Goll-lee!: The One With Bedford Falls, The Miracles of 34th Street, and Seven Stranded Castaways... and a bunch of Friends

 

Goll-lee!: The One With Bedford Falls, The Miracles of 34^th Street, and Seven Stranded Castaways…and a bunch of Friends

 

Some people have heard of Harry Bailey of Bedford Falls, New York, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor for shooting down 15 Japanese fighters in World War II, most notably two kamikazes that were about to strike a loaded US Navy destroyer loaded with troops in the fall of 1944 (1). While losing one ship and the troops on it would not have made a tremendous difference in the outcome of the war, several persons of note were serving on the destroyer or were among the troops being transported. It’s entirely possible that Harry Bailey is far more important to history than was realized when he received his medal in December, 1945 (1). Bailey himself served on the USS Enterprise CV-6, which arguably is the greatest and most successful wet navy warship in history; centuries later, interstellar starships would be named for her (2).

 

One of the destroyer’s officers was Frederick Gailey. Gailey, a lawyer from New York City, rose to prominence when he proved in court in 1947 that an older gentleman named Kris Kringle, hired to play Santa Claus at Macy’s flagship store in New York City, was, in fact, THE Santa Claus (3). Gailey later married Doris Walker, the director of special projects at Macy’s and director of the famous Thanksgiving Parade, and became the stepfather to her daughter, Susan. Kringle worked in the Toy Department at Macy’s, which was under the management of Julian Shellhammer (3), a distant cousin to the wealthy Howell family. Later, Susan herself would become the parade director and the director of special projects, following in her mother’s footsteps.

 

A crewmember of the destroyer was Jonas Grumby. Earlier, he’d briefly served with noted PT boat officers John F. Kennedy of PT-109 and Quentin McHale of PT-73 (4). After he retired from service, he ran a tour boat operation in Honolulu until he, his crew, and passengers (including actress Ginger Grant and billionaire Thurston Howell III) were shipwrecked on a small desert island and survived many misadventures there (5, 6) until 1978 (7). Howell developed the island into a resort and hired his fellow castaways, including Grumby, to jobs at the resort. (8) (McHale himself had many adventures and misadventures in the war (9, 10, 11, 12), stayed in the Navy for many years, eventually having a son, becoming a rear admiral, and commanding the US Navy’s Special Warfare Command (13). McHale’s cousin, Chief Boatswain’s Mate Sam McHale, had his own adventures. He served as a meteorologist on the Enterprise while Bailey was assigned there, but then was sent to the Gobi Desert deep in Inner Mongolia behind the Japanese lines; to avoid Japanese forces, he formed some Mongolian horsemen into a Navy cavalry unit and evacuated to Okinawa (14).)

 

Another member of the destroyer’s crew was Wayne Simpson, ‘The Rattlesnake’, was the Fleet boxing champion for four years. He retired after 37 KOs, supposedly because he couldn’t find someone brave enough to challenge him (15). Briefly, he served on the USS Appleby in the 1960s when they encountered American and Japanese forces in the Caroline Islands who didn’t know the war ended 17 years earlier (16)---and a few years later, Grumby also encountered a Japanese soldier who didn’t know the war had ended years earlier (17). Simpson’s main nemesis is Marine Gunnery Sgt. Vincent J. Carter, who was briefly assigned to the destroyer when the kamikazes attacked her. Carter later ran a platoon based at Camp Pendleton, including Mayberry, NC gas station attendant Gomer Pyle (18). Another member of the Appleby’s crew was Chief Petty Officer Homer Nelson (member of the famous Nelson family, whose biography is forthcoming by this officer). Also serving on the Appleby was Lt. Melton (birth name Calucci), whose cousin Ensign Mayberry was once assigned to US Naval Station in San Diego (19). Another serviceman assigned to Naval Station San Diego was CPO Ernie Schmidt, who had a nephew that also later served at the same base, CPO Otto Sharkey, who led recruits of Company 144. (20)

 

In the early 1970s, as stated earlier, Susan Walker (now going by her middle name, Karen) was the parade director and special projects director at Macy’s flagship store in New York City (21). At this point, Julian Shellhammer’s nephew Horace Shellhammer ran the Toy Department. Also like her mother, Karen had a failed marriage and a young daughter, Doris (who went by her middle name of Susan, and her mother had changed her name to Walker). And like her mother, she hired as the parade and store’s Santa Claus an older gentleman named Kris Kringle. In yet another strange coincidence, this Kris Kringle had to be legally proved in court to be Santa Claus as well, by attorney Bill Schaffner.

