"If I Were King..." - Stave Five

We've arrived at Stave Five of "A Christmas Carol" as I run down the story elements that I feel are necessary to include in a short-form adaptation of the book in order to get a cohesive story so that someone who is unfamiliar with the story can follow along and get the full experience.

So, now Scrooge is back in his bedroom and we need hi to mention that his bed curtains are still there and wonder what day it is.

He needs to call to the boy out the window and engage him to buy the turkey, talking to himself about sending it to Bob Cratchit. We don't need to hangs around for the poulterer's man to arrive with the turkey.

Then Scrooge should start out for Fred's house and meet the portly gentleman on the way. The we can hear that Scrooge had a good time at Fred's without too much else description.

I don't want Scrooge to go to Bob Cratchit's house on Christmas Day but rather get to the office before Bob on the next day, as per the book.

He pretends to mad at Bob, but surprises him by raising his salary and tells him to buy another coal scuttle, a throwback to their argument at the beginning of the story.

The narrator comes back to wrap things up, including letting us know that Tiny Tim did not die, reprises Tim's line. And scene!

So, if I were king, or at least in charge of a short audio recording of "A Christmas Carol," these are all the story elements I want. If something needs to be cut, I would want the corresponding element to go too. 

For example, if there were no Fred, we can't have Fan. No loose ends!

And I want it to be a dramatization with a full cast, some nice music and a few chroal effects.

Done!

"If I Were King..." - Stave Four

We're up to Stave Four with a peek into the future as we gather the elements from "A Christmas Carol" that I would like to see in a short-form adaptation.

In an audio adaptation, I can understand having the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come speak, but I'd prefer that it did not. I'd have Scrooge act as the de facto narrator, reacting to the ghost's gestures and such.

We need the businessmen talking about Scrooge (without saying his name so he's unaware), but we don't need the other two talking about "Old Scratch," so we save a bit of time there.

The business in Old Joe's shop is important, but we need to move that along. Definitely want the bed curtain business to reference how the Ghost of Christmas Past had opened them upon its entrance.

And we want an indication that Scrooge's body is lying unattended in a creepy room, again without him realizing it's his own body. This scene is not always included, but I feel it's important as we'll soon find out!

I do really like the seldom used scene of Caroline and her husband feeling relief at Scrooge's death, but that can be awkward to describe without using a lot of time, so I'm OK without it.

But we do need to spend some time at the Cratchit house and find out that Tiny Tim had died.

At this point as Scrooge starts pleading for another chance, it's important for him to ask the ghost whose body they had seen earlier, as the answer is his name on the gravestone. I think too many adaptations have the ghost show the grave, but without this context, it would just seem that Scrooge will die at some point in the future, which, like it or not, will happen to everyone someday.

A little more repenting from Scrooge and we're ready for the narrator to tell us that the spirit has dwindled into a bedpost!

"If I Were King..." - Stave Three

We continue our look into the necessary story elements of "A Christmas Carol" that should be included in short-form adaptation, such as an audio drama.

For the introduction of the Ghost of Christmas Present, I would have Scrooge see the light coming from the other room and enter right away. The a bit of exposition about the ghost sitting on the throne of food and such.

I would just get them over to Bob Cratchit's house rather than any description of the bustle of city, which while very evocative, would just slow down the story.

At the Cratchit house, as much as I like the Martha character and how she playfully hides from Bob, I don't think we need all that. Same with Peter and the potatoes and the young Cratchit kids.

Let's just have the family welcome Bob and Tiny Tim with the narrator telling us about Tim and also Bob and his wife talking about how he behaved in church.

Some talk about the goose and the pudding and have Tiny Tim say his big line.

The Scrooge asks the ghost about Tiny Tim's fate and it is imperative that the ghost throws the "surplus population" back at him!

The toast to Scrooge with Mrs. C objecting, then we can leave.

A bit of a mention that the ghost takes Scrooge on a whirlwind tour, but they should get to Fred's house pretty quickly.

Again, as much as I like the antics with Topper, I think we really only need to have Fred talking about Scrooge and everyone raising a toast to him. But don't have Fred say "whatever he is" because we didn't get a chance to play that yes or no game!

