Our video this week is a restored Fleischer animation classic that longtime fans of Radio Free Charleston might recognize as one of the cartoons we used clips from during the Clownhole song in our first video Christmas special back in 2006 (RFC Episode Eleven). Since we brought you a new recording of that song last week, I thought it might also be cool to share this newly-restored version of the original cartoon, even though we didn’t use the cartoon in the new video.

‘Christmas Comes But Once a Year’ is a 1936 animated short produced by Fleischer Studios and released on December 4, 1936 by Paramount Pictures. It is the 15th cartoon of the Color Classics series. The cartoon features Professor Grampy, a character from the Betty Boop series; this is the character’s only appearance without Betty.

This restoration is the work of Thad Komorowski & Jack Theakston. You can support their work via Patreon.  These are the folks who restored the cartoons that were shown at The Alban Arts Center last year, and I’ve been following their work since.  You can keep up with them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter (I ain’t calling it “X”).

You can find more restored animation classics at their YouTube Page, and later today in The 2023 PopCult Gift Guide I’ll tell you where you can find some cool merch that supports their restoration efforts.