What I watched: An episode of kid’s show Adventures of Uncle Mistletoe that aired in late October 1949. I believe this is the only available episode of this series. It starred Jennifer Holt, and was broadcast on ABC, at least in the Chicago area. The episode is available to view on Internet Archive.
What happened: A graphic of a clock opens the episode, which takes place at the toy store of sponsor Marshall Field’s. We are introduced to the eponymous puppet, who looks like a cross between a Revolutionary War general and one of those skeletons from Undertale. His human companion is Aunt Judy, although what relation there is between them is unclear.
Anyways, the two are carving pumpkins. Judy seems to be doing more actual work. Uncle Mistletoe gets a pumpkin stuck on his head, and mistakes Judy’s jack-o-lantern for her terrifying face. She sings “Zippity Doo-Dah” to calm his nerves, before playing a pretty nice piano rendition.
This is followed by a sketch in which “Uncle Mistletoe” looks after a puppet who is probably a rabbit but looks like some kind of mosquito first. Meanwhile, Mistletoe’s oversized stethoscope makes him look like one of those guys from Bioshock. The rabbit-thing is suffering from what is presumably a terrible illness, so Mistletoe gives him “Zippity Doo-Dah” tonic, and they all sing the public-domain song again. What was in that juice?
The next segment is a story about some kind of Swedish dwarf called Olio and his friends Molio and Rolio. It’s not exactly a cartoon, but the story is narrated over a series of still drawings. Olio tries to carve a giant “automatic jack o’lantern” with a phonograph inside. Molio falls into the pumpkin, but his cries for help are mistaken for the phonograph. Like a true old-world fairy tale, there’s an element of genuine danger, as Molio almost gets lit on fire.
At the end, there’s a preview for tomorrow’s show, featuring another cartoon character called “Marvel Moon Man.” (Um, the proper name is MOON KNIGHT, sir.) Uncle Mistletoe and Aunt Judy sing something called “the Kindness Club song” to end the show.
What I thought: I’m always interested in the brief glimpse we get at regional television, particularly kid’s programming. Young children don’t have a well-developed sense of fame, of who’s local and who’s national, so small and idiosyncratic bits of culture can become major touchstones. As a kid the “PJs” who hosted programming on Canadian kids’ channel YTV, the instructors down at the local YWCA, and the characters in Disney cartoons all had equal stature in my mind. So I’d expect for more than a few Midwestern children Uncle Mistletoe and Aunt Judy felt deeply important.
Uncle Mistletoe is a distinctly weird-looking character with a weird history. He was actually created by Marshall Field’s in Chicago to decorate their store windows during Christmas time. (This was a huge deal in mid-twentieth century America.) Mistletoe was intended to be a counter for rival store Montgomery Ward’s creation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Needless to say, this character was not as successful, but he did remain a fixture in Marshall Field’s holiday windows up until they were bought out by Macy’s in 2006.
As a character, Uncle Mistletoe is a bit of a weird mishmash — he has a tail that suggests he’s supposed to be some kind of animal, but otherwise he’s humanoid. I guess he look a bit like a snowball? Having a Christmas-themed character be part of a year-round show is also a bit of a strange decision. On the other hand, hosting a TV show from directly inside the toy section of a department store is a genius marketing move, and one I’m surprised wasn’t more widely copied.
The show itself is… okay. As an adult, it’s not really something I would tune in to, but there is kind of a soothing rhythm to the program. A lot of that is the presence of Jennifer Holt, who has a calming and affectionate presence perfect for children’s entertainment. The section with hand-drawn pictures is also interesting as a kind of prototype of the cartoons that would dominate the genre in the future. (I believe that old film cartoons were aired on TV in this era, but it would be quite some time before we got full animation targeted for television.) Like most kid’s TV of the era, it’s halfway between polished entertainment and a parent trying to make up something to entertain their kid for fifteen minutes. At the very least, it’s less unnerving than Howdy Doody and its goddamn clown.
Coming up next: We make it to November 1949, and get back to the grind with another Life of Riley.
The Eternal Couch Potato 