"A Christmas Carol and The Cricket on the Hearth" (1905)

"A Christmas Carol and The Cricket on the Hearth" (1905)

Baker & Taylor Company (New York)

Artist: George Alfred Williams

Here's an early American edition that pairs "A Christmas Carol" with "The Cricket on the Hearth," with illustrations by George Alfred Williams (1875-1932).

There are only a few for "A Christmas Carol" and they're all from fairly early in the story. Don't know why. It looks like they started to illustrate the whole story, but ran out of money, although that's probably not the case!

The one color plate serves as the fronstpiece and it's quite nice:

"He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."

And here are the black and white illustrations:

"A Merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice.

To sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence, for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him.

"You recollect the way?" inquired the spirit. "Remember it!" cried Scrooge, with fervour; "I could walk it blindfold."

"Why, it's Ali Baba!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. "It's dear old honest Ali Baba!"

Don't those seem like odd choices if you only have four?

But I like them! Wish there were more!

"A Christmas Carol" Colouring Book (1945) - Educational Projects Inc.

"A Christmas Carol" Colouring Book (1945)

Educational Projects Inc.

Here's a "colouring" book, the extra "u" there betraying its Canadian origins!

This is something I'd like to get my mitts on so I can see what the inside is like, as I think the cover is awesome!

Spoiler, though: Scrooge looks happy and Tiny Tim looks healthy!

The only copy I've seen sold for $126.50 a few years ago.

Gotta keep my eyes peeled!

"Old Scrooge: A Christmas Carol in Five Staves" (1877) - Part 3

Now that we've seen the characters from ""Old Scrooge: A Christmas Carol in Five Staves," stage adaptation by Charles A. Scott from 1877, and what they'll be wearing and sitting on, we're ready to take a look at the changes to the story, big and small.

A promised, there's one huge one!

The script follows the book pretty closely and hits most of the plot points, largely keeping a lot of the original dialogue, with the usual expository dialogue added.

Here are a few excerpts of parts I thought were interesting. The first is this exchange between Scrooge and Bob Cratchit.

This is a side of Bob Cratchit that some adaptations add. I don't think it's implied in the original text. The "real" Bob just isn't like that!

Next is this sequence with the Ghost of Christmas Present:

Odd, isn't it?

This next scene is all-new:

I like that addition, as it shows the reformed Scrooge in action, immediately changing something he had seen in the future.

Next, Scrooge runs into Bob and Tiny Tim on Christmas morning:

This omits the need for the scene at the office on December 26 and also adds a little extra for Tiny Tim.

This next one is the big one. It takes a minute to let it sink in!

Wow, so Fred is married to Belle's daughter?! Shut up! I don't think I've seen that twist before! I love a good twist!

It also adds the backstory of how Scrooge and Belle met through Fan (Fanny)!

Belle also conveniently mentions that her husband died five years ago. Hmmm...

Then Scrooge comes in:

And the play ends as Scrooge puts the moves on Belle:

So, some fun stuff from 140+ years ago!

"Old Scrooge: A Christmas Carol in Five Staves" (1877) - Part 2

The book containing the 1877 stage play "Old Scrooge: A Christmas Carol in Five Stave," as adapted by Charles A. Scott, also includes lists of costumes, scenery, furniture and props for the staging of the show.

I think they're interesting...

Here's a look at the first page of the script to give the general idea.

Next, we'll take a look at a couple of wacky changes!

"Old Scrooge: A Christmas Carol in Five Staves" (1877) - Part 1

"Old Scrooge: A Christmas Carol in Five Staves" (1877) 

Newark, N.J. Soldiers' Home Print

Adaptor: Charles A. Scott

We head back to the boards for this 1877 dramatization by Charles A. Scott entitled "Old Scrooge: A Christmas Carol in Five Staves."

When coming across such things, I always wonder if the adaptor throws a curveball and this one has a doozie! More about that later!

First: Let's take a look at the cast of characters:

Most of them are self-explanatory. With a couple of the men that seem mysterious, you can figure out who they are if you also see the women.

Mr. Kemper would be tough to figure out, but when you see Mrs. Belle Kemper, you can figure out that he's Belle's husband.

Simmrly, Mr. James Badger would be tough to guess, until we see Mrs. Caroline Badger, as we know Caroline is the wife who's releived Scrooge died in the future.

Chaelres A. Scott alos gives a first anme og Thomas to Topper, which is intetsing because there's also "Thomas, a servant" who works for Fred. So, there are two Thomases in Fred's party scene, which violates the unwritten rule having havng twocharcters with the same frst name.

Other chrcters who are unnamed in the book are given names, with Mr. Henry Snapper the toughest to guess. He comes afeter Topper, though, beacsue he's another guest at Fred's party.

Fred's wife ("Mrs. Merry"), Mrs. Cratchit and Mrs. Fezzwig were apparenlt not in the line when they were giving out names!

