[Vhfcn-l] Monday musings

[Gary Thewlis]

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously. 

Henry Kissinger

 

Barnum was wrong - it's more like every 30 seconds. 

Unknown

 

America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been
hushed up. 

Oscar Wilde

 

Here's a rule I recommend: Never practice two vices at once. 

Tallulah Bankhead 

 

These days an income is something you can't live without--or within. 

Tom Wilson

 

If you live long enough, the venerability factor creeps in; first, you get
accused of things you never did, and later, credited for virtues you never
had. 

I. F. Stone

 

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35 Festive Facts About Holiday Movies

 

1. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE WAS A BOX OFFICE BOMB.

Though it has become a quintessential American classic, It's a Wonderful
Life was not an immediate hit with audiences. In fact, it put director Frank
Capra $525,000 in the hole, which left him scrambling to finance his
production company's next picture, State of the Union.

 

2. A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE A LAUGH TRACK.

In the 1960s, it was standard procedure to lay a laugh track over virtually
any half-hour comedy, even if the performers were drawn in (The Flintstones
was among the series that used a canned "studio audience" to help cue
viewers for jokes). When executive producer Lee Mendelson told Charles
Schulz he didn't see the Peanuts special being any different, the artist got
up and left the room for several minutes before coming in and continuing as
if nothing had happened. Mendelson got the hint.

 

3. STANLEY KUBRICK IS PARTLY TO THANK FOR CHRISTMAS VACATION.

Christmas Vacation marked the directorial debut of Jeremiah Chechik, who
began his career as a fashion photographer for Vogue then moved into
commercial directing. "I had made these commercials that became quite iconic
here in the U.S.," Chechik recalled to Den of Geek! in 2011. "They were very
dark and sexy and sort of a little bit ahead of their time in terms of
style. And what happened was they gained the notice of [Stanley] Kubrick,
who had mentioned them as his favorite American filmmaking, ironically, in a
New York Times article." It didn't take long for Chechik's phone to start
ringing and for studios to start sending him scripts. "And the script that
really piqued my interest was Christmas Vacation," he said. "And the reason
is I had never done any comedy-ever."

 

4. NATALIE WOOD STILL BELIEVED IN SANTA WHEN SHE FILMED MIRACLE ON 34TH
STREET.

Natalie Wood was eight years old while filming Miracle on 34th Street. "I
still vaguely believed in Santa Claus," said Wood, as recorded in her
biography written by Suzanne Finstad. "I guess I had an inkling that maybe
it wasn't so, but I really did think that Edmund Gwenn was Santa. I had
never seen him without his beard because he used to come in early in the
morning and spend several hours putting on this wonderful beard and
mustache. And at the end of the shoot, when we had a set party, I saw this
strange man, without the beard, and I just couldn't get it together."

 

5. RALPHIE'S DAD IS NEVER GIVEN A NAME IN A CHRISTMAS STORY.

Over the years, a gaggle of sharp-eared A Christmas Story fans have pointed
out that in Bob Clark's scene, Ralphie's dad is given a name: Hal. This is
because they believed that in the brief exchange between the two neighbors,
Swede asks of the leg lamp, "Damn Hal, you say you won it?" But a quick
confer with the film's original screenplay confirms that Swede's actual
query is, "Damn, hell, you say you won it?"

 

6. "FROSTY THE SNOWMAN" WAS A HIT SONG LONG BEFORE IT WAS A TV SPECIAL.

The song "Frosty the Snowman" was written by Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson
in 1950 (with a melody that is strikingly similar to 1932's "Let's Have
Another Cup of Coffee") specifically as a means of capitalizing on the
success of Gene Autry's "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." The record wasn't
as huge as "Rudolph," sales-wise, but Frosty's story was nevertheless
perpetuated via Little Golden Books and Dell Comics.

 

7. "SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN" WAS ALSO A SONG BEFORE IT WAS A HOLIDAY
SPECIAL.

Yet again, the song came first. In this case, way first: J. Fred Coots and
Henry Gillespie wrote it in 1932, at a time when sheet music outsold
records. The song only received national exposure in the first place because
Eddie Cantor, Coots' employer at the time, reluctantly sang it (at the
urging of his wife) on his radio show in late November 1934. Despite the
music publishers' dire warning that songs aimed at children were doomed to
fail, Cantor's performance sent the sheet music for the song flying off
retailers' shelves and inspired countless other popular artists to record
it.

