A Christmas Carol (1953)
Director: Harry Alan Towers
Scrooge: Laurence Olivier
Back on December 24, 1953, NBC Radio broadcast an adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" starring Laurence Olivier.
The production was recorded in London and was apparently licensed at various times in the subsequent years for use on records, which showed up in various forms starting in 1960. They were those cheapo records that seemed to be sold in odd locations like grocery stores and gas stations, which usually had anonymous artists trying to sound like name acts. But every now and again, something special like this one would surface.
When I was a kid, we had the version pictured at the top (with foil cover and random sort-of-Dickensian characters) and I could not tell you how many times I listened to it! This was way before home video and such, so this was my go to for scratching my Scrooge itch, along with the "Scrooge" (1970) soundtrack.
I had heard this recording a zillion times before I actually ever read the book and since the recording uses ample amounts of the original text, I could hear Laurence Olivier in my head while reading it. Still do, in fact, but that's an awesome internal narrator!
Even as a kid, I was awestruck that this record featured Sir Laurence Olivier. Everyone knew he was the greatest actor in the world. What he was doing on what I could recognize as a budget record that seemed to be aimed at the kiddie market was a mystery at the time, but I later found out that the recording had originated as that radio show.
So, what was the show like? There are various versions in various quality all over the internet, but this one is good quality (with a new intro and outro):
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