bank, only to see the store become profitable. 


 3  WTIC (HARTFORD) (CBS)

    MORNING   

    8:00
BIG PICTURE—Army

    8:30
CHRISTOPHERS—Religion

    9:00
SPEAK UP—Education

    9:30
UNDERSTANDING OUR WORLD—Educaton

  10:00
CHRISTMAS, U.S.A.   SPECIAL 
“Lamp Unto My Feet” and “Look Up and Live” will not be seen this morning

  11:00
UN IN ACTION—Novins

  11:30
CAMERA THREE

  AFTERNOON 

  12:00
INSIGHTS—Education

  12:30
WE BELIEVE—Religion

    1:00
YOUR COMMUNITY

    1:15
YESTERDAY’S NEWSREEL

    1:30
PERCEPTION—Education

    2:00
MOVIE—Drama
“The Little Kidnappers” (English; 1954)

    3:30
MOVIE—Comedy
“Androcles and the Lion” (1952)

     EVENING    

    6:00
INTERNATIONAL ZONE

    6:30
TWENTIETH CENTURY
Admiral Byrd

    7:00
IVANHOE—Adventure

    7:30
DENNIS THE MENACE

    8:00
ED SULLIVAN—Variety
Guests: Alfred Drake, Roberta Peters, Odetta, the Baird puppet, the Robert Shaw Chorale, Marji Lee

    9:00
G.E. THEATER—Drama
“The Other Wise Man”

    9:30
JACK BENNY—Comedy

  10:00
CANDID CAMERA
Guest: Dorothy Collins

  10:30
WHAT’S MY LINE?

  11:00
NEWS—Walter Cronkite

  11:15
MOVIE—Opera
“The Barber of Seville” (Italian; 1947)

  12:50
NEWS AND WEATHER

  12:55
MOMENT OF MEDITATION

At noon, CBS Television Workshop ends its run with a Christmas-themed story of passengers on an American plane headed for Moscow that develops engine trouble. Later in the afternoon, Leonard Bernstein hosts Christmas Startime, first shown last year, with the New York Philharmonic, the St. Paul's Cathedral Boys Choir of London, and the great Marian Anderson.


G.E. Theater's "The Other Wise Man," based on the story by Henry Van Dyke and hosted by Ronald Reagan and his family, tells of another Wise Man, Artaban (Harry Townes), who, failing to visit the Christ Child in the manger, spends the rest of his life searching for Him. You can see it here. Later, on Candid Camera, servicemen stationed in Greenland are surprised by a visit from their wives and sweethearts. I guess that isn't such a new thing today at that. 


 4  WNBC (NBC)

    MORNING   

    7:40
SERMONETTE—Religion

    7:45
MODERN FARMER

    8:45
PROTESTANT FOURTH R

    9:00
LET’S TALK ABOUT GOD

    9:15
JEWISH FOURTH R—Religion

    9:30
LIBRARY LIONS

  10:00
PROTESTANT HERITAGE

  10:30
FILM DRAMA

  11:00
INVITATION TO ART

  11:30
MOVIE—Drama
“The Pied Piper” (1942)

  AFTERNOON 

    1:00
YOUTH FOURMS—Gordon

    1:30
ETERNAL LIGHT—Religion
Guests: Maurice Samuel, Mark Van Doren

    2:00
MOVIE—Drama
Movie Four: “The Bells of St. Mary’s” (1945)

    3:30
DIRECT LINE—Interview

    4:00
NBC OPERA COMPANY   SPECIAL 
“Amahl and the Night Visitors”

    5:00
CELEBRITY GOLF
Dennis O’Keefe vs. Sam Snead

    5:30
CHET HUNTLEY

     EVENING    

    6:00
MEET THE PRESS—Interview   COLOR 
Dr. Henry Heald, president of the Ford Foundation

    6:30
PEOPLE ARE FUNNY

    7:00
SHIRLEY TEMPLE   COLOR 
“Babes in Toyland”

