A few things about the "Stars Over Hollywood" show and its adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" starring Edmund Gwenn.
Mr. Gwenn apparently made an annual tradition of appearing on this show with this adaptation. Not quite the level of Lionel Barrymore, but I bet fans enjoyed hearing this each year.
The show was on Saturday mornings, so I imagine that familes would have listened to it together at times, but you can tell by the Carnation Evaporated Milk commercials that this show is largely aimed at housewives. You wouldn't find commericals for food products to be targeted as such these days, but things were different in 1951 and the sponsor certainly wasn't thinking that audiences from 2020 would be listening.
The announcer, Art Balinger, is very jovial and gets the plugs in very well. I love how he gives Edmund Gwenn a cup of coffee with the sponsor's product in it as well as some carnations.
The 1953 broadcast of "A Christmas Carol" uses the same script, including the "curtain call" with the coffee and Mr. Gwenn's quip that you can also put it in tea!
As seen by the above ad, Carnation was also sponsoring George Burns and Gracie Allen on TV. It looks like George got the coffee and Gracie the carnations:
Speaking of George and Gracie, earlier in their career their radio series was sponsored by Campbell's Soup (pre-Orson Welles) and on their program of December 23, 1936, they presented Gracie's version of "A Christmas Carol!" It's loaded with mid-1930s references, but I "get" most of them!
As a bonus, here's that sketch!
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