 

8. GREMLINS WAS INTENDED TO BE MUCH, MUCH DARKER.

Though some might contend that Gremlins is a pretty dark film, the original
script, written by Chris Columbus, was much, much darker. Case in point:
Earlier scenes included the Gremlins eating Billy's dog then decapitating
his mom and throwing her head down the stairs. Producer Steven Spielberg,
director Joe Dante, and Warner Bros. were all in agreement that they should
tone down the gore in order to make the movie more family-friendly.

 

9. BILL MURRAY IMPROVISED A LOT OF HIS LINES IN SCROOGED.

In a 1988 interview with Philadelphia Daily News, director Richard Donner
discussed Bill Murray's penchant for improvisation and described the
experience of directing Murray as follows: "It's like standing on 42nd
Street and Broadway, and the lights are out, and you're the traffic cop."

 

10. BILL MURRAY WAS THE FIRST CHOICE FOR THE LEAD IN BAD SANTA.

According to The Guardian, Murray was actually in final negotiations to take
the lead, until he dropped out to film Lost in Translation. Suffice it to
say, it was a win-win for both Murray and Billy Bob Thornton. 

 

11. JIM CARREY WAS INITIALLY EYED TO STAR IN ELF.

When David Berenbaum's spec script first emerged in 1993, Jim Carrey was
pre-Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and attached to front the Christmas film.
However, it took another 10 years to get the project in motion, at which
time Saturday Night Live star Will Ferrell was signed to star.

 

12. HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS ALMOST NEVER HAPPENED.

Whereas today's studios and production companies provide funding for
projects of interest, television specials of the past, like A Charlie Brown
Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, had to rely on company
sponsorship in order to get made. While A Charlie Brown Christmas found its
financier in the form of Coca-Cola, How the Grinch Stole Christmas struggled
to find a benefactor.

 

With storyboards in hand, Chuck Jones pitched the story to more than two
dozen potential sponsors-breakfast foods, candy companies, and the like-all
without any luck. Down to the wire, Jones finally found his sponsor in an
unlikely source: the Foundation for Commercial Banks. "I thought that was
very odd, because one of the great lines in there is that the Grinch says,
'Perhaps Christmas doesn't come from a store,'" Jones said of the surprise
endorsement. "I never thought of a banker endorsing that kind of a line. But
they overlooked it, so we went ahead and made the picture."

 

13. FOUR PLOT LINES WERE CUT FROM LOVE ACTUALLY.

 

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Director Richard Curtis initially aimed to include 14 love stories in the
film. Two were clipped in the scripting phase, but two were shot and cut in
post. Those lost before production involved a girl with a wheelchair, and
one about a boy who records a love song for a classmate who ultimately hooks
up with his drummer. Shot but cut for time was a brief aside featuring an
African couple supporting each other during a famine, and another storyline
that followed home a school headmistress, revealing her long-time commitment
to her lesbian partner.

 

14. A MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL WAS THE FIRST MUPPET MOVIE MADE WITHOUT JIM
HENSON.

The man behind the Muppets passed away on May 16, 1990 at the age of 53. The
Muppet Christmas Carol debuted on December 11, 1992 with Steve Whitmire
taking over Kermit the Frog for Henson. The film is dedicated to Henson and
his recently deceased collaborator Richard Hunt, who'd long performed
Scooter, Beaker, Janice, Statler, and Sweetums.

 

15. A HELLISH TRIP FROM NEW YORK TO CHICAGO INSPIRED JOHN HUGHES TO WRITE
PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES.

Before he became a screenwriter, Hughes used to work as a copywriter for the
Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago. One day he had an 11 a.m.
presentation scheduled in New York City on a Wednesday, and planned to
return home on a 5 p.m. flight. Winter winds forced all flights to Chicago
to be canceled that night, so he stayed in a hotel. A snowstorm in Chicago
the next day continued the delays. The plane he eventually got on ended up
being diverted to Denver. Then Phoenix. Hughes didn't make it back until
Monday. Experiencing such a hellish trip might explain how Hughes managed to
write the first 60 pages of Planes, Trains and Automobiles in just six
hours.

 

16. THE PLOT OF THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS WAS INSPIRED BY THE COLLISION
OF HOLIDAY STORE DECORATIONS.

In the film's DVD commentary, creator Tim Burton explains that his childhood
in Burbank, California was not marked by seasonal changes, so holiday
decorations were an especially important factor in the year's progression.
When it came to fall and winter, there was a melding of Halloween and
Christmas in stores eager to make the most of both shopping seasons. This,
he claimed, planted the seed for his tale of the king of Halloween intruding
on Christmas.

