Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol Scrooge Ernest Chappell 4 record radio story

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52

       

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Offered is this ultra rare especially since the 4 78's are in VG+ or better condition! The cover is also VG it has edge wear and a price sticker on it, still sturdy crisp sharp corners and the colors as well as printed text is still very sharp! This is a historical and very very collectible 78 adaptation Victor DG29 of Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol"Scrooge! by Ernest Chappell.I found this piece on jazzoLOG.
 Four years ago I wrote an article about a radio production of Dickens' Christmas Carol that my father constructed in our hometown back in the 1940s. He had based his presentation on an RCA Victor set of 4 12" 78 RPM records of the story, produced by famed radio personality Ernest Chappell in 1941. Nothing I've ever written has yielded such a prolonged response. Google still carries it and eventually Wikipedia picked it up in its entry about Chappell.

Each year I get requests from people in at least the English-speaking world for CD copies of that old RCA release, which of course is long gone in its original form (although EBay sometimes offers one I understand). In my original essay, I offer to make a copy for anyone---and that offer still stands.

In honor of radio drama and all the actors who made a living in that unique format---and who had such a huge impact on my life---I've decided to re-post the article...and some of the comments that have appeared since. My main motivation is the interactions with those people who want a copy, and the stories they tell of how much this production meant to them and their families. Hopefully the search engines will be reinvigorated and other people will get some answers---and maybe provide more!

The image accompanying this version is of the cover of the original set of records. It was sent to me by a contact this year in Ontario. The photograph I refer to at the beginning of the essay can still be seen at the original printing here [link] .

Do not be an embodiment of fame; do not be a storehouse of schemes;
do not be an undertaker of projects; do not be a proprietor of wisdom.
Wander where there is no trail.
Hold on to all that you have received from Heaven but do not think you have gotten anything.
Be empty, that is all.
The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror---
going after nothing,
welcoming nothing,
responding but not storing.

---Chuang-Tzu

One can not be certain of living
even into the evening.

In the dim first light
I watch the waves
from a departing boat.

---Shinkei

The truth dazzles gradually, or else the world would be blind.

---Emily Dickinson

The Kodachrome we have here most probably is of Christmas 1952. That would make me 12 and in 6th grade in the picture. Color photography just was becoming available to the public---although most people still could not afford it for another 10 years. My sister Ann seems to be wondering whether or not she is too big to be held by our father like that. Our mother Rhea never liked having her picture taken---and yes, there still were quite a number of people like that 50 years ago. Nowadays, when the TV or computer camera could be transmitting our image somewhere at any moment, we've learned to walk around with a pose available at all times.

Our father was known as J. Ralph Carlson. Ralph was his middle name and the "J" stood for John; but as his father's name also was John, the family soon called him something else so that both father and son didn't respond when the name was called out. When Dad went into local theater and radio, the name had a nice ring to it when said together so he kept it all. Everyone called him J. Ralph. Last Christmas I wrote about how he used to play Santa Claus at the biggest on-air celebration of the holiday in our hometown of Jamestown, New York. (There's a picture of him---and more important of the Children---at the archived entry, entitled You're Santa Claus from December 21, 2002 [link] ) But there was another side to my father...and he found a way to celebrate that on Christmas too.

Beginning sometime in the late 1940s, Dad devised a one-man radio production of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. At first there may have been a handful of other actors, and of course the ever-present Hammond organ accompaniment of George Pfleeger in all his original work. But soon my father figured out a way to do it all, narrating and playing Scrooge---and in a format that took only around half an hour. By the time this picture was taken, an electric transcription (ET) had been made of the show which was played thereafter every year. Before that it was done live---and I have memories of watching these programs from a space reserved for me under the studio piano. In fact, one year I even was given a line to say---no, not Tiny Tim. I got to be the boy Scrooge calls to Christmas morning about the turkey hanging in the butcher's window. I got to shout, from under the piano, "It's hangin' there STILL!" And of course the bird got bought and delivered anonymously to Bob Cratchit's house.

The production was enlivened by other voices that had been recorded painstakingly by one of the 2 brilliant engineers we had working at WJTN. His name was Ray Frehm, and he'd try to do anything you asked him---a rare trait in a radio engineer. My father had discovered a production on 12" 78 RPM RCA Victor records, done by a cast headed by one Eustace Wyatt and a collection of the most familiar voices in radio drama of that day. These were dramatic actors, many of them hiding out from Hitler on these shores, and they graced the very best live programs on the radio then, chiefly detective shows and the biblical The Greatest Story Ever Told. Radio drama did not fool around, these people were contracted actors, and the images they created in imaginations of those who heard them have lasted a lifetime. This production of A Christmas Carol was like that, and my father loved it. I did too, and to this day it is my favorite acted version---bar none. I have no idea who Mr. Wyatt was, nor are the names of the other actors listed on the album---but anyone who heard radio in those days would recognize their voices...even now.

