Happy Christmas, NY Style!

Good Old Movies

Did you know that the 1940 film, "The Shop Around the Corner," was the basis for the 1998 movie, "You've Got Mail?" Both films starred big name actors of the time. Margaret Sullivan and Jimmy Stewart in the 1940 flick and of course Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in the follow-up 58 years later. I recently had the opportunity to watch "The Shop Around the Corner," on AMC one evening and it was marvelous. The similarities are striking. If you have the chance, I'd suggest watching it! In the meantime, E! is featuring "You've Got Mail" this week!

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer!

Did you know...???

Rudolph was the creation of Robert May, an advertising writer for the Montgomery Ward department store in Chicago. May, who was very imaginative, wanted to create a booklet to give to parents who shopped at Montgomery Ward and with the help of Denver Gillen, a friend who had artistic skills, they created a booklet about Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.

The story of how Rudolph lit the way through the fog to help Santa Claus deliver his toys was distributed for several years, with millions of booklets distributed at Montgomery Wards stores over the years.

In 1947 the story of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer was put to music by a friend of Robert Mays by the name of Johnny Marks. It was recorded and sung by Gene Autry a famous TV star and sold millions of copies of the song. Rudolph has had his own TV shows and movies and continues to grow in popularity with every passing year.

A Classic

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has recently been made into a made-for-TV movie, which I hope they will rerun so I can see it!!!

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus? VIRGINIA O'HANLON. 115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there.

Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real?

Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.