The Plot to Overthrow Christmas facts for kids

The Plot to Overthrow Christmas is a fun radio play written by Norman Corwin. It was first heard on December 25, 1938. Imagine a play you can only hear, with sounds and voices telling the story!

The Story of the Play

This play is a fantasy, and it's all told in rhyme! It starts with someone introducing the story. Then, a character named Sotto voce sometimes pops in to add little notes for the audience.

The play begins with sounds that make you feel like you're going down to Hell. You hear a gong, then two loud thunder crashes. After that, there's an electronic hum that goes down and then up in sound. This sound then changes into a long, beautiful violin note, which finally becomes a fancy, fast violin solo called a cadenza.

The person playing the violin is the Roman emperor Nero. He gets interrupted by a messenger who calls him to an important meeting. This meeting is with the Devil, who is called Mephisto in the play.

Mephisto explains to a group of famous "bad guys" that he's worried. This group includes Nero, Ivan the Terrible, Haman from the Bible, the Roman emperor Caligula, members of the Borgia family, and Simon Legree. Mephisto tells them that the peace and good feelings of the Christmas holiday are stopping his plans to make humans do bad things. He asks them for ideas to stop Christmas.

First, Caligula suggests putting poison in Christmas food and candy. Next, Nero thinks they should change sacred Christmas music into jazz. Then, Legree suggests bribing the US Congress to make Christmas illegal. But Mephisto says that politicians can't always be trusted. Finally, Lucrezia Borgia suggests killing Santa Claus! She really wants to do it herself. Mephisto lets them vote on the ideas, and Borgia's plan wins. Then, they draw names, and Nero is chosen to be the one to stop Santa.

In the second part of the play, Nero has to figure out how to get to Earth and find Santa. He finally goes to Earth with a gun and makes a tough trip to Santa's home at the North Pole. Santa invites him in, even though he knows why Nero is there.

Santa tells Nero that the Devil doesn't really care about him. He's just using Nero to gain more power on Earth. Nero almost believes Santa, but then he thinks it's a battle of smarts. He brags about how smart he is and how much he knows about music. Santa then tells Nero about the wonderful, happy feelings and magic of Christmas, which Nero knows nothing about. This makes Nero feel something in his heart. He decides he doesn't want to do bad things anymore and asks how he can help Santa.

Santa then treats Nero very kindly and rushes to get him a gift: a Stradivarius violin! Santa also gives him some music. The play ends with Nero playing The First Noel on his new Stradivarius violin.

How the Play Was Made and First Shown

In 1938, Norman Corwin started working for the CBS Radio Network. He got his own show called Norman Corwin's Words Without Music. The week before Christmas, his producer asked him what he would do for the Christmas show. Corwin quickly thought of the title: The Plot to Overthrow Christmas. This title helped him write the first line: "Did you hear about the plot to overthrow Christmas?"

The play was first broadcast on December 25, 1938. By 1940, Corwin was in charge of CBS's Columbia Workshop, and he put on The Plot to Overthrow Christmas again on December 22. CBS asked Corwin to produce and direct the play a third time on December 19, 1944. Many of the original actors were in it. Will Geer played Mephistopheles. House Jameson played Santa Claus, and Eric Burroughs, an actor from radio and stage, played Nero. Henry Morgan was the narrator in the 1944 show. He also played Ivan the Terrible and Simon Legree.

In 1960, Corwin worked with a composer named Walter Scharf to turn the play into an opera. An opera is a play where the words are sung. Corwin wrote the words for the opera, which is called a libretto. However, Corwin and Scharf couldn't agree on business details, so the opera was never fully produced. It was only performed once, in 2000, at Brigham Young University.

The Play on TV

In 1969, a public television station in Los Angeles called KCET made a TV show about Corwin's play. It included an interview with Corwin about how he came up with the play. It also showed a rehearsal and a TV reading of the play. This TV show was shown again on PBS on December 23, 1971, as part of a series called Hollywood Television Theatre.

KCET showed the program again in 2010 to celebrate Corwin's 100th birthday. They also included a new interview with Corwin.

Corwin added two new scenes to his original script for the TV show. On his way to the North Pole, Nero meets a reporter. The reporter tries to ask Nero what he thinks about famous music composers and conductors. Nero also briefly meets a woman speaking a strange language. Corwin decided to add this after an extra actor, who played a demon, made a sound like a tape rewinding.

The Actors in the 1969 TV Show

Corwin chose many experienced actors for his 1969 television production.

• John McIntire played the Devil. He was known for his role in the TV show Wagon Train.
• Karl Swenson played Nero. He was known as Lars Hanson on the TV show Little House on the Prairie.
• Jeanette Nolan played Lucrezia Borgia. She was an actress on radio, in movies, and on TV, and she was John McIntire's wife.
• Parley Baer played Simon Legree. He was known as the neighbor on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and the mayor on The Andy Griffith Show.
• Edward Platt played Sotto Voce. He was known as Maxwell Smart's boss on the TV show Get Smart.
• Alan Reed, Sr. played Santa Claus. He was famous as the original voice of Fred Flintstone in The Flintstones cartoon.
• Jerry Hausner played the courier. He was on I Love Lucy and was the voice of Mr. Magoo's nephew Waldo in cartoons.
• Paul Condylis played Haman and the Announcer.
• Henry Corden played Ivan the Terrible. He later took over the voice of Fred Flintstone after Alan Reed died.
• Byron Kane played the Reporter.
• Steve Franken played Caligula.