BBC Radio - "A Christmas Carol" (December 22, 1990) - Part 3

So, the 1990 BBC Radio adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" runs for an extremely generous 90 minutes, so they can get just about every story element in there, but do they stay faithful to the source or do they take some wacky liberties?

Oh, they take some liberties, and they are wacky!

On the whole, the adaptation is pretty faithful, with a lot of narration taken largely verbatim from the book. The dialogue is also about the same, with a few little changes here and there. The beginning seems so faithful that you're lulled into thinking this will be strictly "by the book," if you will.

A couple of things caught my ear early on, such as Fred calling Scrooge "Uncle Scrooge" when he drops by the office and Bob Cratchit scoffing when the charity collector mentions Marley's "liberality!"

A couple of other things ae thrown in for more of an audio experience, I think, such as Scrooge moaning and groaning in the background a lot and Marley's Ghost really moaning when appearing in Scrooge's knocker.

When the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge on his journey, things start veering away from the book.

An odd change is giving the schoolmaster a number of lines. When he comes to tell young Ebenezer that he has a visitor (Fan), he accuses Scrooge of hiding and it's implied that Ebenezer is abused. Not sure what they're going for there, but it's unpleasant.

At Fezziwig's party, Fezziwig gets quite a few extra lines and he also calls the fiddler by name (John Jackson) and talks about said fiddler a bit.

The first really big change comes next, and it's the old standby of having Belle show up at Fezziwig's party. This then takes the more unusual, but not unheard of step of Belle breaking up with Ebenezer at the party.

What is different is that Belle namedrops Jacob Marley, as in Ebenezer going into business with Marley is the last straw!

That's a little different, but not too wacky. The extreme wackiness comes when we next encounter Belle as a married woman. She's. Married. To... (SPOILER) Dick Wilkins! Oh, snap! Who saw that coming? That's a new one on me, but I love a good twist!

In the Christmas Present sequence, the usual things happen with a couple of minor type changes.

Mrs. Cratchit calls one of the kids "Charlotte," which keeps the tradition of naming one or both of those mystery Cratchit kids.

The other change is siemthung I don't care for... Topper is given a pronoynced stutter. I guess it's supposed to be for comedic effect and it's not funny and comes off to me as unsympathetic towrd people who have actual speech issues. It seems odd for soemthng from 1990 to be so isnsnitive.

Anyway, the Christas Yet to COme seunce goes more or less as expetecd, but it's perhaps woth noting that Mrs. Dilber is dientifed as the charwoman, but we all know she's the laundress!

Another fun little twist comes during the "present" when Scrooge is out and about on Christmas morning. He runs into the charity collector, who reveals himself to us as the narrator! Kind of a fun little thing.

The ending here is changed and it follows another common variation with Scrooge going to Bob Cratchit's house on Christmas morning. This is found in almost as many versions as the idea of Belle being at Fezziwig's party.

As is usually the case, he runs into Fred and his wife along the way and accepts their dinner invitation. He mentions Topper and Fred's wife's sister, which puzzles Fred's wife. This shows, however, that this version does not imply that Scrooge dreamt the whole thing.

Since this version attempts to keep a lot of the original dialogue, yet changes some things, we wind up with some awkwardness at times. Specifically, Scrooge tells Bob that they'll discuss his affairs that afternoon over the mandatory Christmas bowl of you-know-what. Fine, except that dialogue was meant for December 26, not December 25. That afternoon Bob will be eating a ginormous turkey and Scrooge will be at Fred's house. Picky, I know!

In any event, an interesting script. It's sort of faithful, sort of not.

SO many versions have Belle at Fezzwig's and Scrooge visiting the Cratchits on Christmas morning, that a casual listener to this program wouldn't think they changed a thing!

BBC Radio - "A Christmas Carol" (December 22, 1990) - Part 2

If you got a chance to listen to the BBC broadcast of "A Christmas Carol" from December 22, 1990, I'm sure you'll agree that it's a nice production.

Starring as Scrooge is Michael Gough, veteran British actor with a long list of credits in movies, TV and theater over a 60-something year career. He passed away in 2011 at age 94!

That's a lot of Bruce Waynes to keep straight!

I'd say he found his greatest fame, at least with American audiences, with his role as "Alfred" in the four Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher "Batman" movies. He provided a solid presence even as the movies kind of went off the deep end!

He does a solid job as Scrooge, but I don't think he elbows any of his predecessors out of the way.

Michael Gough (center) is now BFFs with George C. Scott!

Michael Gough's cred extends to his appearance in George C. Scott's famous 1984 TV-movie version of "A Christmas Carol" in which he plays the main charity collector (named "Poole" there)!

The narrator is Freddie Jones, another British actor with a long career. He just passed away last year (2019) at age 91, so those cats had good runs!

 

The two of them are in tons of British movies, some of which made their way "across the pond" and some other international productions, but neither were overly well-known to American audiences.

Consequently, I don't know either actor's voice all that well and they kind of sound alike to me!

