Saturday's postcard: Vintage Christmas snowball fight

This Whitney Made (Worcester, Massachusetts) postcard features an adorable snow fort and looming snowball fight featuring a couple of tots dressed up as Santa Claus. The message on the front states "A Merry Christmas to You (And I Hope It Hits You, too!)"

The card was mailed with a one-cent stamp and postmarked in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I think the year is 1915, but I'm not 100% sure on that. That was definitely a year in which postcard stamps cost a penny. The card was mailed to St. Louis, Missouri.

The short cursive message on the back states:

Dear Florence:—

I wish you a merry Christmas, and hope Santa will be real good to you.

Your friend,

Louise Zackert

Five films for Christmas

Above: The Night Before Christmas (aka Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka)

Below: Curse of the Cat People

From It's a Wonderful Life to Die Hard to Holiday in Handcuffs, everyone has their favorite Christmastime films. And it's always fun to make lists. I'm a contrarian, so I'm not going to pick anything too obvious (sorry, George Bailey, Home Alone and Elf). And I'm not picking anything too violent, either (sorry, Hans Gruber and Black Christmas).

Here are five of my favorites for the holiday season ...

Curse of the Cat People, 1944, directed by Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise. Producer Val Lewton threw a curveball with this "followup" to his influential 1942 low-budget hit Cat People. The main cast members return, but the plot makes only passing mention to the original. It's a powerful story about the loneliness and imagination of childhood, and to say more would spoil the surprises. I will note that it's set in Tarrytown, New York, and you're "ahead" of the game if you know what that means.

The Night Before Christmas (aka Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka), 1961, Alexander Rou. This one is a perfect example of my love for mid-century international oddities. It's bonkers right from the start, so the first five minutes will either delightfully suck you in or give you fair warning that it's not your cup of peppermint tea. It's based on a short story by Ukrainian-born Nikolai Gogol and set in Dykanka, a Ukrainian village. You can watch the full film, with English subtitles, on YouTube.

Scrooge (released as A Christmas Carol in the United States), 1951, Brian Desmond Hurst. There have been many wonderful filmed versions of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. But this one, the British version with Alastair Sim, is my favorite, in no small part because it's the one that was shown the most on TV when I was a kid. And, with apologies to the Muppets, it's a story that seems to work best in black and white, with every frame looking cold as a freezing winter morning.

The Signalman, 1976, Lawrence Gordon Clark. More Dickens! The plot of this 38-minute TV film doesn't have anything to do with Christmastime, other than that fact that Dickens ghost stories and Christmas go hand in hand (preferably with hot chocolate and warm pajamas). This was part of the BBC anthology series "A Ghost Story for Christmas." The British know best how to tap into the ghostly spookiness of December's long, dark nights, and The Signalman, starring the superb Denholm Elliott, is one of the series' most iconic episodes.

The Holdovers, 2023, Alexander Payne. Yes, I watch modern stuff, too! I watched this twice in early January and fell in love with it. Like Curse of the Cat People, it taps into the loneliness of the season, but ultimately to a much more comedic effect. It's set in December 1970 (the month I was born) and recreates that era brilliantly. And it's a tour de force for actors Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa. Highly recommended.

* * *

On deck: I'm hoping to find time this month to watch another couple of films with the potential to be added to my list of Christmastime favorites: 1961's Cash on Demand, with Peter Cushing, and Fanny and Alexander, the much-lauded 1982 film by Ingmar Bergman. 

What are your holiday film, TV or cartoon favorites? 

Curating nostalgic memories of WKBS-48

The Joe Oteri Show originated in Boston and was syndicated to WKBS-48. This advertisement is from 1979. 

Oteri, a prominent defense attorney and larger-than-life character, died in 2020.

I wrote a short post in 2019 about my memories of watching various shows and movies on WKBS-TV, Channel 48, when we lived in Clayton, New Jersey, from 1978 to 1980. The station signed off for good on August 30, 1983, more than 40 years ago. But I'm far from the only one who has happy memories of watching Channel 48 "back in the day."

