A Little Good News Xmas 1997
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00:00Well, how delightful is this marvelous season at all, he said, checking the monitor.
00:09It is Christmas.
00:11This is bonus time for you, because in addition to the regular 13-week series of Little Good
00:16News, we are going to do this for you today, which includes and, you know, Ron Pumphrey
00:24many years ago told me about the business of news.
00:28He said, Jim, you've got to make them laugh, and you've got to make them cry, and you've
00:31got to make them wait, and words that have stood me in good stead, at least in aspects
00:36of the business.
00:38We have found, so you'll know what I'm talking about, down in the archives, the only footage
00:43I know of the Cream of the West sing-along with Bob Lewis.
00:48And we have one song from the old building up at Buckmaster Circle, unfortunately the
00:56song of Silver Bells, which, oh, God, but we're going to do that a little bit later
01:02in the show, and there's some great pans in the audience, so if you were at the Buckmaster
01:09Circle studios and you were there for the sing-along, and you were there for Silver
01:13Bells, you didn't walk out, well, this may be your chance to see yourself.
01:19It is from 1975 and was recorded on two-inch videotape, and I was going to say that's not
01:25long ago, my goodness, that is 20, what, almost 25 years ago, almost, not far off it, incredible.
01:33Also, I'll look, as soon as we return, as soon as we get this going, I'll look at the
01:37fishery that was, again, from 1975, and this is the only footage that I know of fishermen
01:45cooking in an open boat where it is naturally staged.
01:49This is the real thing.
01:52It's from a government-produced film, but it wasn't staged, so I'll talk a little bit
01:55more about that.
01:56We're going to do all that in just a moment, plus some thoughts on Christmas when we begin
02:00this Christmas edition of A Little Good News.
02:05A1 Automotive.
02:11The year was 1975, and the provincial government of the day decided that they were going to
02:17press all the right buttons, and they commissioned this film about the fishery in all its aspects.
02:24It was called Ocean Heritage, and I'm not going to put you through the whole thing because
02:31it is actually a film dedicated to what a great job government is doing in preserving
02:39the fishery, although it does ring some bells on the dangers of the fishing offshore.
02:47What it has for me is some marvelous footage shot on film, which to me captures the real
02:53color of the land even better sometimes than videotape.
02:58We're just going to watch a couple of moments of this.
03:00Start your VCRs because I can't make copies of this for you.
03:04If you were ever a trap fisherman or you were ever out after Capelan, then you're going
03:10to want to record this.
03:11You're going to want to see what is now gone.
03:13Watch.
03:16Not all the fishermen are trawler operators.
03:34Many of them, like this group, set their traps close to shore, and each day go out to haul
03:39them in and recover the catch.
03:46It is physical work.
03:51It is hard work.
03:52But it's the way of life for these men and their forefathers for many generations.
04:46After the harvest, the net is reset.
04:59After several traps have been pulled, it's time for lunch.
05:02Not on shore, but right in the boat with a fresh cooked cod, which has been landed just
05:07moments before and then popped into a pot of seawater.
05:11Cooked outside, eaten in the fresh air.
05:14This is a feast for any man.
05:16It's a way of life.
05:18It's a way of life that cannot be allowed to disappear.
05:22Young and old take part in the daily fish harvest.
05:30Here the net is set out for Capelan, the shape of the net defined by the bright red buoys.
05:40Capelan, a small fish, similar to a smelt, at one time had little commercial value.
05:52But today commercial markets are developing.
06:02The Capelan story is interesting because the Capelan come to shore to spawn, attracting
06:07the cod who feed on them.
06:32After the traps are hauled, the fishermen bring in their catch to the processing plants.
06:39Ah my, hey time.
06:51Time now gone.
06:52Wasn't that great?
06:53You know, that's part of a film that's about 15 or 16 minutes long, but we're not going
06:57to do that now because it's Christmas, but in the new year perhaps, if you're good, if
07:01you're good over Christmas, we'll have a look at some more of that, you know, because
07:04the film goes on to talk about the role of trawlers and the mid-distance fleet and my
07:09goodness, but the pictures, particularly of cooking in the open boat in the trap skiff,
07:15my goodness, isn't that marvelous?
