The Alcoa Hour - "The Stingiest Man in Town" (1956) - Part 2

The cast of the 1956 TV production of "The Stingiest Man in Town" is quite musical and they represent a range of styles, as customary for variety shows of the era. They liked to have something for everybody.

There are a lot of songs, so we need a lot of singers!

The production features the Four Lads as carolers who set the scene for each act, commenting a bit like a Greek chorus.

They also get to sing the title song, the studio recording of which was released as a single.

The Four Lads were my mother's favorite singing group, so I'm very familiar with them. I like them. They have a good blend and don't rely on just one lead singer. They were at the peak of their popularity around this time with their recent huge hit records of "No, Not Much" and "Moments to Remember."

The star of the show is, of course, whoever portrays Ebenezer Scrooge, and they have a great one here in Basil Rathbone. 

He's not a singer, but acquits himself OK and he's not expected to do any heavy lifting vocally. 

But he brings his considerable acting chops and holds the production together. If you recall, he had played Marley's Ghost opposite Fredric March's Scrooge a couple of years earlier in the "Shower of Stars" musical version of "A Christmas Carol."

To me  he's as well-suited to play Scrooge as just about any actor ever.

The wackiest bit of casting always seemed to be Vic Damone as Young Scrooge. But, you know, it was crazy enough to work!

Vic Damone was a terrific singer and very popular, so you can't go wrong there, and he sort of does look like he could be a younger version of Scrooge. Scrooge himself remarks how handsome he once was, which is fun.

I presume this is the only time that young Scrooge was a bigger, or at least hotter, name at the time than old Scrooge.

Since you have a vocally accomplished young Scrooge, you need a Belle who could hold her own in a duet, and Patrice Munsel is more than up to the task. She was an operatic soprano, famous for being the youngest singer ever to star at the Metropolitan Opera. She was also a popular TV personality, back when an opera singer could be a popular TV personality!

Young Scrooge and Belle's duet of "Golden Dreams/It Might Have Been" is a highlight of the show.

We get another opera-ish singer in Robert Weede, who plays Marley 's Ghost. He was riding high at this point as the star of the Broadway hit "The Most Happy Fella."

The big song from Frank Loesser's score for that musical was "Standing on the Corner," which was another big hit record for... the Four Lads! Everything comes back around, doesn't it?

The talent parade continues with another popular singer, Johnny Desmond, as Fred. Big band buffs know that Johnny came into his own with Glenn Miller's AAF band during WWII. They called him the "G.I. Sinatra!"

He gets a couple of numbers, "An Old Fashioned Christmas" and "The Birthday Party of the King," which he handles well.

Johnny Desmond's's real name was Giovanni Alfredo DeSimone, whereas Vic Damone's was Vito Rocco Farinola. I give the edge to Johnny for best repurposing of birth name into stage name!

The actor who plays Bob Cratchit, Martyn Green, doesn't get to sing much  but he was well-known for performing Gilbert and Sullivan material.

Bob's daughter Martha, however, gets a big solo. This must be the biggest part that Martha has ever had in a relatively straightforward adaptation!

Betty Madigan plays Martha. She was kind of an up-and-coming singer at the time, with the hit recording "Joey," although she never became a huge name.

The one actor with a singing part that I don't know anything about, nor can I find much info on, is Robert Wright, who portrays the Ghost of Christmas Present. His name is pretty common and it seems his info gets mixed up with others with the same or similar name, He does a good job, though.

So, we have a lot of taleneted singers here, representing a variety of styles.

Keeping everything together is music director Tutti Camarata (who was usually billed as Camarata). He was a big band veteran as well, coming to prominence as arranger for Jimmy Dorsey's band back in the day. He later did tons of work for Disney.

Now that we have the cast in place, we move along to the adaptation itself!