WKBS-TV comes up frequently as a topic on message boards and in Facebook groups (there's even a group with more than 2,000 members devoted specifically to memories of the channel).

For fun and posterity, I thought I'd gather some internet memories of folks who used to watch Channel 48, including some that align with my childhood experience.

• "Fond memories of the Abbott and Costello movie every Sunday at 12 noon."
• "Getting those UHF stations to tune in clear enough, in the outlying suburbs, with a stationary rooftop antenna, was tricky to say the least!"
• "I can't believe no one has mentioned Star Trek. 48 played a part in bringing Trek back from the dead even if they were only showing old reruns. Some episodes were fresh and nostalgic at the same time. I've read that Trek's popularity in reruns and Star Wars' success helped get the ball rolling on making the first Trek movie."
• "I'm old enough to remember the Roller Derby broadcast on Sunday nights in the 1960s!"
• "48 was also famous for showing old movies on Sundays. I watched a lot of old detective movies along with the Bowery Boys."
• "Captain Philadelphia….great show with Stu Nahan as the Captain"
• "No disrespect to channels 17 & 29, who each had awesome cartoons, but growing up with a tv antenna on the home, channel 48 had the best over-all package."
• "I remember my brother and I watching The Honeymooners and Night Gallery late at night on 48!"
• "I remember seeing listings for Channel 48, but it BARELY could be picked up at our house in Lancaster County. The local Christian station, Channel 49 was too strong"
• "Dickory Doc, played by Aldo Farnese, was on at noon on Channel 48 and showed cartoons to the school kids who came home for lunch. Aldo was also a TV cameraman who worked local professional games."
• "Yes! Battle of the Planets for life! This channel was before its time. Rest in Peace."
• "It was my favorite. It had Creature Double Feature, which started my love of horror movies."
• "Star Blazers!"
• "This is where I got my first exposure to 'Star Trek.' Never saw the show first-run, maybe I saw one episode, but that was all. I started watching the show regularly when it went into syndication. My eighth-grade English teacher used to imitate Spock ... and I had no idea who the guy was imitating. He got insulted when I showed no reaction to his 'fascinating' and 'Indeed' comments. As a result, I was disliked by him because I had no idea who Spock was."
• "Kimba The White Lion followed by Ultraman."
• "I still remember my Dad coming home one night and called all 'the kids' into the room. He said 'watch this,' and produced something that looked liked a coat hanger formed into a circle, attached it to the back of the tv, and — ta da! — 3 new channels, one of which was Channel 48"
• "Watched a lot of Godzilla movies on that channel back then and among other horror movies"
• "While the other kids were outside playing ball and such on a Saturday afternoon, I would hole up inside and watch Creature Double Feature every week ... it gave me nightmares. Everything looks like obvious kitsch-schlock-cheese .... but the HAND is real. And THAT was a whole different level of weird. Still IS, actually."
• "I too was a big Brady Bunch fan and watched on Channel 48. My kid was shocked when I told her that the TV stations would play the national anthem and would shut down for the night."
• "Channel 48 was a great indy: they had the best library of classic movies that you now see on Turner Classic Movies. Former WWDB and WCAU talk-show host Bernie Herman hosted the one o'clock movie. Great kids shows like Captain Philadelphia, Dickory Doc, etc., and home to Star Trek. They were also the first tv home of the Philadelphia Flyers."
• "I was so sad when Channel 48 was taken off the air. Don't laugh at me everybody, but I still put it on Channel 48 just to see if there's another station that took its place. I know, it's crazy."

For more on the history of WKBS-TV, check out the excellent posts on Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia and Flapper Press (by John C. Alsedek).

