Saturday, December 8, 2007

A Holiday Tradition!

It's the holiday season and with it comes a plethora of holiday rituals, superstitions, and traditions.

Chicagoland's local television giant, WGN, had three great Christmas animation shorts that they ran continuously from Thanksgiving through the season.

Every kid that grew up in the area in the 60s and 70s has the content of these shorts seared into their memory.

The most powerful was this one--The Three Little Dwarves.

If you grew up in that part of the midwest, in that time frame, you can go up to virtually anyone and sing "I'm Hardrock. I'm Coco." And it is almost impossible that the other person won't respond by singing "I'm Joe" in the deepest bass voice they can muster.

Teachers used to be totally stymied with all the "I'm Joe" laughter that would roll around with every season.

Once Christmas vacation was over, the animation went back in the film library and out of one's daily thought process. But every year, the film would reappear to every kid's delight.

I have found that if you didn't grow up in the midwest and have access to WGN, there is a good chance you've never seen (or even heard of) this bizarre holiday classic.

The animation is quirky, jerky and the puppets look , well, weird, particularly Santa.

But it is the season and so it is time to watch Hardrock, Coco, and Joe.

3 comments:

Skippie said...

I'm almost exactly your age.
I never saw The Three Dwarves, because I lived in Dodge City, Kansas, and we had only one TV station, a local one. Occasionally we could get the signal from one the Wichita stations. Nothing from Chicago.
I did have this song, though! On a 78 record, with Gene Autry singing it. One of my favorites! I practically wore it out. I think its why my mom made a rule that I could only play Christmas music from Thanksgiving through Epiphany.
Now, rebel that I am, I play christmas music any time of year.
Ha!
Merry Christmas, all!
S

Anonymous said...

I had never seen or heard of that special...but I'm still Giggling. It's amazing the things people come up with. I recently found a website called Clauscast.com
It's one of my favorite quirky holiday specials to share with people.

JJA said...

I watched this once, back when you first posted it, and when I saw this post the chorus immediately leapt back into my mind. Catchy!