I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas Tree
Saturday, December 16th, 2006
I am endlessly fascinated by nostalgic photographs depicting my family at Christmas. Not only the ones with me in them, but also snapshots that include my parents and relatives…well, heck anyone who stood in front of a tree in the fifties or sixties is alright with me – especially trees in your traditional white or silver variations. The gifts from that era are really cool to gawk at too. For instance in the shot below from Christmas 1960, we can see all the neat games and toys that would fetch a pretty penny on eBay today, nestled under the tree and ready to be destroyed.
One of the autograph requests I sent out in 1985 was to Woody Woodpecker creator Walter Lantz. Walter started his career with the Hal Roach Studios and claimed to have painted the Flying Elephants in the film of the same name, a fact disputed by Roach special effects man Roy Seawright. In any case, Lantz’ name in animation history is secure as the creator of Woody and the producer of a vast array of “Cartunes” from 1929 to 1972, including Woody, Chilly Willy, Andy Panda, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (after the series left Disney’s domain). 
One of the reasons I voted in 2004 to have the convention in Harlem was because it gave me the opportunity to visit Oliver Hardy’s birthplace. Often I had considered making the trek to attend the annual Oliver Hardy festival in October but it never panned out. Since the town is somewhat off the beaten path, I knew it would be difficult to swing into Harlem during any of our frequent trips through Georgia to Florida. 
The writing bug bit me early, so to speak. As you may have read in my 1980