My Mom called me to tell me they are still not telling the truth about Rudolph and Santa on Antiques Roadshow. Shameful.

Weekend

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer publicity puppets

C. 2001 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives

I contacted Masaki Iizuka and he said, “Ichiro Komuro (known as Pinchan to Arthur) and Kyoto Kita created a separate puppet set at the request of Arthur Rankin Jr., that had to be flown to New York quickly for publicity photographs for the network. These photographs were used for regional TV Guide covers, articles, Burl Ives and Johnny Marks publicity shots, the Decca album cover, GE Ads, etc. They were never used for any of the actual animation, which was still in full production all the way up to shortly before the December 6, 1964 airing. These same puppets were leant to NBC and they put them on display in a case, at their Rockefeller Plaza studio, in New York. Eventually they were given back to Rankin/Bass Productions and Barbara eventually was gifted them.”

 

 

Thanks to the great response to my ReMinda magazine article today! It was #1 in shares and likes!

Mid-Ohio con panel 2007 https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/2403/rankin-bass-puppets-santa-rudolph/

Rudolph and Santa Publicity puppets as they appear todeay

Brookfield Zoo 2007

Kevin and I with the Publicity puppets Thanksgiving day 2006
 

Here is the link to my latest Rankin/Bass Productions article!

https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/2403/rankin-bass-puppets-santa-rudolph/

 

I am told there was some really bad info given out about these Animagic figures on Antiques Roadshow, in regards to value. I am not surprised at all. several people also told me they relied heavily on my book with no credit, not surprised there either. They really goofed on the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer puppets. Then they interviewed me several times about them and chose to relay none of the accurate info. Giving a false impression of what they were. Sadly, this is all so typical today. Act like your an expert and supply a false narrative. It gets more hits on social media and more views.

 

As I stated above, PBS' Antiques Roadshow chooses a narrative over factual information.   This is a problem when focusing on historical objects.   Pulling a willy nilly value out of a hat is not right.   I remember the very first time they aired Santa Claus and Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, they said the pair were worth $5000-6000.   They updated it several times since then and of course, that was way under the market price.   What is disturbing, is that they still haven't disclosed all of the information I gave them over several interviews.   I have been the Rankin/Bass Historian for over thirty years now, but they don't want to relay the truth.   They want social media hits and views.   Unfortunately, this is the world we live in now.   I know what The Daydreamer Animagic figures have sold for.   Screen-Novelties owns The Little Mermaid and The Sea Witch.  The film is not very well known, even with all of my work on the book, blu ray, DVD, and CD Soundtrack releases.   The more popular TV Specials and films would command a high price and the lesser known, command a low price.   This isn't how Antiques Roadshow appraises things.  In fact, they did the opposite on both Rudolph and The Daydreamer set.   I owned figures from The First (White) Christmas, so I know what they sold for.  Yet, AR buys my book (This is the only one they bought from me) and wings it.   

The Santa and Rudolph puppets, that were in the actual TV special, are in Japan! My son said he saw the you tube videos from Antiques Roadshow and restoring the puppets...let's just say they are not truthful to create a narrative. I have written about this several times in the last year and done many interviews.

It has been twenty years since the release of my Rudolph book! I wanted to re-clarify some things about the Rudolph and Santa Animagic figures!

 My book has been out for twenty years now!   All of my updates on Rudolph have either been in my other 5 Rankin/Bass hardcover books or in my articles in RetroFan magazine (Big Rudolph article last Christmas and a Mad Monster Party article in October 2021 with Rudolph update).   I assisted with both the auction of the Rudolph and Santa Animagic figures in November of 2020 and the display of the figures at the Center for Puppetry arts November 2021.   I have seen some clips from Antiques Roadshow and their Podcast which are very misleading.   They interviewed me for both, but failed to disclose that these figures are NOT the ones used in the actual animation of the TV Special.    They are the publicity used Animagic figures for photos and the NBC Display at the Rockefeller Plaza in NY.   Tad Mochinaga and his staff hung onto the puppets used in the actual animation and you can see pictures in both my book on The Making of Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town and The Daydreamer, and also Rankin/Bass' Frosty the Snowman 50th Anniversary scrapbook.   You can clearly see Santa's beard is shorter and decaying in the lines in the beard where Santa's mouth moved in the special, unlike the Santa beard on the one in the Center for Puppetry arts (Which is larger and rounder as in the publicity photos).   I made this discovery last Christmas and wrote about it and also did interviews about it, but apparently "Production used" or "Screen used" sounds better to some producers, so they mislead a bit.

lots of untruths knowingly being published on the internet recently about the two Animagic figures at the Center for Puppetry Arts. I guess I will have to publish another update here shortly...

