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1.) In the movie Holiday Inn (1942) there is an animated sequence in which the turkey logo on the calendar can’t seem to find the right day for thanksgiving (Watch on YouTube!) why is the bird confused? (Hint: it has nothing to do with which week is the last of the month).
The turkey is confused because the traditional date for thanksgiving had become the last Thursday in November as requested by President Lincoln. However, it had gotten that place on the calendar by tradition not by being declared a national holiday. The merchants had been pressuring the president in August of 1939 to declare a date of the third Thursday to get an extra week of shopping days before Christmas (adding to the push November had 5 weeks that year); for the merchants, the big issue was that no respectable merchant could begin to display Christmas material until the day after Thanksgiving. The change started a power struggle between the White House and the State Governments over Thanksgiving, at the height of this struggle nearly half the states refused to comply and almost half the states complied, in three states they celebrated on both dates.
In 1941-42 the controversy was still in full swing the looney Tunes cartoons made jokes about it as did George Burns and Gracie Allen on the Radio, and Jack Benny used it for several episodes over the years between 1939 and 1944. Even the Tree Stooges used it for a line or two. In Holiday inn the turkey gets confused because the controversy would not end until 1944 when President Roosevelt formally declared by signing the legislation that Thanksgiving day would from now on be observed on the fourth Thursday in November.
2.) In Holiday Inn (1942) Bing Crosby sings the song “I've got plenty to be thankful for”, what song replaced it in the later film White Christmas (1954) and why?
In Holiday Inn they were hoping to set new standards for several of the holidays but only one of the songs stuck “White Christmas”, although the easter Parade would get noticed as well. The New Year song was quickly forgotten as was Bing’s performance of “I’ve got plenty to be thankful for”. The sad demise of this rather perky cute little song is probably brought on by the somber tone of the set and lighting, Bing Crosby sitting alone in his inn having lost the girl and seemingly everything else. He then puts on the record of himself singing and while eating his thanksgiving dinner alone proceeds to argue with the lyrics and criticize the recording. In much the same way that the constant joking by Jack Benny about his 1945 film “The Horn Blows at Midnight” crippled the film as no one went to see it they believed the jokes. In 1954 the topic of gratitude is covered in the much better-remembered duet with Rosemary Clooney “Count Your Blessings”. Which has a warmer less show-tune delivery and a better setting that encourages people to want to engage with it. The use f it as a part of the romantic connection between Crosby and Clooney also helps it to shine.
3.) What film made for a summer release (now a Christmas classic) was filmed in New York during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and required the cooperation of both Macys and Gimbals department stores?
“Miracle on 34th Street” filmed the opening parade sequences in New York City at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1946, the story was built around the replacement Santa Clause and so in the Parade Edmund Gwenn appeared that year as Santa. The film was a summer release and only later became a Christmas Staple owing to Television networks airing it right after the Macy’s parade for years. As a fun side note, the scene where he challenges Natalie Wood to pull his beard is not faked she did not know he had a real beard until she pulled on it. Gwenn had decided to grow a real beard to avoid disappointing children everywhere by their finding out it was fake. He did shave it off the day they finished filming. The element that required the cooperation of Macy’s and Gimbals is that after the film came out both stores had to act as the film said they would including sending the customer to the right place to get what they wanted; even when that meant sending them to the dreaded competitors.
4.) The first president to “pardon” a turkey was Abraham Lincoln, can you name the president who made the turkey presentation to the white house an annual tradition, and the president who issued the first Formal Pardon for the turkey?
One of our enduring traditions was started by President Lincoln when his son requested that they not kill the thanksgiving turkey and the president signed a “pardon” for the bird. The practice was not observed by many presidents, in 1947 Harry S Truman made the presentation of the official White House Turkey an annual event. President Ronald Reagan was the first to provide a “Pardon” ceremony for the White House Turkey before sending them to a petting zoo, and President George H.W. Bush made the event an annual tradition beginning in 1989 when he provided a formal pardon to the turkeys.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/user/alex9920iasi
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034862/?ref_=tttr_tr_tt
Thanksgiving (United States). (2022, October 28). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)
Thanksgiving. (2022, October 19). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving
Brendan. (2022, September 29). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan
https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw8a.124/?q=1789+Thanksgiving&sp=132&st=text
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/bradfords-manuscript-of-plimoth-plantation
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/pardoning-the-thanksgiving-turkey