Every
year, I write some short stories about the Christmas holidays, conjuring up memories
of cold and frosty mornings and dashing down the stairs to the living room
where I would be greeted by a dazzling light show – what seemed like a
bajillion multi-color lights blazing on our Christmas tree, its long strands of
tinsel twinkling from the reflection of those lights in the slightest breeze,
and a blue, red, green and yellow color wheel spinning serenely before the
tree, bathing it in a psychedelic light and putting the display way over the
top.
In a
piece I called, “A Christmas Ramble”, I made mention of my love of holiday
television programming during those times, back when I was just a kid in the
1960s, and thought I’d share one remembrance from that story with you – a truly
remarkable piece of history about a very odd but now traditional Christmas
television offering.
I
grew up in northern New Jersey just outside of New York City in the “Swinging
Sixties”. During that time, I became an aficionado of Christmas programming, a
true connoisseur of the genre. And it wasn’t just the classics I loved like the
airing of the movies “Holiday Inn” or Alastair Sim’s version of “A Christmas
Carol”. I would always search out and find the odd and off the wall stuff, and
one of those programs became a staple in our household and has since become an
iconic tradition all across the country.
For
as many people love this show, there are just as many that ridicule it, but the
story of how this show began is nothing short of programming genius. The show I’m
talking about is the Yule Log.
It
was a local independent station out of New York City - WPIX - that began the
tradition. It was in 1966 when the President and CEO of the station, Fred
Thrower, decided that he wanted to do something special for the residents of the
city who couldn’t have fire places in their apartments. Additionally, he wanted
to make sure that he could give as many of his employees at the station time off
for the holiday.
With
the permission of the city’s mayor, John Lindsay, Thrower sent a crew to the
mayor’s home, Gracie Mansion, and filmed only a few seconds of a fire burning
in the mansion’s ornate fire place. It is said that a rogue spark from the
burning logs damaged a $4,000 rug that lay before the hearth during the
filming.
That
Christmas Eve, WPIX cancelled over $4,000 in advertising and the telecast of a
local roller derby match to air the Yule Log. The resulting 17-second film
would be looped over and over again for hours with holiday music played over the
film. Incredibly, the show was a huge success and it ran every Christmas Eve
and Christmas morning until it was finally cancelled in 1990. Following the
attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, the station brought the Yule Log
back, digitally remastered, of course, and it has aired ever since.
Today,
several satellite and cable companies have produced their own version of the
Yule Log and you can actually by DVD’s of the show. An unlikely but remarkable
holiday tradition that has thankfully survived.
