December 6, 2021 • 34 mins
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Frosty the Snowman. The Little Drummer Boy. All of these iconic holiday specials have something in common: they were written by Romeo Muller, the visionary mind behind nearly all the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials. We remember Muller's life and career with Rick Goldschmidt, official biographer for Rankin/Bass.
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Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Ephemeral production of I Heart three D audio for full exposure.
Listen with that phones. It's officially that time of year
when it's impossible to miss the decorations going up in
display windows, jingles trumpeting from department store speakers, and classic
(00:27):
Christmas specials dancing across the TV. Somewhere along the way,
you're almost guaranteed to run into a Rank and Bass production.
You know them, the retro stop animated sing alongs from
the nineties sixties, such as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
He's got a shiny nose. Shiny I'd even say in
(00:48):
glow Frosty the snow Man, Happy Birthday, that had brought
Frosty to life? It must be Magi or the Little
Drummer Boy, A Little Drummer Boy? Are those animals dancing
(01:09):
been in it? But what you maybe don't know is
that one man was responsible for creating and writing each
of those holiday favorites and many more. His name was
Romeo Mueller, and his impact on the modern myth of
Christmas is unparalleled. He was like a real Santa Claus,
(01:34):
and I became really close friends with his brother Jean,
who wanted to see his legacy live on, and I've
tried to do that in my books. I always donate
time to Romeo because he was the basis of every special.
You have to have good writing for these to have
(01:56):
the longevity that they have. My name is Rick Goldschmidt,
and I'm the official Ranking Bass historian biographer, and I've
written six books about Arthur Ranking and Jules Bass and
work on a lot of the projects associated with the
classic TV holiday specials like Brewed Up the Red Nose Reindeer,
(02:19):
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, the Little Drummer Boy, etcetera. Well.
Ranking Bass is primarily known for their iconic holiday specials.
They also produced a number of other influential works that
don't get mentioned as often. They're also known for the
hobbit I would speak with the King's Great does come
(02:48):
upon you all? An army of goblins with claim to
the Trasier comes from the north ThunderCats. I could probably
handle him myself, Yes, lionelh No, please call the other ThunderCats,
bunder thunder, bundercuts, silver Hawks like the moon Star shined
(03:14):
into my cell and you will be rewarded with wealth,
the odwealth our dead A monstar we know exactly what
will happen if you ever see the moon Star again.
A lot of Saturday morning television like the Jackson five Show.
I'm Michael Jackson and a couple of years ago near
(03:36):
my big brother Marlin, Jermaine, Tito and Jackie. It's kind
of square quite that home in Gary, Indiana. And one
day Mr Diana Ross herself came to town to sing
a concert and the Osmond Show. Jimmy, you know, mom
and Dad don't want you to do these late concerts. O. Hey,
(03:56):
we better take him back to the hotel. Yeah, but
we'll never get through that. Mama ends out there. And
some feature films like King Kong Escapes, Beat the Last Unicorn.
(04:17):
I tell you there is one unicorn neft in the world,
and as long as it lives in this forest, we'll
find no game to hunt here. Mad Monster Party. It's
a come as you are, a party that's out of
this world. You don't get invited if he'll get commented.
It's a psychedelic scaret. Who with the groove is Googles
(04:38):
of all kind. They were in business for about thirty
years and produced some of the most memorable, especially holiday entertainment,
which is still on the networks today. It's been over
fifty years, actually over fifty five years now, so they
(04:58):
have a longevity that most animation studios don't have. To
become a production company, Soul Biographer is no small undertaking.
We asked Rick what drew him to the Ranking Bass
Specials and what he loves about them. The thing that
attracted me to Ranking Bass was the look of everything,
(05:23):
because I'm an artist and illustrator, so first and foremost
for me, it was always the look of the puppets
and the look of the cell animation. As a musician,
I also loved the music of Maury Laws and the arrangements,
which are always so happy and upbeat, very holiday ish,
(05:47):
you know, with glockenspields and all kinds of fun accents
to their music. And Jules Bass wrote the lyrics to
all of the great songs like the Miser and Snow Miser.
Remember at check up, Frances, whatever, I poke one ft
(06:14):
in front of the other, one on in front of
the other, and soon you'll be walking across the floor.
There's a lot of classic Christmas songs that came out
of the Ranking Bass Specials as well, but for them
to last this long, you have to have good writing.
(06:36):
Most of the time, it was Romeo Mueller who wrote
with a lot of heart and warmth. Theater five has
presented Toby's Wonderful Egg, written by Romeo Muller, produced and
directed by Ted Bell. In the cast John McGovern, Betty
Guard Robert. Romeo Mueller had a storied career that made
him a perfect fit for ranking bass Well. Romeo Mueller
(07:00):
was a writer out of the New York area High Falls,
New York and wrote for a lot of the great
comedians of the early days of television, like Jack Benny.
I would like to tell you one Joe. This about
two drunks that were standing at a bar and one
(07:23):
drunk said to the other, you know where I got
for my wife the other day. The other drunk said, no,
what did you get for your wife the other day?
So the first drunk said, a poodle. So this other
drunk said, I wish I could make a trade like that.
That's the end of the job. And Red Scalton, I
(07:45):
think everybody's so nice here since I've been in town.
