Thursday, December 24, 2020

Countdown to Christmas: A Christmas Carol (1939)

 We've seen Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol adapted for movies, television, and the stage. Ye scribe actually acted in a Christian-themed school production in 1978. Never gave acting any serious thought afterward.

Digression over. Carol had also been adapted, unsurprisingly, for radio, dating back to the mid-30's. For example, CBS' Campbell Playhouse, which lasted just three years total after the soup giant landed a deal with Orson Welles, shortly after Welles' celebrated adaptation of War of The Worlds, presented Carol in each of the two seasons of its hour-long format. Welles starred as Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1938 production, but a year later, moved over to serve as narrator, opening room for Lionel Barrymore, who first essayed the role of Scrooge on radio in 1934.

Here, then, is the Welles-Barrymore production from 1939. Also heard are Everett Sloane and Bea Benaderet, among others.


It is our Christmas gift to one and all. No rating. We'll see you on Saturday. Merry Christmas.

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