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Fantasy Island
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This article is about the American television series that debuted in 1977. For other uses, see Fantasy Island (disambiguation).
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Fantasy Island
Title card of the first installment of Fantasy Island
Created by
Gene Levitt
Starring
Ricardo Montalbán
Hervé Villechaize
Wendy Schaal
Christopher Hewett
Country of origin
United States
No. of seasons
7
No. of episodes
152, plus 2 TV-movies (list of episodes)
Production
Running time
45–48 minutes
Production company(s)
Spelling-Goldberg Productions
Columbia Pictures Television
Distributor
Columbia Pictures Television
(1983-1985)
Sony Pictures Television
Release
Original network
ABC
Audio format
Monaural
Original release
January 14, 1977 (1977-01-14) – May 19, 1984 (1984-05-19)
Fantasy Island is an American television series that originally aired on the ABC network from 1977 to 1984. It starred Ricardo Montalbán as the mysterious Mr. Roarke who grants the fantasies of visitors to the titular island for a price. The series was created by Gene Levitt. A revival of the series aired on the same network during the 1998–99 season.
Contents
1 Background
1.1 The Fantasy
1.1.1 Cost
1.1.2 Nature
1.1.3 Risk
1.2 Guest stars
2 Episodes
3 Production notes
3.1 Filming locations
3.2 Music
4 Reboots
4.1 1998 revival series
4.2 Film adaptation
5 Syndication
6 Home video releases
6.1 Original series
7 Ratings
8 References
9 External links
Background[edit]
Before it became a television series, Fantasy Island was introduced to viewers in 1977 and 1978 through two made-for-television films. Airing from 1978 to 1984, the original series starred Ricardo Montalbán as Mr. Roarke, the enigmatic overseer of a mysterious island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, where people from all walks of life could come and live out their fantasies, albeit for a price.
Roarke was known for his white suit and cultured demeanor, and was initially accompanied by an energetic sidekick, Tattoo (played by Hervé Villechaize). Tattoo would run up the main bell tower to ring the bell and shout "Ze plane! Ze plane!" to announce the arrival of a new set of guests at the beginning of each episode. This line, shown at the beginning of the series' credits, became an unlikely catchphrase because of Villechaize's spirited delivery and French accent. In later seasons, he would arrive in his personal go-kart, sized for him, and recklessly drive to join Roarke for the visitor reception while the staff scrambled to get out of his way. From 1981 to 1982, Wendy Schaal joined the cast as a beautiful brown-eyed blonde assistant named Julie. The producers dismissed Villechaize from the series before the 1983–1984 season, which ended up being its last, and Tattoo was replaced by a more sedate butler type named Lawrence (played by Christopher Hewett), who pressed an electronic button to ring the bell rather than climb the tower himself.
Mr. Roarke and Tattoo
A Grumman Widgeon aircraft was used for the series.[1] Just prior to the guests disembarking from the plane, Mr. Roarke would address his assembling employees with the phrase "Smiles, everyone! Smiles!". As each visitor exited the plane, Roarke would describe to Tattoo (or another assistant) the nature of their fantasy, usually with a cryptic comment suggesting the person's fantasy will not turn out as they expected. Roarke would then welcome his guests by lifting his glass and saying: "My dear guests, I am Mr. Roarke, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island." This toast was usually followed with a warm smile but sometimes (depending on the nature of a guest or their fantasy) his eyes would show concern or worry for a guest's safety.