Colorful 1970: "Christmas With All The Trimmings"

Christmas With All The Trimmings is a staplebound booklet that was published in 1970 by Wm. E. Wright. Co., a textile company specializing in home sewing. It appears to have been published in conjunction with Woman's Day magazine, as Needlework Editor Roxa Wright writes in an short introduction: "We hope this little book will stimulate you to try new ways of using the multiplicity of materials now at your fingertips."

There are ideas for candy/cookie containers, party favors, door decorations, scarfs, belts, waste baskets, gift boxes, tree ornaments, stockings, desk accessories, card holders, table cloths, holiday fashions and more. All in the colors marking the the start of the 1970s, a decade that would see some transition from psychedelic tones to "earthy" ones.

But I'll let the photos speak for themselves. First up: some festive candy containers.

    

These two sewing projects are referred to as Silly Snail and Myrtle the Turtle. 

Stockings to hang by the chimney with care.

And, finally, some very 1970 fashions for the neighborhood Christmas party. Want more ephemeral Christmas content? Here's a place to start for Papergreat's past posts.

1975 Christmas issue of Byte

This is the fourth-ever issue of Byte magazine, a home computer magazine that was published from September 1975 until July 1998. 

In the late 1980s, I would occasionally buy Byte on the newstand, but more often I read the new issues in the Strath Haven High School library during study hall. The magazine was an unfathomable moneymaker during its heyday. A September 8, 1984, article in The New York Times headlined "The Computer Magazine Glut" notes that the October 1984 issue of Byte was slated to have 300 pages of advertisements, at an average price of $6,000 per page. (More than $17,000 per page in today's dollars.)

It was smaller at the start, of course. This December 1975 issue was 112 pages, with a healthy number of advertising pages. It was the first Christmas issue, and it features a cover illustration by Robert Tinney that, as the magazine notes, "illustrates the impact of these new toys upon traditional relationships." 

How right they were.

It was a different computer era back then. It was an expensive hobby and most enthusiasts needed to have significant knowledge and skills to build their own machines. This $1.50 magazine was catering to that demographic. Here are some of the article titles, which may sound like Greek to a modern generation that knows nothing about the innards of its laptops and iPhones.

• Powerless IC Test Clip
• LIFE Line 3
• 
  Build a 6800 System with This Kit
• Can Your Computer Tell Time?
• Photographic notes on Prototype Construction
• What This Country Needs Is a Good 8-Bit High Level Language
• The Software Vaccum
• Logic Probes — Hardware Bug Chasers
• What Is a Character?
• Flip Flops Exposed
• Read Only Memory Technology
• The HP-65: World's Smallest Computer
• Assembling an Altair 8800

The advertisements are similarly byzantine. They contain bold pitches such as:

• "Use Our Hardware Assemblers!"
• "Hi-Speed Static RAM 2602-1 475ns"
• "Inexpensive, Sophisticated Mass Storage"
• "Build Your Own Advanced Terminal"
• "Christmas Time Payment Plan, 1K Altair for Just $68 a Month!"
• "Ten Reasons to Choose CMR Memory Card"
• "16K Memory Kit Less Than 5.5¢/Word"
• "Uses Low Power Schottky TTL"
• "Epoxy Boards with Plated Thru Holes"
• "Jump Program 16K Address Slot"
• "TO-92 Voltage Regulators"

And this might be my favorite: 

Seasons Greetings

WHAT SINGLE ELECTRONIC MACHINE CAN BE USED TO PERFORM/CONTROL ALL THE FOLLOWING TYPES OF SERVICES?

• Send morse code
• Control repeater stations
• Operate as a calculator
• Receive/send/buffer data between a wide variety of communication devices
• Monitor instruments
• Control machines
• Sort/compile data
• Test other devices
• Play games

the SCELBI-8B MINI-COMPUTER CAN!

Scelbi 

Finally, if all that text has you scratching your head, that's nothing. This is what most of the article pages in this issue of Byte looked like:

Of course, many of the "computer nerds" who understood all of this stuff back in the 1970s were in a fantastic position for lucrative careers, or even to found billion-dollar companies that now sell us all those nifty devices that we love but don't understand one thing about.

