Hello,

This year I thought I would run a holiday film or two each night for the days leading up to Christmas...

Last night's films included a faded animation of "The 12 Days of Christmas"...I wish I knew who sang in this one--a very amazing voice and the best part of this short 16mm film. The second 16mm tidbit was a commercial from the 1960's for Gold Medal Flour via General Mills. General Mills is a Minneapolis food company that was started back in 1928 as a flour mill but is now a food conglomerate offering just about everything....This is a B&W stop-motion animation featuring different European-style baked Christmas goodies..

Feel free to join in with your own evening entries to the 12 Days of Christmas Films.....Happy Christmas to all!

Nice films to own, Greg.

For last evening's films we have "Suzy Snowflake", a B&W 16mm Castle Films print. This song was made popular by Rosemary Clooney (Aunt of George). I am not sure if she is the voice in the film, but may well be. This stop-motion animation of a magical pixie who brings snow to the landscape was done by Wah Ming Chang. Mr. Chang was born in Hawaii and had a long and creative career. Wah went on to do a lot of prop work for Star Trek: The Original Series and is credited with creating, among many things, Tribbles, various costumes, the Klingon (or is it Vulcan?) harp, and the forerunner to today's cellphones--the communicator. Quite a bit of wear on this film, but still fun..

Next up, we have "Christmas Rhapsody", a 1948 Encyclopedia Brittanica 16mm film about a small and lonely pine tree that wishes he could be put to use like all of the other large trees around him. He gets his wish when a family picks him to be their Christmas tree. Narration and some nice Christmas hymns. Like a time machine to the past, it is interesting to see this slice of mid-century life, a cozy log cabin and some pretty outdoor scenery....

You have a very nice collection; I only have one Xmas film, which was put out by Perry's Movies, I think its called Christmas Greetings 1937; various UK and US stars wising the cinema audiences a happy Christmas. Only about 30 feet in length in Super 8.

Hi Robert,

Thank you for the compliment! I try to add one or two new Christmas films throughout the year. I actually missed out on a couple this year that don't come up for sale very often. It makes for a nice holiday show for my young nieces and nephews...unfortunately with Covid, that is all off for this year.

If you get a chance it would be great to see pics of the 1937 Christmas greetings film you mention....

Greg

Well here he we go with the next installment....

"The Small One" is a 1978 Disney Christmas classic directed by Don Bluth. For those who may not have seen this yet, it is the story of a young boy who must sell his old and small donkey. After not being able to find any one that would treat the old donkey decently, the boy is sad and crying. Then a kind man named Joseph approaches the boy and purchases the donkey so that his pregnant wife Mary may ride to Bethlehem on it.

The animation is exceptionally well done in my opinion. This 16mm print has a touch of wear here and there, including a couple of brief emulsion scratches at the start and the end, as well as some base scratches. This is the full length version. Color is LPP on Mylar. A couple of side notes: Clarence Nash, the voice of Donald Duck for 50 years, did the "voice" of Small One. Thurl Ravenscroft, also contributed a voice as the Potter. It was Thurl that sang the classic song "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch", while the great Boris Karloff did the narration in the 1966 Dr. Suess animation "How the Grinch stole Christmas'. A nice holiday film for all of us...

You have some very good and rare christmas films Greg. All look very good.
At present i am not able to view much due to the fact all our films are now stored well away from the film room which itself is temporarily being used for everything else.Hoping to get a couple more shows in soon upstairs.

I have the 200' Derann Super 8 version of The Small One and I love it. How great to have the full version on 16mm!!

Hello,

I truly appreciate all of the kind comments about these films. I was just lucky on the 16mm print of "The Small One"...It was a Buy It now that had just been listed on ebay and at a very reasonable price--so much so that I was hesitant there must be something really wrong with it. Description was accurate which indicated some lines here and there. I guess we all have gotten lucky with a film or two over the years...

This afternoon's Christmas film is the Derann 200 ft. extract "Waltz of the Flowers". I understand this was a Russian animated extract of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. Please note the "Derann" title card. I could be wrong but I don't recall seeing Derann's name as part of very many actual prints(?). This is a very colorful cartoon and with a unique art/animation style to it. In some parts, it reminds me of scenes from 'Fantasia'. A very eye-pleasing film, in my opinion.

As Tom said , you have some rare films there, especially I would think, the Gold Medal Flour.

Hi Robert,

I think you are correct about the relative rarity of the Gold Medal Flour commercial. I don't see too many Christmas themed commercials available for sale, and I would guess a good portion of most commercials would be faded Eastman by now. I am pleased to have this one.