    8:00
NATIONAL VELVET—Drama

    8:30
TAB HUNTER—Comedy

    9:00
DINAH SHORE—Variety   COLOR 
Guests: Vukiji Asoka, the Kotetsu jugglers, Ohmari brothers dancers, top-spinner Komo Zura, acrobat Katchi Namba, singers Tony Toyoda and Matsumi Maki, musicians the Yamakawa sisters, musician Junko Hara

  10:00
LORETTA YOUNG—Drama

  10:30
THIS IS YOUR LIFE—Edwards

  11:00
NEWS—Frank Blair

  11:10
MOVIE—Drama
Movie Four: “Pepote” (Spanish; 1957)

    1:00
MOVIE—Mystery
“Fair Warning” (1937)

    2:30
SERMONETTE—Religion

On Eternal Light, Maurise Samuel and Mark Van Doren discuss "Mr. Lincoln and the Bible." The matinee movie at 2:00 p.m. is The Bells of St. Mary's, the sequel to Going My Way, with Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman in a story against a Christmas backdrop; Bing gets his second Oscar nomination for playing Fr. Chuck O'Malley. That's followed at 4:00 p.m. by NBC's eleventh presentation of the stirring Amahl and the Night Visitors, with Kirk Jordan and Rosemary Khulmann. And at 7:00 p.m., Shirley Temple presents Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland, with Jonathan Winters, Jerry Colonna, Joe Besser and Carl Ballantine as the bad guys.



 5  WNEW (IND.)

    MORNING   

    7:45
UNDERSTANDING

    8:15
CARDINAL SPELLMAN

    8:30
WONDERAMA—Children

    9:00
WONDERAMA—Sonny Fox

  AFTERNOON 

    1:00
CHRISTMAS CARTOONS

    2:00
HOLIDAY THEATER—Drama

    3:00
MOVIE—Drama
“A Christmas Carol” (English; 1951)

    5:00
THEATER 5—Drama

     EVENING    

    6:00
MOVIE—Drama
“Call Northside 777” (1948)

    8:00
ALBERT BURKE—Comment

    8:30
SCIENCE REPORTER

    9:00
AMERICAN FORUM

    9:30
MEDIC—Drama

  10:00
CHARLIE CHAN—Mystery

  10:15
NEWS

  10:30
SHERLOCK HOLMES

  11:00
MOVIE—Mystery
“Woman on the Run” (1950)

  12:45
NEWS; CALL TO PRAYER

After the four-hour Wonderama Christmas spectacular, WNEW presents an hour of Christmas cartoons; later, it's a rerun of the Alasair Sim Christmas Carol. At 5:00 p.m., Theater 5 has "Meet Mr. Kringle," which is, in fact, the made-for-TV version of Miracle on 34th Street with Thomas Mitchell as Kris Kringle; it also stars Macdonald Carey and Teresa Wright as Fred and Doris, and Sandy Deschler as Natalie Wood. You can read more about the Wonderama Christmas specials, by the way, here; you'll also want to keep that site open for another program coming up.


 7  WABC (ABC)

    MORNING   

    7:56
MORNING PRAYER—Religion

    8:00
CARTOON FESTIVAL—Children

    9:30
ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS

  10:00
ASTRONOMY FOR YOU

  10:30
FOCUS—Documentary

  11:00
FAITH FOR TODAY

  11:30
THIS IS THE ANSWER

  AFTERNOON 

  12:00
DAMON RUNYON THEATER

  12:30
PIP THE PIPER—Children   DEBUT 

    1:00
DIRECTIONS ’61   SPECIAL 

    2:00
MOVIE—Drama
“Miracle on 34th Street” (1947)

