Movie Ad of the Week: MR. MAGOO'S HOLIDAY FESTIVAL (1972)

Before HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS, before A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS, and even before RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, there was MR. MAGOO'S CHRISTMAS CAROL, the first animated holiday special made for television, which NBC premiered in the 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. time slot on December 18, 1962. The popularity of this musical Christmas classic (with songs by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill) encouraged United Productions of America (UPA) to develop the prime time animated series THE FAMOUS ADVENTURES OF MR. MAGOO, which debuted on NBC in September of 1964. Six years later, former UPA sales manager Mel Maron was running his own distribution company, Maron Films Ltd., and one of his earliest successes was MR. MAGOO'S HOLIDAY FESTIVAL, a kiddie matinee program consisting of MR. MAGOO'S CHRISTMAS CAROL and a re-edit of LITTLE SNOW WHITE, originally a two-part episode of THE FAMOUS ADVENTURES OF MR. MAGOO that aired on January 2 and 9, 1965. According to the ad above, AIP was handling the release of MR. MAGOO'S HOLIDAY FESTIVAL when it played matinees in the New York tri-state area on December 2 and 3, 1972. Maron brought this G-rated program back to New York screens a few years later when he was the head of Cinema Shares.