Very little is known about the man known as Mr. Roarke and it is not clear if that is his first, last, or only name. Although most guests know him as "Mr." Roarke, many people close to him, including past lovers, have referred to him only as "Roarke", which suggests he may not have any other names. He is the sole owner and proprietor of Fantasy Island. Roarke's actual age is a complete mystery. In the pilot film, he comments how the guests who come to his island are "so mortal" and there are hints throughout the series that suggest Roarke may be immortal. In "Elizabeth", a woman from Roarke's past appears, but it is revealed that she died over 300 years ago. Other episodes suggests that he was friends with Helen of Troy and Cleopatra. However old he is, Roarke has come to know many seemingly-immortal beings over his time on Earth, including ghosts ("The Ghost's Story"), a genie ("A Genie Named Joe"), the mermaid Princess Nyah ("The Mermaid", "The Mermaid Returns", "The Mermaid and the Matchmaker"), the goddess Aphrodite ("Aphrodite"), and even Uriel the Angel of Death ("The Angel's Triangle"). In "The Devil and Mandy Breem" and "The Devil and Mr. Roarke", Roarke even faces the Devil (played by Roddy McDowall) who has come to the island to challenge him for either a guest's immortal soul or his. It is mentioned this is not the first time they have confronted each other and Mr. Roarke has always been the winner. In the second story, the Devil was one of the island's guests, claiming he was only there to relax and had no interest in Roarke's soul at the time. However, this turned out to be yet another ruse.
Roarke had a strong moral code, but he was always merciful. He usually tried to teach his guests important life lessons through the medium of their fantasies, frequently in a manner that exposes the errors of their ways, and on occasions when the island hosted terminally ill guests he would allow them to live out one last wish. Roarke's fantasies were not without peril, but the greatest danger usually came from the guests themselves. In some cases, people were killed due to their own negligence, aggression or arrogance. When necessary, Roarke would directly intervene when the fantasy became dangerous to the guest:
For instance in one episode when Tattoo was given his own fantasy as a birthday gift, which ended up with him being chased by hostile natives in canoes, Mr. Roarke suddenly appeared in a motorboat, snared Tattoo's canoe with a grappling hook and towed it away at high speed to help him escape.
Another instance was in "The Victim" where a female guest seeking to fall in love with her dream man ends up as one of his sex slaves. When she and her fellow slaves managed to get free, they are saved by Mr. Roarke and Tattoo who have arrived with the police who then arrest the two men responsible.
Another instance was in the 1980 episode "With Affection, Jack the Ripper" when a female guest intent on researching Jack the Ripper's crimes was sent back in time to 1888 London and would have become one of the Ripper's victims had not Mr. Roarke physically intervened.
With only a few exceptions, Roarke always made it quite clear that he was powerless to stop a fantasy once it had begun and that guests must play them out to their conclusion.
In later seasons, there were often supernatural overtones. Roarke also seemed to have his own supernatural powers of some sort (called the "Gift of the McNabs" in "Delphine"), although it was never explained how this came to be. In the episodes "Reprisal" and "The Power" he temporarily gave the guest psychokinetic abilities and in "Terrors of the Mind" the power to see into the future. In one episode, when a guest says "Thank God things worked out well", Roarke and Tattoo share an odd look and Roarke says in a cryptic way "Thank God, indeed." In the same episode, Roarke uses some mysterious powers to help Tattoo with his magic act. Ricardo Montalban would claim in interviews that he had a definite opinion in mind regarding the mystery of Mr. Roarke, and how he accomplished his fantasies, but he would never publicly state what it was. Years after the series was off the air, in an interview with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Montalban finally revealed that his motivation was imagining Roarke as a fallen angel whose sin was pride and that Fantasy Island was purgatory.
Each episode would alternate between two or three independent storylines as the guests experienced their fantasies and interacted with Roarke. When reruns of the series went into syndication, a half-hour version was offered, in which each hour-long original show was split to two separate half-hour shows in which only one guest's story was told in each half-hour episode. This made it obvious that the original episodes had been planned in such a way that each guest or family got off the plane separately, did not interact with the other guest or family, and was given almost exactly half the time of the original episode.
Often the fantasies would turn out to be morality lessons for the guests. For example, one featured a couple who clamored for the "good old days" being taken back to the Salem witch trials, sometimes to the point of (apparently) putting their lives at risk, only to have Roarke step in at the last minute and reveal the deception. It is mentioned a few times that a condition of visiting Fantasy Island is that guests never reveal what goes on there. A small number of guests decided to make the irrevocable choice to stay permanently, living out their fantasy until death; one such person was an actor who had been in a Tarzan-type television series called "Jungle Man" in the 1960s. Aside from a clip show ("Remember...When?") the only episode with a single storyline was "The Wedding", in which terminally ill Helena Marsh (Samantha Eggar) returned to Fantasy Island to spend her last days as Roarke's wife.
