jimmy stewart stayed in the air force reserve and spoke on behalf of patriotic causes. he campaigned against the colorization of black-and-white movies, including his own, it's a wonderful life." he spoke against cruelty to animals and sponsored a marathon for charity. stewart married only one at the age of 41 to a divorcee with two more sons and added two more children. friend they were inseparable. he gave credit for all of his triumphs to his directors. in 1911 the american film institute presented jimmy stewart with a lifetime achievement award. his wife and children were there. >> i am just grateful for every wonderful day in this wonderful business and i thank you. [ applause ] . >> reporter: for more than 50 years bing cosby's "white christmas," was the best- selling single in any category. to many years he lived here in the bay area and back in 200, ktvu's bob mackenzie talks to the woman who knew him best, his wife catherine, about "white christmas." ♪ i'm dream of a white christmas. ♪ is in the. >> reporter: christmas without that voice, singing that song

why a museum dedicated to jimmy stewart needs a miracle of its own. st >>> we're back with a story sure to have a lot of parents asking how soon is too soon when it comes to giving children an added edge. we all heard of the early reading and music courses. now the focus is on the playing field. getting toddlers trained sometimes even before they're out of diapers. northbound's rehema ellis has our story. >> reporter: this looks like a typical mommy and me class with kids who are barely walking, but already they're goal oriented. >> he learns definitely specific soccer skills. >> reporter: from soccer to gymnastics. tee ball, even ice skating more and more toddlers are getting an early edge in sports instruction, as early as 18 months. >> my man. >> reporter: parents are convinced it's good for their child's development and no age is too young to start. >> the earlier you start anything, whether it's sports, music, art, anything, the earlier you start, the better the foundation is. >> reporter: for all the excitement around introducing sports to toddl

still to come, the jimmy stewart museum in need of a christmas miracle. but first, this is "today" on nbc. lightning fast. lightning strong. verizon 4g lte. rule the air on the most advanced 4g network in the world. come celebrate exciting cars that are stunning to look at, exhilarating to drive and worry free to own. celebrate this holiday season with the gift of platinum. jaguar platinum coverage: five years or 50,000 miles of complimentary scheduled maintenance, and no cost replacement of wear and tear items. visit your bay area jaguar dealer during the platinum celebration for a $599 lease offer on the 2011 xf. leftover desserts, bodroo now. and hurry beforehe interns getere. thanks but i already have some yummy black fort cake black forest cake? ♪ so? [ female announcer ] need a guilt free treat? y yoplait light. i've lost weight. [ female anc ] with 3licious flavors aroundoriech. plait. it is so good. >>> still to come on "today," amanda knox. she's appealing her murder conviction and smoke out in court just a few moments ago. what did she say? we

he took the job of restoring the dodge that jimmy stewart drove and plowed into the tree. smith fell in love with the car, over the years he kept track of it, and recently it went up for sale. >> the rest is history, it became available and we bought it. >> he wanted the car shipped to his colorado home last week, but weather pushed the delivery date to a more appropriate time. that looks like part of the movie right there. that looks almost unreal. pretty fun. >>> lauren scott joins us with a gift list for each of our bay area franchises. >>> there's so many presents we'd love to pass on to our local teams. let's go down the list, you want it to be something they'll use. >>> the warriors should be getting one of their stars back for tonight's showdown against portland at the arena in oakland. with ten teams in five games the stars were out, lebron and the heat face the lakers. >>> i wouldeo like to lik t sayy brother luke in california. in the bud, with oscillococcinum. get oscillo and feel like yourself again. oscillococcinum, nip it in the bud. >>> part of the fun today

