Author: David C. Nelson

David joined the Golden Glow in September 2012. His first Annual Convention was 2015 Lancaster, attending every convention since. David is the current longest-term Proofreader for The GLOW magazine, having started with the April 2015 issue. In 2020, he served as Co-Editor and Proofreader for the very successful Christmas Cookie Book. He was appointed as the first “centralized” Board-appointed Convention Registrar in 2016, providing that service for the record- breaking 2018 Cincinnati Convention. David was appointed Website Coordinator in January 2020. He has always held a passion for all things Christmas and has collected items that remind him of his childhood. Always fascinated with everything electrical, this naturally extended to Christmas lighting items of all descriptions, but especially bubble lights and small, hard plastic light ups. Since joining the Golden Glow, his interests have focused on Mid-Century Modern Atomic items, particularly Holt Howard Starry-Eyed Santas. David began developing a broad concept vision for a major refresh and ongoing evolutionary approach to the Golden Glow website in August 2016 after being appointed as the first "centralized" Convention Registrar earlier that year. He was appointed as Website Coordinator in January 2020. David guided the Golden Glow through an open Request for Proposal (RFP) for the redevelopment of the website to select a Website Development Firm.

Frosty the Snowman

January 6, 2020September 14, 2022

By Donna Griswold, Lynne Eltrevoog & Dave Harms

Frosty the Snowman is a lucky guy! Why, you say? Well, Frosty is in the middle of celebrating TWO birthdays! That’s right…TWO! How is that possible? Let us tell you all about it.

We recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first airing of the Rankin/Bass Productions TV cartoon special Frosty the Snowman. It has been shown for 50 consecutive years since December 7, 1969. But, Frosty began his life much earlier. In 1950, two songwriters wanted to produce something that would compete with the popularity of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Walter E. “Jack” Rollins and Steve Nelson came up with the idea of Frosty, but not as a Christmas song. They gave it to Gene Autry, who had been looking for a follow-up to “Rudolph,” to record, and it became an instant hit. Jimmy Durante, Nat King Cole, and Guy Lombardo also had hits with Frosty that placed on the record charts that same year!

Steve Nelson Composer of Frosty in Nashville Hall of Fame

Just like Rudolph, Frosty merchandise was produced to help market the song and the character.

The merchandising was taken up by Sears and similar items that had appeared for Rudolph were marketed for Frosty…books, records, pins, a few toys, some clothing, and the ever-popular snow globes. Comic books, coloring books, and puzzles soon followed. However, Sears did not follow through with the merchandising like Robert May and Montgomery Ward did for Rudolph.

Frosty the Snowman Snow Globe, Plastic Figure, and Comic Books

Frosty the Snowman point of sale board with Frosty pins

Miller Electric was granted the rights to the early Frosty and designed several color variations in hard plastic with a light. Also in the early 1950’s, UPA Studios produced a black and white 3 minute long short of Frosty the Snowman with the original song. It is readily available on YouTube and is televised each Christmas on WGN TV in Chicago.

1950s Miller Electric Lighted Frosty with box

Miller Rosbro Red Plastic Frosty with box

Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass (Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) acquired the rights to “Frosty.” Their animators redesigned Frosty’s appearance, as they had done earlier with Rudolph. They hired Romeo Muller again to write a backstory for Frosty as he had done with Rudolph. Muller had previously been a writer for Jack Envy and Milton Berle. He added the characters to the story of Frosty. He continued to work with Rankin and Bass and did other films including Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1970), The Little Drummer Boy (1968), and Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971).

Rankin and Bass wanted this Christmas special to look like a greeting card. In order to get just the right look, they had greeting card artist, Paul Coker, Jr., who also worked for Mad Magazine, do the background and all of the character initial drawings. Then, those drawings were used to do the animation the old fashioned way, with the creation of cells.

