Noir Dame Blog

Retro-inspired culture and media – audio drama, classic TV and film

So, once you’re done listening to our holiday rarity playlists on Youtube, what else can you dig that’s retro-fied for Christmas? Here’s a list of some of the great original and classic audio dramas, and retro swing and jazz shows, plus a wonderful classic ’60s pop documentary, airing on local stations. All stations stream off the web; all times local.

Northern California’s Northstate Public Radio will be playing “Hep to the Holidays”, groovy classic jazz, on Christmas Night.

Washington DC’s WAMU plays the “Retro Cocktail Hour Christmas Party” (lots of Christmas lounge!) at 2 pm Christmas Eve, and “The Big Broadcast: Christmas Eve” (OTR fun) starting at 8 pm also on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, listen to the Colonial Radio Christmas Special at 1 pm, followed by The Colonial Radio’s “A Christmas Carol” and Quicksilver Radio’s “The Blue Carbuncle” – a Sherlock Holmes Christmas tale – airing at 2 and 3 pm respectively, and then “Christmas Day Recollections” – more classic radio drama – at 8 pm. They also air “A Car Talk Christmas”. Not retro – unless you count the guys themselves – but still worth catching!

Indiana’s NIPR is playing Quicksilver’s “A Christmas Carol” at 6 pm Christmas Eve.

Kentucky’s WFPL is playing “A Christmas Gift for You,” the documentary story of the penultimate Christmas rock album of the ’60s, at noon on Christmas Day. Features a lot of insight into the 1963 winter creation – known as one of the best Christmas albums of all time – made with Darlene Love, Bob B. Soxx, the Ronettes and Crystals.

North Carolina’s WCQS airs “A 40s Radio Christmas” at 2 pm, “Hep to the Holidays” at 10 pm on Christmas Eve, and a “Retro Cocktail Hour Christmas” on 9 pm, Christmas Night.

Northern Michigan’s Public 90 is airing “The Retro Cocktail Hour Christmas” on Sunday the 27th, at 3 pm.

Oklahoma’s KGOU is airing “Hep to the Holidays” when the clock strikes midnight, Christmas Eve (12 AM). Christmas morning at 8:30, a “Car Talk Christmas Carol” will be airing; at 10 am catch the “Retro Cocktail Hour Christmas Hour”.

Virginia’s WHRV is airing “A Christmas Carol” at 12 noon on Christmas Day, followed by “One Silent Night,” Walter Cronkite’s narration of the Christmas armistice. At 3 pm, it airs “A Christmas Gift for You”.

Wyoming Public Radio airs “The Retro Cocktail Hour Christmas Party” at 12 noon on Christmas Eve.

Want to hear something right now? Check out SOMAFM’s streaming Christmas Lounge -mp3 feed here, pls (Windows Media) here. Don’t forget to donate!

Christmas music. Some people hate it, most of us love it, but we get tired of hearing the same fifteen songs being recorded and rerecorded by different artists and overplayed on the radio. So I went on a hunt. Thanks to the generosity of folks who have placed rare gems on the web, I’ve collected a stack of fun videos that are not the same fifteen songs about Christmas, New Year’s, and enjoying the winter holidays… not the ones typically played in the US (the UK and Ireland seem to rotate more of their music, so some of the tracks may be more familiar to anyone reading in those countries!) They’ve been assembled into playlists, so you can crank up the volume on your computer speakers, or play it on your phone. All in all, it’s well over two hours of music. Consider it just one of our presents back to you!

There are fifteen interesting tracks from the 1940s you may not know as well here, bookended by the Andrews Sisters, who sing both “Christmas Island” and the “Merry Christmas Polka”.

And here’s a list of lesser-known 1950s Christmas and other holiday tunes, such as Stan Freberg’s “Green Christmas,” Gracie Fields’ “Little Donkey,” Joni James’ “Nina Non,” Cathy and Elliot Lewis (of OTR / radio drama fame) wishing us “Happy Holidays”, and Louis Armstrong’s “Cool Yule”.

The tracks spanning the 1960s, and into 1970 proper, are a wide range of musical styles, and show a little of what was going on in the world then. Some tracks include The Marcels’ “Merry Twistmas,” Paul and Paula’s “Holiday Hootenanny”, Bing Crosby’s fun “Christmas Dinner Country Style”, Buck Owens’ “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy,” and yes, the Royal Guardsmen’s “Snoopy’s Christmas”. This last was a sequel to “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron,” and reflects the real-life Christmas armistice of World War I.

Then this grouping, of the 1970s and 1980s, which contains as just a smattering, Jethro Tull’s “Ring Out Solstice Bells,” David Essex’s “A Winter’s Tale”, Da Yooper’s “Rusty Chevrolet,” Jona Lewie’s “Stop the Cavalry”, Boney M’s “Zion’s Daughter”, Chris de Burgh’s “A Spaceman Came Travelling,” Merle Haggard’s “Santa Claus and Popcorn,” Sting’s “Gabriel’s Message,” “What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas”, and “Santa Claus Must Be Polish” by Bobby Vee. It also has one cheat: it ends with “Christmas Wrapping,” by the Waitresses. While it’s been covered by the Spice Girls and by the Donnas, it’s still an offbeat classic, and while it hits heavy rotation in some markets, others don’t play it so often. This is an interesting article that goes into the “how” of “Christmas Wrapping” – hosted on the songwriter’s website.