The Fantasy[edit]
Cost[edit]
In the first film, it was noted that each guest had paid $50,000 (about $202,000 in 2017 dollars) in advance for the fulfillment of their fantasies and that Fantasy Island was a business. In Return to Fantasy Island, Roarke told Tattoo that he sometimes dropped the price when a guest couldn't afford the usual fee because he believed everyone should be given a chance to have their fantasies fulfilled. Afterwards, it became clear that the price a guest paid was substantial to him or her, and for one little girl whose father was one of Roarke's guests, she had emptied her piggy bank (which contained less than ten dollars) to have her fantasy with her father fulfilled. On numerous occasions, a guest had not paid for the trip at all but instead won it as a result of a contest. Those who came by winning contests were usually the unknowing beneficiaries of rigged contests in order to disguise to themselves and others the real reason for their coming as part of someone else's fantasy.
Nature[edit]
The nature of a fantasy varied from story to story and were typically very personal to each guest on some level. They could be as harmless as wanting to be reunited with a lost love to something more dangerous like tracking down a cold-blooded killer who murdered someone close to the guest. Usually, the fantasy would take an unexpected turn and proceed down a quite different path than the guest expected. Some resolve in "The Monkey's Paw" style. He or she would then leave with some new revelation or renewed interest about themselves or someone close to them. Many times, Roarke would reveal in the end that someone they met during the course of their fantasy was another guest living a fantasy of their own. Both guests often left the island together. However, in one episode, one guest had no particular fantasy and was simply there to relax and enjoy himself. In another episode, one guest's (Don Knotts) fantasy was to play the part of a private eye. At the end of the episode, he discovers that his 'suspects' were actually a company of actors who had asked Mr. Roarke to act out their 'whodunnit' play in a realistic setting.
Although some fantasies were rooted in the real world, many others involved supernatural (such as ghosts, demons, or witchcraft) or mythological (mermaids, genies, Greek goddesses) elements. Time-travel was often a required element, if not a specific request, to fulfill one's fantasy.
Risk[edit]
Roarke often preceded particularly risky fantasies with a stern warning, word of caution, or even suggestion that the guest select another fantasy instead. He would then inform his guests that he was powerless to stop a fantasy once it had begun and must allow the fantasy to play out until its ultimate conclusion. Despite this, on rare occasions, Roarke will appear halfway through a fantasy to offer a guest an opportunity to terminate their fantasy, warning the guest that continuing the fantasy may lead to serious consequences (possibly even death). However, at that point, the guest will decide on their own to see the fantasy to its end, either for selfless reasons (regarding someone they had met during the fantasy) or naivety of what is in store for them. In the most serious cases, however, Roarke would invariably intervene and ensure his guests' safety.
Guest stars[edit]
Main article: List of Fantasy Island guest stars
Episodes[edit]
Main article: List of Fantasy Island episodes
Season
Episodes
Originally aired
Nielsen ratings[2]
First aired
Last aired
Rank
Rating
Tied with
TV movies 2 January 14, 1977 (1977-01-14) January 20, 1978 (1978-01-20) N/A N/A N/A
1 14 January 28, 1978 (1978-01-28) May 20, 1978 (1978-05-20) 17 21.4 Barney Miller
2 25 September 16, 1978 (1978-09-16) May 13, 1979 (1979-05-13) 22 20.8 N/A
3 23 September 17, 1979 (1979-09-17) May 17, 1980 (1980-05-17) 28 20.1 N/A
4 24 October 25, 1980 (1980-10-25) May 23, 1981 (1981-05-23) 17 20.7 Trapper John, M.D.
Diff'rent Strokes
5 22 October 10, 1981 (1981-10-10) May 8, 1982 (1982-05-08) 30 18.3 N/A
6 22 October 16, 1982 (1982-10-16) May 14, 1983 (1983-05-14) N/A N/A N/A
7 22 October 8, 1983 (1983-10-08) May 19, 1984 (1984-05-19) N/A N/A N/A
Production notes[edit]
Queen Anne Cottage and Coach Barn in Arcadia, California.
