"Scrooge" - Roye Goodrich with the Holidays (1952) - Part 1

"Scrooge" (1952)

Roye Goodrich with the Holidays

King Records

Here's an obscure little single from Roye Goodrich with the Holidays on King Records from 1952!

Give it a listen:

I think it's awesome!

"A Christmas Carol" (Omnivox Records)

It's always fun to find random images while browsing around for "A Christmas Carol" related items to feed the OSD.  

Like this here LP cover:

Don't know much about it, but maybe it's French? Maybe recorded in the 1960s? Maybe this is a reissue?

I think Scrooge is portrayed by Peter Ashby-Bailey and the narrator is Frederick Payne - whoever they are!

Whatever the case, it's so cool!

A Christmas Carol - Claude Rains (1954) - (Belated) Part 4

Way back when (here, here and here) I had discussed the 1954 recording of "A Christmas Carol" by Claude Rains for Mercury Records.

Since then I came across this EP (extended play 45 rpm record) that puts the two parts of that record on one side with the two parts of his record of "The Christmas Tree" (also from 1954) on the other side.

I'm guessing it's a reissue, so from a bit later than 1954.

What I find interesting is that the cover doesn't mention Claude Rains at all, although the back says nice things about him:

If the suits at Mercury wanted parents to buy this for their kids, wouldn't they want to promote the idea that a highly respected actor was involved?

The cover is also intriguing because it seems to represent a reformed Scrooge entering the Cratchit house with Tiny Tim, so this scene would take place after the book. 

And I love the kitty joining in the fun!

As a bonus here's Mr. Rains with "The Christmas Tree":

More Kyd!

We're not quite done with Kyd yet!

Here are a couple more illustrations by Joseph Clayton Clarke, signed with his familiar "Kyd" soubriquet:

I don't know the source of these, but they're totally different takes on the characters from the ones that we had just seen.

And these are billed as from "Christmas Tales," not "The Christmas Books" like the last set!

Maybe from about 1920 and maybe from Tuck & Sons?

And there's this one that I know even less about:

For those keeping track (OK, maybe just me!), the subtitle at the bottom of this one reads "A Christmas Carol" rather than just "Christmas Carol" like on the earlier set!

Good stuff, to be sure, and the characters from "(A) Christmas Carol" are only the tip of the Dickens iceberg for Kyd.

You can find out more from the awesome The Victorian Web!

And dig that wacky sketch at the top of Charles Dickens conjuring up the Spirit of Christmas!

"The Christmas Books" (1900?) - Kyd

The Christmas Books (1900?)

Illustrator: J. C. "Kyd" Clarke

A while back (in this post) I had shared a cigarette card from a  series of "Characters from Dickens" as illustrated by Joseph Clayton Clarke, known professionally as "Kyd."

The only card from that series that featured a character from "A Christmas Carol" was number 35, which was Scrooge.

But... it turns out that image was taken from a larger set of Dickens characters from "The Christmas Books" which I think are from about 1900 and may have been published by Raphael Tuck & Sons.

Whatever the case, we have these six to enjoy:

The selection of characters is interesting. They seem to be the major male characters from the book (Marley having been male while alive) with Peter Cratchit having made the cut over Fred.

Peter looks a little crazy, perhaps overwhelmed by the honor?

And I do need to say that I think Tiny Tim looks like a short adult more than sickly child!

And is Bob's last name Cratchett?

But they're a lot of fun!

Happy Birthday!

Hey, it's my birthday today!

Not necessarily a big deal, but a couple of things of note...

In "A Christmas Carol: The Musical" starring Kelsey Grammer, when we see Scrooge's tombstone, you can read his date of birth:

February 23! I thought that was pretty cool!

And in the real world February 23 is the birthday of Kathleen Harrison, well-known for her memorable turn as "Mrs. Dilber" in "Scrooge" (1951).

If I ever said anything about her being over-the-top, I take it all back!

"A Christmas Carol" (2019)

"A Christmas Carol" (2019)

Director: Marc Hamill

Scrooge: David Hardware

One of the symptoms of OSD (Obsessive Scrooge Disorder) is being a completist, as in you want to see/hear/read as many versions of "A Christmas Carol" as you can.

