In the times of totalitarianism, the family bought a veku, some kind of salami, cheese, rolled oats or a delicious salad and prepared a bowl of sandwiches for New Year’s Eve. For a toast, a cheap sparkling wine was prepared in the fridge, and whoever hit his pocket chilled the Russian Sovetskoye Igristoya sparkling wine. “That was a big hit back then. Beer or wine was drunk during the evening. As far as money is concerned, such a New Year’s Eve celebration and the coming of the New Year cost about 350 CZK,” recalls Karel, who is now in his sixties.
TV shows
The New Year’s Eve television program was a showcase of Czechoslovak culture every year. During the evening, when the family was consuming the prepared feast, the television was turned on, in which a television variety show was playing at full blast. Its contents during socialism were provided by the then state-owned Czechoslovak Television.
The very first New Year’s Eve broadcast, which began in 1953 at 9 p.m., consisted of three one-hour blocks in which film clips and musical numbers alternated. At the end of the last block, the stars of that time appeared on the screens – Oldřich Nový, Miroslav Horníček, Josef Hlinomaz, František Filipovský, Jaroslav Marvan, Vlasta Burian, Jan Werich and others.
Photo: CTK
Conference presenters Vladimír Dvořák and Jiřina Bohdalová on the set of the televised New Year’s Eve Photo: ČTK
The beginnings of moderator aces
In 1959, the presenters, as the presenters were then called, of a fun New Year’s Eve party called The name will be announced later were Vladimír Dvořák with Jiřina Bohdalová. And they were so successful that they got a New Year’s Eve job for several years ahead. In the 1970s, the actor and entertainer Vladimír Menšík came to the fore, who was at least as successful as Bohdalová with Dvořák. At the end of the 1970s, these entertaining shows experienced a real boom, when many of us will surely remember almost all the actors and actresses who appeared in films and series on Czechoslovak television at that time laughing in television footage.
Humor is the best medicine
But such fun cost a lot of money. However, since the Czechoslovak Television was aware that people were looking forward to New Year’s TV entertainment, the budgets for its production were almost unlimited. “Since 1968, New Year’s Eve shows have been pre-recorded. The mistakes were inexcusable. It took almost a year to produce the entire program,” recalls former TV sound engineer Petr. And many of us still like to watch more than one TV New Year’s Eve skit again.
Photo: Profimedia.cz
Young people had fun at discotheques that had a pre-approved playlist Photo: Profimedia.cz
As midnight approached…
Although families spent the entire evening in the company of television entertainment, as midnight approached, people began to gather in houses and in front of them, where they counted down the last minutes of the old year. They had sparklers in their hands, toasted at midnight and continued the fun often until the early hours of the morning. In addition to wine, mixed drinks were also drunk. For example beton (becherovka with tonic) or the popular Bavarian (fernet with tonic).
Youth at discotheques
Those who turned eighteen wanted to experience other New Year’s Eve fun than sitting with mom and dad watching TV. “I always tried to persuade my parents to go to a disco in Thermal,” recalls Lenka from Karlovy Vary. There they danced to songs that were on pre-approved playlists. Among the Czech performers, for example, Michal David with the group Kroky František Janeček had a great position on them, and the young people collected céčka with him.
2023-12-30 23:00:51
#Years #Eve #celebrations #socialism #Bread #rolls #cheap #sparkling #wine #shows #young #people #disco #Proženy.cz