-- >> jimmy: martha stewart's home depot. >> our home and -- >> jimmy: yeah -- our home. >> our home away from home and it's full of great stuff. oh, my gosh, the christmas -- you are -- >> jimmy: you're doing a holiday thing, yeah with home depot. >> oh, holidays, we're doing paints. yeah paints in your work shop. i went in your workshop. >> jimmy: that's pretty cool, right? >> yeah. >> jimmy: i don't even go back in the workshop. >> so, it's like your craft room -- yeah it's great. >> jimmy: this is really fun though. >> and we have kitchens. >> jimmy: yeah, but you're doing cool holiday things like pre-decorated christmas trees and pre-lit christmas trees -- cause that's a big pain in the butt. >> oh, yeah. who wants to light a tree? >> jimmy: nobody. >> right, it's all done for you. it's all lit up. >> jimmy: finally someone invented this. flocked with snow. why have we waited this long for this? it's like yeah, you do it for me. >> and the, oh the ornaments are beautiful, too. you're going to see. >> jimmy: i'm loving it. i'm very excited. more with martha stewart when we get ba

picking out a tree is so american, so jimmy stewart, so charlie brown imagine that many people will move this shopping trip online. of course companies won't continue to offer products online if nobody buys them. so it will ,cbe interesting to see if this latest experiment in live foliage actually succeeds. don't waste your money, john matarese. >>> oh, i see. a throne for the tv... room for movies... your workout gear... non-stop football... it's a man cave! the boys next door will never leave. who says we want them to? . h dog in the world. her owner adopted her 17 years ago. that would make her m175 in d years. what's her secret? >> i think it's lot of love. if you give your animal lots of love and make sure is that she's taken care of and brought to the vet when you think there is something wrong. 175. misty's owner is submitting her for consideration in the guinness world wrecord books. >>> is michael orr leaving football for his hoop dreams. find out on abc2 news at 6:00 >>> we now know the fire on the block was set, but it's way too early to

he restored this 1919 dodge that jimmy stewart plows into a tree in the movie. he put it up for sale and he sold it. smith wanted the car shipped to his colorado home, but the weather made it to a more appropriate time, today, the day before christmas. it turns out it is a wonderful life for him. >> do you ever get tired of watching that movie, by the way? >> no, you could watch it a thousand times. >> the big man already made his way here safely. but tomorrow, not so good for the rest of us. >> we're looking at a pretty powerful storm system. if your plans take you to the high country or back from the high country, over the next 24 hours, i think your window is between now and about 2:00 or 3:00 tomorrow afternoon. we're going to get socked with some pretty decent wind and some good mountain snows. in fact, another foot and a half of fresh powder. if you wait for this to pass, you'll have some nice, fresh snow to enjoy. around the mountain area, it's fairly quiet. we're going to take you to a live picture. the cameras began to bounce around just a bit. the wind

. >> reporter: jimmy stewart, tiger woods, marilyn monroe even james earl jones -- >> luke, i am your father. >> reporter: yes, the man with that voice stuttered. and while scientists have long known stress can set it stuttering. researcher announced this year the discovery of the genes linked to stuttering. >> this is not a disorder of social functions. but really is a disease in many ways like any other disease. >> reporter: david seideler knows it well. he's the screen writer behind "the king's speech" and also grew up stuttering. >> to be stutterer and to be heard is a wonderful thing and this is just very moving to me to have my voice heard. >> reporter: the goal of so many struggling to find the right words, from school kids to kings. sharyn alfonsi, abc news, new york. >> and that's all for us tonight. i'll see you tomorrow on "gma." for diane sawyer and all of us at abc news, have a great night.

he could pull a jimmy stewart and stop senate doing everything it wants if it's spending too much money. am i right? >> yeah. you can block things for a day or two or three but people have to change. they have to decide they don't want welfare or warfare and the congress will respond. what you say demonstrates how messed up the system is, the process is horrible. you have system where the honest conservatives say you shouldn't vote for it because it will raise the debt. others like myself says you'll raise taxes $800 billion. there is no absolute right answer for this. i just happen to think raising taxes now is worse at this time. i think they bloated concerns about the deficit. more than $60 billion. they are counting tax credit as spending. it's not spending. >> you used an interesting phrase. "the markets are stronger than the government." so what did you mean by that? >> the best example was in the 1970s and '60s watching what gold and the dollar was doing. we can want printing money the world -- we kept printing money. but it broke down and gold was closed and gold broke out from