Aaron Spelling admitted the original pitch was a joke. Spelling and production partner Leonard Goldberg were pitching ideas to ABC executive Brandon Stoddard. After the executive rejected all of their plans, at least six in all, Spelling blurted out: "What do you want? An island that people can go to and all of their sexual fantasies will be realized?" Stoddard loved the idea.[3]
The network wanted Orson Welles for Mr. Roarke, but Spelling rejected him, knowing of his irritable nature on sets.[3] He also rejected the idea of a sexy female sidekick to join Roarke and Tattoo.[3]
The show was broadcast every Saturday night on ABC at 10:00, after The Love Boat, which was also produced by Aaron Spelling. Like several other series of the era, such as The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote, Fantasy Island employed many celebrity guest stars, often bringing them back repeatedly for different roles.
Filming locations[edit]
The series was filmed primarily in Burbank, California, with the opening scenes of the enchanting island coastline being that of Kauai, Hawaii (both the Na Pali coast as well as Wailua Falls). The house with the bell tower, where Tattoo rings the bell, is the Queen Anne Cottage, located in the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia. The plane, "arriving" with the guests, was filmed in the lagoon behind the Queen Anne Cottage. Sometimes, outdoor scenes were filmed at the Arboretum.
Interior sets were filmed on Stages 26 and 17 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California.[4] At some point, the production of exterior scenes moved to the Warner Ranch a short distance away from Warner's main lot.
Music[edit]
The Fantasy Island theme music was composed by Laurence Rosenthal.[5]
Reboots[edit]
1998 revival series[edit]
Main article: Fantasy Island (1998 TV series)
In 1998, ABC revived the series in a Saturday time slot. The role of Mr. Roarke was played by Malcolm McDowell in the revival, and in contrast to the first series the supernatural aspect of his character and of Fantasy Island itself was emphasized from the start, along with a dose of dark humor.[6] Director Barry Sonnenfeld, known for his work on The Addams Family movies, was a chief creative force on the new series. Another difference was that the new series was filmed in Hawaii instead of California. The remake followed the fantasies of at least two of Roarke's guests with an additional subplot involving members of his staff – usually Cal and Harry. Whereas the original series featured a separate writer and title for each subplot, the new series was written as several stories but featuring a unified theme and title.
Film adaptation[edit]
On July 31, 2018, it was announced that a film adaptation of the TV series is in the works. Sony Pictures will release the film and be produced by Blumhouse Productions. Truth or Dare director and co-screenwriter Jeff Wadlow wil direct the remake from a script by Wadlow, Chris Roach, and Jillian Jacobs.[7]
Syndication[edit]
Selected episodes from the first, second and third seasons are available free at Hulu. Selected Minisodes from seasons one, three, four, five, and six are available free at Crackle, along with complete episodes from seasons one, two, and three.
Digital multicast television network Cozi TV announced the series would be airing on the network beginning fall 2013. Episodes of the original series were seen on Fridays on sister cable network Universal HD, until July 2017, when the network changed to the Olympic Channel.
In Canada, episodes of the original series aired during primetime some evenings and again on the weekend on TV Land (now Comedy Gold). All seven seasons are also currently available through a Canadian subscription to Netflix.
In Greece, episodes are aired very early in the morning (sometimes 04.00-04.30) every day on Mega Channel.
Home video releases[edit]
Original series[edit]
In 1988, Star Classics released the pilot episode of the series on VHS in the United States and Canada.
In 2005, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released Season 1 of the original series on DVD in regions 1, 2 & 4. The release included the 1977 pilot Fantasy Island and 1978's Return to Fantasy Island. However, due to poor sales, no further seasons were released.
In February 2012, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series in Region 1; they subsequently released the second season on DVD on May 8, 2012.[8] Season 3 was released on October 23, 2012.[9]
DVD Name
Ep #
Release Date
The Complete First Season 18 November 15, 2005
The Complete Second Season 25 May 8, 2012
The Complete Third Season 23 October 23, 2012
Ratings[edit]
1977–1978: #17 (21.4)
1978–1979: #22 (20.8)
1979–1980: #28 (20.1)
1980–1981: #17 (20.7)
1981–1982: #30 (18.3)
1982–1983: Not in the Top 30
1983–1984: Not in the Top 30
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Love, Marianne (July 27, 1999). "Plane lumbers into the good life service in World War II, gives way to splashy summers on North Idaho lakes". Spokesman Review (Spokane Edition) – via ProQuest Newsstand, ProQuest. Web. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
Jump up ^ Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present (Ninth Edition). Ballantine Books. p. 1688-1689. ISBN 978-0-345-49773-4.