Another sad day for fans of classic movies… the talented, sensitive actress Jennifer Jones has passed away at 90.

I found it intriguing how the MSNBC summary of Jones focused on much of the sorrow and unhappiness she experienced in her private life, including her somewhat publicized struggle with mental illness, and the suicide of her daughter, while the Washington Post focused on Jones’ career as an actress.

On the one hand, after marrying Norton Simon, Jones did tremendous good by donating her money and time to help those struggling with mental illness, and like other stars such as Gene Tierney, she made it more possible for people to talk about these issues. She also supported arts and culture through her links to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.

On the other, as the Washington Post notes, much of the great work she did was overshadowed by her relationship and management by David O. Selznick.

I’d be the first to admit that there’s a special poignancy watching “Since You Went Away,” knowing the truth about her relationship with soon-to-be ex-husband Robert Walker, who she had met and fallen in love with, while the pair were teenagers in dramatic school. Walker was equally talented and troubled, and was devastated when Jones married Selznick. Production on “The Clock,” a beautiful WWII gem Walker starred in with Judy Garland, and directed by Garland’s then husband Vincente Minelli, was marred by his excessive drinking. Selznick’s passion for his wife’s career during the same period is well known; unlike the lifetime pairing of William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies, where Hearst also employed over the top tactics to make his sweetie Queen of the Movies, it seems that obsession ultimately burned out the couple’s relationship.

There was plenty of unhappiness to go around, and with all that pain Jones experienced at the height of her stardom, she appeared to have enjoyed a level of peace in the last couple of decades. Still, because she was so sensitive an actress, and it was clearly informed to some degree by her life, it would be great to see a thoroughly researched biography, along the lines of David Stenn’s work on Clara Bow and Jean Harlow.

Ultimately, Jones should be remembered for the art she left behind, playing “Jennie” and “Bernadette”, and the WaPo is to be commended for writing about her life as an artist, and not – as so often happens when a screen or other star of the retro past dies – not simply a cinematic cypher who played in some roles we might remember.

Out in the small California city of Lancaster, Honda made a road groovy – literally. If you drive over the tracks at 55 MPH, in a Honda, you’ll hear the William Tell Overture (best known to us as the “Lone Ranger Theme”).

It does tend to be off-key if you’re not running a Honda or going at a constant speed (this is the time for cruise control). Unfortunately, after complaints from residents, the road is being repaved, despite Honda’s attempt to keep it far away from bothering people.

In Southern California, in many spots, I learned from personal experience, if you want to live near the beach, it means also living near train tracks. It’s jarring to hear trains pass through – ours passed through at 1 AM – but then, you simply stop hearing it. Likewise, the townspeople involved are missing out on a potential silver lining – since the unique track, like the singing beach of Manchester-by-the-sea, Massachusetts, would no doubt invite new tourist dollars into the town. And after a few more weeks, perhaps they’d get used to it.

Among the casualties of Ike, as many retro fans know already, was the Balinese Room, a Galveston island institution that had survived Hurricanes Alicia and Carla, but could not withstand Ike, despite its “Category 2″ designation. It was one of the first things we learned about, after our mandatory evacuation to Dallas, and watching the chaos unfold on television. The Balinese, of course, had been home to Frank Sinatra and many “old school” performers over the years, and was rumored to be a fave of Sinatra’s tougher buddies. Later, it had inspired a song by ZZ Top and most recently sponsored live performances – funk, rock, though we held out hope for more traditional music. One thing for sure, it was a beautiful sight whenever we were in town.

Owner Scott Arnold says he is willing to entertain “serious” proposals from investors to rebuild at the site, but is more likely planning to create a themed-club and museum on Market Street, near the historic Strand, in a building he owns there. Even this is positive news – as the equally famed Hollywood Dinner Club never came back from Galveston’s past. Meanwhile, the Texas Historical Commission has people on site who are combing through the wreckage for anything they can salvage. If you have heard of someone who managed to take artifacts away from the debris, as a souvenir, please get in touch with Lori Schwarz at the City of Galveston, or contact Scott Arnold directly through the Balinese Room website.

Meanwhile, there’s more happy news regarding the historic hotel of Tremont House, which fortunately survived Ike with minimal flood damage, along with several other treasures of Galveston Island, like the Hotel Galvez, which was created after the 1900 storm (to learn more about the history of this event, we also highly recommend Isaac’s Storm.) Meanwhile, the Galveston Historic Foundation is accepting donations to help rebuild damage after the storm.

The Harbor House at Pier 21 received damage from high waters, which implies that the neighboring Pier 21 theater, which showed a dramatic reenactment of the 1900 Storm, as well as a movie about Galveston’s pirate past, also may have been damaged. Only Galveston residents have been allowed to return on a limited basis, and as of yet, we’ve heard nothing regarding other historic and retro-themed beauties in town – like the hot pink retro apartments across from the Bank of America on Market Street (between Frost Bank and the Galveston Historical Museum) and La King’s Confectionary, the ice cream shop with 1920s’ era fixtures and old-fashioned shelves for their candy. The confectionary is raised off the ground of the Strand, but it’s unclear from photos how high the flooding was in the area. A picture on Preservation Nation shows the Strand’s flooding, including at Colonel Bubbie’s army-navy surplus store.