Was The Island Of Misfit Toys A Metaphor For Homosexuality??????????????

                      I mean, really, girls, with the Holidays fast upon us, the question must be asked.  Those of us old enough to remember the original broadcasts of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" on NBC (and the very first broadcast was in 1964; my God, that was exactly 50 years ago, this year!!!!!!!!!!!) always asked the same question when  the story got to this point--What the hell was wrong with the doll?   Was it a lesbian?  Is that why straight girls did not want to play with her?

                      Actually, darlings, as you would expect, I loved The Island Of Misfit Toys.  I loved the song, and the toys, and it was always the place I wanted to got to, to find refuge, same as Rudolph, Yukon and Herbie.

                      Who could imagine that what was supposed to be a routine children's Christmas special would turn out to be so relevant today, as one watches Rudolph being horribly bullied, sobbing to Clarice's rendition of "There's Always Tomorrow," and everyone finding a community (the island) where they can be themselves, only to learn they have a place in the world at large, too.  This seems to resonate even more today.

                       Which brings me to something else.  These Christmas specials we watched as children in the Sixties all had happy endings, but to get to them, you had to wade through some pretty traumatic stuff.  Charlie Brown buys a Christmas tree, and thinks he has killed it.  The Grinch treats Max horribly.  And Belle's song in "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol," "Winter Was Warm,"  is one of the most achingly poignant love songs I have ever heard.  I still thrill to Jane Kean's rendition.

                         But the worst, by far, I am telling you, was "The Little Drummer Boy."  This poor boy--practically a juvenile Fantine--with no family, and the animals his only friends, has his best friend, a lamb, violently run over by a wagon, which is shown in all its sadistic glory.  One is sobbing at this point, but then he approaches the manger, where lies the Infant Jesus, and plays the drum, while the song is intoned.  Then he holds out the dead lamb, and, if I recall right, in a foreshadowing of Jesus' Resurrection, the lamb is restored to the little boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                         After the first viewing, I could not bring myself to watch this.  I don't care that Greer Garson was narrating.  Why did we, and subsequent generations of children, have to be tortured psychologically, in order to appreciate the joys of Christmas?  No wonder so many of us wanted to be on The Island Of Misfit Toys.  It was safe.

                           Walt Disney did enough in the childhood trauma market!!!!!!!  Why was it necessary at Christmas?  What lessons did the adults, who created these shows, think they were trying to teach us????????

                             OK, I said my piece.  Now, to make you feel safe once again, darlings, let us go back to "The Island Of Misfit Toys."  Enjoy!