07:17Look, it is Christmas and I want to take you back to a Christmas of just six years ago
07:23where I usually deal in film all the time, hey, and decided at that time that I was going
07:28to make use of some old photos that we have found around the station, not some old photos,
07:34we found hundreds of them, and those were little snapshots in time, which is the real
07:39value I suppose of the photograph and where it in some ways surpasses, in some ways surpasses
07:46film because it is an instant in time, an instant captured and frozen forever.
07:53Okay, let's have a look at this.
07:57Does anyone remember this?
07:59Does anyone remember Jumbo Jack?
08:03Sponsored by Morse's Tees.
08:06Anyone remember the Lynch Brothers Circus that was in at where Memorial University now
08:12is?
08:13This photo is not from the Lynch Brothers Circus, that was done at the stadium.
08:17Oh yes, I did find these.
08:20Thompson Coke, dance par, I guess that's some sort of dance golf thing, just kidding.
08:28Three or four more photographs from the dance party, I didn't know they existed.
08:35We talked earlier of moment in time, some young people, probably high school, captured
08:43in mid-step.
08:44This is the program that most people ask about, most inquiries come concerning dance party.
08:51Do you have any old dance party footage?
08:53No, we don't, not a frame.
08:56I don't know how Howie got into this, he used to do this live too.
09:00These are all photographs from things that were done live that don't exist.
09:05He did a fitness show for us in the mornings, as well as our sports, as well as coach the
09:11arts, which is another story altogether.
09:14Every once in a while, I like to throw a photograph or a piece of film like this in, just to bring
09:20everybody back to reality, because there is a tendency, when you talk about broadcasters
09:26or performers from the early days of television, you tend to forget that news was our stock
09:34and trade, and that this was not a world that was filled up with endless dance parties
09:39or romper rooms, or Howie Meeker, it was a world of news events.
09:48This was bests, down on Waldengrave Street.
09:52My dad took me down to this fire, I remember that, not like it was yesterday, and this
09:58is from the long, long past.
10:02And we were in the business, as well, of taking people to church who otherwise could
10:10not be there, chapel for shut-ins, we did on radio, and broadcast some services as well
10:17on television.
10:18I suppose what television really was, was a link between the world and folks at home,
10:27and places and events in the world that they could not ordinarily get to.
10:32That was our role, HGR Muse in studio, with Eileen Hammond, who went from romper room
10:40to doing some hosting duties with us as well.
10:44Now, these are the other few photos from the dance party, as were foretold.
10:52I spent so long looking at the crests on these jackets, to see if I could tell what
10:59school, but I couldn't, maybe you can.
11:05All the photographs that you see today, apparently, were taken from the same dance party.
11:12We have one more to show you.
11:16I'm a face of it, anyway, and they seem like easier times, dance party, this last dance,
11:20I guess, slow waltz, I remember there was a pamphlet, parenthetically, that they passed
11:28out in school, warning about necking, it was called, Beware, maybe they were simpler times.
11:39Right now I have three children I'm going home to after this program, I guess, they
11:45were right in the pamphlet, the Art Andrews Dance Party.
11:52One more photograph to show you, that sort of, in a way, captures it all, a bucket of
11:58apples, it's apple day, a bottle of coke, sometime for the kids, sometime after this
12:05for the kids, in these photographs, the world got terribly complicated.
12:13It went from being a world of apples, and coke, and dance party, to a world of work,
12:20and mortgages, and children, retirement plans, pension funds, and it took but an instant.
12:30Don Jameson flogging Robin Hood Flower, why didn't all the flower companies advertise
12:36with us, hm?
12:37Five Roses, Robin Hood, Cream of the West, and they all seem to have contests.
12:47Flower companies and tea companies, we've already seen them, Morse's, I did a Red Rose
12:53gig, King Cole was another one, I did one of these draw things for, and Phantom Nylons,
13:02exclusive at Ball Rings, I mentioned earlier, there's not much left now, of Ball Rings.
13:11Card on camera, that's what the stylish young man, and a woman, in 1964, was wearing.
13:20Couple more quick shots from down in the studio, in the world of entertainment, that we presented.