^ Jump up to: a b c Interview with Aaron Spelling. Archive of American Television (November 18–24, 1999).
Jump up ^ http://www.thestudiotour.com/warnerbros/stage17.php
Jump up ^ Terrace, Vincent (1985). Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials, Volume 2. VNR AG. p. 139. ISBN 0918432618. Retrieved 5 June 2018. More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)
Jump up ^ Rosenberg, Howard (September 26, 1998). "If Your Fantasy Is Fascinating Shows, Forget It; TV reviews: 'Fantasy Island' treads water; 'Martial Law,' 'Cupid' don't zing". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-11-05.
Jump up ^ Mike Fleming Jr (July 31, 2018). "'Fantasy Island' Film On Tap For Blumhouse, Sony & Director Jeff Wadlow". Deadline. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
Jump up ^ "Fantasy Island DVD news: Press Release for Fantasy Island - The Complete 2nd Season". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
Jump up ^ "Fantasy Island - My Dear Guests, Welcome, to The Complete 3rd Season on DVD!". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on September 14, 2012.
External links[edit]
Fantasy Island on IMDb
Fantasy Island (1977 TV movie backdoor pilot) on IMDb
Fantasy Island at TV.com
Fantasy Island at AllMovie
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Carter's Army (1970)
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A Visit from St. Nicholas
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
"The Night Before Christmas" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" redirect here. For other uses, see The Night Before Christmas (disambiguation) and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (disambiguation).
"A Visit from St. Nicholas", more commonly known as "The Night Before Christmas" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously in 1823 and later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, who claimed authorship in 1837. Some commentators now believe the poem was written by Henry Livingston Jr..
The poem has been called "arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American"[1] and is largely responsible for some of the conceptions of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today. It has had a massive impact on the history of Christmas gift-giving. Before the poem gained wide popularity, American ideas had varied considerably about Saint Nicholas and other Christmastide visitors. "A Visit from St. Nicholas" eventually was set to music and has been recorded by many artists.
Contents
[hide]
1 Plot
2 Meter
3 Literary history
4 Original copies
5 Authorship controversy
5.1 Evidence in favor of Moore
5.2 Evidence in favor of Livingston
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Plot[edit]
On Christmas Eve night, while his wife and children sleep, a father awakens to noises outside his house. Looking out the window, he sees Santa Claus (Saint Nicholas) in an air-borne sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. After landing his sleigh on the roof, the saint enters the house through the chimney, carrying a sack of toys with him. The father watches Santa filling the children's Christmas stockings hanging by the fire, and laughs to himself. They share a conspiratorial moment before Santa bounds up the chimney again. As he flies away, Santa wishes everyone a "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."
Meter[edit]
The poem's meter is anapestic tetrameter (four feet of unstressed-unstressed-stressed). The anapest is the same foot used to construct limericks, and the common metrical modifications that can be observed in the limerick form also can be observed in Moore's poem. For example, while the first two lines each use full anapests, lines 3 and 4 each drop the first unstressed syllable. Likewise, lines 9 and 10 drop the first unstressed syllable; they also add an extra unstressed syllable to the end.
