8 December: Winter Wonderland

As it’s December and we’re counting down to Christmas, here are ten things you might not know about the seasonal song Winter Wonderland:

1. The lyrics were written by a man named Richard Smith in 1934, in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.

2. At the time, Smith was being treated for tuberculosis in a sanatorium. To pass the time while he was in there, he entered competitions, writing jingles and ads for companies. When he saw Honesdale’s Central Park covered in Snow, he was inspired to write a poem about it.

3. He showed the poem to a musician friend, Felix Bernard, who decided to set it to Music.

4. The first recording of the song was made that same year by Richard Himber and his orchestra for RCA Victor. RCA Victor suggested arranging and recording Winter Wonderland using some additional members of its own orchestra, which included Artie Shaw and other established New York City studio musicians.

5. Himber’s version wasn’t the biggest hit that year. Guy Lombard also made a recording of it, and that’s the one which reached the higher position in the charts.

6. Since then, the song has been covered by more than 200 different artists, including The Andrews Sisters, Amy Grant, Anne Murray, Johnny Mathis, Pat Boone, Paul Anka, Frank Sinatra, Barry Manilow, Bing Crosby and Elvis Presley.

7. The original lyrics concerned a young couple on a date in the snow. They joke about getting married and pretending that the snowman is a parson who could marry them on the spot. At the time the poem was written, parsons travelled through the country performing interdenominational services and ceremonies when no one else was available to do so. Parson Brown isn’t based on a real person, though Brown is a fairly common name so there were surely several Parson Browns out there.

8. Some versions of the song censor out the bits about romance and marriage as they were deemed unsuitable for children. The “family friendly” version appeared in 1947. The verse about Parson Brown was re-written so that the snowman is a circus Clown instead, and the whole thing is generally about playing in the snow.

9. There’s a tragic end to Richard Smith’s story. He didn’t recover from TB and died in 1935 at the age of 34. It’s not known whether he even got to hear the music his friend wrote, or whether he at least got to hear at least one of the recorded versions the Christmas before he died.

10. Richard Smith’s childhood home on Church Street, in Honesdale is now a lawyer’s office, but there is a marker there to commemorate him. Every Christmas in Honesdale there is a Santa Parade at which a DJ from local radio tells Smith’s story and points out the house where he lived, which every year has a lighted Christmas Tree in the window.

Character birthday

Lady Cobra, a member of the Power League group of super villains, aka Celine Lucas. Her father was a zookeeper whose speciality was the care of reptiles. He taught her to handle snakes as a small child. In her teens, she ran away from home and became a dancer in a sleazy nightclub. As she left home, she stole a couple of snake eggs. The animals which hatched from them became her pet snakes. They also formed part of her cabaret act.

Professor Power was a customer at the club she worked in. She seduced him, and they got talking about snakes. At the time, Power was doing an experiment which involved exposing snakes to radiation. She asked to see the animals.

In spite of warnings that these snakes would be maddened by the radiation and immune to her usual affinity with them, she insisted on handling one, which bit her. Only the quick action of the professor and his assistant (Whiplash) saved her life.

Over the next few days, she began to change. Her canine teeth lengthened into fangs; her brown eyes turned green, and her skin, although it didn't change colour, became covered in soft scales.

Horrified and furious, she stormed back to Power's lab, threatening legal action. The fact that he had promised to call her and hadn't fuelled her anger. He told her that she had acquired powers and abilities and that he would like to study her further. Still attracted to Power, she agreed to this. Although their affair went no further, she joined the Power League, bringing her snakes with her.