 

In the early 1990s, Macy’s had been bought out by a man named C. F. Cole who briefly changed the chain’s iconic name to Cole’s (22). (Cole’s cousin, a man named Bryant, was also a New York City businessman who did business with a Chicago advertising firm. (23) The advertising firm’s employee, Tom Bueller has a brother named Bill in Santa Monica, California; both Tom and Bill have sons named Ferris (24, 25). Bill’s wife, Barbara, has a sister named Sandra who married a man named Dr. Leonard Green. Sandra’s daughter Rachel is an identical cousin to Barbara’s daughter Jeanie. (26)) Young Doris, Susan’s daughter, going by Dorey, also had become the director of special events of Macy’s, now Cole’s, and the parade director. And like her mother and grandmother before her, she had been married and divorced and was raising a young daughter…who also went by her middle name of Susan. And yet again like her mother and grandmother, she hired an older gentleman named Kris Kringle to be the parade’s and store’s Santa Claus. (Even another member of the Shellhammer family, Donald, was manager of the Toy Department.) Once again, Kris was proved legally in court to be the Santa Claus, this time by Bryan Bedford, who married Dorey on Christmas. (Bryan was related to the family that first settled Bedford Falls.)

 

It is unknown if the three Kris Kringles are related, or the same person. It is known that the first Kris Kringle was Santa, shown here https://televisioncom/2011/12/of-flying-reindeer-talking-snowmen-and.html. All three Kringles had nemeses in the Sawyer family, psychiatrists or psychologists hired by the store---who were all fired.

 

Unbeknownst to most persons, though he later told his wife and brother, George Bailey met an angel named Clarence Odbody, who was born in 1653. George never found out that another angel had visited Bedford Falls, also on Christmas Eve two years earlier, and helped a man named George Pratt (who had also saved his younger brother from drowning as a boy). (27) Clarence himself came back to Earth in December, 1989, to help a lady named Rachel Logan. (28)

 

In one of the parallel universe where some people have their genders swapped, the female version of George was Mary Bailey, who married a man named George Hatch. In that timeline, both George and Harry served in World War II. Mary met an angel who was Clarence’s counterpart, Clara Oddbody. (29) A forthcoming work is planned to explore the gender-swapped universe.

 

References

1.      It’s a Wonderful Life, film, 1946.

2.      Star Trek franchise, 1966-present.

3.      Miracle on 34^th Street, film, 1947.

4.      Gilligan’s Wake, novel, Tom Carson, 2003.

5.      Gilligan’s Island, television series, 1964-67.

6.      The New Adventures of Gilligan, animated television series, 1974-77.

7.      Rescue from Gilligan’s Island, made for television movie, 1978.

8.      The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island, made for television movie, 1979.

9.      Seven Against the Sea, episode of television series Alcoa Premiere considered to be the pilot for McHale’s Navy, 1962.

10.   McHale’s Navy, television series, 1962-66.

11.   McHale’s Navy, film sequel to the series, 1964.

12.   McHale’s Navy Joins the Air Force, film sequel to the film, 1965.

13.   McHale’s Navy, film, 1997.

14.   Destination Gobi, film, 1953.

15.   Episodes of Gomer Pyle, USMC, television series 1964-69.

16.   Episode Operation Holdout, Ensign O’Toole, television series, 1962.

17.   Episodes of Gilligan’s Island.

18.   Gomer Pyle, USMC.

19.   Hennesey, television series, 1959-1962.

20.   C.P.O. Sharkey, television series, 1976-78.

21.   Miracle on 34^th Street, made for television movie, 1973.

22.   Miracle on 34^th Street, film, 1994.

23.   Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, film, 1987.

24.   Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, film, 1986.

25.   Ferris Bueller, television series, 1990.

26.   Friends, television series,  1994-2004.

27.   The Greatest Gift, novel, Philip Van Doren Stern, 1943

28.   Clarence, made for television movie, 1990.

29.   It Happened One Christmas, made for television movie, 1977.