I would probably end things with the present right there and not include Ignorance and Want as that whole thing seems hard to describe aurally.

On to the future!

"If I Were King..." - Stave Two

Now we move on to Stave Two with what I feel are the necessary ingredients for a cohesive short-form version of "A Christmas Carol."

I think the Ghost of Christmas Past should make its appearance fairly quickly. Don't need too much about Scrooge waiting until the hour of 1:00 a.m. then wondering what day it is.

I do like the idea of the ghost pulling back Scrooge's bed curtains, as they figure in Staves Four and Five. 

Scrooge and the spirit should get to the schoolhouse quickly with the spirit doing the heavy lifting of expository dialogue.

We just need to know that Scrooge was lonely as a boy and have him recall the kid whom he chased away rather than letting him sing and giving him something. I want Scrooge to learn a clear lesson from each shadow of the past.

Next we need Fan to visit the somewhat older Scrooge at the school. This is necessary to make Scrooge realize that he should be nicer to Fred, the one link to his late sister.

We don't need a lot of time at Fezziwig's, but throw in a Dick Wilkins reference and tell us what a good time everyone had at the party. Have the spirit needle Scrooge until he realizes that he should also give Bob Cratchit more consideration.

These first three shadows all make Scrooge think about how he had treated people on Christmas Eve and sets him on the road to being nicer.

Next up comes the breakup with Belle. This is important because it shows Scrooge what he lost by pursuing money over love. That being said, I want the scene of Belle's later domestic bliss included to really bring the point home.

All of these scenes can be edited quite a bit. It may seem like the story is going by fast, but I can deal with that.

"If I Were King..." - Stave One

Well, maybe I wouldn't need to be king, but just in charge!

In charge of a short-form audio adaptation of "A Christmas Carol," that is.

My recent posts on the Bernard Miles and Frank Pettingell recordings and what I considered to be lapses in the storytelling got me to thinking which elements from the book need to be worked into the adaptation so that listeners get the best experience.

First thing is that I don't think we need any of the social commentary from the book. Whether things are better or worse these days, they're different from how they were in 1843.

But we want the thing to make sense plot-wise and stand a s a cohesive whole. So, if this was your first exposure to the story, you could follow it. So many short adaptations, I think, rely on our prior familiarity with the story to fill in the gaps.

So, let's go through the book a stave at a time and pick out the elements we must have, along with some optional ones if you have, say, 40-odd minutes vs. 20-odd, and what can be ditched.

For Stave One, I want the narrator to tell us that Marley was dead (to begin with) as a door-nail and maybe a bit more, such as Scrooge not having painted out Marley's name.

Then I want the introduction of Scrooge as a "tight-fisted hand at the grindstone" and all.

Ideally, I'd like the exchange between Scrooge and Bob Cratchit about the coal, because I like Scrooge's line at the end for Bob to "buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i..." I don't want anything left hanging!

Then you need Fred to come into Scrooge's office and get rebuffed. Their conversation can be edited down quite a bit, as long as you get some of the key dialogue. 

Then you need the portly gentlemen to come in collecting for charity. That conversation can be edited too, but you need the "surplus population" line from Scrooge because we need the Ghost of Christmas Present to throw it back at him later.

Left out of many adaptations is Scrooge chasing away the caroler who attempted to sing at the keyhole. We want this in here because the first lesson that Scrooge learns when he goes to the past is that he should have been nicer to the kid, as Scrooge himself would have liked more kindness shown to him when he was boy.

Before we leave the office, we need Scrooge to give a hard time about wanting the next day off (with the "poor excuse for picking a man's pocket..." line) and telling him to be early the next day. We want the echo at the end when Scrooge gets to the office before Bob, who was actually late.

We should then follow Scrooge through his melancholy dinner and have him see Marley's face in the knocker. Don't need a lot of the description that goes with that, but just the fact that he saw Marley's face.

We can then cut to Scrooge in his sitting room with his gruel and have Marley's ghost make its entrance. Maybe have the bells ring, maybe not. Such details are incidental, but add to the flavor.

Marley's ghost should talk a bit about its current predicament and warn Scrooge to change his ways and tell him to expect the three spirits. Again, plenty of editing can be done and the point can still be made.

