Rare Christmas TV Classics - Volume 3 (A Child is Born/A String of Blue Beads/A Picture of the Magi/A Tale of Two Christmases)

'A Child Is Born' (1956): This musical episode of General Electric Theater tells the story of the Nativity from the point of view of the innkeeper's wife. The initial 1955 live broadcast of this episode was so popular that a kinescope recording was rerun the following year with a new introduction and closing from host Ronald Reagan, joined by his wife Nancy and daughter Patti (then 4 years old.) Originally performed on the radio version of the program during WWII, "A Child is Born" features words and lyrics by acclaimed writer Stephen Vincent Benét ("The Devil and Daniel Webster") and music by legendary film composer Bernard Herrmann. This was the first on-camera appearance of Broadway actor Harve Presnell, later to have memorable roles in Fargo (1996) and Saving Private Ryan (1998).

'A String of Blue Beads' (1953): Louis Jourdan plays a jeweler unable to stop grieving the death of his fiancée three years prior. A simple string of blue beads intended to be given to his lost love become the key to finding hope on Christmas Eve. This touching story was filmed as the pilot to Screen Writer's Playhouse, an anthology series meant to adapt popular short stories of the day. Sadly, it went no further than this episode. Remarkably, it is shot in color, a rarity for a television series pilot from 1953.

'A Picture of the Magi' (1957): A young girl finds three refugees trying to escape communist oppression during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 - and in the glow of Christmas, confuses them with the Three Wise Men. This unusually topical tale of Christmas behind the Iron Curtain aired as part of Telephone Time, the ABC anthology series that evolved from the long-running radio show The Passing Parade. By this time, series creator John Nesbitt had ceded hosting duties to Dr. Frank Baxter, from the popular Bell Science television specials.

'A Tale of Two Christmases' (1952): The Visitor was a weekly anthology of psychological dramas produced by Marion Parsonnet, best recognized as the screenwriter of the Rita Hayworth classic Gilda (1946). 'A Tale of Two Christmases' is the story of a distraught man who kidnaps his young daughter on Christmas Eve after being forbidden to see her by his estranged wife. Director Robert Aldrich later made classics like Kiss Me Deadly (1955), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) and The Dirty Dozen (1967).