Holiday Fest 2024

​As I mentioned earlier, our Holiday Fest also includes a few little-seen TV specials from the past.  This one tonight wasn't a standalone special per se, but instead was the Christmas special episode for the weekly Julie Andrews Hour, and they went all out to make it stand out.  This is from December 20, 1972, and the cast includes Jimmy Stewart, Joel Grey, Mama Cass Elliot, Carl Reiner, Steve Lawrence, Sergio Franchi, Dan Dailey, Alice Ghostley and Rich Little. 

(Side note: For those who don't know his name, Dan Dailey had a successful movie career in the 1940s and 1950s, including many musicals, and even got an Oscar nomination as Best Actor for When My Baby Smiles at Me.  I saw him on stage at the Blackstone Theater in Chicago as 'Oscar' in a 1966 production of The Odd Couple, which also starred Richard Benjamin as 'Felix,' who so often played nervous, neurotic characters and was memorably picture-perfect for the role. And years later I got to tell him that when I met him and his wife Paula Prentis at a Northwestern alumni party which was held before the football team played in the Rose Bowl in 1995.  And yes, he was stunned.  And pleased.)

(But I digress.)

The special is very well done.  Carl Reiner even has a solo song, and does a nice job on "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day."  Jimmy Stewart is the main guest, and travels around with Julie Andrews – and just when you think that that's pretty much all he'll get to do, later in the show he actually gets a solo number with "Away in the Manger" -- then sings a bit on two  duets, including one with Julie Andrews, which in the singing world is the definition of courageous.

What's also fun is that Alice Ghostley sings one of the little-known Christmas songs I've posted here the past few years from the TV musical The Stingiest Man in Town.  For that matter, they also perform yet another little-known song I post here every year -- “A Christmas Carol” from the movie Scrooge.  And are a couple of fun short sketches between Jimmy Stewart and Rich Little.  The special also includes the original commercials which adds some whimsy.

(Note: for some reason, this may open at the 1:48 mark, but  I think I've finally gotten it to begin at the start.  If not, though, you can just click on the scroll bar at the bottom of the video to get it all the way back to the beginning.)
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