They can't seem to do enough for me. They gave
me a big car to drive around, a big rules Royce.
See my wife says, let me drive that thing. I
can stop it on a dime. She did. He also
wrote as who would have thought that kindly old Dr
Segwick was in reality a mad scientist. That's strictly off
(08:06):
the record. You understand at one print of thing, but
you said you'd worked out a plan to destroy Superman
Max Max Max Good Guys plan Bad Guy's ski. So
he had a great knowledge of how to put a
story together, and he was actually hired by Arthur Ranking
(08:27):
for the first ranking best television special Returned to Oz
total Do you remember Oz? That wonderful land? We went
too far, far away, halfway to yesterday and back. Returned
to Oz was like the first time that the Wizard
(08:50):
of Oz was revisited, that there was any type of
sequel to the original MGM movie, which was being shown
every year on television. So they thought that would be
a huge hit, you know, because of the longevity of
the Wizard of Us. But his second script was Rudolph
(09:12):
the Red Nose Reindeer. Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer had
a very shiny no and if you ever saw it,
you would even say a lot of people don't realize
that the story book written by Robert L. May and
the song written by his brother in law Johnny Marks,
(09:35):
just had basically a germ of a story. You know,
there was this reindeer with the red nose that everybody
made fun of it, and you know Santa asked him
to pull his sleve. That was it. So Romeo wrote
Hermi the Dentist. I just don't like to make toys.
(09:56):
Hermi doesn't like to make toys. Herb, he doesn't like
to make toys. Someday I'd like to be a dentist. Dentist,
you can't, Cornelius, you can fresh fit that away. Who
are you? Who am I? The names? You can't Cornelius
(10:18):
the greatest prospector in Lenore Island to misfit toys. I'm
the official center of the Island of misfit toys at
Jack in the Box or a center is. My name
is don't Jolly Jack, no Charlie. That's why I'm a
business toy. My name is all wrong. No child wants
(10:40):
to play with a Charlie in the box. So I
had to come here. And he based a lot of
the story off of friends and relatives he had a
friend that was named Clarice. Something wrong with your nose?
I mean, you talk kind of funny. What's the fudy
both way? I don't well, don't get I agree, I
(11:03):
don't mind you old. My name is Clarie Hi. My
ave Rudolph Hi. He had another friend that dreams stories
of a monster peeking over cliffs, like the bumble Shot.
(11:33):
So he put all of that into his scripts, and
he did it in such a way that it draws
you in. No matter how old you are, you could
be a little kid, you could be a grandparent. Everything
about it is heartwarming, and you just want to watch
these things over and over and over again. So eventually
(11:56):
he went on to write all of these other shows
which were basically based on a song like Santa Claus
has come into town. You better not woman, And then
(12:17):
he would come up with these backstories to the son.
In the case of Frosty the Snowman, he put in
Professor Inkle and so I put the magic eggs into
my hat aboca dab to coin the phrase at Wala,
the eggs have turned into miss miss missing. All these
(12:42):
things that we associate with the character came from the
mind of Romeo Muller, so in that regards, he was
a genius. He was like the Stan Lee of the
Ranking Bats universe. You know, he was the writer and
then the designer was Paul Cooker Jr. Most of the time,
(13:04):
who would have been the Jack Kirby of the Marvel universe.
So he was a really important ingredient in the whole
universe of Rank and Bass productions. There's no doubt that
(13:25):
Mueller is considered one of the first great writers of
family oriented television. We asked Rick what stylistic choices made
Mueller so iconic. The quintessential Mueller is the fact that
the main characters usually were the underdog. You know, they
either had something wrong with them, or they they felt
(13:49):
like they didn't fit in, or something that they had
to overcome to get to a happy ending. And the
villains usually were reformed, which is always more satisfying than
if they're just killed off. The villains, like the Winter Warlock,
(14:10):
would you know, see that they were wrong and find
a way to help and fit in. Shoot you, I've
always wanted funny. What's that my artsy heart? It's melting? Well?
(14:32):
Look Mr Warlock, please please call me Winter Winter. Yes, yes,
suddenly my whole outlook has changed from bad to good great.
You know, the people at Pixar early on when they
were a company before they were taken over by Disney,
(14:56):
they recognized that that was a more satisfy rying way
to tell a story than to kill off a villain,
and they mimicked the scripts of Romeo Muller and tried
to go for the look of the Ranking Bass productions.
So I think that's why the early Pixar films were
(15:17):
so successful is that they paid close attention to the script,
which doesn't happen today. Unfortunately, in today's modern entertainment, all
they care about is making money and it doesn't matter
how they make it. But Ranking Bass they were more
(15:37):
concerned about the quality of the project. That's why they
hired Romeo Muller and stuck with them for so long.
And Romeo was a lover of the classic comedies and
the classic films. He was a film buff, and he
knew what quality was from the love of the passion
(16:01):
he had for classic film and classic comedy. So it
really had that feel to it. You know, everything that
rankin Bass did, very few things were failures. They were
all high quality productions. With great stories, and you know,
Romeo was a big part of it. Romeo would say
(16:24):
that his favorite was The Little Drummer Boy. Well, the
Little Drummer Boy is basically the story of what Christmas
is all about. My lamb has been injured. You must
save him. He is near death. Oh Lad, there is
nothing I can do but but you are a king,
(16:46):
immortal king only. But there is a king among kings
who would save your little frightened the babe. But I
do not understand. He's not necessary that you understand. Go
to him, but I I have no gift to bring.
