Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol Orson Welles Lionel Barrymore 1938 Christmas Old Time Radio Shows
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- čas přidán 7. 12. 2022
- The most beloved classic to this day by Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol.
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The Campbell Playhouse (1938-1940):
Yes, the soup company that we know of today! The Campbell Playhouse was a live CBS radio drama series directed by and starring Orson Welles. Produced by Welles and John Houseman, it was a sponsored continuation of The Mercury Theatre on the Air. The series offered hour-long adaptations of classic plays and novels, as well as adaptations of popular motion pictures.
When Welles left at the end of the second season, The Campbell Playhouse changed format as a 30-minute weekly series that ran for one season (1940-41).
(Wikipedia) - Zábava
My Grandmother would have been 19 when this was on the radio. It is very likely that she listened to this with her parents. I'm fighting back the tears, just thinking that. Thank you.
Oh probably - family time around the radio was the thing back then. I'm sure my grandparents did the same thing.
My nan too. Lovely to imagine them sat listening to it.
Orson Welles was only 23 years old when this play was produced.
Isn’t it amazingly the voices of Time passed legends,”That are just ALIVE today, as then”! TCM’ shows of this History, is as big or bigger still today!”THATS AMAZING!
I agree .. these shows have stood the test of time and are just as great as they were when they first aired!
They are alive as long as we keep it alive. Lionel was legend. This is the role he most wanted to be remembered for. ❤
@@theprimitivelibraryqqqqq
How incredibly exciting it must have been to hear this broadcast in 1938. It is still thrilling today.
I was born in 1942 but my parents showed us this movie as we were growing up now I am 81 and have never missed a single movie since beautiful meaning to spread love and good cheer and kindness ❤️👍🏼
I completely agree I watch the same movies every Christmas!! They are just as great today as they where back then!
This version is better than most film versions. I think it’s the voices esp Orson Wells which is so expressive without being over the top.
I agree.. he had a great voice!
DEC 2022 !! CLASSIC !!
Lionel Barrymore is the definitive Scrooge. I wonder if he drew on this character when he played Mr. Potter?
Merry Christmas and Happy 2024 🍺
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you as well! 🎄
❤ tky have a merry Christmas everybody 2023
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 🎄
As mean as Mr. Lionel Barrymore sounds on TV and screen he sounds so pleasant when he's in a regular conversation. He is a great actor. 👍
The greatest.
In the Barrymore starred in a radio program called "Mayor of the Town" where he played a kindly, fatherly character. It was quite a difference from Scrooge or Mr. Potter, but his vouce could encompass both extremes. Also, check out his Grandpa Vanderhof in "You Can't Take It With You."
@@deborahschuler8826 Thank you, I will 🎄🎅
One of my absolute favorites!! The ending really tugged at my heart strings as this is the first Christmas in 58yrs. without my Mother. Such an amazing performance! 🥰💖
Sorry for your loss of Mom. She's always with you in your heart. 💝💝🙏
Oh I'm so sorry for your loss! She will always be with you 🙏💝💝
@@theprimitivelibrary Thank you!! 💖
@@melindawood3644 Thank you Melinda! 💖
Always think of the good times you shared with her, Sheryl. 😊
I don't know which I like him better as: Scrooge or Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life! 😊
Wonderful listen in Atl traffic🤣
A genuine Victorian gentleman recreacting the role from that most Victorian of stories. Perfect listening in Snowy London.....
Oh I agree... I think I'm leaning more towards It's a Wonderful Life since that is one of my favorite Christmas movies!
orson welles,voice made for radio
Def! he would have been great with audiobooks!
One of the most famous voices of the last century.
Orson Welles' voice ❤
gotta love it... you can always tell when its Orson on a show!!
I believe this was from 1939. Lionel Barrymore had an amazing voice. No doubt why he played Scrooge for almost 20 years. Nothing better than these radio dramas!
@@beacee 1939? So the 12/23/38 in the video is incorrect? Then again, I heard Lionel Barrymore passed on recording this in 1938 to not interfere with the 1938 movie...
Stick around til the end for interview with Lionel Barrymore.
What a Treasure .
A true classic and more entertaining than many television versions. Thanks for this gem from the past.
I'm glad you enjoyed it
Awesome Welles!
Happy Christmas everyone
Happy Christmas!!
