Dennis Day
Birth : 1916-05-21, The Bronx, New York
Death : 1988-06-22
Nephew Fred (voice)
This cartoon version of A Christmas Carol hails from the production house of Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass--the team that brought you just about every other Christmas special you saw as a kid (including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer). Reinvented as a 49-minute musical ghost story, Stingiest stars the voice of Walter Matthau as the bedeviled Scrooge and Tom Bosley as the Jiminy Cricket-type narrator, B. Humbug, Esq.
Parson Brown
Years have passed since Frosty left for the North Pole, but his promise is kept when he hears news of the first snowfall of the season, and decides to return.
Singing Telegraph Man
A would-be filmmaker and actress shake up the industry with a trick dog who gets discovered by a studio bus driver in the 1920s.
Self
Self
A TV special aired on February 17, 1969 (the star’s birthday was February 14), featuring Benny’s long-established persona and several celebrity guest stars.
Tommy Tucker
A young girl becomes lost in a department store during the Christmas shopping rush. The frightened child is comforted by a department store Santa Claus who tells her a tale of storybook characters brought to life - of Tommy Tucker's love for the lovely Jane Piper and the cold-hearted villainy of evil Silas Barnaby. Through the girl's dreams, the viewer is transported to Toyland. Based on the classic Broadway operetta by Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough, this was its second live television special production, with some new cast members and some returning.
Tommy Tucker
Based on the classic Broadway operetta by Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough, this live television special became an annual Christmas tradition with rotating cast members.
Grand Pa (voice)
An old-timer tells his grandson that old-time football players could take a modern team, so we see a game with just that match-up: Bygone U. vs. Present State. More specifically, the Bygone U. team of 11 vs. Present State's dozens of special squads and support personnel. Even the stadium, fans, and press are modern vs. old-time. The game is close, and fiercely fought.
Reed Appleton
Stage-and-night club star Jeannie Laird buys her first home, and everyone who is anyone comes to her first garden party only to be blinded by smoke from next door. Jeannie charges next door to bawl out her new neighbor and meets comic-strip artist Bill Carter. Bill has devoted himself to his strip, and raising his ten-year-old son Joe since the death of his wife. Joe bases his strip on the everyday happenings of he and his son and is proud of keeping it scrupulously honest. When Jeannie and Bill fall in love, young Joe is hurt, especially when Bill starts using a lot of the father-son time to be with Jeannie. Bill cancels a father-son trip to Canada, and Joe decides to write a letter to Bill's syndicate pointing out that the current plot line of the script being set in Canada isn't honest, since they didn't go.
Mart Taylor
Against the background of the Civil War, sixteen-year-old song-and-dance artiste Lotta Crabtree works her way across America, becoming ever more popular.
Freddy Lee
I'll Get By is an updated remake of the 1940 20th Century-Fox musical Tin Pan Alley. William Lundigan and Dennis Day play William Spencer and Freddie Lee respectively, successful song publishers who make hits out of such numbers as "I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo", "Deep in the Heart of Texas", "You Make Me Feel So Young", "There Will Never Be Another You", and other favorites (the rights to all of these songs were conveniently held by 20th Century-Fox). The partnership has some hard times, especially during the feud between ASCAP and the radio networks, when only public-domain songs like "I Dream of Jeannie" were permitted to be broadcast.
(archive footage)
A kind of filmed vaudeville show, using old material from RKO films and some new.
Johnny Appleseed Narrator (voice)
In the grand tradition of Disney's great musical classics, Melody Time features seven timeless stories, each enhanced with high-spirited music and unforgettable characters. You'll be sure to tap your toes and clap your hands in this witty feast for the eyes and ears.
The Old Settler / Johnny Appleseed
Dennis Day tells the story of Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman), narrated by The Old Settler. He's an apple farmer who sees people going west and thinks he can't join them, until an angel appears to him and sings the virtues of apples, convincing Johnny he has a mission. He sets off without a knife or gun; at first, the animals mistrust him, but when he even treats a skunk kindly, they all take to him.
Stanley Benson
Frankie Foster and Stanley Benson are a pair of small-potatoes performers. Both try to make it to the big-time after winning an amateur talent contest. Though this leads them to a few professional gigs, something is missing from their act and they are not popular. Believing a little cash will boost their career, Frankie heads for Washington, D.C. to see if her wealthy father will help them. En route Frankie is mistaken for the wife of the well-known pilot Johnny Pearson and ends up in his suite having to pretend she is his spouse. When the pilot meets her, romantic sparks fly.
Lancelot Hillie / Dennis Day
Young radio personality Judy Joyner becomes mayor of the moribund town, Sleepy Lagoon, after running on an all women ticket and promptly sets out to turn the town around.
Dennis Day
Two small-town sisters who've come to New York City for very different reasons find themselves competing for the affections of a brash magazine photographer. Comedy.
Dennis
Radio star Jack Benny, intending to stay in New York for the summer, is forced by the needling of rival Fred Allen to prove his boasts about roughing it on his (fictitious) Nevada ranch. Meanwhile, singer Joan Cameron, whom Jack's fallen for and offended, is maneuvered by her sisters to the same Nevada town. Jack's losing battle to prove his manhood to Joan means broad slapstick burlesque of Western cliches.