{"id":2452501,"date":"2019-12-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-22T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318118"},"modified":"2019-12-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-22T07:00:00","slug":"willoughby-christmas-1934-a-community-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/willoughby-christmas-1934-a-community-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"Willoughby: Christmas 1934, a community celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The nation got into the Christmas spirit in late November 1934 with the introduction of Fred J. Coots and Haven Gillespie\u2019s \u201cSanta Claus Is Comin\u2019 to Town.\u201d The song premiered on Eddie Cantor\u2019s show, one of the most popular radio programs in the country.<\/p>\n

An early recording by George Hall and his Orchestra sold 30,000 copies within the first hour. Sheet music commonly outsold recordings, and the song sold half a million copies. Cantor wrote several of the most popular songs of the time, including \u201cMakin\u2019 Whoopie\u201d and one of my father\u2019s favorites, \u201cIf You Knew Suzie (Like I Know Susie!).\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspen went for the song, but the big lead-up to Christmas featured a local product, silver. Dr. George Sullivan, a silversmith living in Gunnison, owned some native Aspen silver that he had mined as a younger man. He asked Aspen\u2019s sheriff to send some more. From that stock he fashioned silver cuff links, given to President Roosevelt. The town hoped the gift might stir talk about Aspen\u2019s mines when the operations struggled to remain open. Roosevelt had raised the price of silver to stimulate commodities prices. He believed the price would stimulate production. The move had made him one of the most popular presidents for Aspen\u2019s residents.<\/p>\n

Aspen\u2019s American Legion hosted a children\u2019s Christmas party at Fraternal Hall, the building that now houses City Hall. The party provided the only chance for Aspen\u2019s children to see Santa. The merry old elf distributed a present for every tot who attended. The Aspen Concert Band and a chorus entertained the adults. In addition to Christmas music, the Legion event included sing-along songs, \u201cAmerica the Beautiful\u201d and \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Elks Lodge invited every child younger than high school age to the Isis Theater for \u201cPeck\u2019s Bad Boy,\u201d a movie that starred Jackie Cooper. Three years before, Cooper had been nominated for an Oscar for best actor in the movie Skippy. Nine years old, he was the youngest actor up to that time to be nominated for an Oscar.<\/p>\n

The Aspen Times published a short piece, \u201cThe Christmas Spirit,\u201d about shopping at local businesses. It began, \u201cThe Christmas Spirit has cast over the Aspen business men and women and each day some new evidence to this effect may be found in town.\u201d The evidence showed in stores\u2019 display windows. Even the grocery stores offered displays \u201cthat tempt the appetite and provide many suggestions for the busy housekeeper on her shopping rounds preparing for the family dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the 1930s, Brand\u2019s Garage offered shopping options. In one ad they suggested that you buy your car a gift. At the garage you could buy an electric tree lighting set for $.90 ($14.75 in today\u2019s dollars.) They also featured Magic-Brain RCA radios. The \u201cbrain\u201d provided an advance in station tuning. The radios ranged in price between $19.95 ($327) and $99.75 ($1,635). The high-end table model allowed you to tune in to the police radio band. The innovation did not work in Aspen because we did not have a police signal. A side note: Although David Hyman built that Galena Street building, and DRC Brown moved his bank into the edifice, we still call it the Brand Building.<\/p>\n

In the spirit of Aspen Times\u2019s promotions to shopping locally, they suggested a gift subscription to the newspaper. Newspapers\u2019 circulations continue to shrink and disappear, so a subscription is as good an idea now as it was in 1934. The moral to the Times\u2019s story remains the same, \u201cshop early and shop in Aspen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tim Willoughby\u2019s family story parallels Aspen\u2019s. He began sharing folklore while teaching Aspen Country Day School and Colorado Mountain College. Now a tourist in his native town, he views it with historical perspective. Reach him at redmtn2@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The nation got into the Christmas spirit in late November 1934 with the introduction of Fred J. Coots and Haven Gillespie\u2019s \u201cSanta Claus Is Comin\u2019 to Town.\u201d The song premiered on Eddie Cantor\u2019s show, one of the most popular radio programs in the country. An early recording by George Hall and his Orchestra sold 30,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 01:00:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}