Follow me on this.
It’s December 6, 1969. And among the television offerings on NBC that evening was a broadcast of the Hallmark Hall of Fame, an anthology series designed to entertain viewers and hopefully sell lots of greeting cards. The special that evening was a musical rendering of Charles Tazewell’s 1950’s radio script of a wayward angel who eventually finds his way into the meaning of the holiday season.
The movie featured a who’s who of late 1960’s-era television and movie stars, and you could have a ton of fun playing “Holy smokes, HE’S in this too?” while watching it. Yep, that’s Johnnie Whittaker (Family Affair) in the title role, with Fred Gwynne (The Munsters) as his guardian angel. Yeah, that’s Tony Randall (The Odd Couple) as an angel who doesn’t believe he’s an angel; while Connie Stevens (Hawaiian Eye) teaches angels how to fly. Wait, is that E.G. Marshall (CBS Radio Mystery Theater) as God himself? And Cab Calloway’s in this, too?
I mean … if you can get past the 1960’s-era special effects and the primitive green screen techniques, this is actually a really sweet holiday special.
And if you missed the special when it aired … and you didn’t feel like waiting for the possible rebroadcast next year …
There was actually a tie-in phonograph record that contained the musical’s many performances – albeit with some of the most quizzical stereophonic effects ever (Fred Gwynne speaking in the left channel only … Cab Calloway singing in the right channel … yeah). I actually remember owning this record, it was a gatefold album with plenty of pictures from the telecast.
Eventually The Littlest Angel fell into the public domain, which is why you can find dozens of cheapo DVD’s of the telecast at the dollar stores. But rather than sit through another film where Lacey Chabert leaves New York City to live in frozen Christmas Village USA with the hunky flannel-wearing town carpenter …
You might want to watch this little treasure instead.
Trust me on this. Where else are you going to see Herman Munster and Felix Unger sing to little Jody Davis about the meaning of the afterlife?
Yeah. Thought so. 😀
Chuck The Writer 
Nice 👌
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