    3:30
CHAMPIONSHIP BRIDGE

    4:00
HAWKEYE—Adventure

    4:30
PAUL WINCHELL—Variety   RETURN 

    5:00
MATTY’S FUNDAY FUNNIES

    5:30
ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS

     EVENING    

    6:00
IVANHOE—Adventure   RETURN 

    6:30
WALT DISNEY—Cartoon

    7:30
MAVERICK—Western

    8:30
LAWMAN—Western

    9:00
REBEL—Western

    9:30
ISLANDERS—Adventure

  10:30
CHRISTMAS NIGHT   SPECIAL 
“The Gift of Song” Guests: June Valli, Susan Reed, Bill Hayes, Lois Hunt
“Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years” will not be seen

  11:00
MOVIE—Musical Comedy
Night Show: “Sun Valley Serenade” (1941)

    1:00
EVENING PRAYER—Religion

If that Thomas Mitchell version of Miracle on 34th Street doesn't cut it for you, you have one more chance to see the original at 2:00 p.m. Before that, though, the whimsical Damon Runyon Theater has "Dancing Dan's Christmas," in which Broderick Crawford plays a mobster  Directions '61 has "The Rag Tent," based on the play "Christmas in the Marketplace," which tells the story of a group of migrant workers spending Christmas Eve in a field tent near a motel.

At 6:30 p.m., Walt Disney presents "From All of Us to All of You," his much-loved Christmas show first shown in 1958, featuring Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and more of Walt's most popular animated characters. And at 10:30 p.m., it's Music for a Christmas Night—The Gift of Song, a pleasant half-hour of Yuletide favorites. 


 8  WNHC (NEW HAVEN) (ABC)

    MORNING   

    8:00
ALBERTA MAGNUS CHOIR

    8:25
NEWS

    8:30
THIS IS THE LIFE

    9:00
CHRISTMAS SONGS
University of Connecticut and Southern Connecticut State glee clubs

    9:30
CHRISTMAS SONGS
Yale Glee Club, Wiffenpoofs

  10:00
CHRISTMAS SONGS
University of Connecticut and Southern Connecticut State glee clubs

  10:30
LIVING WORD—Religion

  10:45
LIGHT TIME—Religion

  11:00
FAITH FOR TODAY

  11:30
THIS OUR FAITH—Religion

  AFTERNOON 

  12:00
CHAMPIONSHIP BRIDGE

  12:30
PIP THE PIPER—Children   DEBUT 

    1:00
DIRECTIONS ’61   SPECIAL 

    2:00
HIGHWAY PATROL—Police

    2:30
WEST POINT—Drama

    3:00
PAUL WINCHELL—Variety   RETURN 

    3:30
CHRISTMAS SONGS
University of Connecticut and Southern Connecticut State glee clubs

    4:00
BOWLING—Milford

    5:00
YALE GLEE CLUB CONCERT

    5:30
ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS

     EVENING    

    6:00
SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

    6:30
SEA HUNT—Adventure

    7:00
LASSIE—Drama

    7:30
MAVERICK—Western

    8:30
LAWMAN—Western

    9:00
REBEL—Western

    9:30
ISLANDERS—Adventure

  11:00
MOVIE—Dave Kiernan

  11:10
WEATHER—Joe Francis

  11:15
MOVIE—Comedy
“Christmas in Connecticut” (1945)

    1:15
NEWS

No question about it, you're going to get plenty of opportunities to see the University of Connecticut and Southern Connecticut State glee clubs today, plus the Yale Glee Club. I wonder if they're allowed to do concerts like this anymore? At 3:00 p.m., Paul Winchell's weekly series returns; he plays Santa Claus, and Jerry Mahoney is Santa's helper. With help like that. . .

I like the way WNHC ends the evening: with the classic Christmas in Connecticut, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet and Reginald Gardiner. How appropriate that it's being shown on Christmas, in Connecticut. 


