Unsilent Night

Radio and TV men confidently expect this to be the biggest and loudest Christmas in the history of broadcasting. The Yuletide will resound with Silent Night sung by stars ranging from the Metropolitan Opera's Eleanor Steber to Julius La Rosa and played by orchestras as diverse as the New York Philharmonic-Symphony and Whitey Berquist's hillbilly Homesteaders. Christmas carols in English and eight other languages will pour from the throats of dozens of choirs from colleges (Vassar, Augustana, Hamilton, Bowling Green State), churches (Salt Lake Tabernacle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Manhattan's Trinity), industries (General Motors, Texaco, Hotpoint, Burlington Mills) and other lyrical groups, including Boys Town, Kansas City's 280-voice Messiah Choir and the choruses of Keesler Air Force Base and Norfolk Naval Base.

Yuletide Backgrounds. Bob Crosby will sing both Rock of Ages and Sioux City Sue, while Brother Bing appears with Louella Parsons for the tenth year in a row to sing Adeste Fideles. Fred Waring gives his fifth annual Christmas Party; Hallmark Hall of Fame offers the fourth production of Gian-Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, and all seven of the top tunes on Your Hit Parade are to be cunningly placed in Yuletide backgrounds. Singers will tie into such favorites as White Christmas, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, and Jingle Bells. The song pluggers are hotly pushing such potential new hits as I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas and There's No Christmas Like a Home Christmas.

There will be at least six Scrooges starring in as many versions of Dickens' A Christmas Carol: Lionel Barrymore (for the 17th time), Alec Guinness, Edmund Gwenn, Sir Laurence Olivier, Noel Leslie and Ronald Colman. On TV's Topper, Actress Lee Patrick will read A Christmas Carol to Leo G. Carroll. All the networks will carry the tree-lighting ceremony at the White House; most of them will broadcast Queen Elizabeth's Yuletide greetings. For the 14th time, Amos 'n' Andy will retell the Lord's Prayer; Helen Hayes reads a Christmas poem on Omnibus; Ed Murrow spends Christmas in Korea, and the Joyful Hour returns for the seventh year.

On the Comedy Hour, Donald O'Connor will tell a Christmas story with the help of the "Rose Bowl Queen and her court of beautiful ladies," and Garry Moore will enliven his Christmas entertainment by featuring "Zippy, a lovable chimpanzee." Gene Autry intends to give "the cowboy's version of the story of the nativity," and Wild Bill Hickok rides The Santa Claus Trail. Zoo Parade's Marlin Perkins will read a Christmas story to some of his tamer animals grouped about a Christmas tree.

Jolly Tie-Ins. The Big Top's sponsor, Sealtest, will omit its commercials in deference to the Christmas spirit, while sponsors Pabst and Gillette are graciously substituting variety shows for their boxing bouts during Christmas week. The Night Before Christmas will be on Let's Pretend for the 15th straight year, and The Greatest Story Ever Told features No Room at the Inn for the seventh time.

Most of the dramatic shows are out to wring the last drop of sentiment from the last branch of mistletoe. Danger tells of "a conflict between an emotional boy of the streets and a department-store Santa Claus"; Playhouse of Stars points a moral with its tale of "two mixed-up people who find out that Christmas is more than just a lot of extra work." Life With Father, My Friend Irma, the Jack Benny Show, Our Miss Brooks, My Little Margie,

Dragnet and just about everything else are similarly provided with timely Christmas-plot gimmicks. Only a few scattered individualists--notably, the U.S. Steel Hour and I Love Lucy--are resisting the Christmas tie-in. The only non-jolly note is supplied by CBS Radio; its hour-long documentary, Dead Stop, deals with traffic accidents and is intended as a sober warning to holiday motorists fleeing their radio and TV sets.

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