The Mormon Tabernacle Choir presents a program of traditional Christmas music filmed in Salt Lake City, Utah, in December 2001.

In November 1939, NBC's fledgling television station W2XBS broadcast the first known holiday special, The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Despite its small viewership (very few TV sets existed at the time), the experimental telecast was a harbinger of a now-beloved American tradition: the holiday television special. This book offers a thorough account of holiday television specials in the United States from 1939 to 2021, highlighting variety shows, comedic performances, musical spectaculars and more. From familiar favorites (1964's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) to campy one-offs (1985's He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special), the 1140 programs are covered alphabetically and feature performance casts, production credits and storylines for each. Three appendices cover "lost" holiday specials, along with Christmas and Halloween-themed episodes of popular television series.

Much like The Stories Behind The Best-Loved Songs Of Christmas, The Stories Behind The Great Traditions of Christmas and More Stories Behind The Best Loved Songs of Christmas this new Collins Christmas book will fill a void in the book world. With a look at these secular classics, people who love the music of the season will finally have a source that gives the stories behind the creation of these wonderful songs, the way they found their way into the hands of those who made them famous and the reason they climb the charts.The Stories Behind the Greatest Hits of Christmas is really a guide or a map that connects Christmas past with Christmas present. It will be a time machine that connect the past to the present and makes the experience of hearing Christmas classics even more special. Completed with thoughts of those who penned these classics, along with the artists, such as Brenda Lee, who made them famous, this will be a book that is sure to generate fan interest.

A first-of-its-kind history, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir tells the epic story of how an all-volunteer group founded by persecuted religious outcasts grew into a multimedia powerhouse synonymous with the mainstream and with Mormonism itself. Drawing on decades of work observing and researching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Michael Hicks examines the personalities, decisions, and controversies that shaped "America's choir." Here is the miraculous story behind the Tabernacle's world-famous acoustics, the anti-Mormonism that greeted early tours, the clashes with Church leaders over repertoire and presentation, the radio-driven boom in popularity, the competing visions of rival conductors, and the Choir's aspiration to be accepted within classical music even as Mormons sought acceptance within American culture at large. Everything from Billboard hits to TV appearances to White House performances paved the way for Mormonism's crossover triumph. Yet, as Hicks shows, such success raised fundamental concerns regarding the Choir's mission, functions, and image.

In its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends.

A comprehensive Holiday look at the films that are the joyful part of the year and our lives. The story of the film people who bring you joy during the holiday season. Plus many other Christmas traditions, customs, decorative ideas, and other tales as well as facts from this festive time! Plus a Christmas Media Trivia Quiz.

"Concise. Vivid. Honest." - Dan Barker, critically acclaimed author of 'Godless' and 'Losing Faith in Faith' "Brutally honest, insightful, and compelling storytelling." - Lyndon Lamborn, author of 'Standing for Something More' When a young couple searched for clues connecting them to a famous ancestor, their journey led them on a path they never expected - converting to Mormonism. House of Faith House of Cards tells the turbulent life story of their son, Eric, including all the typical Mormon experiences, and some extraordinary episodes no Mormon will ever encounter. He participated with family members in his first secret temple ritual - normally reserved for adults - at the age of four, only to be excluded from a similar ceremony, involving his family, thirteen years later. In 1857, a company of 120 immigrants set out from a small Arkansas town, toward California. In a tragic twist of fate, they never reached their destination. While encamped in southern Utah, local Mormons and Paiute Indians launched an ambush, brutally slaughtering the group, in what became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. 125 years later, Eric would be raised as a Mormon in the same Arkansas community where this wagon train initially departed. There, he learned just how much some people still despised that faith. While training for and serving a church mission in Canada, in the mid-1990s, Eric shared a room and became acquainted with a fellow missionary named Mark Hacking. Less than a decade later, when the disappearance and murder of Hacking's wife became highly publicized, several international media outlets approached Eric, searching for any juicy detail of the man's troubled past. These stories are just the tip of the iceberg.

Aficionados of music, dance, opera, and musical theater will relish this volume featuring over 200 articles showcasing composers, singers, musicians, dancers, and choreographers across eras and styles. Read about Hildegard of Bingen, whose Symphonia expressed both spiritual and physical desire for the Virgin Mary, and George Frideric Handel, who not only created roles for castrati but was behind the Venetian opera's preoccupations with gender ambiguity. Discover Alban Berg’s Lulu, opera’s first openly lesbian character. And don’t forget Kiss Me Kate, the hit 1948 Broadway musical: written by Cole Porter, married though openly gay; directed by John C. Wilson, Noël Coward's ex-lover; and featuring Harold Lang, who had affairs with Leonard Bernstein and Gore Vidal. No single volume has ever achieved the breadth of this scholarly yet eminently readable compendium. It includes overviews of genres as well as fascinating biographical entries on hundreds of figures such as Peter Tchaikovsky, Maurice Ravel, Sergei Diaghilev, Bessie Smith, Aaron Copland, Stephen Sondheim, Alvin Ailey, Rufus Wainwright, and Ani DiFranco.