Retro Crimbo 2023: George’s gigantic festive photo archive

So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Plastering NYC – and other global metropolises – with billboards carrying an unfettered pro-peace message was what John and Yoko did in December ’69

Christmas may come but once a year, yet it’s rather a regular occurrence on this blog – must get back to some less itinerant blogging in 2024 (you might even call it a New Year’s resolution!).

Anyhoo, what better way to see out this year than with a truly bumper-bumper pictorial celebration of seasonal goodwill, featuring the great and the glamorous, the funny and the dramatic, the melodic and the pugilistic, the beautiful and the brilliant, and the cute and the cuddly of yesteryear?

All the very best of what remains of the season and a very happy and peaceful new year to all of you out there in Internetland…!

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Gimme some peace: as with the posters and billboards erected in other global cities (including Berlin, Tokyo and Toronto), those in NYC went up on December 15th 1969, as part of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘Peace Movement’ response to the ongoing Vietnam War, which would also include that year’s infamous ‘bed in’ and the 1971 single (Happy Christmas) War Is Over, and would rope in the support of famous friends like George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Keith Moon (tl), and Mary Hopkin (br)

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Snow angels: Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe enjoy lots of winter fun in the white stuff (middle), while Anna Karina beams with pride as she proudly shows off her skies (top and bottom)

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Toys for girls and boys: the now both too-soon-departed Kirsty MacColl and Shane MacGowan promote the original release of The Pogues’ greatly loved Christmas hit Fairytale of New York in 1987

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Bows, wreaths and trimmed trees: Much-loved Hollywood starlets of yesteryear – original ‘It Girl’ Clara Bow (top left), King Kong’s Fay Wray (top right), Mildred Pierce’s Ann Blyth (bottom left) and triple threat-and-a-half Ann-Margret (bottom right) – pose in some seasonal cheesecake shots  

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Laughs and scarfs: legends of British festive TV – Morecambe and Wise in a portrait from a Radio Times article, Ann and Vicki Michelle delighting Ronnie Barker in a promotional shot for a Porridge Christmas special and David Bowie in an on-set snap while filming his intro for The Snowman 

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Melody makers: The Beach Boys (l) and Blondie’s Chris Stein and Debbie Harry (r) pose with pines

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Back to the Christmas future: before they were famous, Lea Thompson, Elisabeth Shue and a pint-sized Sarah Michelle Gellar feature in an ad for Burger King, which screened on US TV in 1982 

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Winter warmer: Claudia Cardinale puts on a brave face (and a glorious smile) in three snowy snaps

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Hosts of Christmas presents: Terry Wogan bearing gifts (left) and Ted Rogers, Dusty Bin and Caroline Munro promoting a Christmas special of unfathomable game show 3-2-1 in TV Times magazine (right)

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Mills and balloons: Hayley Mills promoting the 1966 film Sky West And Crooked (top), a 1969 stage production of Peter Pan (middle) and volunteering in a charity Christmas card shop in 1967 (bottom)

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Delightful duos: a Santa-suited pairing of Danny Kaye and Nat King Cole, Kermit and Miss Piggy in The Muppet Christmas Carol and a very merry then-husband-and-wife Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh

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Tree-mendous: a 1970s Dick Van Dyke posing for a TV special in front of a Christmas tree on then permanent display at Harold Lloyd’s Beverly Hills mansion (left), Lloyd himself touching up the tree, which featured thousands of ornaments sourced from across globe (middle), and Cynthia Myers literally lit-up like a Christmas tree on the cover of the Playboy December 1968 issue (right)

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Fur-ly well wrapped-up: Mick Jagger, Pattie Boyd and Boney M. opt for furry outerwear to stave off the winter cold, the latter while promoting their single Rasputin in Moscow’s Red Square in 1978

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Santa’s leggy helpers: film noir’s Jane Greer pens a letter to St. Nick, Joan Collins greets the gift-giver, Elizabeth Montgomery does a spot of Santa Claus-ing and Debbie Reynolds flirts with a snowman

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Simply having a wonderful Christmastime: Paul McCartney films the video for his 1979 festive hit

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Especially for yule: Kylie Minogue proves nobody holds a candle to her in the Crimbo cuteness stakes

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Who’s behind you! Frank Bruno, Stephanie Lawrence and Sooty promote their early ’90s pantomime in Woking (top left), as do Britt Ekland and Gladiators’ Wolf for 1993’s Aladdin at the Birmingham Hippodrome (top right), while in the mid-’80s, then-husband-and-wife Peter Davison and Sandra Dickinson publicise their production of Cinderella (middle), and Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Mary Tamm do likewise for their John Nathan-Turner-produced pantomime in Southampton (bottom)

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North Pole stars: Roger Moore is snapped as he dresses up as Santa (rosy cheeks and all), while Colonel Tom Parker dons the coat, boots and beard for Elvis Presley’s 1965 Christmas card to fans

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New year cheerleaders: Buster Keaton and Debbie Reynolds (top ), Judy Garland and Olivia de Havilland (middle), and model Karen Jensen (bottom) ring out the old and ring in the new 

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