There's a lot of narration and a lot of Scrooge and it reminds me of one of those versions where the same actor narrates and plays Scrooge, say maybe Ralph Richardson in another BBC show from 25 years earlier.

I don't think I recognize the names any of the supporting actors and I don't know how familiar any of them would be to British listeners.

British actors of the 1990s? Not my meat! British actors from way before I was born? All over it!

My old-school sensibilities kick in a bit when listening to this show as the sound quality is so good that it throws me off! I'm used to radio shows without quite that level of fidelity!

But, it's a good listen.

Next, there are a couple of wacky changes to the original text that need to be discussed!

BBC Radio - "A Christmas Carol" (December 22, 1990) - Part 1

"A Christmas Carol" (December 22, 1990)

BBC Radio

Director: Janet Whitaker

Scrooge: Michael Gough

We next take a look at another audio adaptation of "A Christmas Caro," this one broadcast on the BBC on December 22, 1990, with Michael Gough as Scrooge and Freddie Jones as the narrator.

You can give it a listen here.

A Christmas Carol starring Michael Gough

Next: Let's discuss!

Knockout Comic #514 (January 1, 1949)

"Tod and Annie Hear the Story of 'A Christmas Carol'" (Part 5)

Knockout Comic #514 (January 1, 1949) 

Artist: Hugh McNeill

Mr. Print is all set to wrap up the story!

Here we go:

I like everything about this little series. Tight scripting and excellent artwork.

I like the framing story. In case you're wondering, Silas Stiggins catches up with them again and they must hit the road. But they had a Merry Christmas!

Knockout Comic #513 (December 25, 1948)

"Tod and Annie Hear the Story of 'A Christmas Carol'" (Part 4)

Knockout Comic #513 (December 25, 1948) 

Artist: Hugh McNeill

Let's get right to part 4 of the story:

This is an awesome representation of Fred's party!

Interesting that the kids with the Spirit are not Ignorance and Want, per se.

Next: the conclusion!

Knockout Comic #512 (December 18, 1948)

"Tod and Annie Hear the Story of 'A Christmas Carol'" (Part 3)

Knockout Comic #512 (December 18, 1948)

Artist: Hugh McNeill

Are you ready for Part 3? Tod and Annie are!

Let's check it out:

I think this has really nice artwork! Belle and Martha Cratchit are quite attractive!

Part 4 coming up!

Knockout Comic #511 (December 11, 1948)

"Tod and Annie Hear the Story of 'A Christmas Carol'" (Part 2)

Knockout Comic #511 (December 11, 1948) 

Artist: Hugh McNeill

Now Tod and Annie are ready for Mr. Print to tell the second part of "A Christmas Carol."

Let's "listen" in:

The Ghost of Christmas Past is the hardest to depict and I think the decision here to just depict it as a ray of light and a hand works well and doesn't clutter up the panels.

Apprentice Ebenezer and Dick Wilkins look appropriately young, it seems to me.

British kids in 1948 had to wait another week for the next part of the story, but like Tod and Annie, we only have to wait until tomorrow!

Knockout Comic #510 (December 4, 1948)

"Tod and Annie Hear the Story of 'A Christmas Carol'" (Part 1)

Knockout Comic #510 (December 4, 1948) 

Artist: Hugh McNeill

Now that Tod and Annie have met Mr. Print and retrieved his rare first edition of "A Christmas Carol," they (and we) are all set for the story to begin.

It's presented two pages at a time for five weeks, so it's a quick trip through the story, but it's pretty fun.

Let's take a look at that first part:

Scrooge here reminds me of Sir Seymour Hicks, not a stretch for 1940s England!

Next up: the story continues…

Knockout Comic #509 (November 27, 1948)

"Tough Tod and Happy Annie, The Runaway Orphans"

Knockout Comic #509 (November 27, 1948)

Artist: Hugh McNeill

More comic-ness as we drop in on Tod and Annie, two runaways whose adventures were chronicled in the British weekly comic "Knockout" in the late 1940s.

We join them now because this strip is the prologue to a fun little five-part series in which they have "A Christmas Carol" told to them.

Check it out and we'll start the story tomorrow:

Next: Part 1!

"A Christmas Carol: The Graphic Novel" (2008) - Classical Comics - Part 2

A couple more words about the 2008 graphic novel adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" from Classical Comics...

It has a pretty neat "Dramatis Personae" showing each of the characters who appear in the story:

Of particular note is that Fred's wife obtained the name Alice!

I find it a bit odd that the charity collectors aren't shown. I mean even the schoolmaster gets a nod!

And Belle gets two versions, young and older. Young Scrooge doesn't get his own mug shot!

And I definitely appreciate that Mrs. Dilber is identified as the laundress, not the charwoman!

I like the artwork, it's sort of modern yet classic(al) at the same time.

One thing I will say is that Marley's Ghost totally looks like a Jack Kirby character. The Thing, perhaps? I almost expected Marley's Ghost to yell, "It's clobberin' time!"