citi financial tools. easier banking. standard at citibank. up next on a second look, remembering christmas through the eyes of ktvu's bob mackenzie. from heartwarming stories of troops away from home to the tale of cats who sing silent nigh. to the toy store of days gone by, to a nostalgic take of christmas. good evening and merry christmas. tonight on a second look we share some of our christmas

stories as brought to us by one of our favorite reporters, bob mackenzie. bob brought us holiday reports that were sometimes touching, sometimes funny but always memorable. bob visited with a family who's christmas dinner table had one empty chair in 2003. that of a soldier serving in iraq. >> reporter: some friends would be joining them later, someone who wouldn't be joining them was brendan foran the son who is serving in iraq. brenad was very much on their mind. >> i think you get through because you have to get on with the normal things of life but it's not the same. you know we're missing him and he's an in intrical part of his

father and i. >> i understand he joined the military the day after september 11th. >> yeah, he joined, he went over september 12th to the recruiting center and started the process. and went to basic that january. >> so he simply wanted to do something about it? >> yeah, that's the kind of guy he is. his heart is enormous and he's not in it for himself. >> reporter: celeste says she worried about brendan every day but it helps that he writes lots of letters. >> dear mom, peace from the middle east. it's hot as hell here today. we started off this morning at 2:30 a.m. going on a mission. we are in southwest baghdad our mission was to go into a town and clear three schools that

might possibly be hiding the suicide bombers. well besides the ak47 shots it was a pretty quiet mission. i've been wearing the same uniform for over 25 days without a shower. it drives you a little crazy besides some cuts and scrapes, i'm doing really well. tell my friends that i really miss them and can't wait to get home. >> it's been hard but we're proud of him. we're so proud of him. >> i think we have a lot of faith and just a positive attitude that he's going to come home. >> to bob and pretty from mom. >> seems like this happened all over the u.s. today. families celebrating christmas without a dad or a brother or a son doing their best to make it a great day. but of course it couldn't be quite the same. >> over the years one television specialist became a holiday fixture. bob hope visiting the troops in

dc. bob mackenzie brought us this look back at his life. >> and so, it is my honor to present to you bob hope. >> reporter: it actually was an honor for a billionaire governor to introduce bob hope, the most popular entertainer of his time. with a career that spanned movies and television, hope kept a show biz schedule that would exhaust a workaholic right into his 90s. hope had established his persona, the romancer who isn't as smooth as he thinks. >> from the south pacific we present the bob hope show. >> thank you, how do you do ladies and gentlemen? this is bob mosquito network hope. >> reporter: it was world war ii that made hope not just a

star but a national icon. wherever there were sol -- soldiers there was hope. entertaining troops sometimes within the sound of gunfire. >> are we winning? >> hope scored with soldiers like hardly anybody could. partly because he loved what they liked, pretty girls and good times. as the time went on, the pretty girls changed but hope was the same. >> how come this morning when your rice crispies popped you ducked under the table? >> i forgot to take my john wayne pill. >> it wasn't for the troops -- >> i think so because we traveled all over the world doing that. >> according to your mother the only christmas present she wants is to receive a letter from you saying you've watched our shows. tell her if you liked the ear

muffs she sent you for christmas. go ahead, tell her. >> don't you want to see -- >> no that's not for you. that's my next line. don't read my next line. >> over the years his costars came and went. and when the prompter became too far to read, he clowned his way through it and audiences ate it up. >> you are all i want for christmas. i can't think of the words. >> it isn't easy. >> he didn't work at anything. in other words you know what i mean he was enjoying. it wasn't work. he loved it. and when you do something with love, it keeps you alive forever. >> now in another century, hope is resting at last. and no one can say he didn't earn it. >> still to come on a second look, in an age of electronic wonders, bob shows us a place dedicated to things mechanical.

and it was once a san francisco landmark. remembering fao schwartz and the amazing toys it sold.

christmas is a time for toy, some small, some big. in the latest times some of the biggest toys have been mechanical. there's a museum dedicated to all toys mechanical. bob mackenzie shows us why. >> reporter: the bad news is that the museum mequanique downstairs has to go. the museum mequanique is one of

the city's quirqiest of concoctions. they continue to fascinate today in the era of electronic games. maybe that's because they're solid, tactile and real. these two girls controlling the boxers are certainly rivetted. and in this baseball game it's a physical bat and a physical ball bearing. >> it's my favorite place. i don't like arcade games. it's really much funner to play these games than what we have now. >> it's a museum where you come and completely hands on and you're stepping back in time. >> reporter: the owner of the museum has been collecting mechanical toys since the age of 10. years ago he acquired the machines from the penny arcade

at playland. and he bought the collection of adolph zudro. admission is free, visitors pay the rent by popping quarters into the old machines. the place doesn't make any money but he doesn't care. >> i love to see, i love to come in here and i see people laugh and enjoy and dance with the music of the nickolodian, that's fun. >> and sam continues to replace parts from worn ones. >> people who have never seen a place like this before are excited about what they are discovering. people are having a wonderful time and sharing it with their children and grandchildren and it's just a delight to watch this. >> certainly after bob filed that report, the museum moved to fisherman's wharf today you will find it at pier 45. san francisco used to have one of the most famous the toy

stores in america, faa schwartz. it closed in 1983. but for many it was more than a store, it was a destination. bob mackenzie took us inside a san francisco landmark. >> reporter: if you have known anyone who has had a corvette it looks like this one. every kid loves a handmade model. how about this one. there's a whole raft of little gadgets that do all the work themselves. ♪ if you think your daughter

does not have any culture, how about a singing doll? this doll sings in french. not everything is through the roof, one of the hot sellers this year at schwartzers is this alien zapping gun. in all the store, there's one toy i could not resist, a raggedy anne. boy i missed you raggedy anne. have you ever taken your dog to see santa? in 1998, bob mackenzie found some people that did. >> reporter: what do dogs really want? let's ask one. >> what would you like for christmas? what do you want for christmas, what do you want?

