Orson Welles announces this as the fifth time this tale had been done at Christmas time - was it the last? Lionel Barrymore is excellent in a role he was born to play and the whole thing is done with heart and good humour. It's a shame Welles never tackled Dickens on screen, he had the bigness for it.
2 comments:
As far as I know, Welles and company only performed “A Christmas Carol” twice on the radio -- once in 1938, with Welles as Scrooge and this broadcast with Lionel Barrymore from December 1939, not 1940.
But I believe this was the fifth time Campbell Soups had sponsored it. Previous versions were done on the Campbell-sponsored "Hollywood Hotel" series and as Christmas specials. Barrymore had been doing it since 1934 (except in '36 when his brother John filled in as Scrooge and the '38 Welles version).
CBS had been doing annual "Carol" broadcasts as early as 1928 (when they did a two-hour version). Scheduled readings of the "Carol" on American radio, often with musical accompaniment, go back to at least 1922; dramatizations go back to at least 1924 and probably before.
I thought he only did it twice too - but in the intro to the broacast, Welles says it's the fifth time - he must have been referring to those other broadcasts you referred to. Thanks for clearing that up!
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