Literary history[edit]
Clement Clarke Moore, the author of A Visit from St. Nicholas
According to legend,[2] "A Visit" was composed by Clement Clarke Moore on a snowy winter's day during a shopping trip on a sleigh. His inspiration for the character of Saint Nicholas was a local Dutch handyman as well as the historical Saint Nicholas. Moore originated many of the features that are still associated with Santa Claus today while borrowing other aspects, such as the use of reindeer.[3] The poem was first published anonymously in the Troy, New York Sentinel on 23 December 1823, having been sent there by a friend of Moore,[1] and was reprinted frequently thereafter with no name attached. It was first attributed in print to Moore in 1837. Moore himself acknowledged authorship when he included it in his own book of poems in 1844. By then, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged his authorship.[4][5] Moore had a reputation as an erudite professor and had not wished at first to be connected with the unscholarly verse. He included it in the anthology at the insistence of his children, for whom he had originally written the piece.[4]
Moore's conception of Saint Nicholas was borrowed from his friend Washington Irving, but Moore portrayed his "jolly old elf" as arriving on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. At the time that Moore wrote the poem, Christmas Day was overtaking New Year's Day as the preferred genteel family holiday of the season, but some Protestants viewed Christmas as the result of "Catholic ignorance and deception"[1] and still had reservations. By having Saint Nicholas arrive the night before, Moore "deftly shifted the focus away from Christmas Day with its still-problematic religious associations." As a result, "New Yorkers embraced Moore's child-centered version of Christmas as if they had been doing it all their lives."[1]
In An American Anthology, 1787–1900, editor Edmund Clarence Stedman reprinted the Moore version of the poem, including the German spelling of "Donder and Blitzen" that he adopted, rather than the earlier Dutch version from 1823 "Dunder and Blixem." Both phrases translate as "Thunder and Lightning" in English, though the German word for thunder is "Donner" and the words in modern Dutch would be "Donder en Bliksem."
Modern printings frequently incorporate alterations that reflect changing linguistic and cultural sensibilities. For example, breast in "The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow" is frequently bowdlerized to crest; the archaic ere in "But I heard him exclaim ere he drove out of sight" is frequently replaced with as. "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night" is frequently rendered with the traditional English locution "'Merry Christmas'" and with "goodnight" as a single word.
Original copies[edit]
'Twas the night before Christmas (credit: New-York Historical Society)
Four hand-written copies of the poem are known to exist and three are in museums, including the New-York Historical Society library.[6] The fourth copy, written out and signed by Clement Clarke Moore as a gift to a friend in 1860, was sold by one private collector to another in December 2006. It was purchased for $280,000 by an unnamed "chief executive officer of a media company" who resides in New York City, according to Dallas, Texas-based Heritage Auctions which brokered the private sale.[7]
Authorship controversy[edit]
Moore's connection with the poem has been questioned by Professor Donald Foster,[8] who used textual content analysis and external evidence to argue that Moore could not have been the author.[9] Foster believes that Major Henry Livingston Jr., a New Yorker with Dutch and Scottish roots, should be considered the chief candidate for authorship, a view long espoused by the Livingston family. Livingston was distantly related to Moore's wife.[9] Foster's claim, however, has been countered by document dealer and historian Seth Kaller, who once owned one of Moore's original manuscripts of the poem. Kaller has offered a point-by-point rebuttal of both Foster's linguistic analysis and external findings, buttressed by the work of autograph expert James Lowe and Dr. Joe Nickell, author of Pen, Ink and Evidence.[4][10][11]
Evidence in favor of Moore[edit]
Moore is credited by his friend Charles Fenno Hoffman as author in the 25 December 1837 Pennsylvania Inquirer and Daily Courier. Further, the Rev. David Butler, who allegedly showed the poem to Sentinel editor Orville L. Holley, was a relative of Moore's. A letter to Moore from the publisher states, "I understand from Mr. Holley that he received it from Mrs. Sackett, the wife of Mr. Daniel Sackett who was then a merchant in this city"[citation needed]. Moore preferred to be known for his more scholarly works, but allowed the poem to be included in his anthology in 1844 at the request of his children. By that time, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged his authorship. Livingston family lore gives credit to their forebear rather than Moore, but there is no proof that Livingston himself ever claimed authorship, nor has any record ever been found of any printing of the poem with Livingston's name attached to it, despite more than 40 years of searches.