PBS' ANTIQUES ROADSHOW was Very Disappointing!

I am so sorry I told Rankin/Bass Productions fans to tune into PBS' ANTIQUES ROADSHOW tonight, because the piece that I saw, created a false narrative to what the Producers wanted you to believe.   I did multiple interviews for this show over the past year, so they can't say "We didn't know."  They even asked me to clarify on a few occasions, which I did.  In fact, they went out of their way to take the facts I relayed to them out of this segment.  At one point I got an email from someone that worked there, asking to order my book The Making of Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town and The Daydreamer directly from me, instead of our website?   They never ended up ordering?!

 

In the segment, they called them "Production puppets" and "Screen used puppets" and they are neither.  I explain in my RetroFan Magazine article in issue #17 out October 13th, 2021 and I explained to Antiques Roadshow, the screen used puppets, more correctly called Animagic figures, stayed in Japan and many remained in the collection of head animator Tad Mochinaga.   You can see these photos in my book on Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and our Frosty the Snowman 50th Anniversary Scrapbook.   The Animagic figure of Santa in the TV Special had a smaller beard and lines in the beard that moved as his mouth did (Which you can clearly see in my book photos).  The publicity photo Santa has a much bigger and rounder beard, with no allowances for mouth movement.

 

The Animagic figures that appeared on Antiques Roadshow and were so badly appraised right from the start, were the Publicity only figures.   They were used for Publicity photos in New York and then they were put on display at NBC-TV in the Rockefeller Plaza for a short number of years.

 

While this host talked about his personal connection to the Animagic figures, I heard from the seller before Antiques Roadshow.   Then I appeared with the figures, after my friend Kevin Kriess bought them at many conventions and on television (2006-2009).  I helped coordinate the restoral with my friends Mark Caballero and Seamus and Robin Walsh at Screen-Novelties prior.  Kevin sold them to another friend of mine, Peter Lutrario.   I worked on the catalog for the 2020 auction,

through Profiles In History and I also worked on the exhibit at the Center For Puppetry Arts for this Holiday season.  This is the 20th Anniversary for my book The Making of the Rankin/Bass Holiday Classic:  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

    It was really disappointing to see this sort of fluff piece, after giving PBS, Antiques Roadshow and Detours so much of my time and the history of the figures!   I would never do an interview for them again... and again, I am sorry I promoted it originally!

20 years!!!!

 

Monday 8 pm Central time

 

Correction:  8 pm Central time:  I haven't seen the segment yet, but I am assuming they are using my updated information I relayed to them a few times now.   I also did a Zoom interview for the show last Fall!  They did a rotten job!   See my article above for information. 

Twenty years ago, a loaded semi Truck pulled into Tinley Park, IL and unloaded thousands of my Making of Rudolph books to my Dad and my friend Dennis Riordan! Dennis went and bought wood to make ramps to get the books into the basement 😁 Those books are long gone now, but I still keep it in-print in hardcover with an updated cover at www.miserbros.com #rudolphtherednosedreindeer #twentiethanniversary #rankinbassproductions

Monday night at 7 pm Central on PBS

It looks like the Antiques Roadshow update I was interviewed for, airs Monday night:  https://fb.watch/8nHtNo7ugi/

 

Order early! Inflation is driving everything up!

 

I helped with an Antiques Roadshow piece that is supposed to air in October on these two...

Make sure you order issue #17 of Retro Fan magazine! My Mad Monster Party article will be in this issue with a few updates on various Rankin/Bass specials!

 Available October 13th, 2021!

I am doing a follow up interview with Antiques Roadshow tomorrow, on the world's most famous Reindeer From the Enchanted world of Rankin/Bass! I hope to return to the Golden Glow convention, when they return to Chicago in 2022, to talk about him there again as well! #christmasinjuly #rankinbassproductions #Rudolphtherednosedreindeer

I ordered a Halloween mask three months ago from Trick or Treat..for Halloween! UPS delayed shipment twice and now says it is coming Monday? I look at their online ratings and they have one star 🤣 Pretty poor service. On a lighter note, a Producer from Antiques Roadshow wants to interview me for his podcast show Detours tonight (I guess it will be used for TV too..as we are doing camera) about Rudolph and Santa 🎅 #friday