(17:11):
Look about the new Born Key. It doesn't get aired
as much today, but it had a magical quality to it.
I remember early on, when I was a little kid
and I went to C c D, they would tell
(17:33):
you to watch it, and I was always wanting to
watch it because we used to have little Nativity scenes
that we were given as gifts, so it was a
more common religious type special everybody knew that it was,
you know, the telling of what Christmas is all about,
but we've kind of lost that over the years. And
(17:56):
I think Romeo really liked Chris Us a lot, you know,
and since this was really the Telling of Christmas. That
would be his favorite special, and it's a lot of
people's favorite special. And what surprised me about it was
the song One Star in the Night was written by
(18:20):
Jules Bass and Maury Laws, and Maury told me that
it was some music that they had written prior to
the special, not particularly for the special. And when you
(18:44):
watch it, it seems like it's some kind of a
classic song that would have been written a hundred years
before that special. It has that quality to it that
it seems like a traditional Christmas song, but they actually
wrote it. Romeo Mueller is still best known for his
(19:08):
Rank and Bass contributions, but when he eventually moved on,
he continued to write on other beloved programs even after
Ranking Bass. He wrote Strawberry Shortcake, You're just in time.
Strawberry Shortcake and all her friends are getting ready for
their first annual garden Party, a celebration of the most
(19:32):
frequently delicious berries in the whole world. The Little Rascal's
Christmas Special. We all live up at the North Pole.
You believe it or not, these are roast ho ho ho.
This is just as well as Christmas. Ever. One of
his last films post Ranking Bass was called Noel, and
(19:56):
it was a special one. Not to mention my personal
childhood fa friend is Noel. And it came out in
the form of a kid's children's book and was about
an ornament. Here's a good spot for you, little fella.
(20:18):
I get it. What a neat idea. Hey, look at me.
It's been years since I watched it, but I know
that he went on radio, and he also went into
actual schools and told the story every Christmas. It was
like a tradition for him to tell the story of
(20:41):
Noel in the New York Hi Falls area. What's happening
now this it's become a thing called Christmas Eve, the
reason you were made and I was born. It feels
like magic. As Rick briefly mentioned, Mueller loved to read
(21:03):
his stories on radio, but he never voiced any of
his characters in the Rank and Bass specials. However, he
did appear in other places. I know he made a
cameo appearance in uh Marco, which is a NY three
movie starring Zero Mostel and Desi Arnez Jr. At the
(21:27):
beginning of the film, Desi Arnez is flying on a
kite in Romeo's running underneath in a costume yelling at
the kite. So it was kind of neat that he
made a little cameo in the movie. Romeo Mother's relationship
(22:01):
with Ranking Bass would get complicated after he left the company.
When Romeo branched out and started writing other shows for
other producers and other television things like The Little Rascal's
Christmas Special, he started talking about how he created the
(22:23):
Ranking Bass holiday specials, and for some reason that caused
a bit of friction with Arthur Ranking. He felt like
Romeo was taking too much credit and there was sort
of a fallout with Ranking Bass Productions. But when I
wrote my first book, The Enchanted World of Ranking Bass,
(22:46):
and early on when I contacted Arthur Ranking, he had
called me right after he went to Romeo's memorial, and
I think they patched things up before where he passed.
He was an important person to Arthur on a personal
level too. But as you worked with someone for a
(23:09):
long time, you know like you could have a falling
out at some point, and that's what happened. Romeo Moller
died on Wednesday, leaving behind an unfinished film project. It
was called The Twelve Days of Christmas. One Partridge two
(23:32):
Turtle Doves, three French Hands, four Calling Birds, five Golden Rings,
six Gisa Lang, seven Swansea, Swimming by My Sword, Princess
silver Bell has some strange desires. And there was some
business partner involved with that, and that was released, and
that caused a lot of friction between his brother Jean
(23:56):
and the producer of that, and they never got their
money from it either. So it was like a kind
of a bad ending to what was always a very
positive life for Romeo. By the time Rick started writing
about Rank and Bass, Mueller had already passed away, but
(24:17):
Rick did get to meet Romeo's brother, Jeane Muller. I
wish I could have talked to Romeo, but I was
glad I developed the friendship with Jean. Jean gave me everything.
