Old Time Radio Advent Calendars
The Cinnamon Bear was a wildly popular radio serial adventure for children which began its initial run in 1937. It was a 26-episode, daily, 15-minute transcribed show, which was intended to run from just after Thanksgiving until Christmas. And talk about long-running — the show appeared on commercial stations well into the 1980s, and even now, shows up on community radio stations. I think my introduction to the show was in the early 2000s on the University of Portland’s KDUP, which just left all 26 episodes running on a continuous loop while school was out during the Winter.
In addition to being a radio star, the Cinnamon Bear was a costumed character who appeared as one of Santa’s helpers at various department stores around the country. The show and character were especially popular in the Pacific Northwest, in fact, the Portland Spirit cruise lines have annual Cinnamon Bear Cruises to this day.
Naturally, something this popular spawned imitations; I haven’t listened to Jump Jump and the Ice Queen or Jonathan Thomas and his Christmas on the Moon yet, but I doubt they can hold a candle to Cinnamon Bear.
Here are links to Archive.org’s collections of all three serials…
1937 – The Cinnamon Bear
1938 – Jump Jump and the Ice Queen