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7th December 2008 The Perfect Christmas Present From Kaleidoscope Christmas couldn't have been more perfect at our traditional Kaleidoscope Christmas Event and Grand Charity Auction 2008 which took place on Saturday 6th December 2008 at our usual venue, Stourbridge Town Hall, Stourbridge, West Midlands, UK between 12:00 noon - 7:00 pm. This special day had something seasonal for everyone. Remember all those wonderful memories of Christmases on television from long ago. All the elements were here. We sang along with the cream of eighties pop acts in Pop Goes Christmas and enjoyed an original and rarely seen take on a classic tale in an animated version of A Christmas Carol. The best of entertainment shows could be seen with The Glories of Christmas, featuring a stellar cast of seventies talent including Roy Barraclough, Bob Monkhouse, Dora Bryan, Les Dawson, Gerald Harper, John Laurie, Patricia Phoenix, Patrick Troughton and Richard Todd, and festive mystery in Whodunnit, hosted by Jon Pertwee. A special compilation celebrated Christmas through the decades on Blue Peter. Finally, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a ghost story and we were happy to oblige with Ghost in the Water, a brilliantly evocative tale filmed by the BBC in 1982 at locations all within a few miles of our venue. The year 2008 saw the arrival of the Bob Monkhouse Collection and Kaleidoscope has been exploring the many old recordings made on open reel-to-reel VT tapes by the great entertainer. We have also been boosted by tapes given to us by other collectors. The results are sensational - some great footage - some of which was shown for the first time at the Christmas event. Kaleidoscope's very special Christmas present was unwrapped to the delight of the audience during the afternoon. The Kaleidoscope Grand Charity Auction was once again the centrepiece of the day, with a selection of items donated by our guests, supporters and attendees throughout the year up for grabs. Both the auction and the event as a whole were in support of Kaleidoscope'so designated charity, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and brought an all time record breaking year of fundraising to an end. Sue Coombes, Honorary Secretary of RNLI Stourbridge Branch, said: "What a great end to the year! Saturday's Kaleidoscope was fantastic - the items you showed were brilliant (even if some of them did make us feel a bit old!) and brought back lots of memories from the past. We all thoroughly enjoyed Ghost in the Water - we'd never seen it before - how times and places have changed. As for the auction - what can I say! Amazing! Well done! A huge THANK YOU to all those who donated items and bid for them. As you know, the auction raised £705.50, and there was a further £202.20 in the buckets, a total of £907.70, in addition to which was the £80.00 cheque from the October event, bringing Kaleidoscope's total funds raised since 1994 to a staggering £11,438.57. We are very, very grateful to you and your supporters for these funds without which the RNLI's volunteer crews could not continue to do what they do - save lives at sea. There was, as usual, a great turn out on Saturday and it was good to see so many familiar - and new - faces there. Everyone is so friendly and generous - and the donation of cakes was an added bonus. Thank you all." A great day of vintage programming, trailers, continuity, clips, Christmas cakes and a fun, informal atmosphere certainly rounded off Kaleidoscope's twentieth anniversary year in style! You can find out more in the Kaleidoscope Archives. |
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