I have the misfortune of having been born on Christmas Eve. That means I have gone through life with my birthday being overlooked in the general hubbub of the Christmas holidays. As an adult, this neglect does not seem important, but as a child it was major. A candle stuck into a fruitcake does not a birthday cake make! Looking towards my 65th birthday on Tuesday, I have been thinking about the date of December 24 in our history.
I am not the only person to have survived a Christmas Eve birthday. Indeed, people with Christmas Eve birthdays range from the heroic-such as pioneering American physician and Revolutionary-era leader Dr. Benjamin Rush-to the pathetic-including rascally Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan. Perhaps the most prominent Arkansan to have a December 24birthday was William E. Woodruff, the founder of the Arkansas Gazette and early Arkansas leader, who was born on that date in 1795 on Long Island, N.Y.
It is an honor to share a birthday with Woodruff, as his historical legacy continues to this day. As the founder of the first newspaper in the new Territory of Arkansas in 1819, Woodruff had a huge impact on how Arkansas developed. Indeed, if it were not for Woodruff, we would probably be spelling the name of our state “Arkansaw,” commonly used prior to Woodruff naming his newspaper. I think it is also safe to speculate that without Woodruff’s newspaper, the early years of Arkansas history would be undocumented.
Last week I took a look at old newspapers to see what was going on in the world on the day I was born. One prominent article published on December 24, 1948, announced the hanging of Hideki Tojo, World War II prime minister of Japan and convicted war criminal. Defiantly, Tojo shouted three “banzais” as the executioner did his work.
As you might expect, I have found a relationship between Arkansas and Tojo. A pharmacist from Mount Ida in my home county, Richard “Dick” Whittington, was a medical corpsman among the detachment of American soldiers sent to arrest Tojo after the Japanese surrender.Whittington was called upon to save Tojo when he shot himself as the Americans knocked at his door. Whittington, who died a few years ago, was proud of saving Tojo so that the brute could be hauled before a court of justice.
In reading through the newspaper of my birth year, I was struck by how the times have changed during the past 65 years. While the great era of patent medicines had passed by 1948, newspapers still contained advertisements for Carter’s Little Liver Pills. Formulated in 1868 by Samuel J. Carter of Erie, Pa., Carter’s Little Liver Pills were advertised throughout the nation and continued to sell until the 1960s. When Robert C. Byrd was re-elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000, he alluded to the pervasiveness of this patent medicine: “West Virginia has always had four friends: God Almighty, Sears Roebuck, Carter’s Liver Pills, and Robert C. Byrd.” The newspapers in December1948 were filled with advertisements for a huge variety of Christmas gifts. The Oklahoma Tire and Supply store offered a “Deluxe Model” boys bicycle for the relatively high price of $44.95, a set of Lincoln Logs was available for $3.49, and $18.95 would put a Lionel train under the tree.
Urban residents had a wide choice of grocery stores from which to buy ingredients for a Christmas dinner in 1948. The A-1 Super Market on East Washington Street in North Little Rock advertised beef roasts for 49 cents per pound. Nearby Pat’s Super Market offered Snowdrift shortening in a three-pound can for 99 cents.
Many Arkansans were affluent enough by 1948 that they could go out for Christmas dinner. The Ranch House, located five miles west of Little Rock on Arkansas 10, advertised an “Electric-Fried Chicken Dinner prepared in our new, spotless electric kitchen.” The cost was $1.75, including a drink and dessert.
By 1948 numerous movie theaters offered a place for folks to rest after the Christmas feast. John Wayne starred in Red River at the New Theater in Little Rock, while Roy Rogers was featured at the Roxy in Billy the Kid Returns.
Those who wanted outdoor entertainment and could afford the 29-cent gasoline could have attended a Christmas Eve basketball game in which Oklahoma A&M defeated the Razorbacks 50 to 45. Worried fans could puff on cigarettes during the game-which sold in 1948 for $1.99 per carton.
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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living in Pulaski County. Email him at Arktopia. td@gmail.com.
Editorial, Pages 82 on 12/22/2013