13:31These particular photographs from the early 1960s, some of the people that ran the station,
13:37Don Jameson far right, the chairman of the board, Jeff Sterling in the far left, I think
13:42it was Oscar Hurley I in front, there's Don, with Ignatius Rumbolt, who I saw just the
13:48other day, down on Water Street, and our baby grand piano, I had an opportunity to play
13:56that a couple of times, or play with it, I suppose, more correctly now, and that was
14:01a terrific instrument.
14:04That's us folks, bringing you from our studios, entertainment, and from the churches, inspiration,
14:12on occasion, and over the years, some of the great communicators, as in Don Jameson, have
14:22been bringing that to you, however, never very far away from me.
14:28Our photographs and images like this one, that is, are in the business of news, to bring
14:38you the world as we find it, not just the world as we would wish it to be.
14:52Well, videotape was one of the great inventions that changed television, all aspects of it
15:21were terrific, save and except one.
15:24In the days of film, which was expensive, we tended to keep everything that we shot.
15:30In videotape, which is reusable, we tend to keep not very much at all, or tended to, we've
15:35changed that in recent years.
15:37The Cream of the West sing-along, most of which was done live from the studio, some
15:43of which was taped, none of it, I thought, existed until a couple of days ago when I
15:47found one song, Bob Lewis and the people in the studio at the Cream of the West sing-along,
15:54Silver Bells is the song.
15:56If you ever appeared at that sing-along, and so many thousands, thousands of Newfoundlanders
16:01did, perhaps you weren't in the audience.
16:04Watch.
16:05Number 15, Silver Bells, Silver Bells, and it's a lovely song, sing it beautifully for
16:12all the people on television, lads.
16:42Silver Bells, Silver Bells, it's Christmas time in the city, ring-a-ling, in the tree,
17:11ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling,
17:40ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling,
18:10ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling,
18:18ring-a-ling.
18:26Well, I hope you liked the, uh, my goodness, how valuable is that Cream of the West sing-along
18:32thing.
18:33Christmas? Well what better way to say it than with music and with pictures from
18:39another time. This was the lieutenant governor of the day. Have a look at the
18:46hospital now and any time you're inclined to think or mention the good
18:50old days, look at the size of the ward in this hospital. Enormous strides. We talked
18:58a little bit earlier about tuberculosis and the lights at the old sanatorium, but
19:03tremendous strides have been made in terms of health care anyway. And there may be
19:11other areas where tremendous strides have not been made, but we are surely better able to look after the sick in 1999.
19:21Look at these faces, folks. These are million dollar faces.
19:27This little thing was sent in by a company that makes plum pudding. I'm
19:32going to show you this. One of the things that Christmas is perceived as is a time
19:39of plenty. There's a little promotional film they sent in. Didn't know what it was until it got to the
19:44very end and they started to put labels on it. And I could read that it said plum
19:49pudding. I don't even know if it is from this province. Do not open until Christmas end.
19:56Come down with me to Water Street, the steps of the courthouse to the arrival
20:06of Santa Claus at either the London or the West Loop bus. Look at that, eh?
20:18And Santa Claus, as we mentioned earlier, looking very much like Father Christmas. That was the musical clock. Yes, sure, right.
20:25If you're one of those people that keeps their eyes on the background in this film, look at the crowds.
20:34Tremendous crowds, which is what the Santa Claus parade draws today. You see, it does go on.
20:43People say Christmas is not the same as it used to be. Well, I suggest to you it's better than it used to be.
20:52And we hope that this Christmas 1991 is the best for all of you.
20:59And there's one more shot after we get through the bandanas, as they used to be called.
21:06There they are, right there. I want to finish with this shot there because that's what it's all about.
21:12The wonder of a child at Christmas.
21:16When we were growing up, Merry Christmas is a relatively new greeting at Christmastime.
21:43Certainly my parents would have said, Happy Christmas. And even from when I was younger,
21:48Happy Christmas from adults was a regular greeting.
21:51I was passing through London in about 2nd of December this year and bought a postcard and descended in the middle of a postage truck.
22:01I mean, go figure. But the clerk said, Happy Christmas to me.
22:06And all of a sudden it reminded me of when I was a boy.
22:10And so I say to you during this happy, holy season, be thou well this Christmas.
22:16Happy Christmas.
22:40.