Jimmy Durante was chosen to sing the song and he became the narrator of the story, with his own character. Jackie Vernon, a stand-up comedian, became the voice of Frosty. June Foray was the original voice of Karen during the special’s first few airings; however, her voice was eventually replaced. Foray was also the voice of Cindy Lou Who in How The Grinch Stole Christmas and probably most famous for being the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel. Billy De Wolfe, after many years appearing on various TV programs, his voice will ever be known as Professor Hinkle. Paul Frees, the voice of the traffic cop, the railroad ticket agent, and Santa Claus, worked with many studios doing voices for cartoons and movies alike. He is most notably remembered as Boris Badenov on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

Jackie Vernon the voice of Frosty comedian

TV Guide rated Frosty as number 4 on the most family friendly Christmas Special list. The original version of the song, “Frosty the Snowman,” ended with the line, “I’ll be back again some day.” For the TV version, Jimmy Durante re-recorded the song with the last line of the song being, “I’ll be back on Christmas Day,” making it an “official” Christmas song! That’s what we remember now, Frosty returning at Christmas.

While we celebrated the Rankin/Bass Frosty on his 50th birthday on December 7, 2019, we are now celebrating Frosty’s 70th birthday this year. See, we told you he was a lucky guy and gets to celebrate 2 special birthdays! No matter how old Frosty is, we all look forward to his showing up during the winter and Christmas seasons. Everyone knows that there is always magic in Christmas snow! Right, Frosty?

Celebrating the Holidays in Russia

December 16, 2019September 14, 2022

By Елена Маркина (Elena Markina)

Dear Friends, I have been asked to write about Russian traditions about celebrating a New Year. It is our favorite holiday, much more than Christmas. Actually we only started once…

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Gingerbread Men

December 16, 2019September 14, 2022

By Donna Griswold

When you think about gingerbread at Christmas, probably the first thing that comes to mind is the flat, spicy cookie that is made into men whose heads you bite off! Did you ever wonder why “gingerbread men” are shaped like men in the first place? The answer can be traced back hundreds of years.

Queen Elizabeth I, who reigned from 1558-1603, is credited with the invention of the gingerbread man. (I am not kidding!) She loved throwing lavish royal dinners that included things like marzipan shaped like fruit, castles and birds. But, the Queen’s court also included a royal gingerbread maker. (More about these bakers a little later.) Elizabeth delighted in having her gingerbread maker bake gingerbread men made in the likenesses of visiting dignitaries and people from her court. I wonder if these gingerbread men were placed on a serving platter to allow guests to choose any one they wanted. Just imagine the satisfaction of biting off the head of someone you really did not like!

But, the Queen wasn’t the only person eating gingerbread men. Taking their lead from the Queen, gingerbread men were often handed out by folk medicine practitioners (often known as magicians and witches). These gingerbread men were created as “love tokens” for young women. The idea was to get the man you’d like to marry to eat the gingerbread man! Tadah! A trip down the aisle was in your future! Well that was what the magician/witch told you. A contemporary to Elizabeth was none other than William Shakespeare. In Loves Labor’s Lost, he wrote this, “An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread.” I guess William really liked gingerbread.

So, how did gingerbread cookies become something to eat around the holidays? Through the ages, gingerbread was sacred and only specific bakers, all men, were given the exclusive rights to baking it. These men all belonged to baking guilds. The only time during the year that gingerbread was allowed to be made by the general public was during Christmas and Easter. So, that’s most likely why it’s seen as a Christmas food. It’s all in the timing! Once an association is established, it’s nearly impossible to change it. Eating gingerbread at Christmas might also be associated with the medicinal properties of the ginger root. It was believed that eating spices heated you up in the winter. Another explanation may be related to overeating during the holidays. Ginger is good at taming upset stomachs. Remember when you were a kid and you were given flat ginger ale when you had an upset tummy?

Queen Victorian and Prince Albert at Christmas

The popularity of gingerbread cookies and houses spread to colonial America. Recipes for the treat varied from region to region, depending upon what immigrants settled there. In 1848, it is said that Queen Victoria and her German-born husband Prince Albert, brought gingerbread cookies into the mainstream when they included them in with other German Christmas traditions they adopted and promoted as family centered traditions, like decorating a Christmas tree and the Yule log. It was during this time that gingerbread cookies became associated primarily with the Christmas holiday.

The development of tin cookie cutters in the mid-1800s also helped to establish gingerbread cookies in many kitchens and breathed new life into the tradition of gingerbread. The new cookie cutters proclaimed the end of the long-established and complicated cookie board used primarily in bakeries. Soon, these shaped cookies began to appear as ornaments on trees and as gifts for family and friends.

Today, gingerbread cookies are as popular as ever, becoming an established Christmas tradition in America. If reading this blog post has made you hungry for gingerbread men, perhaps you are off to make some for yourself. I have the perfect idea for enjoying them after baking them. Why not sit down with your favorite beverage and The Glow magazine? What a great combination!

