White glove treatment

Kevin Kriess wears a pair of white gloves just like Santa Claus whenever he's caring for his own Santa Claus.

Kriess, who hails from Harmony, Penn. is now the keeper of what many babyboomers consider to be the "Holy Grail" of Christmas televison specials.

Kriess owns the original Santa Claus and Rudolph puppet figurines used by producers Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass in their classic "stop animation" 1964 TV Christmas special "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," which was narrated by the late singer Burl Ives, who voiced a snowman likeness of himself.

As my columnist colleague Molly Woulfe reported in her Friday Chicago Scene column, Kriess traveled to Chicago last weekend to display the rare artifacts at a Chicagoland area Borders Books and Music store and at Brookfield Zoo.

I attended the Saturday evening event, which Brookfield Zoo lables their "Holiday Magic Festival."

Zoo spokeswoman Sondra Katzen tried to describe for me all of the fun and surprises in store when the zoo does this annual highlight to their holiday season.

And when I arrived, I found the experience far surpassed anything she could have described with words.

From the outdoor light displays, to the music and wide variety of decorations, I was very impressed.

Of course, the added excitement came from Brookfield Zoo's special guests last weekend, who were right at home in the heated (and cleverly decorated) Holly Jolly Theater tent.

In addition to Kriess and his Santa and Rudolph, the other featured notable name was author Rick Goldschmidt, who hails from neighboring Oak Lawn, Ill. and has a great hardcover book all about the making of the holiday classic titled "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Making of the Rankin/Bass Classic (2001 Miser Brothers Press $29.95). Considered the premiere authority on all of the classic TV specials from Rankin and Bass, Goldschmidt's first book "The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass," which featured a foreword by Ives, quickly sold out of both its hardcover and paperback editions after it was published in 2000.

Now, Kriess is busy (carefully) packing up his two bundles of holiday joy to be the featured guests at his new Toy Galaxy store in Pittsburgh, were they will on display this Saturday and Sunday for all to enjoy. ( 412-243-8511 or www.timeandspacetoys.com).

As for the origins of the eight-inch-high Santa and four-inch-tall Rudolph, Kriess traveled a long and winding road before he invested the dough (ahem, not DOE) to make the purchase, in addition to another $4,000 to restore the fragile wood-and-cloth puppets, which were in bad shape. The puppets had originally been discarded as "trash" after production was completed on the TV special and it had aired. It was one of the producers' secretaries that rescued the figurines, including a number of the other puppet characters and took them home to display as holiday decorations, which became favorite toys for her nieces and nephews to play with.

"After all these years, the people that owned them first contacted Arthur Rankin Jr., to see if he would like to purchase them," Kriess said.

"His response was something like, 'Why would I want to pay for something I threw away 40 years ago? I'll take them, but I won't pay for them.' "

The family says that the other puppet characters that had been rescued (which they casually and inadequately describe as "some of the deer, the dentist, jack the prospector. . . ) melted in the attic were they were stored with the other holiday decorations and were in such bad shape that they were thrown away years ago, leaving just Santa and Rudolph as the lone survivors.

The family even took Rudolph and Santa to a filming of the PBS series "Antiques Roadshow," where they were appraised at a value of $10,000 for the pair, much lower than the price Kriess eventually paid.

"Just the memories of these two figures and the fond regard for the TV special make them worth far more than any pricetag," Kriess said.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at ppotempa@nwitimes.com or 219.852. 4327.

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