The Yule Log: Why a TV Station Aired a Fire

On Christmas Eve 1966, at 9:30 at night, New York's Channel 11 put a fireplace on the air. No host, no show, no commercials, for about three hours. The popular answer is that it was a lazy trick: film a fire once, loop it, and send everyone home. The station president's own memo describes something else, and the fire itself was a loop of roughly seventeen seconds that jumped every time it started over. What this covers: Fred Thrower's November 2, 1966 memo, his "Christmas card" to apartment dwellers, and the programming he cancelled for it The Gracie Mansion shoot: a removed fireplace guard, a spark, a rug, and a loop of roughly seventeen seconds The 1970 reshoot in Palo Alto after the mayor's office refused a second visit Why it was cancelled after Christmas 1989, the "Bring Back the Log" website, and the 2001 return The 1966 original resurfacing in 2016, and the fire videos that came after (Netflix, WGN, the SEC Network) It was cheap to film, expensive to air, and meant as a gift. Narration is computer-generated (text-to-speech); research, script and drawings are original. The story behind the thing. Wren Honest limits (the accounts disagree, so the video hedges these): Loop length: most accounts say about 17 seconds; one 2016 report describes a two-minute clip looped every ten to fifteen seconds. Nobody has publicly measured the surviving reel. Broadcast length: the memo planned two and a half hours; most accounts say about three; one says two. Cancelled program: Time says Saturday night college basketball and roller derby at 11:30; other accounts name only roller derby. A $4,000 advertising figure appears in one secondary source and is not used. The rug: reported as worth $4,000 (Time, Gadabout Town); the scorch is in every account. The Coca-Cola ad inspiration appears in one secondary account. Who held the 1966 print in 2016: most accounts say the estate of producer William Cooper; one local report says a station technician. Last broadcast: Christmas 1989 (cancelled in 1990). The 1970 loop is described as six or seven minutes. S O U R C E S Webster, J., "The WPIX Yule Log: How a Simple Memo Created a Holiday Tradition," Substack: https://jennwebster.substack.com/p/th... Quotes the preserved Nov 2, 1966 memo; premiere, 16 mm shoot, hiatus and return. Raga, S., "The Luminous Story Behind TV's Yule Log," Mental Floss, Dec 24, 2017: https://www.mentalfloss.com/holidays/... The 17-second loop, the 1970 Palo Alto reshoot, the music. "The Yule Log," Time, Dec 25, 2008: https://time.com/archive/6909561/the-... The Christmas card memo, the basketball and roller derby gap, the Times review, WGN's 2008 rival. Thrower, M., "Fred Thrower's Yule Log": https://www.mitchthrower.com/the-yule... "Startlingly simple," the first music video, and a son's portrait of his father. Ephemeral New York, "Where was the original WPIX yule log filmed?", Dec 24, 2017: https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.co... Gracie Mansion as the original location. The Gadabout Town, "The Original Yule Log Is Back!", Dec 24, 2016: https://thegadabouttown.com/2016/12/2... The 2016 rediscovery, the rug, the two-minute loop report. 6sqft, "Did You Know the First TV Yule Log Was Aired in 1966 From Gracie Mansion?": https://www.6sqft.com/did-you-know-th... The spark and the rug. Village Voice, "The History of the Televised Yule Log, Which Was Invented in New York City": https://www.villagevoice.com/the-hist... Thrower's on-air greeting, the Twitter account and merchandise. Wikipedia, "Yule Log (TV program)": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_Lo...) Music list, 1990 cancellation, 2001 return, 2009 fourth hour, copycat citations. #yulelog #christmashistory #nyc #tvhistory #documentary