THANKSGIVING WITH DAD

I do miss the Thanksgiving dinners that my dad used to prepare. He'd start the night before.  He'd set his radio to KFI where they'd already begun playing his Christmas favorites--Bing Crosby's "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," 1951, "Mele Kalikimaka," 1950, Perry Como's "Jingle Bells," 1946, Burl Ives' "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," 1964, and choral pieces by Mitch Miller and His Gang.  I'll never forget his "Sing Along with Mitch" Christmas chorus album we had in the house.  I liked Mitch Miller, 1911-2010, for the invigorating energy he sang Christmas songs with the delicious irony that he was Jewish.  Funny to see how some of my musical influences stem from the '40s, '50s, and '60s. 

But with my dad's radio, the mood was set.  The tradition would carry forward.  I'd cut up a loaf of bread into tiny cubes for the dressing, put them on a cookie sheet, and bake till crispy. Then I'd boil the gizzards, liver, and neck of the turkey in the butter, chopped onions, celery, and carrots and fry those organ meats until lightly cooked.  They would cook further inside the turkey in the oven as part of the stuffing.  

He'd place his lit Tarreyton cigarette that he smoked intermittently on the edge of Mom's pink tiled counter, and a ribbon of smoke rose to the ceiling, creating a charming effect on the scene. He'd be up through the night.  He'd repeat this scene again for Christmas when by that time we'd strung up Christmas cards across the ceiling in the living and dining rooms with additional cards arranged atop the brick mantle above the fireplace and on top of the television, and decorated a colorful and fragrant tree in the front window.  No Thanksgiving or Christmas since has come close with the exception of those delicious Christmas and Thanksgiving meals that Charlen produced.  Her nativity pieces, to this day, are the best I've ever laid eyes on.

One of the albums that Miller composed included a recording by Captain Kangaroo, aka, Bob Keeshan, and Mr. Green Jeans.  You'd have to be old enough to know who those characters were, but they do pull the song off.  Christmas songs are pretty easy to sing.  Regarding Keeshan, this was interesting,

Network television programs began shortly after the end of the war. Howdy Doody, an early show which premiered in 1947 on NBC, was one of the first. Debuting on January 3, 1948, Keeshan played Clarabell the Clown, a silent Auguste clown who communicated by honking several horns attached to a belt around his waist. One horn meant "yes"; two meant "no". Clarabell often sprayed Buffalo Bob Smith with a seltzer bottle and played practical jokes. Keeshan gave up the role in 1952, and was replaced.

I didn't know that Miller disapproved of rock'n'roll.

Miller disapproved of rock 'n' roll—one of his contemporaries described his denunciation of it as "The Gettysburg Address of Music"—and passed not only on Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, who became stars on RCA and Coral respectively but on The Beatles, too, creating a fortune in revenue for rival Capitol.  Previously, Miller had offered Presley a contract, but balked at the amount Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was asking.

In defense of his anti-rock stance, he once told NME in January 1958: "Rock 'n' roll is musical baby food: it is the worship of mediocrity, brought about by a passion for conformity." 

Who can argue with him?  Rock'n'Roll, musically at least, is the worship of mediocrity and is like baby food for undeveloped teenagers looking for legitimacy and authority.  The biography at IMDB explains that Miller

 Mitch Miller first entered the pop music scene in 1948 at Mercury Records, where he guided such acts as Vic Damone, Frankie Laine and Patti Page to success. In 1950 he was lured by Goddard Lieberson to Columbia Records as that label's A&R director, where he made stars out of Tony Bennett, Johnnie Ray, Guy Mitchell and many others. Miller himself first shot to prominence in the late 1950s with his "Sing Along" series of albums, which ultimately led to his own series, Sing Along with Mitch (1961). His opposition to rock and roll, however, undercut Columbia's market position for several years until after he left the label in 1965. In recent years, he has occasionally served as a guest conductor for symphony orchestras across the country. 

Didn't realize that he was responsible for the making of so many stars.  Perhaps most memorable for me was Miller's "Yellow Rose of Texas" . . . .