A few words about the cast and crew of the "Stars Over Hollywood" broadcast of "A Christmas Carol" from December 22, 1951 starring Edmund Gwenn as both Charles Dickens and Ebenezer Scrooge.
I think he's really good in both roles. His Dickens as narrator sounds so friendly and his Scrooge is suitably Scroogey until the end.
Edmund Gwenn will always be best remembered for his Oscar winning role as Kris Kringle in the 1947 movie "Miracle on 34the Street." That's a movie that's still revived more than most movies from the 1940s.
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| D.A. Jerome Cowan grills Edmund Gwenn while judge Gene Lockhart looks on. |
A fun note is that the judge at Kris Kringle's hearing is played by Gene Lockhart, who had played Bob Cratchit in the 1938 movie version of "A Christmas Carol" from MGM!
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| Eric Snowden on "Leave it to Beaver" in 1957. |
The Bob Cratchit we have on this "Stars Over Hollywood" show is, I think Eric Snowden. He's credited by the announcer at the end and it sounds like him as Bob.
The interesting thing is that he had played that same role on Ronald Colman's 1941 recording of "A Christmas Carol" Decca Records! He also played Bob on Colman's 1949 "Favorite Story" radio broadcast.
Things get a bit more intriguing when we learn that the director of this 1951 "Stars Over Hollywood" episode is Hans Conreid, better known as an actor. Hans had played the Ghost of Christmas Past on the Ronald Colman record, so both he and Eric Snowden were on that project. Did Hans remember Eric from that and recommend him for this job? Hmmm...
Things get further entangled as Jay Novello is also credited on this show. He had played Bob Cratchit on Basil Rathbone's recording of "A Christmas Carol" for Columbia Records in 1942!
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| Edmund Gwenn collects his Oscar along with Loretta Young, Ronald Colman and Celeste Holm. |
While we're throwing around connections, when Edmund Gwenn won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for 1947, the Best Actor winner was Ronald Colman!
OK, my head's officially spinning now!
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