Because Rudolph wasn't paying the bills anymore...
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| Circa 1950. |
65 years ago, country balladeer Gene Autry was looking for a follow-up to his Christmas hit about a certain red-nosed reindeer. Writers Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson brought this little ditty to the table, and Autry's Christmas career was secured.
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| Hello, childhood! |
Fast forward to 1969. Rankin-Bass, stop motion animation studio extraordinaire, was running behind on their latest holiday masterpiece, and to make a contractual deadline, turned to cel animation. Arthur Rankin wanted the art to look like a Christmas card, so Jules Bass turned to Mad Magazine illustrator Paul Coker to do production design, and Jimmy "hot-cha-cha-cha" Durante to narrate the tale, his last work before his death. Since then...well, there must've been some magic in that old silk hat, because TV Frosty hasn't missed a Christmas since.
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P.S. my favorite performance of the song is the one by the Ronettes, produced by Phil Spector in 1963.
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So, Happy Christmas to everyone. From all of us here at Thoughtballoons, Season's Greetings!
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Happy Holidays to you Ray!
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