He gave me romeo scrapbooks, he gave me all the
records that he had. He really opened up Romeo's archives
(24:38):
to me when I wrote my books, So I'm grateful
for that. Throughout his many books, Rick has painted a
vivid picture of Romeo Mueller's life and the greater impact
he had on storytelling in America. We asked Rick what
he sees as Mueller's greatest legacy overall, Romyo created classic television,
(25:03):
but it goes beyond that. It's become part of the
Christmas Holiday or the Easter Holiday or whatever holiday the
specials were written for. We're only talking about a few
Christmas specials in this day and age. The only ones
that have survived besides the Rank and Best holiday specials
(25:28):
that Romeo wrote are How the Grinch Stole Christmas and
Charlie Brown Christmas, and that's basically it. And Rank and
Bass Productions holds more of that pie because they were
successful with several television specials and all of them were
written by Romeo. So when you look at the grand
(25:52):
scheme of the entertainment industry over the last seventy five years,
we're still talking about out Rootolph the Red Nose Reindeer
and Frosty the Snowman. There's several Ranking Bass specials that
Romeo wrote that our favorites of everyone's. And what you
(26:14):
see happening now is a MC has a weekend marathon
of the specials, and so does free Form Television, and
then they're still on the networks. So you're seeing more
exposure of them over time, and I'm sure they'll be
streaming and Blu ray and DVDs will be getting better hopefully. So,
(26:40):
I mean there's a big market of the holiday stuff
and most of it is what Romeo wrote one special
treat for our listeners. In Atlanta, the Center for Puppetry
Arts has a new exhibit featuring the puppets from the
Ranking Bass specials, well sort of the Santa and Rootolph
(27:04):
puppet that they have, which actually I helped to restore
and I also appeared with them for several years. They're
not the ones that were used in the Ranking Best
Rootolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Special. What they were created
for was for publicity purposes. So in other words, they
(27:26):
created a set of puppets that they sent from Japan
to New York so that they could take the publicity
photos for the NBC Holiday General Electric Theater. What they
did was they stuck them in a glass case at
NBC in the Rockefeller Center in New York, and they
(27:51):
had them there for several years, and a lot of
people remember seeing them, whether they were on school trips
or just taking a tour of NBC. But to this day,
I haven't found a photo of that display, so I
don't know exactly what puppets were in there, but I
(28:11):
have a feeling they're the ones that were only featured
in the publicity photos, and there was only a handful
of those. All of these puppets have had some wild adventures,
being passed around over the years without much of a record.
All in all, the publicity puppets are lucky to have survived,
(28:32):
and there's a wild story behind the fate of the
puppets used on screen. I know everyone involved with these
two particular puppets. I know Barbara Adams who was the
secretary that took him home, and then she gaven to
her nephew, and some of them were in the attic
(28:52):
and got you know, melted together, and they had to
get rid of them because they were no good anymore.
So Santa and Rudolph were the only two that survived
out of that batch. And I know the people that
bought them from the nephew, and I helped restore them.
Like I said, I know the people that restored them.
(29:14):
So these two puppets have a history, But the really
interesting history are the ones that were used in the
actual specials. Some of them are in in the US.
I used to own two from the first Christmas. You know,
I had all their eyes and mouths and you could
(29:36):
tell they were the actual puppets that were used in
the animation. But most of the state in Japan they
still have King Kong it from Mad Monster Party in
this tad Moshinaga exhibit, and they have other puppets like
from Willie McBean and his Magic Machine, and all kinds
(29:58):
of Rear Rank and Bass puppets. I would say of
the puppets stayed in Japan, and five percent came to
the States for one reason or another. Arthur rankin want
and to give to somebody or just to put in
the office. And those are the ones that that I've
(30:20):
appeared with, like I've appeared with Red Skelton from Rudolph's
Shiny New Year. Father Time for the passing of time
is all inspiring. It's the one certain thing in all
the universe. In a way, it's like an old king
stepping down and a new one taking its place. Smokey
(30:42):
the Bear from the Ballot of Smokey the Bear. Smoke
He started up by being just a normal bear, young
and happy playing games. He never had a care Mamma
used to worry. That is friendly trusting way would get
him into trouble. So she said to me one day
and big Bear, she said, knowledge's anny young Fred, so
try to keep an eye on him. He needed brother band.
(31:04):
When I said, Mom, don't worry. God believe it all
to me. I never thought our simple life would change.
So suddenly I've had him at shows. So there's only
a few that are in the US, but most of
them are in Japan. Still, you can find a selection
of surviving puppets now at the Center for Puppetry Arts.
(31:27):
Rick says he hopes the exhibit will help keep the
spirit of the Ranking Bass Specials alive for years to come. See.
The focus at the museum over the years has been
on Rudolph. They do a puppet show every year like
a marionette show. That's been successful for them for a
(31:47):
long time. So the focus is just done Rudolph, not
so much the enchanted world of Ranking Bass, but Rudolph
the Red Nosed Reindeer. Ranked in Bass is route up
the Nose Reindeer. And they only have the two puppets.
But I think they're gonna make a nice display with
(32:08):
the images that I gave them and the actual history
of them. You know, all the puppets need to be
in museum so everyone can see them. They shouldn't be
in at any private collection in my opinion, and I'm
probably one of the biggest private collectors there is, and
I have a lot of things. My home home is
(32:30):
a museum, but I think things like this, you know,
Puppets Center from Iconic TV specials should be in a
museum and I'm I'm glad the Center for Puppetry Arts
has them. Jingle, Ingle Ingle. This episode of Ephemeral was
(33:03):
written and assembled by Trevor Young, produced with Max and
Alex Williams, and is dedicated to Romeo Maller. Rick Goldschmidt
is the official biographer of Frank and Bass and you
can find all of his books online or keep up
with him at Rank and Bass dot com. And we
implore you to check out the new Routolph exhibit at
(33:24):
the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. Find more in
everything you heard here at our website Ephemeral dot Show.
