'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1977 TV special) 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (1977 TV special) Twas the Night Before Christmas is a Christmas television special loosely inspired by the 1823 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement Clarke Moore. It first aired December 7, 1977 on ABC. Directed by Tim Kiley, it stars Paul Lynde, Anne Meara, Martha Raye, and Alice Ghostley. The story is set on Christmas Eve in a New England town in the late 1890s. The Cosgrove family's home is in an uproar over the holidays. The patriarch, Clark Cosgrove (Paul Lynde) is frazzled by the gift demands of his loud children. His
Clement Moore Butler Clement Moore Butler Clement Moore Butler (1810–1890) was an Episcopal clergyman who served as Chaplain of the Senate (1850–1853). Clement Moore Butler was born on October 16, 1810, in Troy, New York, the son of David Butler and Chloe Jones Butler. He graduated from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, in 1833, and the General Theological Seminary, New York, in 1836. Butler was ordained by Bishop Benjamin Treadwell Onderdonk in June 1837. The wagon journey the evening before was not without incident, as the Bishop made improper advances toward Mrs. Butler. She was one of a number of women who suffered sexual