Over the years, I have collected numerous radio shows from the wonderful members of Times Past. It was this very site that was responsible for my love of Holiday OTR, and the epic "Hegel's Holiday" posts from back in the day were events that I looked forward to each and every year.
It is my sincere pleasure to be able to give something back to my OTR friends on Times Past. I am including a Drop Box link below that contains 2 "lost" Lionel Barrymore "A Christmas Carol" performances. To my knowledge, neither of these circulate among the OTR community, so enjoy. The following are included:
1.) 1941's "A Christmas Carol" from Rudy Vallee's Sealtest Show:
In 1941 and 1942, after Barrymore's contract ended with the Campbell Playhouse (CBS), he moved over to NBC to perform the Carol on Rudy Vallee's Sealtest Show. The cast includes Rudy Vallee as host, Kathleen Lockhart as Mrs. Cratchit, and other popular radio actors of the day including Dix Davis, Lou Merrill, Barbara Jean Wong, Eric Snowden, and Alec Hartford. Ironically, although Vallee was known to be a perfectionist and demanded that no on-air mistakes be made by the cast members on his shows, he can be heard making several noteworthy mistakes on this broadcast during the singing of the carols at the end of the show.
2.) 1948 "Wrigley's Christmas Festival"
After performing the "Carol" on his "Mayor of the Town" program from 1943-1946 on CBS and in 1947 on newly formed ABC, Lionel Barrymore moved back to CBS in 1948 to perform "A Christmas Carol" as the finale piece of the Wrigley's Christmas Festival. The entire 2 hour broadcast is included in the link below, and is hosted by Gene Autry. Such notable radio stars of the day are featured throughout the 2 hour special, including Bing Crosby, Burns and Allen, Jack Benny, Hedda Hopper, Andrew Sisters, and Danny Kaye. It is quite comical to hear Bing Crosby perform Jingle Bells "live" on the air with the Andrew Sisters, as he makes several mistakes during the performance. It could be that he had grown so accustomed to pre-recording episodes of his own show, that he had forgotten the importance of preparation before an actual live on-the-air performance.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cpadzeuy60slb7t/AAAlkBCdAFL7JbAeKj0PhiiWa?dl=0 Merry Christmas to all and ENJOY! -Scott
Replies
So I was able to record last night's stream of the lost Lionel Barrymore "A Christmas Carol" from 1947, and have posted it in my DropBox folder. Please note that there is another 1947 "Carol" in there titled "MGM", which is not to be mistaken for the one I recorded. Feel free to download the MGM one though, as this is an official studio record that Barrymore made in 1947 and also includes songs from the Canterbury Choir.
As for the lost "Carol", I have posted 2 versions in my DropBox, a version marked 1947-12-24_Carol_Barrymore_Mayor (full), and one simply labeled 1947-12-24_Carol_Barrymore_Mayor. The version marked "full" includes an interview with author Craig Wichman, and includes chatter before and after the "Carol" broadcast. Apparently, Wichman found this while looking at pictures that famed OTR guru Jerry Haendiges posted of some transcription discs from AFRS earlier this year. He saw one disc marked "A Christmas Carol 1947" and immediately a bell rang in his head that there was no extant copy of that year's performance! After reaching out to Haendiges for a recording, Wichman was able to confirm that this was indeed a lost copy!
Additionally, the "full" version also includes 2 songs sung by Dennis Day that occur immediately after the "Carol" ends. There is also some chatter included in the "full" version after the "Carol" ends, where they try to identify members of the supporting cast. I recorded as long as possible, but was starting to fall asleep after the hour and fifteen minute mark. Anyhow, if you want to hear the interview with Craig, the "Carol", the Dennis Day songs, and the subsequent chatter...download the "full" version of the 1947 Mayor Carol. Otherwise, the standard 1947 Mayor Carol is only about 25 minutes, and includes only Barrymore's performance. Hope this makes sense!
If anyone else recorded this broadcast, feel free to post. I think my recording turned out extremely well, but if someone else obtained a higher quality rip, we can replace mine with that copy instead. Enjoy!