No Wait, Kingle Bill time is a swell time to
go gladden in the want horse Lane, Canny a Kingle
(33:47):
hard pick up, Jingle down the Car, the Kingle and
Jingle Bell jingle bell jing
Ephemeral production of I Heart three D audio for full exposure.
Listen with that phones. It's officially that time of year
when it's impossible to miss the decorations going up in
display windows, jingles trumpeting from department store speakers, and classic
(00:27):
Christmas specials dancing across the TV. Somewhere along the way,
you're almost guaranteed to run into a Rank and Bass production.
You know them, the retro stop animated sing alongs from
the nineties sixties, such as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
He's got a shiny nose. Shiny I'd even say in
(00:48):
glow Frosty the snow Man, Happy Birthday, that had brought
Frosty to life? It must be Magi or the Little
Drummer Boy, A Little Drummer Boy? Are those animals dancing
(01:09):
been in it? But what you maybe don't know is
that one man was responsible for creating and writing each
of those holiday favorites and many more. His name was
Romeo Mueller, and his impact on the modern myth of
Christmas is unparalleled. He was like a real Santa Claus,
(01:34):
and I became really close friends with his brother Jean,
who wanted to see his legacy live on, and I've
tried to do that in my books. I always donate
time to Romeo because he was the basis of every special.
You have to have good writing for these to have
(01:56):
the longevity that they have. My name is Rick Goldschmidt,
and I'm the official Ranking Bass historian biographer, and I've
written six books about Arthur Ranking and Jules Bass and
work on a lot of the projects associated with the
classic TV holiday specials like Brewed Up the Red Nose Reindeer,
(02:19):
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, the Little Drummer Boy, etcetera. Well.
Ranking Bass is primarily known for their iconic holiday specials.
They also produced a number of other influential works that
don't get mentioned as often. They're also known for the
hobbit I would speak with the King's Great does come
(02:48):
upon you all? An army of goblins with claim to
the Trasier comes from the north ThunderCats. I could probably
handle him myself, Yes, lionelh No, please call the other ThunderCats,
bunder thunder, bundercuts, silver Hawks like the moon Star shined
(03:14):
into my cell and you will be rewarded with wealth,
the odwealth our dead A monstar we know exactly what
will happen if you ever see the moon Star again.
A lot of Saturday morning television like the Jackson five Show.
I'm Michael Jackson and a couple of years ago near
(03:36):
my big brother Marlin, Jermaine, Tito and Jackie. It's kind
of square quite that home in Gary, Indiana. And one
day Mr Diana Ross herself came to town to sing
a concert and the Osmond Show. Jimmy, you know, mom
and Dad don't want you to do these late concerts. O. Hey,
(03:56):
we better take him back to the hotel. Yeah, but
we'll never get through that. Mama ends out there. And
some feature films like King Kong Escapes, Beat the Last Unicorn.
(04:17):
I tell you there is one unicorn neft in the world,
and as long as it lives in this forest, we'll
find no game to hunt here. Mad Monster Party. It's
a come as you are, a party that's out of
this world. You don't get invited if he'll get commented.
It's a psychedelic scaret. Who with the groove is Googles
(04:38):
of all kind. They were in business for about thirty
years and produced some of the most memorable, especially holiday entertainment,
which is still on the networks today. It's been over
fifty years, actually over fifty five years now, so they
(04:58):
have a longevity that most animation studios don't have. To
become a production company, Soul Biographer is no small undertaking.
We asked Rick what drew him to the Ranking Bass
Specials and what he loves about them. The thing that
attracted me to Ranking Bass was the look of everything,
(05:23):
because I'm an artist and illustrator, so first and foremost
for me, it was always the look of the puppets
and the look of the cell animation. As a musician,
I also loved the music of Maury Laws and the arrangements,
which are always so happy and upbeat, very holiday ish,
(05:47):
you know, with glockenspields and all kinds of fun accents
to their music. And Jules Bass wrote the lyrics to
all of the great songs like the Miser and Snow Miser.
Remember at check up, Frances, whatever, I poke one ft
(06:14):
in front of the other, one on in front of
the other, and soon you'll be walking across the floor.
There's a lot of classic Christmas songs that came out
of the Ranking Bass Specials as well, but for them
to last this long, you have to have good writing.
(06:36):
Most of the time, it was Romeo Mueller who wrote
with a lot of heart and warmth. Theater five has
presented Toby's Wonderful Egg, written by Romeo Muller, produced and
directed by Ted Bell. In the cast John McGovern, Betty
Guard Robert. Romeo Mueller had a storied career that made
him a perfect fit for ranking bass Well. Romeo Mueller
(07:00):
was a writer out of the New York area High Falls,
New York and wrote for a lot of the great
comedians of the early days of television, like Jack Benny.
I would like to tell you one Joe. This about
two drunks that were standing at a bar and one
(07:23):
drunk said to the other, you know where I got
for my wife the other day. The other drunk said, no,
what did you get for your wife the other day?
So the first drunk said, a poodle. So this other
drunk said, I wish I could make a trade like that.
That's the end of the job. And Red Scalton, I
(07:45):
think everybody's so nice here since I've been in town.
They can't seem to do enough for me. They gave
me a big car to drive around, a big rules Royce.