교요한 밤 거룩한밤 🌃
Merry Yule
This radio production was an annual event
This rendition brought me to tears several times! The best version I’ve come across!
It sounds like Mr. Potter from "It's a Wonderful Life" playing Scrooge...oh wait....
My favorite line is God Bless Us Everyone said by Tiny Tim . This is a Classic and one of my favorite stories I'm trying to collect every single verson of A Christmas Carol on DVd etc !
Wow - that will be a lot of versions!
The reading starts at 03:50
a classic merry christmas
Merry Christmas to you as well!!
I Just heard this program and I really enjoyed it Thank you to all the People who work on Primitive Library channel for posting it.
You're welcome I'm glad you enjoyed it!
So wonderful 😊
Glad you enjoyed it!! 😊
"What right have you to be dismal about Christmas, uncle?" As we find out he had plenty of reasons poor guy.
I love listening to this and imagining the scene in my head. I think radio like this was good for the vocabulary and general ability to speak well back then. People aren’t really good at speaking nowadays… myself included.
Too busy texting and playing with your cell phone, that's why...
@@jeffsmith2022 lol I literally don’t text anyone
What acting!!!
When I listen to an old radio show like this one, I think that my Mother and Father and their parents heard this same show when it 1st aired. I feel a distant connection at this sentimental season. 😊
My parents loved radio shows too, the first podcasts!
Listen to that dramatic score! Bernard Herrmann should get as much credit as Welles for creating such high art. Thank you TPL for the high fidelity upload, wow.
Good grief! Bernard Herman wrote the score for Psycho and then the Brian DePalma film, Sisters in 1973.
Wonderful sound. 1938!
Actually, it was 1939.
Old school, I like it and thank you for sharing👍
Probably the best version of this great story, in a recording that holds up, from Orson Welles' Mercury Company, with a sponsor finally. Thank you for posting this. in an age of Rage in which we live, it finally gave me a much needed Christmas spirit.
X I love this story, it’s my favorite Christmas movie every year, I have not seen this one before with Lionel Barrymore, but I know I’ll listen to it in the future again. I also love the film that George C Scott did playing Scrooge in a Christmas Carol as well, thank you for letting us see this Christmas past presentation. Merry Christmas to all! 52:05
Love this. Merry Christmas!
Thank you and Merry Christmas to you as well!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
Thank You ❤️ Grandfather would listen on Sunday the radio made a special time for airing good memories with grandparents and listening today awesome
Merry Christmas and to all good night It's A Wonderful Life
Joy and Peace 🕊️🙏
Merry Christmas to you as well!! 🎄🙏
Sure, eventually radios grew screens, but even after that it was still 90% audio.
Now that's the truth!
Good afternoooooon!
♥️🎄Thank you 🎄♥️
Thank you for sharing. What a treat.
Glad you enjoyed it! Merry Christmas!
What a wonderful Christmas treat! Thank you for posting this. Best wishes to all.
Happy holidays!
Originally broadcast on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1939 [8-8:55pm(et)].
The December 23, 1938 edition featured Welles himself as "Scrooge", because Lionel Barrymore was committed to narrate a condensed version of MGM's adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" [featuring Reginald Owen] on their "GOOD NEWS OF 1939" program on NBC {December 15, 1938}- and, because of his contract with the studio, could not appear on his traditional CBS dramatization that year, which he had been doing since 1934.
That's intriguing since it was reported that he was sick! But it doesn't surprise me probably the network didn't want to announce what Lionel was working on so they had to say something.
He caught the "Louis B. Mayer Virus." 😉 Lionel's portion of that "GOOD NEWS" broadcast is on CZcams.
I had read that Barrymore couldn't play the role of Scrooge because he was having difficulty with arthritis or some sort of leg injury, which several years later led him to play old man Potter in It's a Wonderful Life from a wheelchair.
@@sadeaton Yes - He was in a wheelchair by 1938 which is why he couldn't play the role of Scrooge - that part was given to Reginald Owen.
@@theprimitivelibrary My high school basketball coach looked like old man Potter, acted like him too.
Delighted I found this
Ebenezer Scrooge eventually bought the Campbells Soup Company and they now charge $2.00 a can. True story
😂😂 how true that is!
