Did you know?
Before I go any further — Merry Christmas!
And while I’m at it — Joyeux Noel. (French)
And I shouldn’t forget — Meli Kalikama. (Hawaiian)
And for those of you who can speak Lithuanian — Linksmir Kaledu!
I’m not a linguist. But I do know that if you’d like to extend yuletide greetings to the people of Greece, you simply say, “Kala Christougenna.”
I learned all of this by taking a look at the front page of the Uniontown Evening Standard for Christmas Eve in 1957.
On that day, there was an item about the 23 ways you can say Merry Christmas around the world.
So, if you plan to visit, say, China during the holiday season next year, where there are an estimated 54 million Christians, you might take this with you. “Ye Dan Kuai Le,” which is “Merry Christmas” in Chinese.
On that same front page, on Dec. 24, 1957, it was reported that one Uniontown resident may have had an extra special Christmas that year.
It seems, that a local amateur magician had been entertaining a group of young people on East Main Street by playing “now you see it, now you don’t,” when a near disaster struck.
He’d shown the kids a dime, and then he pretended to rub his hands together, while he employed some sleight-of-hand. He’d actually slipped the dime into his mouth.
Of course, when he showed his young audience members his hands, the dime was (not so) mysteriously gone.
What the magician didn’t know was that the dime didn’t stay in his mouth, and under his tongue, as it always had.
He thought he’d swallowed it.
But weeks went by, and he suddenly got sharp pains in his chest.
He was taken to Uniontown Hospital, where an X-ray revealed that the dime had lodged itself in his chest.
Doctors immediately operated on the man, and, with some effort, surgically removed the misplaced dime.
The report said that the man vowed that after he recovered, he would only entertain the local children with the activity known as “button, button, who’s got the button.”
“District’s Own Star Home For the Holidays,” was one of the Evening Standard’s front-page headlines on Dec. 24, 1954.
That headline accompanied a story about holiday visit by Smithton’s own (she was actually born in Charleroi) Shirley Jones.
She’d recently completed work on the motion picture version of Rogers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma.”
Above the story, there was a picture of the broadly smiling Jones, as she got a “welcome home” kiss on the cheek from her uncle Stoney Jones, the owner of Stoney Brewing Company of Smithton.
That day, on Christmas Eve of 1954, it was announced that the Manos Theatre in Uniontown was about to have the “Merriest Christmas Shows” starting that day.
I’d agree that one of those shows could be considered “merry.” Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and Zsa Zsa Gabor would be appearing on screen in the comedy “3 Ring Circus.” But I’m not sure how “merry” the other full-length feature was.
“Sign of the Pagan,” starring Jeff Chandler and Jack Palance was the other half of that Manos Theatre double-bill. That was the story of Attila the Hun.
Two Christmas Eves later, on Dec. 24, 1956, 22-year-old local favorite Shirley Jones was pictured on the front page of the Evening Standard again.
This time, her picture was beside a picture of another rising young star — Carroll Baker — who was originally from Carpentertown, near Mount Pleasant.
Baker had recently co-starred in the upcoming blockbuster “Giant,” with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean.
That movie was scheduled to open at the State Theater in Uniontown that Sunday.
Baker’s film career, which began in 1953, would include other notable films like “How the West Was Won,” “The Carpetbaggers” and even 1990’s “Kindergarten Cop,” before she retired in 2003.
She received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress for the portrayal of the title character (Baby Doll Meighan) in the 1956 movie “Baby Doll.”
It was noted in the article about the two up-and-coming district stars, that it wasn’t long after Shirley Jones appeared as a singer at an Evening Standard Junior Reporter Club event at the Ivory Ballroom in Uniontown that she stepped onto a soundstage in Arizona as part of the cast in “Oklahoma.”
In 1956, she would be billed as the second lead in the Rogers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel,” opposite Gordon MacRae.
She would go on to star in 33 films, and in 28 television shows.
But, of course, she is best known for her portrayal of Shirley Partridge in the ABC musical comedy “The Partridge Family,” which aired on the ABC Television Network from 1970 until 1974.
She would be nominated for Golden Globe Awards for Best TV Actress in a Musical/Comedy in both 1971 and 1972.
Once again, Merry Christmas, or should I say, “Genogelyke Kerstyd,” (Dutch).