 

17. THE PUPPETS FROM RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER WERE RECENTLY
REDISCOVERED.

When they resurfaced, they did so on Antiques Roadshow in 2006. Well, not
all of them-just Santa and Rudolph. A woman who worked for Rankin/Bass had
stored them in her attic since at least the 1970s. Prior to that, she let
her kids play with them. Rudolph lost his red nose, and let's not even talk
about how Santa lost his eyebrows. The puppets were fully restored after
their trip to Antiques Roadshow and have since been displayed at the Center
for Puppetry Arts. The new owner hopes the puppets can go on tour so more
people can enjoy them.

 

18. ROBERT ZEMECKIS GAVE HIS CHILDHOOD HOME A SHOUT-OUT IN THE POLAR
EXPRESS.

When the conductor says "11344 Edbrooke" near the beginning of the film,
he's referring to director Robert Zemeckis' actual childhood home in
Chicago.

 

19. THE FBI DIDN'T THINK IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE WAS SO WONDERFUL.

In 1947, the FBI issued a memo noting the film as a potential "Communist
infiltration of the motion picture industry," citing its "rather obvious
attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a
'Scrooge-type' so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This,
according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists."

 

20. A CHRISTMAS STORY GOT ITS SCIENCE RIGHT.

Mythbusters tested whether it was really possible to get your tongue stuck
on a piece of cold metal. Guess what? It is. So don't triple dog dare your
best friend to try it.

 

21. WILL FERRELL REFUSES TO MAKE A SEQUEL TO ELF.

Though the comedian reprised the role of Ron Burgundy for Anchorman 2: The
Legend Continues, he flat out rejected the possibility of bringing back
Buddy, even after being offered a reported $29 million. In December of 2013,
he told USA TODAY, "I just think it would look slightly pathetic if I tried
to squeeze back in the elf tights: Buddy the middle-aged elf." 

 

22. A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS KILLED THE ALUMINUM TREE BUSINESS.

Aluminum Christmas trees were marketed beginning in 1958 and enjoyed fairly
strong sales by eliminating pesky needles and tree sap. But the annual
airings of A Charlie Brown Christmas swayed public thinking: In the special,
Charlie Brown refuses to get a fake tree. Viewers began to do the same, and
the product was virtually phased out by 1969. The leftovers are now
collector's items.

 

23. HUGH GRANT DID NOT WANT TO DANCE IN LOVE ACTUALLY.

Though Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis had worked together on Notting Hill,
Bridget Jones's Diary, and Four Weddings and a Funeral, they had a deep
disagreement on how the Prime Minister should be played. Grant wanted it to
be a grounded performance and resented Curtis's push to make the part more
whimsical. This came to a head when shooting the dance number, which Grant
refused to rehearse. "He kept on putting it off, and he didn't like the
song-it was originally a Jackson 5 song, but we couldn't get it-so he was
hugely unhappy about it," Curtis explained. "We didn't shoot it until the
final day and it went so well that when we edited it, it had gone too well,
and he was singing along with the words!" It was a tricky thing to cut, but
the final result with Girls Aloud's cover of "Jump (For My Love)" speaks for
itself.

 

24. RICHARD DONNER CONSIDERS SCROOGED THE MOVIE WHERE MURRAY BECAME "AN
ACTOR."

Though Scrooged is mainly a comedy, it concludes with Murray's character
being a changed man, who has to deliver a rather dramatic speech in order to
make his character's transformation clear. But director Richard Donner told
Philadelphia Daily News that what they witnessed in that pivotal scene was
something much greater: "On the last take I saw something happen to Billy. I
saw Billy Murray become an actor."

 

25. WHEN NEAL IS THINKING ABOUT DEL ON THE TRAIN IN PLANES, TRAINS AND
AUTOMOBILES, STEVE MARTIN DIDN'T KNOW THE CAMERA WAS ROLLING.

In order to get the new ending he wanted, John Hughes and editor Paul Hirsch
went back to look for footage they previously didn't think would be used.
Hughes had kept the cameras rolling in between takes on the Chicago train,
without his lead's knowledge, while Martin was thinking about his next
lines. Hughes thought Martin had a "beautiful expression" on his face in
that unguarded moment.

 

26. GIZMO AND STRIPE WERE THE SAME CREATURE AT ONE POINT IN THE DEVELOPMENT
OF GREMLINS.

It was at the suggestion of producer Steven Spielberg that Gizmo's role in
the film grew. Originally, it's the cute little Mogwai himself who
transforms into Stripe the Gremlin. But Spielberg knew that audiences would
want to see as much of Gizmo as possible, so he withdrew the idea so that
they would appear as totally separate characters.