Evidence in favor of Livingston[edit]
Advocates for Livingston's authorship argue that Moore "tried at first to disavow" the poem.[12] They also posit that Moore falsely claimed to have translated a book.[13] Document dealer and historian Seth Kaller has challenged both claims. Kaller examined the book in question, A Complete Treatise on Merinos and Other Sheep, as well as many letters signed by Moore, and found that the "signature" was not penned by Moore, and thus provides no evidence that Moore made any plagiaristic claim. Kaller's findings were confirmed by autograph expert James Lowe, by Dr. Joe Nickell, the author of Pen, Ink & Evidence, and by others. According to Kaller, Moore's name was likely written on the book by a New-York Historical Society cataloger to indicate that it had been a gift from Moore to the Society.[4][14][15]
Some contend that Henry Livingston Jr., not Moore, was the author of the poem
Cover of a 1912 edition of the poem, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
The Librarian of Congress, Dr. James Billington, reads The Night Before Christmas to the Little Scholars, December 2010
The following points have been advanced in order to credit the poem to Major Henry Livingston Jr.:
Livingston also wrote poetry primarily using an anapaestic metrical scheme, and it is claimed that some of the phraseology of A Visit is consistent with other poems by Livingston, and that Livingston's poetry is more optimistic than Moore's poetry published in his own name. But Stephen Nissenbaum argues in his Battle for Christmas that the poem could have been a social satire of the Victorianization of Christmas. Furthermore, Kaller claims that Foster cherry-picked only the poems that fit his thesis and that many of Moore's unpublished works have a tenor, phraseology, and meter similar to A Visit. Moore had even written a letter titled "From Saint Nicholas" that may have predated 1823.
Foster also contends that Moore hated tobacco and would, therefore, never have depicted Saint Nicholas with a pipe. However, Kaller notes, the source of evidence for Moore's supposed disapproval of tobacco is The Wine Drinker, another poem by him. In actuality, that verse contradicts such a claim. Moore's The Wine Drinker criticizes self-righteous, hypocritical advocates of temperance who secretly indulge in the substances which they publicly oppose, and supports the social use of tobacco in moderation (as well as wine, and even opium, which was more acceptable in his day than it is now).
Foster also asserts that Livingston's mother was Dutch, which accounts for the references to the Dutch Sinteklaes tradition and the use of the Dutch names "Dunder and Blixem". Against this claim, it is suggested by Kaller that Moore — a friend of writer Washington Irving and member of the same literary society — may have acquired some of his knowledge of New York Dutch traditions from Irving. Irving had written A History of New York in 1809 under the name of "Dietrich Knickerbocker." It includes several references to legends of Saint Nicholas, including the following that bears a close relationship to the poem:
And the sage Oloffe dreamed a dream,—and lo, the good St. Nicholas came riding over the tops of the trees, in that self-same wagon wherein he brings his yearly presents to children, and he descended hard by where the heroes of Communipaw had made their late repast. And he lit his pipe by the fire, and sat himself down and smoked; and as he smoked, the smoke from his pipe ascended into the air and spread like a cloud overhead. And Oloffe bethought him, and he hastened and climbed up to the top of one of the tallest trees, and saw that the smoke spread over a great extent of country; and as he considered it more attentively, he fancied that the great volume of smoke assumed a variety of marvelous forms, where in dim obscurity he saw shadowed out palaces and domes and lofty spires, all of which lasted but a moment, and then faded away, until the whole rolled off, and nothing but the green woods were left. And when St. Nicholas had smoked his pipe, he twisted it in his hatband, and laying his finger beside his nose, gave the astonished Van Kortlandt a very significant look; then, mounting his wagon, he returned over the tree-tops and disappeared.
—  Washington Irving, A History of New York[16]
MacDonald P. Jackson, Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, has spent his entire academic career analyzing authorship attribution. He has written a book titled Who Wrote "the Night Before Christmas"?: Analyzing the Clement Clarke Moore Vs. Henry Livingston Question,[17] published in 2016, in which he evaluates the opposing arguments and, for the first time, uses the author-attribution techniques of modern computational stylistics to examine the long-standing controversy. Jackson employs a range of tests and introduces a new one, statistical analysis of phonemes; he concludes that Livingston is the true author of the classic work.