As such, I periodically do a search of the streaming services to which I subscribe, looking to see what's out there.

And there are a ton of versions of "A Christmas Carol" to be sure.

I don't think I'm a hard grader and I think most versions have at least a little something to offer.

But, if you're hanging around Amazon Prime, give this version a hard pass!

It's only about 40 minutes, but it seems even longer than that FX miniseries that was also from 2019.

A look at the scene below will serve as fair warning:

Next!

Arthur Rackham Appreciation!

As mentioned last time, I thought it was really interesting that Ronald Searle "dissed" Arthur Rackham's illustrations for "A Christmas Carol," saying they had "a certain amount of atmosphere... but not what Dickens suggested in his descriptions."

I like Rackham's illustrations, but what do I know?

I had talked a bit about them in  this post.

One thing I liked about those illustrations is that Rackham shows some scenes that you don't always see, like Bob Cratchit sliding down the hill and Belle's husband coming in with all the presents.

And, for example, this visualization of Scrooge's dressing-gown "hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall":

That's spot on!

Ronald Searle Wrap-Up

So, Ronald Searle had an interesting take on illustrating the work of Charles Dickens, but I think his artwork is a lot of fun. Not the definitive versions, but a welcome breath of fresh air.

I started taking a closer look at his work because Darrell Van Citters mentioned in his book "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special" that Searle's illustrations from the 1961 edition of "A Christmas Carol" influenced some of the character designs in that special.

He specifically mentions the fiddler at Fezziwig's Christmas party:

You can definitely see that the fiddler from the special is a streamlined, UPA-ized version of the one from the book.

You can read more about this in this post from Darrell's blog:

Ronald Searle and Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol

He doesn't mention the "plunderers" but I think there are similarities there too. The cartoon version of Old Joe also has an eye patch and the characters in the book seem like they're doing a little dance number:

There's also a connection between Ronald Searle and another well-regarded version of "A Christmas Carol" (sort of):

Perhaps Searle's most famous work is his 1946-1952 British comic strip "St. Trinians's" which led to a series of movies. A couple of said movies featured Alastair Sim and George Cole, the respective old and young Scrooges of 1951's "Scrooge." 

Kind of fun!

Ronald Searle Illustrations for "Scrooge" (1970) - Part 2

The artwork by Ronald Searle that was featured in the opening credits of 1970's "Scrooge" is certainly striking.

But what did Searle himself think? Well, here's an interesting video on the making of the film featuring some comments by the artist:

And here's another video incorporating some of the above video, plus additional artwork and the credits themselves:

I find Ronald Searle's comments fascinating. It sounds like he didn't really like illustrating Dickens, although he did it quite a bit. Did he think he was not successful?

And he calls out John Leach and Arthur Rackham!

Hmmm...

Oh, and there was also a book version of the movie with additional Searle illustrations (see cover at top of page)!

Ronald Searle Illustrations for "Scrooge" (1970) - Part 1

We continue to stalk the work of British artist Ronald Searle with his illustrations for the main titles of 1970's "Scrooge" starring Albert Finney.

I remember thinking the credits were very striking when I first saw this movie so many years ago.

The advent of home video and the the internet have given us the option to take a closer look.

There are several illustrations used, some of which had multiple credits. For example, Edith Evans and Kenneth More shared the same one.

Here's each illustration:

Then the last one fades into live action:

Great work!

"A Christmas Carol" - World Publishing Company (1961)

"A Christmas Carol" (1961)
World Publishing Company
Illustrator: Ronald Searle

We meet up again with Ronald Searle with this 1961 edition of "A Christmas Carol" with additional illustrations not included in the LIFE Magazine story that we had just seen.

Those wonderful two-page spreads are included with some black and white illustrations to flesh out the book.

Here's a look at some of them, starting with this nice frontispiece:

And here are some of the black and white:

There's also this two-page spread which was not used in LIFE, but is just as good:

The LIFE article doesn't say anything about the book coming out and makes it sound as if LIFE commissioned the paintings they used. 

Whatever the case, there's a lot of fun artwork here!