GK:....after a message in the public interest from People United for Sensible Holidays....Christmas is three weeks away and already you can feel the power of it, a psychological tsunami hurtling our way, taking over our lives, just as it has done so often for years and years.
TR (BRITISH): My name is Charles Dickens, and I worked for years on David Copperfield -- a great classic, it's ten times the book that Christmas Carol is, but A Christmas Carol I wrote in six weeks. -- An old man visited by ghosts and a twerp with a crutch. People! I wrote better stuff than that.
GK: Christmas: it's a powerful holiday. It chews people up and spits them out.
TR (RUSSIAN): I wrote operas-- symphonies -- a great piano concerto (HE HUMS THE OPENING MOTIF) -- and then -- I cranked out this dopey ballet about mice and a Christmas tree and sugar plums and a Nutcracker and suddenly I'm on the map. (HE HUMS THE SUGAR PLUM MOTIF) Thousands of performances of that - why not the Symphony Pathetique?
GK: The same can happen to you if you're not careful. Christmas can be a black hole with a force all its own -- you dip one toe in and it sucks you in.
TR (NY, HIGH PITCHED): My name is Irving Berlin. I never dreamed of a white Christmas -- I hated snow -- we always went to Miami if possible -- but as a favor to a friend -- they needed a song for a show, -- I said, Sure, bubbeleh, you got it -- I sat down at the piano and -- (YIDDISH) this thing just fell out of me. I spend more time doing the Times crossword. And now -- ECHHH! It's everywhere like a bad rash. Oy Gevalt!
GK: You think you're in control of Christmas and you're going to keep it small and modest, and it explodes on you. It becomes a whole career.
TR (JIMMY STEWART): My name is Jimmy Stewart and I was hoping for a career in film noir and then this role came along of the guy at the Savings & Loan and I thought it was a pretty dumb script but okay, I went along with it, and now -- well gosh darn it take me back, Clarence! Take me back!
GK: You can learn from the experiences of others. Christmas is powerful. And be realistic. This thing is bigger than you think.
TR (BRIT): Has anyone ever heard of The Pickwick Papers?
GK: A message in the public interest from PUSH -- People United For Sensible Holidays.