See my wife says, let me drive that thing. I
can stop it on a dime. She did. He also
wrote as who would have thought that kindly old Dr
Segwick was in reality a mad scientist. That's strictly off
(08:06):
the record. You understand at one print of thing, but
you said you'd worked out a plan to destroy Superman
Max Max Max Good Guys plan Bad Guy's ski. So
he had a great knowledge of how to put a
story together, and he was actually hired by Arthur Ranking
(08:27):
for the first ranking best television special Returned to Oz
total Do you remember Oz? That wonderful land? We went
too far, far away, halfway to yesterday and back. Returned
to Oz was like the first time that the Wizard
(08:50):
of Oz was revisited, that there was any type of
sequel to the original MGM movie, which was being shown
every year on television. So they thought that would be
a huge hit, you know, because of the longevity of
the Wizard of Us. But his second script was Rudolph
(09:12):
the Red Nose Reindeer. Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer had
a very shiny no and if you ever saw it,
you would even say a lot of people don't realize
that the story book written by Robert L. May and
the song written by his brother in law Johnny Marks,
(09:35):
just had basically a germ of a story. You know,
there was this reindeer with the red nose that everybody
made fun of it, and you know Santa asked him
to pull his sleve. That was it. So Romeo wrote
Hermi the Dentist. I just don't like to make toys.
(09:56):
Hermi doesn't like to make toys. Herb, he doesn't like
to make toys. Someday I'd like to be a dentist. Dentist,
you can't, Cornelius, you can fresh fit that away. Who
are you? Who am I? The names? You can't Cornelius
(10:18):
the greatest prospector in Lenore Island to misfit toys. I'm
the official center of the Island of misfit toys at
Jack in the Box or a center is. My name
is don't Jolly Jack, no Charlie. That's why I'm a
business toy. My name is all wrong. No child wants
(10:40):
to play with a Charlie in the box. So I
had to come here. And he based a lot of
the story off of friends and relatives he had a
friend that was named Clarice. Something wrong with your nose?
I mean, you talk kind of funny. What's the fudy
both way? I don't well, don't get I agree, I
(11:03):
don't mind you old. My name is Clarie Hi. My
ave Rudolph Hi. He had another friend that dreams stories
of a monster peeking over cliffs, like the bumble Shot.
(11:33):
So he put all of that into his scripts, and
he did it in such a way that it draws
you in. No matter how old you are, you could
be a little kid, you could be a grandparent. Everything
about it is heartwarming, and you just want to watch
these things over and over and over again. So eventually
(11:56):
he went on to write all of these other shows
which were basically based on a song like Santa Claus
has come into town. You better not woman, And then
(12:17):
he would come up with these backstories to the son.
In the case of Frosty the Snowman, he put in
Professor Inkle and so I put the magic eggs into
my hat aboca dab to coin the phrase at Wala,
the eggs have turned into miss miss missing. All these
(12:42):
things that we associate with the character came from the
mind of Romeo Muller, so in that regards, he was
a genius. He was like the Stan Lee of the
Ranking Bats universe. You know, he was the writer and
then the designer was Paul Cooker Jr. Most of the time,
(13:04):
who would have been the Jack Kirby of the Marvel universe.
So he was a really important ingredient in the whole
universe of Rank and Bass productions. There's no doubt that
(13:25):
Mueller is considered one of the first great writers of
family oriented television. We asked Rick what stylistic choices made
Mueller so iconic. The quintessential Mueller is the fact that
the main characters usually were the underdog. You know, they
either had something wrong with them, or they they felt
(13:49):
like they didn't fit in, or something that they had
to overcome to get to a happy ending. And the
villains usually were reformed, which is always more satisfying than
if they're just killed off. The villains, like the Winter Warlock,
(14:10):
would you know, see that they were wrong and find
a way to help and fit in. Shoot you, I've
always wanted funny. What's that my artsy heart? It's melting? Well?
(14:32):
Look Mr Warlock, please please call me Winter Winter. Yes, yes,
suddenly my whole outlook has changed from bad to good great.
You know, the people at Pixar early on when they
were a company before they were taken over by Disney,
(14:56):
they recognized that that was a more satisfy rying way
to tell a story than to kill off a villain,
and they mimicked the scripts of Romeo Muller and tried
to go for the look of the Ranking Bass productions.
So I think that's why the early Pixar films were
(15:17):
so successful is that they paid close attention to the script,
which doesn't happen today. Unfortunately, in today's modern entertainment, all
they care about is making money and it doesn't matter
how they make it. But Ranking Bass they were more
(15:37):
concerned about the quality of the project. That's why they
hired Romeo Muller and stuck with them for so long.
And Romeo was a lover of the classic comedies and
the classic films. He was a film buff, and he
knew what quality was from the love of the passion
(16:01):
he had for classic film and classic comedy. So it
really had that feel to it. You know, everything that
rankin Bass did, very few things were failures. They were
all high quality productions. With great stories, and you know,
Romeo was a big part of it. Romeo would say
(16:24):
that his favorite was The Little Drummer Boy. Well, the
Little Drummer Boy is basically the story of what Christmas
is all about. My lamb has been injured. You must
save him. He is near death. Oh Lad, there is
nothing I can do but but you are a king,
(16:46):
immortal king only. But there is a king among kings
who would save your little frightened the babe. But I
do not understand. He's not necessary that you understand. Go
to him, but I I have no gift to bring.
