December 25, 1932: King George V delivers a Royal Christmas Message to the British Empire, broadcast live over the British Broadcasting Corporation and its Worldwide Service, thus beginning a tradition.
John Reith, founder of the BBC, had first approached the King about the idea in 1922, but the King declined, saying that radio was mainly an entertainment. Reith waited 10 years before trying again. This time, he was smart: He gave the idea to Queen Mary first. When she told her husband it was a good idea, he relented. To be on the safe side, he also talked to the Prime Minister, James Ramsay MacDonald, who was prepared to be an additional voice to try to talk the King into it.
The tradition of the British royal family staying at Sandringham House, their country retreat in Norfolk, East Anglia, for the Christmas season had been put in place ever since it was bought in 1862, as a summer home for the King's father, then the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. A temporary studio was set up there, eventually replaced by a permanent one.
The address was written for the King by one of Britain's most honored (if not "greatest") authors then living, Rudyard Kipling, and is said to have been heard by 20 million people. The broadcast began at 3:00 PM London time, for the best possible distribution across the time zones: Eastern Canada, 10:00 AM; South Africa, 5:00 PM; New Dehli, 8:30 PM; Hong Kong, 11:00 PM; Sydney and Melbourne, 1:00 AM on December 26.
The speech was introduced by a local shepherd named Walton Handy. The town church rang its bells, and its choir sang Christmas carols. Finally, the King spoke, for a little over 3 minutes:
Through one of the marvels of modern science, I am enabled, this Christmas Day, to speak to all my peoples throughout the Empire.
I take it as a good omen that Wireless should have reached its present perfection at a time when the Empire has been linked in closer union. For it offers us immense possibilities to make that union closer still.
It may be that our future may lay upon us more than one stern test. Our past will have taught us how to meet it unshaken.
For the present, the work to which we are all equally bound is to arrive at a reasoned tranquility within our borders; to regain prosperity without self-seeking, and to carry with us those whom the burden of past years has disheartened or overborne.
My life's aim has been to serve as I might, towards those ends. Your loyalty, your confidence in me has been my abundant reward.
I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all.
To men and women so cut off by the snows, the desert or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them; to those cut off from fuller life by blindness, sickness, or infirmity; and to those who are celebrating this day with their children and grandchildren.
To all, to each, I wish a Happy Christmas. God Bless You!
George V delivered such Messages again in 1933 and 1934. In 1935, it was noticed that his voice sounded weaker. Sure enough, he died less than a month later, on January 20, 1936.
His son, King Edward VIII, abdicated the throne on December 11, 1936, so not only did he never get a Coronation, he never got to deliver a Royal Christmas Message. His brother became King George VI. He did not deliver a Royal Christmas Message in 1936. He did in 1937, but not in 1938. But in 1939, all through World War II, and into his final illness, he and delivered them every year through 1951. He died on February 6, 1952.
Since then, his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, has delivered the Message every December 25. Her 1st Message, in 1952, was simulcast, in sound only, on BBC television. Not until 1957 would it be broadcast live on TV.
In 1953, as she and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, were on a tour of the British Commonwealth, she delivered her Message from Auckland, New Zealand. Since then, it has been pre-recorded at either Sandringham House or Buckingham Palace.
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December 25, 1932 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. The NFL season had ended the previous Sunday, with the Chicago Bears defeating the Portsmouth Spartans (of Ohio) for the Championship.
There were 2 games played in the NHL that day. The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Maroons, 2-0 at the old Madison Square Garden. And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
"Back in Blighty," this was the era when England's Football League still regularly played games on Christmas Day. But not on Sundays, so there were no games played in that League.
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