Rudolph is 80 Years Old!

November 15, 2019September 14, 2022

By Donna Griswold

“‘Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the hills… The reindeer were playing, enjoying the spills.” Sound a little like The Night Before Christmas? Well, that was not an accident! Everyone was already quite familiar with Clement C. Moore’s story and its rhyming tale. So, the author of Rudolph’s story decided to “play” off of that familiarity. He was an ad-man, after all!

It was at the end of the decade-long Great Depression and 11 months away from the next Christmas holiday; but, Montgomery Ward department store was thinking ahead. They had been buying and giving coloring books away to children for years at Christmas as a promotional gimmick. Montgomery Ward decided it could most likely save money by developing its own giveaway book. They asked 34-year old copywriter, Robert L. May, to create just such a story. You see, he was known as someone who could make up a limerick on the spot; so, his bosses thought he was the perfect choice.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Original Manuscript cover

May’s job was personally a difficult one, not only because of the economic factors and the fact that Christmas was so far away; but, because his wife was struggling with cancer and the family’s bills were mounting. May really wanted to write the “great American novel”…not write ad copy for kids. He did, however, take on the project of writing an animal story related to Christmas. May wanted to make the main character an underdog, since he thought kids really loved and cheered for underdogs. Santa was not a problem. Everyone loved Santa! He thought a reindeer might be an idea since his daughter loved the reindeer at the zoo. When he presented his idea to his boss, his boss replied, “For gosh sakes, Bob, can’t you do better than that?” Well, he certainly did! He asked Denver Gillen, who worked in the art department, if he “could draw a reindeer with a big red glowing nose and make him look appealing.” He thought that might convince the boss. It worked!

It took May months to develop the story that he liked. He tried out several different names until he decided on Rudolph. In July of 1939, May’s wife died. His boss offered to hand off the project to someone else; but, May said, in later years, that HE needed Rudolph more than ever right then. May completed the story by August along with Gillen’s illustrations. Bob first read the story to his daughter and his wife’s parents. He could see in their expressions that the story had accomplished what he had hoped.

Montgomery Ward had high hopes for the 32-page illustrated booklet, which would be given as a free gift to any child visiting one of their 620 department stores throughout the country. They planned on an ad campaign in newspapers and circulars. It was thought that it would bring every one of its stores remarkable publicity and an unrealized amount of store traffic during the Christmas season. It did just that, and 2.4 million copies ended up in the hands of children everywhere.

Montgomery Ward’s Rudolph giveaway was a big hit during the 1939 Christmas season all across the country. The department store planned on printing another huge run of the booklet for the following Christmas; but, because of the paper shortage due to WWII, Rudolph was shelved until the war’s end. When Rudolph returned in 1946, he was more popular than ever and Montgomery Ward gave out 3.6 million copies of the book during the 1946 Christmas season.

During the time from 1940-1946, Robert May married again and became a father for the second time. During 1947, the Montgomery Ward Board of Directors, possibly because they didn’t see a long range future outside of Christmas for the red-nosed reindeer, signed the copyright for Rudolph over to May. Later, they probably wished they hadn’t done that! May quickly licensed a commercial version of the book along with a full range of Rudolph themed merchandise. Smart man!

In 1949, Robert May asked his brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, a prolific song writer, to put Rudolph’s story to song. Bing Crosby was first asked to sing the new song; but, declined.

Instead, rising star and singing cowboy, Gene Autry recorded the song, which sold over 2 million copies in the first year. It remains, to this day, one of the best-selling songs of all time. In later years, Johnny Marks once said that he thought his Rudolph song might have been the worst song he ever wrote! Marks wrote other famous Christmas songs as well… “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” “Silver and Gold,” and “Run Rudolph Run.”

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in Christmas Stocking

In 1948, May produced a short film of Rudolph. In 1964, Rankin and Bass produced the ‘stop-motion’ animation, using puppets, that all of us have enjoyed for years. It was aired on NBC on December 6, 1964 and has become the world’s longest running and highest-rated television special of all time!

Through all of this and down through 80 years, the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has become a piece of modern folklore and an example of overcoming obstacles, embracing differences and recognizing potential in others and yourself. And as for Rudolph himself, well, you know… “He went down in his-to-ry!”