 

27. THE GRINCH'S GREEN COLOR WAS INSPIRED BY A RENTAL CAR.

In the original book, the Grinch is illustrated as black and white, with
hints of pink and red. Rumor has it that Chuck Jones was inspired to give
the Grinch his iconic coloring after he rented a car that was painted an
ugly shade of green.

 

28. IN REAL LIFE, HARRY AND MARV MAY NOT HAVE SURVIVED KEVIN'S ATTACK IN
HOME ALONE.

BB gun shots to the forehead and groin? A steaming hot iron and can of paint
to the face? A flaming blowtorch to the scalp? The Wet Bandits endure an
awful lot of violence at the hands of a single eight-year-old. So much so
that neither one of them should have been walking-let alone conscious-by the
end of the night. In 2012, Dr. Ryan St. Clair diagnosed the likely outcome
of their injuries at The Week. While a read-through of the entire article is
well worth your time, here are a few of the highlights: That iron should
have caused a "blowout fracture," leading to "serious disfigurement and
debilitating double vision if not repaired properly." And the blowtorch?
According to Dr. St. Clair, "The skin and bone tissue on Harry's skull will
be so damaged and rotted that his skull bone is essentially dying and will
likely require a transplant." 

 

29. DOROTHY PARKER WORKED ON THE SCRIPT FOR IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.

By the time It's a Wonderful Life made it into theaters, more than a
half-dozen people contributed to the screenplay, including some of the most
acclaimed writers of the time, such as Dorothy Parker, Dalton Trumbo, Marc
Connelly, and Clifford Odets among them.

 

30. IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC, BAD SANTA IS CALLED SANTA IS A PERVERT. 

Films are known to change names to fit foreign markets. That's nothing new.
However, sometimes its nuance gets a little lost in translation. Case in
point: the Czech Republic's extremely literal, albeit accurate, title. 

 

31. CHRISTMAS VACATION'S COUSIN EDDIE IS BASED ON A REAL GUY.

Randy Quaid borrowed many of Cousin Eddie's mannerisms from a guy he knew
growing up in Texas, most notably his tendency toward tongue-clicking. But
Eddie's sweater/dickie combo? That was an idea from Quaid's wife.

 

32. IT WASN'T UNTIL AFTER FILMING THAT THE PRODUCERS OF MIRACLE ON 34TH
STREET GOT PERMISSION TO USE MACY'S AND GIMBELS' NAMES IN THE MOVIE.

Despite the fact that both Macy's and Gimbels figure prominently in the
story, the studio took a gamble by not getting the companies to sign off
before using their names. According to TCM, the studio made the companies
aware they were going into production, but refused to share footage until
filming was completed. Luckily, both department stores were satisfied with
the final product.

 

33. JEAN SHEPHERD MAKES AN ON-SCREEN APPEARANCE IN A CHRISTMAS STORY.

If the voice of the man who brusquely informs Ralphie and Randy that the
line to sit on Santa's lap begins about two miles further back than they had
anticipated sounds familiar, that's because it's the voice of the narrator,
a.k.a. Adult Ralphie, who also happens to be Jean Shepherd, the man upon
whose short stories the film itself is based. The woman behind Shepherd is
his wife, Leigh Brown.

 

34. RANKIN/BASS WEREN'T THE FIRST TEAM TO ANIMATE FROSTY THE SNOWMAN.

In 1954, United Productions of America (UPA) brought Frosty to life in a
short cartoon that is little more than an animated music video for a jazzy
version of the song. It introduced the characters mentioned in the lyrics
visually, from Frosty himself to the traffic cop. The three-minute,
black-and-white piece quickly became a holiday tradition in various markets,
particularly in Chicago, where it's been broadcast annually on WGN since
1955.

 

35. RUDOLPH HAS A SON NAMED ROBBIE.

At least, he does according to the BBC. They developed three cartoons based
on Rudolph's offspring, but the name of Robbie's famous dad is never
actually mentioned. The plotline tells us that the villain of the series,
Blitzen, can't stand to hear Rudolph's name. In reality, it's because the
BBC couldn't get permission to use it (or didn't want to pay to use it).

 

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The Manhattan cocktail (whiskey and sweet vermouth) was invented by Winston
Churchill's mother. 

 

Desi Arnaz's grandfather was one of the founders of the largest rum
distillery in the world.

 

The national anthem of the US, the "Star-Spangled Banner," was written to
the tune of a drinking song

 

The shallow champagne glass originated with Marie Antoinette. It was first
formed from wax molds made of her breasts. 

 

Beer was not sold in bottles until 1850; it was not sold in cans until 1935.

 

In the 1600's thermometers were filled with brandy instead of mercury. 2.

 

The corkscrew was invented in 1860.