See also[edit]
Santa Claus's reindeer
Old Santeclaus with Much Delight
References[edit]
Notes
^ Jump up to: a b c d Burrows, Edwin G. & Wallace, Mike. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. pp. 462-463 ISBN 0-19-511634-8
Jump up ^ Walsh, Joseph J. (2001). Were They Wise Men Or Kings?: The Book of Christmas Questions. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 11. ISBN 0-664-22312-5.
Jump up ^ Restad, Penne L. (1995). Christmas in America. Oxford University Press. p. 48. ISBN 0-19-509300-3.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Kaller, Seth. "The Authorship of The Night Before Christmas". sethkaller.com.
Jump up ^ Siefker, Phyllis (1997). Santa Claus,. McFarland & Company. p. 4. ISBN 0-7864-0246-6.
Jump up ^ "A Visit from St. Nicholas". New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
Jump up ^ "Copy of Poem Sold; 'Twas Worth $280K". Washington Post. Associated Press. 19 December 2006. Retrieved 19 April 2008.
Jump up ^ Mann, Ted. "Ho, Ho, Hoax," Scarsdale Magazine, 30 November 2006
^ Jump up to: a b "Major Henry Livingston Jr. (1748–1828) Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas" Archived 15 December 2005 at the Wayback Machine., Representative Poetry Online
Jump up ^ Lowe, James. "A Christmas to Remember: A Visit from St. Nicholas." Autograph Collector. January 2000. 26-29.
Jump up ^ Nickell, Joe. "The Case of the Christmas Poem." Manuscripts, Fall 2002, 54;4:293-308; Nickell, Joe. "The Case of the Christmas Poem: Part 2." Manuscripts, Winter 2003, 55;1:5-15.
Jump up ^ Christoph, Peter. "Clement Moore Revisited". Major Henry Livingston Jr., the author of "Night Before Christmas". Intermedia Enterprises. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 19 April 2008.
Jump up ^ Kirkpatrick, David D. (26 October 2000). "Literary Sleuth Casts Doubt on the Authorship of an Iconic Christmas Poem". New York Times. Archived from the original on 10 April 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2008.
Jump up ^ Kaller, Seth. "The Moore Things Change...," The New-York Journal of American History, Fall 2004
Jump up ^ Lowe, James. "A Christmas to Remember: A Visit from St. Nicholas," Autograph Collector, January 2000, pp. 26-29
Jump up ^ A history of New York: from the ... - Washington Irving - Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
Jump up ^ Jackson, MacDonald P. (2016). Who Wrote "The Night Before Christmas"?: Analyzing the Clement Clarke Moore vs. Henry Livingston Question. McFarland. ISBN 978-1476664439.
Further reading
Jackson, MacDonald P. (2016). Who Wrote "The Night Before Christmas"?: Analyzing the Clement Clarke Moore vs. Henry Livingston Question. McFarland. ISBN 978-1476664439.
Foster, Donald (2000). Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-6357-9.
Gardner, Martin (1991). The Annotated Night Before Christmas: A Collection Of Sequels, Parodies, And Imitations Of Clement Moore's Immortal Ballad About Santa Claus; Edited, with an introduction and notes, by Martin Gardner. Summit Books. ISBN 0-671-70839-2.
Nissenbaum, Stephen (1997). The Battle for Christmas: A Social and Cultural History of Christmas that Shows How It Was Transformed from an Unruly Carnival Season into the Quintessential American Family Holiday. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-41223-9.
Niels Henry Sonne. "The Night Before Christmas"—Who Wrote It? S.l: s.n, 1972. Reprinted from The Historical magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, vol. 41, no. 4, pages 373-380.
External links[edit]
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
A Visit from St. Nicholas
Wikimedia Commons has media related to A Visit from St. Nicholas.
Free audiobook from LibriVox
eText of a 1912 edition of the poem, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, at Project Gutenberg
Free Audiobook from The Internet Archive (Community Audio)
Twaz The Night Before Christmas - Celebrity Version as read by 23 UK-known media personalities
A Visit from Saint Nicholas From the Collections at the Library of Congress
Twas the Night Before Christmas (Poem) - Text | Video by Check123
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Clement Clarke Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (1823)
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The Spirit of Christmas (1953)
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values: زيارة من القديس نيكولاس – Arabic

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