(17:11):
Look about the new Born Key. It doesn't get aired
as much today, but it had a magical quality to it.
I remember early on, when I was a little kid
and I went to C c D, they would tell
(17:33):
you to watch it, and I was always wanting to
watch it because we used to have little Nativity scenes
that we were given as gifts, so it was a
more common religious type special everybody knew that it was,
you know, the telling of what Christmas is all about,
but we've kind of lost that over the years. And
(17:56):
I think Romeo really liked Chris Us a lot, you know,
and since this was really the Telling of Christmas. That
would be his favorite special, and it's a lot of
people's favorite special. And what surprised me about it was
the song One Star in the Night was written by
(18:20):
Jules Bass and Maury Laws, and Maury told me that
it was some music that they had written prior to
the special, not particularly for the special. And when you
(18:44):
watch it, it seems like it's some kind of a
classic song that would have been written a hundred years
before that special. It has that quality to it that
it seems like a traditional Christmas song, but they actually
wrote it. Romeo Mueller is still best known for his
(19:08):
Rank and Bass contributions, but when he eventually moved on,
he continued to write on other beloved programs even after
Ranking Bass. He wrote Strawberry Shortcake, You're just in time.
Strawberry Shortcake and all her friends are getting ready for
their first annual garden Party, a celebration of the most
(19:32):
frequently delicious berries in the whole world. The Little Rascal's
Christmas Special. We all live up at the North Pole.
You believe it or not, these are roast ho ho ho.
This is just as well as Christmas. Ever. One of
his last films post Ranking Bass was called Noel, and
(19:56):
it was a special one. Not to mention my personal
childhood fa friend is Noel. And it came out in
the form of a kid's children's book and was about
an ornament. Here's a good spot for you, little fella.
(20:18):
I get it. What a neat idea. Hey, look at me.
It's been years since I watched it, but I know
that he went on radio, and he also went into
actual schools and told the story every Christmas. It was
like a tradition for him to tell the story of
(20:41):
Noel in the New York Hi Falls area. What's happening
now this it's become a thing called Christmas Eve, the
reason you were made and I was born. It feels
like magic. As Rick briefly mentioned, Mueller loved to read
(21:03):
his stories on radio, but he never voiced any of
his characters in the Rank and Bass specials. However, he
did appear in other places. I know he made a
cameo appearance in uh Marco, which is a NY three
movie starring Zero Mostel and Desi Arnez Jr. At the
(21:27):
beginning of the film, Desi Arnez is flying on a
kite in Romeo's running underneath in a costume yelling at
the kite. So it was kind of neat that he
made a little cameo in the movie. Romeo Mother's relationship
(22:01):
with Ranking Bass would get complicated after he left the company.
When Romeo branched out and started writing other shows for
other producers and other television things like The Little Rascal's
Christmas Special, he started talking about how he created the
(22:23):
Ranking Bass holiday specials, and for some reason that caused
a bit of friction with Arthur Ranking. He felt like
Romeo was taking too much credit and there was sort
of a fallout with Ranking Bass Productions. But when I
wrote my first book, The Enchanted World of Ranking Bass,
(22:46):
and early on when I contacted Arthur Ranking, he had
called me right after he went to Romeo's memorial, and
I think they patched things up before where he passed.
He was an important person to Arthur on a personal
level too. But as you worked with someone for a
(23:09):
long time, you know like you could have a falling
out at some point, and that's what happened. Romeo Moller
died on Wednesday, leaving behind an unfinished film project. It
was called The Twelve Days of Christmas. One Partridge two
(23:32):
Turtle Doves, three French Hands, four Calling Birds, five Golden Rings,
six Gisa Lang, seven Swansea, Swimming by My Sword, Princess
silver Bell has some strange desires. And there was some
business partner involved with that, and that was released, and
that caused a lot of friction between his brother Jean
(23:56):
and the producer of that, and they never got their
money from it either. So it was like a kind
of a bad ending to what was always a very
positive life for Romeo. By the time Rick started writing
about Rank and Bass, Mueller had already passed away, but
(24:17):
Rick did get to meet Romeo's brother, Jeane Muller. I
wish I could have talked to Romeo, but I was
glad I developed the friendship with Jean. Jean gave me everything.