Within the first stave there's a lot of colorful descriptions of various things such as the Lord Mayor's Christmas preparations and how dark it is when Scrooge is going home. I love to read the book and get emerged in the whole thing, but I don't need too much expository narration and would rather keep the story moving along.

These story points I mentioned should get in there, however. And I want the narration and dialogue to be as close as it can to the source material, using the most memorable lines, realizing, of course, that some minor changes need to be made.

Oh, and, yes, the title of this series is just an excuse to plug a good flick starring future audio Scrooges Ronald Colman and Basil Rathbone!

"A Christmas Carol" - Frank Pettingell (1959) - Part 3

As is always the case with a straightforward adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" such as Frank Pettingell's 1959 recording, I like to break it down and see which elements from the book made it into the project, which were omitted and if there's anything added.

The two sides of this LP total about 47 minutes, so there's plenty of time to tell the story and hit all the major points.

I must say I do like these early versions of what we now think of a "audio books" because you can get an enjoyable listen in a manageable amount of time.

Arthur Luce Klein with his wife, Luce Arthur Klein.

This adaptation by Arthur Luce Klein (Google him and his wife - they're quite interesting!) is pretty faithful, as it uses a lot of the original text. As you listen, it seems that very little has been changed. But... there are some curious omissions!

I do think it's odd that a recording like this which is mainly narrated does not start off with "Marley was dead: to begin with" or anything at all about Marley. Most versions will include that starting line, then at least include something about "dead as a door-nail."

This version skips over all the mentions of Marley including the sign still showing both names and gets right to the description of Scrooge being "tight-fisted" and all. This actually goes on for quite a bit. 

I think not establishing that Marley is dead makes the appearance of his ghost a little less surprising.

Anyway, the opening scenes at the office include Fred's visit and Scrooge giving Bob Cratchit a hard time about wanting the next day off, but does not include the portly gentlemen collecting for charity. So, Scrooge never gets to make his "surplus population" remark and I feel this also causes the story to lose a little something.

When Marley's ghost appears, there's actually a lot time spent with his/it's interaction with Scrooge.

The Ghost of Christmas Past kind of gets the short end of things here, as it's just said that it arrives and takes Scrooge back into his past. 

This whole segment is mostly paraphrased and the events are glossed over pretty quickly. It really reminds me of the Ireene Wicker or Howdy Doody or Bret Morrison kids' records that are so short that they need to hurry the story along. 

But in the past we hear about lonely young Scrooge reading and seeing the characters from the book come to life.

Also Fan does come in, but she doesn't speak. The spirit only gets a couple of lines when he talks about Fred being Fan's son and it actually lays it on pretty thick!

After Fan, Scrooge and the spirit naturally go to Fezzwig's warehouse (clap! clap!) for the Christmas party. What's interesting here is that quite a bit of time is spent on talking about Fezziwig's dancing. It's all straight out of the book, but it seems to be using precious time that could be spent on something else more to the point. 

A quick recap of Scrooge's breakup with Belle, said to be many years later, and the ghost is gone without any mention of Belle later being happily married.

Maybe instead of so much description of Fezziwig's dancing, this last bit could have been included. 

Now when the Ghost of Christmas Present arrives, we get quite a buildup! And maybe Maybe half the record is devoted to the Christmas Present sequence.

There's a lot about the ghost's appearance with all the food and then he and Scrooge spend a lot of time going through the city before arriving at Bob Cratchit's house.

Then we get basically the entire Cratchit family Christmas dinner scene. Almost one-third of the recording is spent with them. That's a nice segment and Pettingell does a great job with all the characters.

I will say, though, that the spirit not being abk33e to throw Scrooge's "surplus population" remark back at him (because the charity guys were not in the first scene) makes the foreshadowing of Tiny Tim's death much less powerful.

Also, while we're nitpicking, the spirit doesn't say "I see a vacant seat..." but he does say "if these shadows remain unchanged..." So, what shadows are those? That's awkward editing. 

So much time has already been spent on Christmas present that we don't have time to go to Fred's house for his party or hear about Ignorance and Want. 

Indeed, the night is waning fast and things need to get wrapped up in the next 10 minutes or so!