Related posts

• From 1982: Dr. Robert Wesson's program will help you speel better
• Advertisements from a 1982 issue of Creative Computing
• From 1982: William Shatner peddles Commodore's VIC-20
• The "Grand" Stand™ was there to support your joystick
• 1980s computer game: Sonar Search
• Sphere Corporation's "Pleaser" PC from the mid-1970s
• Tackling genealogy on your home PC in the late 1980s

Hans Holzer's "Ghosts of the Golden West"

This is now the seventh Hans Holzer paperback I've written about, so it's time for a directory. I'll put it toward the bottom of this post.

• Title: Ghosts of the Golden West
• Additional cover text: "Unearthly tales of the living dead"
• Author: Hans Holzer (1920-2009)
• Publisher: Ace Books (28622)
• 
  Publication date: Mystery time! The book was first published as a hardcover by Bobbs-Merrill in 1968, so this paperback came afterward, but there's no record on the copyright page or online of exactly when this edition came out. This paperback is listed as 28622 on the cover. There's a 60-cent Ace Books paperback of Ghosts of the Golden West that's marked as 28620 (pictured at right). So maybe my copy is the second or third paperback publication by Ace Books, perhaps as late as the mid 1970s. This is the "style" of Holzer paperbacks that I remember from Mom's collection, including in our attic in Clayton.
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 190
• Cover price: $1.25
• Chapter titles: The Whaley House Ghosts; The Ghost in the Closet; The Wurmbrand Ghost; The Restless Dead; The Ghostly Sailor of Almeda; The Ghost Lady of Newbury Park; The Haunted Barn; The Millbrae Poltergeist Case; The Ghost Who Refuses to Leave; Pioneer State Ghosts; The Ghostly Monks of Aetna Springs; Pipelines to the Beyond.
• First sentence (not including introduction): I first heard about the ghosts at San Diego's Whaley House through an article in Cosmic Star, Merle Gould's psychic newspaper, back in 1963. 
• What more is known about Gould? In Volume XXII, Number 1 of The Awakener Magazine, there's an article by Filis Frederick titled "Reminiscences of the City of Lost Angels." This is the relevant excerpt: "Another person I met at this tiny New Age gathering was Merle Gould, who published the Cosmic Star and had a bookstore in Hollywood of the same name. He had made several movies; one was 'The Body is a Shell,' another, 'The Prophesies of Nostradamus,' narrated by Basil Rathbone. Merle was one of the first Californians to 'network' New Age spiritual groups and arrange group conferences."
• Last paragraph: If your case is one requiring my help and that of one of my psychic friends, be assured that I will try to come and help you. Just as soon as I can, we will enter our Ghost Hunter's car, the sleek white Citroen, and (almost) noiselessly drive out to see you, if you are within driving distance. If you are far away, I shall get to you when opportunity takes me to your area. You will owe me nothing, dear reader, but cooperation and a full account of what has happened to you, or to those you speak of. 
• Random excerpt #1: But despite a careful search of the fragmentary records still extant about the period in question, no Pierre Devon could be pinned down.
• Random excerpt #2: It worried them, but somehow they got through Christmas and hopefully approached the New Year with a feeling of relief since nothing untoward again happened.
• Rating on Goodreads: 3.7 stars (out of 5)
• Rating on Amazon: 4.4 stars (out of 5)

Previous posts about Hans Holzer paperbacks

• The Witchcraft Report
• The Psychic World of Plants
• Window to the Past: Exploring History Through ESP
• Charismatics
• The Psychic World of Bishop Pike
• The Vegetarian Way of Life

But wait, there's more...

Tucked away inside this paperback was a brochure for the Whaley House, probably from sometime in the 1970s, when admission was just $1 for adult, 50 cents for teenagers and 25 cents for children. The brochure for the historic brick structure makes no mention of ghosts.

Finally, here's Bandit posing with today's book, just for the halibut.