>> reporter: unfortunately most of us don't speak dog language but i guess we can assume santa claus does. >> hello dear, hello there little puppy. come here, come on. come on. >> photo taken with santa. >> oh, yes, what a cute little puppy. what a cute little puppy. >> reporter: at the village mall, dogs had their pictures taken with santa thanks to the humane society. some of the dogs came from the humane society in the first place. hershey for instance. when their family dog died two years ago the sherpo's weren't going to get another one. at least that's what mr. sherpo thought. >> we made a skit for christmas for him saying that we really wanted a dog for christmas he said we could get another dog so we got her. >> i kind of broke down, they all ganged up on me. >> reporter: they very much

want a picture of hershey with santa. >> hello there little puppy. hello there. >> reporter: hershey has never seen a man in a red suit before. >> why don't you take off the leash. that's okay hershey. come on. come on hershey. that's okay. hersh, hersh. >> eventually hershey decides to humor these people. there's a small fee but it all goes to the humane society. >> this was his second visit to santa claus. the first visit he barked louder and longer than this time so he's getting better and he didn't snap at santa. >> i actually have not had a bad experience. i've never been bitten. i've never had any dog do something that i didn't want him to do on me and all the dogs have been very, very good. okay buster, up, up. good girl. look at the camera.

good girl. oh, you want that, you want that hunter. hunter, hunter do you want. no hunter wants to get down. when we come back on a second look. yes those are cats singing silent night. bob mackenzie will explain how they do that and try it out on another little portly musical star. and later, bob mackenzie reflects on christmas. ok, you guys wanted a space for entertaining your friends,

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for the past month you've likely been listening to a lot of christmas music. but whatever it is, it can't likely be like the one bob mackenzie found. >> reporter: the employees at

the city hall record business listen to music as they work. the record distribution business is a good one for risk takers who think they know a hit when they hear one. the head man of city hall records robert cohen believed this would be a hit and put some money into pressing it. jingle cats has turned out to be a novelty hit with sales hitting toward 100,000. >> it's just crazy enough that it might work. that's what i thought. >> did you like it yourself or you thought maybe somebody out there would like it? >> i pretty much thought somebody else might like it. i wouldn't want to listen this for a long period of time. ♪ >> the record was cut by a southern california man mike spala who spent more than a year recording the meows of his

nine cats and then pcithem into music. >> you put it on and people are hearing christmas songs and you realize it's cats. and you go what? what is is that. and i thought it was great. >> ♪ >> reporter: with city hall's gamble paying off we thought there must be a lot of money in music business. so we sought to find a star of our own. all right jojo, give us one solid grunt. jojo a pot belly pig gave us an excellent grunt. we took jojo's grunt to a music

studio. they entered the pig's grunt into his synthesizer. then george added some nice strings. then some french horn. and finally we were ready to introduce the music world to jingle pig. >> what do you think george? >> it's beautiful. >> if our record becomes a hit you won't see us much around here after christmas. we'll be relaxing on the beach in hawaii. when we come back on a second look, bob shares his thoughts on whether we've lost the true meaning of christmas.

have we lost the true meaning of christmas. 1990, bob mackenzie thought maybe some of us had so he put this piece together to remind us what this time of year is all about. >> reporter: it's gotten so commercial we say. christmas isn't what it used to be. just exactly when it was what it used to be we're not sure. but we know it's smart to be cynical about christmas now, it's all about money we say. we say that but we don't really believe it about ourselves. yes, we spend money, that stuff that we spent so much of our time and energy and sweat to acquire. but when spend it on someone else, we're giving of our very self, if that isn't love what is. a poet said christmas is the time of year that we make the

attempt to love all our loved ones. some people go beyond that, trying to love our fellow man just like jesus did. it's a time of year that turns black and cold. christmas is the fire in the harth. the time that says there is rebirth. and there's some that don't have anyone at all. maybe we dig a little deeper for spare change this time of year. it's not a time to ask who's to blame, at christmas it doesn't matter who's to blame. the holidays remind us how lonely are the lonely, how poor are the poor. they also remind us of our own blessings and of how precious and passing life is. that may be why the happiness of the holidays is always mixed

with a ting of sadness to celebrate what we have is to acknowledge what we can lose. you don't have to be religious of christmas, though it probably helps. you don't have to be a sentimentalist either. though that probably helps too, there's something a little corny about christmas, it's a good time to take a break about being wise and worldly and cynical and to say along with that corny character tiny tim, god bless us every one. and that's it for this week's second look. i'm julie haener, we leave you tonight with christmas scenes from one of the most beautiful places on earth. yosemite national park. the photographer is john mackenzie and the editor is katie ortiz who retired this month after 35 years at ktvu. we wish her and all of you a very happy holiday.

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