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cpadzeuy60slb7t/AAAlkBCdAFL7JbAeKj0PhiiW...Thank you so much! I love Christmas Carol and read it every year. Most years I'll either watch a recorded presentation of it or listen to Patrick Stewart's incomparable one-man show. However, I have a dear friend who tours his own one-man show of it every year- he portrays Charles Dickens himself as he would have been on one of his reading tours. And my friend LOVES to find new productions of it, so I greatly appreciate having these to pass along to him. May your days be merry and bright!
In addition to the 1941 and 1948 Carols, I have added the rest of my Lionel Barrymore "A Christmas Carol" collection to my DropBox folder. To my knowledge, these are all of the Carols that are currently known to exist, save for the 1947 ABC "Mayor" episode that will be broadcast this Friday (see my post above). All of the Carols included in the folder are the highest quality encodes that I have been able to track down. In some cases, I was even able to find FLAC files, but most of the episodes are either 64 kbps or 128 kbps Bitrate quality. The following are included:
1938-12-23: The Campbell Playhouse broadcast with Orson Welles filling in for Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge. Due to MGM releasing "A Christmas Carol" starring Reginald Owen the same year, Barrymore decided to bow out as Scrooge on the annual radio broadcast, so as not to compete with the movie. This particular download is a FLAC file, and is far and above the best sounding version I have been able to locate.
1939-12-24: This is probably the most well known of all the Barrymore "Carols", as it approaches an hour's length! Once again on the Campbell Playhouse program, this time with Orson Welles as host, this is another FLAC file that is extremely high quality!
1943-12-24: This broadcast is typically listed as "Mayor 1942", which even the filename dictates in the folder. However, it is speculated that this broadcast may actually be from 1943. There are 2 clues that may verify this! For starters, Barrymore was not on Mayor of the Town in 1942 performing the Carol, but instead played Scrooge on Rudy Valle's Sealtest Theater show. Additionally, at the start of this broadcast, the announcer mentions that the story takes place "On a Christmas Eve 100 years ago", and since Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" in 1843, if the announcer means 100 years in a literal sense, that would put the date of this broadcast as 12-24-43, instead of the commonly mislabeled 1942 date!
1944-12-23: This is another Barrymore "Carol" that is sometimes mislabeled as 1947. Since the 1947 "Mayor" Carol on ABC has been found after being lost for 73 years, we can now verify that this Carol likely originates from 1944, although this cannot be 100% verified. This commonly circulates in very bad quality, but this is a nice 128 kbps rip sourced from an AFRS transcription disc.
1949-12-25: A really nice "Carol" performed by Barrymore on the Capehart Christmas Hour, on the Mutual Broadcasting System.
1950-12-24: Another Mutual Broadcasting System "Carol", which actually used the same script as the 1949 performance. However, this is differentiated from the '49 broadcast in that there are different supporting actors, and Barrymore speaks at the end to the soldiers fighting in Korea. This particular "Carol" does not circulate often.
1953-12-20: This is the final "Carol" that Barrymore did before he passed away the following year. This was broadcasted on the Hallmark Hall of Fame program in 1954, several months after he died, to commemorate his life. The original broadcast from 1953 is also available, but I found the 1954 re-broadcast to be of higher quality.
Hope you guys enjoy these!
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cpadzeuy60slb7t/AAAlkBCdAFL7JbAeKj0PhiiW...Thanks again, Scott.
Glad everyone is enjoying this! Apparently, this Friday the radio streaming website Yesterday USA will be playing a lost Barrymore “Carol” from 1947. This is not to be confused with the MGM recording Barrymore made the same year, but is instead a “Mayor of the Town” Carol that hasn’t been heard in 73 years!
Would anyone on here be willing to record this? I am listing the details below from an online advertisement. I am going to try to figure something out, but if someone has a good audio program they are familiar with, it would be preferred. This is going to be a really special event, and I want to make sure it is captured if possible!
Thank You Very Much!!
What a wonderful holiday treat! Thanks, Scott, and all best for the holidays.
Thanks for sharing.
How very nice of you! Thank you very much. And I don't think it's too early to wish you and everyone the Compliments of the Season!
Roger