Werner Klemperer & John Banner – Silent Night
An evening pause: Silent Night is followed by Robert Clary singing a French carol. All three were actors from the 1960s television comedy series, Hogan’s Heroes, with Klemperer playing the Nazi prison commander, Banner the foolish guard (“I know nothing!!!”), and Clary the French prisoner.
I don’t know exactly when this aired, but it was likely in the late 1960s. It signals the good will fundamental to western civilization. The Germans had only two decades earlier put the world through a horrible war. Still, Americans were glad to hear two Germans immigrants sing this gentle song in their native language, despite the evils that nation had subjected the world to so recently.
The war was over. We are all fallible humans. Time to forgive, and move on.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Some trivia about Werner Klemperer:
He was a member of a well known German family or artists and academics. His father was the great conductor Otto Klemperer, and his cousin Victor Klemperer was an academic who kept diaries of his life as a Jew in Nazi Germany. The diaries were published as “I Will Bear Witness”, also a diary of living in post-war East Germany as “The Lesser Evil”.
All are highly recommended reading for students and opponents of totalitarian thought.
This is from a Bing Crosby Christmas Special show, but I do not know the year.
another flash-from-the-past….
This Day in History: December 21, 1968, 7:51am
Apollo 8 launch
-amateur super-8 film-
https://archive.org/details/apollo-8-december-1968-super-8mm-1440x-1080
wayne. Oh gosh, I was going to post about your father’s super8 film and forgot about. I will do something in the next day.
All three singers were from the cast of Hogan’s Heros? wow.
Wayne:
That is awesome. Hard to relate the mindset at the time, but three people were going “Where no man had gone before”, and leading to one of the seminal moments in human exploration. The rocketry field was still a bit of a chancy business, and I’m watching the film, thinking “Please don’t blow up.” Of course it didn’t, but still..
Thank you for sharing.
tom-
Great factoids! I was not aware of the diary!
George C:
..and they were all Jewish, if I recall correctly.
and… look up “The Chicago Teddy Bears,” a short lived (13 episodes) comedy from 1971-ish, which featured John Banner. (I think some episodes are up at Youtube, but haven’t looked recently.)
Blair–
Glad you like it! Witnessing that launch in-person, made me the amateur science-geek I am today.
(I dubbed in some music for my own personal copy, Def Leppard’s “Rocket.” Not high Art, but it somehow fits…)
Public Service Announcement:
–>Blair has a great little blog, he doesn’t post a huge amount but when he does, it’s high-quality stuff!–everyone should take a look.
Mr. Z.,
No problem whatsoever! (I didn’t want to step-on anything you had planned.)
->I would take this opportunity to publicly thank You & Steve, greatly, for digitizing the film.
“We are all fallible humans. Time to forgive, and move on.”
Yes, please. Forgive, not forget, move on together where possible, and use the lessons learned to prevent or stop atrocities wherever they (may) happen.
12/25/65
Entire Show:
https://youtu.be/w5klIcrgHS8 (58:59)
Fast forward to 48:00min for Silent Night
Roland:
Thanks for finding the whole thing!
“Carol Of The Bells” in American Sign Language
Music by BarlowGirl
Interpreted by Mrs. Rodriguez; 2013
https://youtu.be/1XMfKM6_gcE
3:12
You’re Welcome Wayne:
*Many Thanks to Phill Oltmann for inspiring me to successfully search and succeed in finding a moment of history.