Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Scrooge meets... Emmett Kelly?

 Here's a crossover even I think is wacky: Ebenezer Scrooge meeting Emmett Kelly!

Emmett Kelly (1898-1979) being perhaps the most famous circus clown ever, but not particularly known for hanging around Victorian London!


But here he is in his "Weary Willie" persona, serenading Mr. Scrooge, as depicted by painter Barry Leighton-Jones.

Adding to the wackiness is that here are a couple of other variations on this theme.

I'm not sure which came first, the painting or this collector's plate depicting a similar scene:


The back of the plate helpfully tells us this is the tenth in the annual Christmas series and bears the title of "Merry Christmas Mister Scrooge" and was issued in 1995:




It's interesting that the painting and plate have the same theme, but a number of differences, not the least of which is that Weary Willie switched from violin to flute!

Scrooge doesn't seem impressed by either!

We're not done yet, however!

There was also an ornament issued in 1995:



Yes, it's the same scene, as the box tell us:


It's certainly unusual to have a twentieth century figure meet the actual Ebenezer Scrooge rather than a Scroogesque surrogate.

Very clever and lots of fun!

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