What my father got Ray to do was record, possibly first on wire recording (an almost impossible medium, because if it broke it was like a spring that flew into a snarling mess all over the studio) and later on tape, specific speeches which he lifted off the 78s. My father would signal or "throw a cue" from the studio to Ray to start and stop the tape for a flowing dialogue. By 1950 or so, I think, the stolen speeches had been honed to perfection and cut onto an ET for easier handling in the control room. Now my father and the station did not think they were stealing. After all, commercial records got played on the radio everyday, and this was a commercial release. Artists got paid, in a very circuitous fashion, by the stations and the networks. So, they didn't see they were doing anything wrong...although I never heard them identify the 78 album---which wasn't available anymore anyway. For years, I listened to the 78s all the time---and still probably can recite most of it from memory. But eventually I broke one or 2 of them and the set was ruined. RCA reissued it on LP on its bargain Camden label in the late '50s, and miraculously I found a copy in a used record shop for a dollar. I was in heaven---and I still have it, as well as the ET of my father's production.

Mr. Wyatt's Scrooge was heartchilling, as was my father's and all the truly great ones. There is no sign of redemption in the character. He barks at a caroler at the office door. He threatens Cratchit for a lump of coal. He throws his nephew out, who simply wanted to invite him to dinner. He taunts the charity guys by urging death upon those who would rather die than go to debtors prison. "If they'd rather die they'd better do it...and decrease the surplus population." He even scorns the Spirit of his dead business partner, when Jacob Marley appears to him. Scrooge keeps it dark in his haunted old house: "Darkness was cheap, and Scrooge liked it."

The challenge for all actors who attempt creation of this role is the graveyard scene when Scrooge begs for mercy. I thought my father's delivery became too shrill---but he was soaked with sweat when he finished each year. George C. Scott's choice was to underplay it...and weep out the words, "Spare me," at the end. It's not a bad choice I think---but any way it's a huge challenge to pull it off. I like Albert Finney's realization because, besides his breathtaking acting, the musical approach becomes so joyous at the end. But enough of all this. If you have favorites to speak for, please do so in a comment---and we'll talk it over.

"Nephew, you keep Christmas in your own way...and I'll keep it in mine."
"But Uncle, you don't 'keep' it."
"Let me leave it alone then!"

My father became known for both his Santa and his Scrooge around our town---and so Christmas each year absolutely sparkled beyond belief! I do the best I can to carry on the traditions we grew up with in the 1940s and '50s at home. J. Ralph had a daily radio program of common sense inspiration, which he called The Radio Scrapbook. George accompanied in flawless improvisation at the electric organ. It probably was pretty corny, but the town and especially my mother loved it---and listened everyday. He honored Tiny Tim and Dickens in each show with his closing salutation---which now I will leave with you. "God bless us...every one." t
Will Combine with this order for FREE USA Shipping For Multiple Records Won! 

Will ship Worldwide but only in a 44.00 flat rate box that will be insured and take advantage I can fit another 13 lps in!Buy 11 more lps I will add two more common lps Absolutely Free!!!

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EFFICIENT/CAREFUL CONSERVATIVE GRADING REMEMBER WE ARE VINYL LOVERS AS WELL!

All imperfections are noted both cover & record. No vague VG++++++ whatever that may mean here lol! No Fantasy Mint Grades we live in reality lol! Remember we are from the vinyl revolution as well being Albumholics Audiophiles Anonymous. Keep spinning that vinyl!

 
  GRADING SCALE:
NM= NEAR MINT  Carefully used, looks clean, plays clean, shiny gloss, no marks EX = EXCELLENT Faint scuff or superficial mark possibly, near Mint, high gloss, plays decent as clean record should
VG+= VERY GOOD+A few slight scuffs or marks still plays well with very minimal surface noise at the worse VG=  VERY GOOD More faint marks/scratches nothing deep,
        this grade is abused by many, VG means just a nice playable record VG- = VERY GOOD- Many numerous light scratches and scuffs that are more pronounced as the surface noise but nothing that should skip
G = GOOD Is just a filler copy until you could find a better one. Remember good does not mean good in records we only list GOOD in very rare records where its better to have a copy for your collection than not one at all! Others are Ring Wear= RW. Slight Ring Wear= SRW. Spine Wear= SW or Slight= SSW and so on with an extra S. Edge Wear= EW. Seam Wear= SMW please feel free to ask questions if you are not for sure.