Burl Ives - "Holly Jolly Christmas" (1965)

"Happy Holidays" to all my viewers & subscribers. I'd like to say "Thank You" to all for your comments and support. You've made what I do here worth the effort. I really do appreciate it!

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 -- April 14, 1995) was an American actor, writer and folk music singer.

Ives was born in 1909 near Hunt City, an unincorporated town in Jasper County, Illinois, the son of Levi "Frank" Ives (1880--1947) and Cordelia "Dellie" White (1882--1954). He had six siblings: Audry, Artie, Clarence, Argola, Lillburn, and Norma. His father was at first a farmer and then a contractor for the county and others. One day Ives was singing in the garden with his mother, and his uncle overheard them. He invited his nephew to sing at the old soldiers' reunion in Hunt City. The boy performed a rendition of the folk ballad "Barbara Allen" and impressed both his uncle and the audience.

Ives had a long-standing relationship with the Boy Scouts of America. He was a Lone Scout before that group merged with the Boy Scouts of America in 1924. The collection of his papers at the New York Library for the Performing Arts includes a photograph of Ives being "inducted" into the Boy Scouts in 1966.Ives received the organization's Silver Buffalo Award, its highest honor. The certificate for the award is hanging on the wall of the Scouting Museum in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Ives often performed at the quadrennial Boy Scouts of America jamboree, including the 1981 jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, where he shared the stage with the Oak Ridge Boys.

From 1927-29, Ives attended Eastern Illinois State Teachers College (now Eastern Illinois University) in Charleston, Illinois, where he played football. During his junior year, he was sitting in English class, listening to a lecture on Beowulf, when he suddenly realized he was wasting his time. As he walked out the door, the professor made a snide remark, and Ives slammed the door behind him. Sixty years later, the school named a building after its most famous dropout. Ives was also involved in Freemasonry from 1927 onward.

On July 23, 1929 in Richmond, Indiana, Ives did a trial recording of "Behind the Clouds" for the Starr Piano Company's Gennett label, but the recording was rejected and destroyed a few weeks later.

In the 1960s Ives began singing country music with greater frequency. In 1962 he released three songs that were popular with both country music and popular music fans: "A Little Bitty Tear", "Call Me Mister In-Between", and "Funny Way of Laughing".

Ives had several film and television roles during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1962 he starred with Rock Hudson in The Spiral Road, which was based on a novel of the same name by Jan de Hartog. In 1964, he played the genie in the movie The Brass Bottle with Tony Randall and Barbara Eden. Also in 1964, Ives played the narrator, Sam the Snowman, in the Rankin-Bass stop-motion animated television special, Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The yearly rebroadcast of the popular seasonal television special has forever linked Ives to the Christmas season.

Ives performed in other television productions, including Pinocchio and Roots. He starred in two television series: O.K. Crackerby! (1965--66) and The Bold Ones: The Lawyers (1969--72). O.K. Crackerby!, which was about the presumed richest man in the world, replaced Walter Brennan's somewhat similar The Tycoon on the ABC schedule from the preceding year. Ives occasionally starred in macabre-themed productions. In 1970, for example, he played the title role in "The Man Who Wanted to Live Forever," in which his character attempts to harvest human organs from unwilling donors. In 1972, he appeared as old man Doubleday in the episode "The Other Way Out" of Rod Serling's Night Gallery, in which his character seeks a gruesome revenge for the murder of his granddaughter.

Ives and Helen Peck Ehrlich were divorced in February 1971. Ives then married Dorothy Koster Paul in London two months later. In their later years, Ives and Dorothy lived in a waterfront home in Anacortes, in the Puget Sound area. In the 1960s, he also had another home just south of Hope Town on Elbow Cay, a barrier island of the Abacos in the Bahamas.

In honor of Ives's influence on American vocal music, on October 25, 1975, he was awarded the University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit. This award, initiated in 1964, was "established to bring a declaration of appreciation to an individual each year who has made a significant contribution to the world of music and helped to create a climate in which our talents may find valid expression."

Ives died of complications of mouth cancer on April 14, 1995 and is interred in Mound Cemetery in Hunt City Township, Jasper County, Illinois.

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[coashddjj2]

Oh man, does it get any better than this? BEAUTIFUL video. You made a serious Christmas lover believe it was December 25th in the middle of July -- thank you.

[anitashelby]

Ohh I Just Love, Love Song & As Always A Fabulous Vid!!! You Just Put A Big Smile On My Face!!!! It's One Of My Favorites!!! "Merry Christmas Joe"...Anita..:)

[unicoooooooooooooorn]

its february and im listening

[TheLadyjazzy1]

Miss you Ma!!

[ShadowsGathered]

Nobody sings it like Burl Ives! :-)

[ThatMovieGuy55]

Christmas is here!

[modernhalo999]

4 days 10 hours and 7 minutes til christmas

[CuteCatFaith]

I recall knowing someone from Queens, New York who had Ives as a neighbor around there. Said he was nice, quiet, agreeable. I could have this wrong, perhaps he only lived there awhile. Anyway, I am glad there was no negative gossip, just that he was a good neighbor! As a girl in Ohio in the '60s, I thought the animated cartoon was so cool, and later I learned more about the recordings of Ives. Top stuff! Thank you for this.

[vellathewench]

This is the best Christmas song ever! Best sung by Burl Ives!

[JOLENE2008]

my fav

[queeniese]

This makes Christmas official.

[Nickie0016]

THE BEST!!!!!