 9  WOR (Ind.)

    MORNING   

  10:20
NEWS AND WEATHER

  10:25
ALMANAC NEWSREEL

  10:30
MOVIE—Musical
“March of the Wooden Soldiers” (1934)

  AFTERNOON 

  12:00
ORAL ROBERTS—Religion

  12:30
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

  12:45
EVANGEL HOUR—Religion

    1:15
TEEN CHALLENGE

    1:30
MOVIE—Adventure   COLOR 
Million Dollar Movie: “Blackbeard, the Pirate” (1952)

    3:00
MOVIE—Adventure   COLOR 
Million Dollar Movie: “Blackbeard, the Pirate” (1952)

    4:30
MOVIE—Adventure   COLOR 
Million Dollar Movie: “Blackbeard, the Pirate” (1952)

     EVENING    

    6:00
FILM DRAMA
“Christmas is Magic”

    6:30
FILM DRAMA
“Heart of Gold”

    7:00
TERRYTOONS—Kirchner

    7:30
MOVIE—Drama
“From This Day Forward” (1946)

    9:00
MOVIE—Drama
“The Virgin of Guadalupe” (1942)

  10:30
MOVIE—Drama
“Here Comes Mr. Jordan” (1941)

  12:00
ALMANAC NEWSREEL

One thing for sure: if WOR paid one million dollars for Blackbeard, the Pirate, they were going to be damned sure they got their money's worth out of it. I'd opt for Laurel and Hardy's March of the Wooden Soldiers, a very loose adaptation of the Babes in Toyland story we saw on Shirley Temple's show. Don't watch it for the story, though, but for Stan and Ollie, especially when Stan tries to teach Ollie how to play pee-wees. Surprisingly, the best version you're going to see is the colorized one, which is really well done.


11 WPIX (Ind.)

    MORNING   

    9:00
LET’S HAVE FUN—Children

  AFTERNOON 

  12:30
CHRISTMAS PARTY
Chuck McCann, Bozo the Clown, Captain Jack, Officer Joe Bolton
The following will not be seen today: “Encounter,” “Continental Miniatures,” “The Big Picture,” “Mark Saber,” “Captured,” “Public Defender,” “City Detective,” and “Laurel and Hardy”

    5:00
CASEY JONES—Adventure

    5:30
SUPERMAN—Adventure

     EVENING    

    6:00
BRAVE STALLION—Adventure

    6:30
WHIRLYBIRDS—Adventure

    7:00
PIONEERS—Western

    7:30
ENCOUNTER—Religion

    8:00
AIR FORCE ADVENTURE

    8:30
TO BE ANNOUNCED

    9:00
MOVIE—Drama
“Thunder in the Valley” (1947)

  10:30
TARGET—Adolphe Menjou

  11:00
MOVIE—Drama
“How Green Was My Valley” (1941)

From 1959 to 1963, the Christmas Party was a tradition on WPIX; the second half of this article goes into loving detail regarding the festivities that are still warmly remembered over a half-century later.


13 WNTA (Ind.)

    MORNING   

  10:00
RELIGIOUS PROGRAM

  11:00
CROSSROADS—Religion

  11:30
IRVING CAESAR SHOW   DEBUT 

  AFTERNOON 

  12:00
BETWEEN THE LINES

  12:30
GOV. ROBERT MEYNER

    1:00
MOVIE—Western
“Apache Warrior” (1957)

    2:30
MOVIE—To Be Announced

    4:00
OSCAR LEVANT—Conversation

    4:55
PLAYBACK—Music

    5:00
MOVIE—Drama
Picture of the Week: “God is My Partner” (1957)

     EVENING    

    6:30
GREAT MUSIC—Chicago
Guest: Rosalind Elias

    7:30
PLAY OF THE WEEK—Drama
“Emmanuel”

    9:30
WIND OF CHANGE

  10:00
OPEN END—David Susskind

Metropolitan Opera star Rosalind Elias is the guest on an evening of Christmas music with the Chicago Symphony on Great Music. That's followed by a rerun of last night's Play of the Week, "Emmanuel." 

And there you have it. Not a bad way to spend Christmas, is it? TV  

2 comments:

  1. Nice review of a very different time through TV Guide, Mitchell. Have a great Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Christmas music special on CBS at 5 P.M. must have been one of the very few color programs on that network during the 1960-61 TV season.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for writing! Drive safely!