He gave me romeo scrapbooks, he gave me all the
records that he had. He really opened up Romeo's archives
(24:38):
to me when I wrote my books, So I'm grateful
for that. Throughout his many books, Rick has painted a
vivid picture of Romeo Mueller's life and the greater impact
he had on storytelling in America. We asked Rick what
he sees as Mueller's greatest legacy overall, Romyo created classic television,
(25:03):
but it goes beyond that. It's become part of the
Christmas Holiday or the Easter Holiday or whatever holiday the
specials were written for. We're only talking about a few
Christmas specials in this day and age. The only ones
that have survived besides the Rank and Best holiday specials
(25:28):
that Romeo wrote are How the Grinch Stole Christmas and
Charlie Brown Christmas, and that's basically it. And Rank and
Bass Productions holds more of that pie because they were
successful with several television specials and all of them were
written by Romeo. So when you look at the grand
(25:52):
scheme of the entertainment industry over the last seventy five years,
we're still talking about out Rootolph the Red Nose Reindeer
and Frosty the Snowman. There's several Ranking Bass specials that
Romeo wrote that our favorites of everyone's. And what you
(26:14):
see happening now is a MC has a weekend marathon
of the specials, and so does free Form Television, and
then they're still on the networks. So you're seeing more
exposure of them over time, and I'm sure they'll be
streaming and Blu ray and DVDs will be getting better hopefully. So,
(26:40):
I mean there's a big market of the holiday stuff
and most of it is what Romeo wrote one special
treat for our listeners. In Atlanta, the Center for Puppetry
Arts has a new exhibit featuring the puppets from the
Ranking Bass specials, well sort of the Santa and Rootolph
(27:04):
puppet that they have, which actually I helped to restore
and I also appeared with them for several years. They're
not the ones that were used in the Ranking Best
Rootolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Special. What they were created
for was for publicity purposes. So in other words, they
(27:26):
created a set of puppets that they sent from Japan
to New York so that they could take the publicity
photos for the NBC Holiday General Electric Theater. What they
did was they stuck them in a glass case at
NBC in the Rockefeller Center in New York, and they
(27:51):
had them there for several years, and a lot of
people remember seeing them, whether they were on school trips
or just taking a tour of NBC. But to this day,
I haven't found a photo of that display, so I
don't know exactly what puppets were in there, but I
(28:11):
have a feeling they're the ones that were only featured
in the publicity photos, and there was only a handful
of those. All of these puppets have had some wild adventures,
being passed around over the years without much of a record.
All in all, the publicity puppets are lucky to have survived,
(28:32):
and there's a wild story behind the fate of the
puppets used on screen. I know everyone involved with these
two particular puppets. I know Barbara Adams who was the
secretary that took him home, and then she gaven to
her nephew, and some of them were in the attic
(28:52):
and got you know, melted together, and they had to
get rid of them because they were no good anymore.
So Santa and Rudolph were the only two that survived
out of that batch. And I know the people that
bought them from the nephew, and I helped restore them.
Like I said, I know the people that restored them.
(29:14):
So these two puppets have a history, But the really
interesting history are the ones that were used in the
actual specials. Some of them are in in the US.
I used to own two from the first Christmas. You know,
I had all their eyes and mouths and you could
(29:36):
tell they were the actual puppets that were used in
the animation. But most of the state in Japan they
still have King Kong it from Mad Monster Party in
this tad Moshinaga exhibit, and they have other puppets like
from Willie McBean and his Magic Machine, and all kinds
(29:58):
of Rear Rank and Bass puppets. I would say of
the puppets stayed in Japan, and five percent came to
the States for one reason or another. Arthur rankin want
and to give to somebody or just to put in
the office. And those are the ones that that I've
(30:20):
appeared with, like I've appeared with Red Skelton from Rudolph's
Shiny New Year. Father Time for the passing of time
is all inspiring. It's the one certain thing in all
the universe. In a way, it's like an old king
stepping down and a new one taking its place. Smokey
(30:42):
the Bear from the Ballot of Smokey the Bear. Smoke
He started up by being just a normal bear, young
and happy playing games. He never had a care Mamma
used to worry. That is friendly trusting way would get
him into trouble. So she said to me one day
and big Bear, she said, knowledge's anny young Fred, so
try to keep an eye on him. He needed brother band.
(31:04):
When I said, Mom, don't worry. God believe it all
to me. I never thought our simple life would change.
So suddenly I've had him at shows. So there's only
a few that are in the US, but most of
them are in Japan. Still, you can find a selection
of surviving puppets now at the Center for Puppetry Arts.
(31:27):
Rick says he hopes the exhibit will help keep the
spirit of the Ranking Bass Specials alive for years to come. See.
The focus at the museum over the years has been
on Rudolph. They do a puppet show every year like
a marionette show. That's been successful for them for a
(31:47):
long time. So the focus is just done Rudolph, not
so much the enchanted world of Ranking Bass, but Rudolph
the Red Nosed Reindeer. Ranked in Bass is route up
the Nose Reindeer. And they only have the two puppets.
But I think they're gonna make a nice display with
(32:08):
the images that I gave them and the actual history
of them. You know, all the puppets need to be
in museum so everyone can see them. They shouldn't be
in at any private collection in my opinion, and I'm
probably one of the biggest private collectors there is, and
I have a lot of things. My home home is
(32:30):
a museum, but I think things like this, you know,
Puppets Center from Iconic TV specials should be in a
museum and I'm I'm glad the Center for Puppetry Arts
has them. Jingle, Ingle Ingle. This episode of Ephemeral was
(33:03):
written and assembled by Trevor Young, produced with Max and
Alex Williams, and is dedicated to Romeo Maller. Rick Goldschmidt
is the official biographer of Frank and Bass and you
can find all of his books online or keep up
with him at Rank and Bass dot com. And we
implore you to check out the new Routolph exhibit at
(33:24):
the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. Find more in
everything you heard here at our website Ephemeral dot Show.
No Wait, Kingle Bill time is a swell time to
go gladden in the want horse Lane, Canny a Kingle
(33:47):
hard pick up, Jingle down the Car, the Kingle and
Jingle Bell jingle bell jing
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Alex Williams
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