The Christmas show opens with special guest
Meredith Willson conducting a Salvation Army band outside on 47th
street. Betsy is on the cover of the
January, 1959 issue of Cosmopolitan.
This is only the second appearance by Bess, and the first time that the
final permanent panel of four is on the set together.
[Janet Norman] from New York City: “I’m going to play a Christmas
carol on this electronic brain”
Miss Norman has an electric typewriter
hooked to a Bendix G-15 digital computer on stage. A Bendix engineer figured out the parlor
trick of equating numbers with electronic impulses, and then with sounds. Miss Norman just had to type the numbers
in. Some computer historians call the
G-15 the first personal computer, because anyone with minimal training could
operate it. Still, with its peripherals
it cost $60,000 and was the size of a vending machine. The G-15 plays The First Noel and later the
Winston jingle.
Miss X: “My name is Merry Christmas”
Special Guest Meredith Willson: “I wrote the new Salvation Army
theme song”
The small band seen in the opening are
on stage to perform, joined later by a much larger band. Willson calls his composition “With Banners
and Bonnets We Come,” though the title is usually shortened to just “Banners
and Bonnets” today. Referred to here as
a “new” song, it actually debuted on the radio in 1952. Though rousing, as most Willson marches are,
the song does not appear to have left much of a lasting impression and is
mostly an historical footnote today.
The show ends with Christmas carols sung by all.
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