To this day, I can not eat chicken noodle soup with wide noodles or lots of chicken in it. Thanks to growing up on Campbell's, "proper" chicken noodle soup has to have narrow noodles and one small chunk of chicken (rarely, two chunks) floating in the broth.
Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year 🎉🎉🎉🎉!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you as well!
The great Lionel Barrymore's greatest hits-- Mr. Potter gets to transform into Dan Peggotty, or perhaps Grandpa Vanderhof.
Love it! Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks for listening!
I enjoyed this so much! 🎄
Thank you
You're welcome - Happy Holidays!
Thank You.Merry Christmas Hugs
Glad you enjoyed it - Merry Christmas to you as well!
Thank you, that sounded great, considering how long ago it was recorded!
Awesome!
The recording is amazing. Thank you for posting it. However, this broadcast is actually the December 24, 1939 performance. The 1938 broadcast does not have Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge, but rather Welles himself.
Right! 😃
Too bad the other players were not introduced to us...🌲🌲🌲Merry Christmas to all...
Merry Christmas!
The cast credits were left off of this version. The "Mercury Players" were: Everett Sloane (as "Young Scrooge"), Frank Readick, Bea Benaderet, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, George Coulouris, Georgia Backus, and several other fine actors.
Lionel Barrymore & Orson Welles have an Epilogue to the December 24, 1939 broadcast
thanking their radio sponsor, Campbell Soup Co. and naming cast and broadcast support staff.
This version is similar to the one Campbell Soup Company distributed to local radio stations from the 1970's until a few years ago {with a new opening and closing narrated by Len Gochman; that one also eliminated the original closing and mention of the cast, and the CBS I.D. at 29:31}.
Your description is exactly reversed. This is Lionel Barrymore in the"5th annual" broadcast of A Christmas Carol, which is December 24, 1939. In 1938, his exclusive commitment to MGM prevented him, Orson Welles subbing as Scrooge that year.
Yes, someone else has already said that; however, I use the date that is given on the files by Archive.org. I have removed the info I put in... but everywhere I have checked it states that he was in the 1938 and Orson Welles did the 1939. Too bad we will never see the original documentation from the broadcasts to find out. It would have been nice to have documents for all of the shows that were broadcasted back then!
Do you mean the movie? He was to be in the MGM movie in 1938 but due to illness Reginald Owen played the part.
Wikipedia: "By 1938, Barrymore's disability forced him to relinquish the role of Ebenezer Scrooge (a role he made famous on the radio) to British actor Reginald Owen in the MGM film version of A Christmas Carol."
Here's the 1938 edition, with Welles as "Scrooge": czcams.com/video/kHcFl_1AFFI/video.html
Here's the NEW YORK TIMES radio listings from December 15, 1938, noting Lionel's appearance on the "GOOD NEWS" program: www.jjonz.us/RadioLogs/pagesnfiles/logs_files/1930s/1938/38_12Dec/[n]38-12-15-(Thu).pdf
And Orson's production on "THE CAMPBELL PLAYHOUSE" (identified as the "MERCURY THEATRE") that year: www.jjonz.us/RadioLogs/pagesnfiles/logs_files/1930s/1938/38_12Dec/[n]38-12-23-(Fri).pdf
Does anyone know if this script is public domain?
Not likely.
I imagine it is.
So this was 1938? Ben Mankiewicz incorrectly, then, it seems, reported on TCM a few nights ago that so as not to compete with Reginald Owen's 1938 film version of A Christmas Carol, Barrymore decided to skip his standard radio performance as Scrooge.
I just listened to a biography of Mr. Barrymore that said he was not physically able to play Scrooge. He had bad arthritis in his hip. So the role was given to Reginald Owens. But he liked playing the role on radio.
@@JohannaLeigh Thanks! So that might be why he was sitting down throughout It’s A Wonderful Life.
@@ZephaniahLBarrymore was also in a wheelchair when he played Dr. Gillespie in the Doctor Kildare movies.
It is indeed a beloved classic, but after 14 years independent research, I'm convinced it was not originally written by Charles Dickens. What appears to have happened is that Dickens hurriedly re-worked a spiritualist redemption story for quick cash, modifying it for quick-sale. The original authors were an American couple named Mathew and Abby Whittier.
Commercial rubbish, of its time - pure humbug!