Ghost Town (1988)

 

The Perry Como Christmas Special – Live in San Antonio (1986)

    For Perry Como it had been 27 years since The Hollywood Palace. This was the last of his yearly Christmas specials. He intended to do one in 1987 but ABC offered him a time-slot he was unhappy with so he turned it down. He continued to tour and shot a final Christmas special in Dublin that aired on PBS in 1994. He died in 2001 at the age of 88. I’m sure it made the news but I don’t recall,

    The special aired on Saturday, December 6^th, 1986. Guests included Angie Dickinson, George Strait, and stage actress and singer Julia Migenes, as well as the local orchestra and military bands and mayor of San Antonio Henry Cisneros. Cisneros was the first Hispanic mayor of San Antonio since 1842 and the second ever of a major US city. He was heavily involved in bolstering the tourism industry for the city which undoubtedly played a part in bring Como to the town. He was heavily involved in revitalizing the town and specifically offering assistance to the sizable Hispanic population which had been traditionally under-served.

    At the time of the special roughly half of the population of San Antonio was Hispanic and this is reflected in the special itself. This is also helped by the fact that the city was heavily Catholic which nicely dovetailed with Como’s penchant for explicitly Catholic imagery and songs. Several of the songs are in Spanish and the standout section of the special is a depiction of Las Posadas, the Hispanic version of the travails of Mary and Joseph in finding lodging to give birth to Jesus.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 1993 - 1997

    We open with a couple of worryingly tacky shots where the border of the frame is surrounded by what seems to be a very cheap Christmas wreath. We start where we end, with Como on stage in San Antonio before a packed and older crowd. He croons “Joy to the World” before breaking very briefly into “Deep in the Heart of Texas” and the introductory credits roll. After the commercial Como joins Angie Dickinson in front of a very prominent sign for the Hyatt Regency. On the flimsiest of excuses they exit the hotel and make their way through the downtown shopping section, admiring the river walk along the banks of the San Antonio river. They very unconvincingly interact with a street Santa who for utterly unclear reasons falls into the river and is later revealed to be the aforementioned real life mayor of San Antonio, so he was at least hustling for that tourism money. They sing a duet before Como just directly throws to a performance of “Gypsy Song” by Julia Migenes. It’s very likely a previous special featured an opera-style singer but it’s a rather jarring shift from the quiet-voiced Como.

Why yes, I like Kate Bush, why do you ask?

    After some light banter we transition to glasses wearing grandpa Como again as he introduces a military choir who do their number intercut with a group of families happily enjoying a day out. Como doesn’t do subtlety outside of musical phrasing. Then it’s over to the local mission where they’re holding the annual Blessing of the Pets. So we get some cute bunnies to look at, which is nice.

    This is cheating I have to mention this: there is a very brief shot of a blindfolded boy swinging at a pinata. This is only notable because he’s actually listed by name in the special on IMDB as ‘Pinata Church Boy.’ This just has to be the work of the pinata boy himself, Mark Cantu, who among other roles played the part of ‘House Zombie’ in 2009’s “Doctor S Battles the Sex Crazed Reefer Zombies: The Movie,” a title that is trying far too hard. So once again, the people of San Antonio showing some hustle.

    After the pets are suitably blessed Como and company make their way to a nearby church where a little girl sings just terribly and Como breaks out ‘Ave Maria’ again. In a ... strange decision after showing Julia Migenes as part of the choir she starts appearing as a ghostly apparition over Como’s shoulder as he sings. I have no idea what they think they’re doing.

She looks just as spooked about this as we are.

    A horse-drawn carriage takes the group to meet the mayor who admits he was the Santa that got dropped in the river. I’m pretty sure he could have kept that a secret but ok. The audience is then treated to a rendition of “When it’s Christmas Time in Texas” by George Strait. I’d accuse him of just wanting to plug his latest album but he was putting out one a year at that point so any appearance around that time could have plausibly been plugging an album. There’s some banter afterwards and some hat-based jokes.

Apparent humor.

    We’re then shown a depiction of Las Posadas and it’s really rather nice, all candle-holding crowds lining the San Antonio River as two children playing Joseph and Mary walk along trying to find a place to stay. You almost don’t mind that it goes on for a full five and a half minutes. After another commercial break we end where we started with Como on stage before the San Antonio crown running through a medley of Christmas songs for the last fifteen minutes of the special. He tops it off with “O Holy Night” and one last simple, “From all of us to all of you we wish you a very merry Christmas. Good night.”

    And for Perry Como that was was pretty much it. He would still tour for a number of years and released some more albums, he appeared on tv another handful of times before that final Dublin concert but his years of being a national figure were done. By all accounts he was content with this, accepting he was no longer hip and cool and happy to play to the same demographic aging along with him.

    This was by far the slightest of the specials I’ve looked at and it can hardly be a surprise. I knew it was his last going in. He was 74 in 1986. Bing Crosby had passed in 1977. Dean Martin was still around and still touring although he would eventually retire in 1990 and manage to outlive Como by a year, passing in 1995. Sinatra was going through something of a resurgence and in the early 90’s would record his ‘Duets’ albums, the highest selling hits of his career. He passed in 1998.

    Como seemed content to just quietly do minor tours and live his life. He was still the same soft-spoken, pleasant man, time seems not to have made him bitter or angry, perhaps just wistful. I’m not going to go so far as to say I enjoyed my time with him or developed a newfound respect for his talents but I at least understand the appeal now. Not so much for his early, crooner days when he was a teen heartthrob, nor his swinging-60’s adjacent persona where he was in the same room as the movers and shakers but not quite one of them, but I can see how if you grew up with Como as a constant having him still on the television and going to the occasional concert could have been something of a comfort in later years. I’d assumed going into all this that Como would be an easy place to start because of his goody-two-shoes persona and watching it work against him in a variety show format but he kind of rose above the material. I have a sneaking suspicion that by the end of this I’m going to look back at these specials with a certain amount of fondness. He at least seemed, all the way to the end, a class act.