keith smith restores old cars. 20 years ago, he took a job restoring the 1919 dodge that jimmy stewart crashes into a tree in the movie. he fell in love with the car. recently, he found it went up for sale. >> it became available and we bought it. >> smith wanted the car shipped to his colorado home last week but weather pushed the delivery date to a more appropriate day, the day before christmas. you may notice the change of scenery around here. this is our temporary home. we have a new set being assembled in the studio just a few feet away. we will be in our new place in a couple of weeks. we will also be back with more on "today in the bay." stay with us. >>> mike singletary's talent just ahead. >>> a very good morning to you. in lorne scott. what do you give the men who have everything, the bay area sports team, a special gift for each of them we would like to pass along. that and more coming up in sports. >> about wf he had to break, we are going to head outside to the golden gate bridge. very little traffic. christmas morning. 7:22. we will be back with more news. stay with us. v

i mean, kermit is jimmy stewart or tom hanks when you're a little kid. >> jimmy: i do get that. yeah, absolutely. yeah. 'cause he's kind of heartbreaking, but he's -- he's lovable. >> he's the every man. >> jimmy: yeah. >> i'm not going to lie to you. i mean, i wrote the script for, like, three years, and we did the first table read, and they brought all the puppets. and so we come out, and it starts, and then kermit comes out. and i think his first line is "hi ho." >> jimmy: aw, come on. >> yeah. it's just, "hi ho." >> he was born in my brain. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: wow! >> yeah, his name is walter. he's the sweetest puppet of all times. but i must say, like, it's not, like, such a funny talk show story, but -- i don't care. [ laughter ] i don't care, jimmy, i'm sorry. >> jimmy: i know -- >> i want this to go well >> jimmy: i want to hear this story. >> these guys are so talented. they're not just puppeteers. they're not just operating a puppet. they're actors, and they're singers, and they're contortionists. we did a scene where me and walter, the puppet i just showed you, are

or jimmy stewart or something like. this he sort of set the bar for who i wanted to be as an actor. >> jack two, kids? >> spending time with my boys and having a holiday feast with the family. >> sounds fantastic. jason. >> same, see my family and try to spread joy throughout the world. >> all right. there you go. guys, good luck. thank you so much for coming in pleasure. >> pleasure was mine. >> you went up against "king kong" a few years ago and this year kind of like it. >> that's right. christmas day. "gulliver's" will be unleashed. >> greatest family fill m of all time. >> well said. >> thank you, gentleman. it makes its way to a theater near you christmas day. rebecca? >> thank you, russ. always cited as one of the biggest annoyances of the holiday season, no, for the the crowds or in-laws i'm talking about the hard-to-open packages that drive us all crazy. ♪ ♪ >> opening the toys, some of the packaging is almost impossible to get into. >> you have the zip ties where everything is twisted in the back through c

stewart and donna reed. it was the world premier of it. my friend john mcdaniel wrote the music and i wrote the lyrics and my friend dan cooney contributed. i haven't seen john mcdaniel in almost a year. we're getting on the plane to go to michigan to watch this musical that i wrote the lyrics, sent them off to him and he wrote the musical down in florida, set up a little cassette something for me. we'd never met the director. never been involved in casting. i went with very low expectations because first of all, it is like a workshop, it is the first time. and it is a regional theater and you don't know what you're going to get. let me tell you something, the's fantastic. >> you're kidding. >> no. i was really thrilled. 35 people from this town -- only two professional actors in it. >> how cool. >> it reminded me why i got into theater, hoda. it is so much fun to see. there's clarence, the tall guy on the left played george bailey. john huffman, a writer, adapted the script and we had like 12 songs in it an

quest was doing stewart copeland. >> yeah. >> jimmy: and, yeah -- and you were doing andy. yeah. very, very good. what did you -- do you have a -- do you ever do police songs on record? >> yeah, we love to cover the police 'cause i have a high voice like -- like sting, who's in the police. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: i only know his solo stuff so i don't know what you're talking about. [ laughter ] >> i'm just a "fields of gold" guy. >> jimmy: well, thanks for being here, buddy. i appreciate it, man. >> right on, thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: he's a good man. we have such a great finish to the week tonight. from the movie "all good things" and she is fantastic in this movie, the lovely and talented kirsten dunst is here. [ cheers and applause ] one of my faves. this next guy is the lead singer -- the lead singer of twisted sister, who is currently starring in "rock of ages" on broadway. dee snider is joining us! [ cheers and applause ] come on. and like i said, we've got some great music from the one and only maroon 5, everybody. [ cheers and applause ] what a show! you