The Christmas Yet to Come sequence is quick, but it's interestingly presented.

The narrator mentions the other businessmen and says how they're saying that "he" is dead and "he" was grasping and such. Scrooge can't figure out who "he" is, though.

Cut to the Cratchit house where we learn that Tiny Tim has died and Scrooged realizes that Tiny Tim can't be that "he" so he himself must be the "he" of whom those other men were talking! Kind of a neat way to contrast Tiny Tim's death with Scrooge's own.

With this realization, Scrooge pleads for anther chance, which he gets on Christmas morning.

He does his usual things: engaging the boy to buy the turkey, going to Fred's house for Christmas dinner and surprising Bob with an increased salary at the office the next morning.

So, within this adaptation, we get most of the major story elements, with the glaring omission of the portly gentlemen collecting for charity.

There's a ton of content here, though, as it's just Frank Pettingell reading/acting with no music or anything to fill up the running time. Most of it is straight out of the book and I always appreciate ample amounts of the original text in any version.

The record label is not inaccurate with it's credit of "Frank Pettingell Reads from 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens." Truth in advertising!

All in all, a fun listen!

"A Christmas Carol" - Frank Pettingell (1959) - Part 2

If you got the chance to listen to Frank Pettingell's 1959 recording of "A Christmas Carol" on Argo Records, I'm sure you'll agree that it's a fun take!

It has a real old-school feel to me, and I would imagine it gave off that vibe even in 1959. 

Frank Pettingell's reading doesn't scream "1950s!" to me, but rather something of an earlier era.

More than anything, this recoding makes me think of the old Bransby Williams recordings (discussed ) from the 1910s. Frank Pettingell was born in 1891, so he was around for Bransby Williams. Was he a fan?

Although this 1959 record is more of a reading with character voices rather than a monologue à la Bransby Williams, the floridly theatrical style seems similar and both are solo performances with no supporting cast or music.

I think it's interesting that this 1959 record starts off with Frank Pettingell stating the title in manner similar to the way they would on cylinders, but I'm presuming that's a coincidence!

Frank Pettingell is another in the long line of actors who pop up in these various adaptations who were well-known in England, but not in America.

He's in quite a few movies from the early 1930s through shortly before his death in 1966. I think they're all British productions without much crossover to the U.S. He doesn't have a signature role to me, like, say, Bernard Miles in "Great Expectations."

A notable movie with a good role for him is the original British version of "Gaslight" from 1940, which was suppressed by MGM when that studio remade the story for it's famous multi-award-winning 1944 version.

One title catches my eye, however: "Sailing Along" from 1938. That's another Jessie Matthews movie (like "Evergreen") co-starring Barry MacKay. And Alastair Sim has a role in it too! Gotta check that one out!

As far as Mr. Pettingell's performance on this recording, I think it's very engaging. 

He strikes a nice friendly tone as the narrator and gives distinct voices to the characters. 

I think his Scrooge voice is particularly good. 

Next: What about the adaptation itself?

"A Christmas Carol" - Frank Pettingell (1959) - Part 1

"A Christmas Carol" (1959)

Frank Pettingell

Argo Records

We jump back into the audio world for this straight-up British record from 1959 featuring actor Frank Pettingell doing a one-man show with "A Christmas Carol."

Give it a listen:

Next: Let's discuss!

"A Christmas Carol" - The MacMillan Company (1950) - Stave 5

We reach Stave 5 of MacMillan's 1950 edition of "A Christmas Carol" with the illustrations of Robert Ball:

Solid work! All of the characters on-model!

"A Christmas Carol" - The MacMillan Company (1950) - Stave 4

Moving along, we encounter Robert Ball's illustrations for Stave 4 of the MacMillan Company's 1950 edition of "A Christmas Carol":

I like these a lot!

"A Christmas Carol" - The MacMillan Company (1950) - Stave 3

We move on to Stave 3 of MacMillan's 1950 edition of "A Christmas Carol" with illustrations by Robert Ball:

More good work!

"A Christmas Carol" - The MacMillan Company (1950) - Stave 2

Next up is Stave 2 as illustrated by Robert Ball and published by the MacMillan Company in 1950:

One thing I like about these editions with lots of illustrations is that you get just about every scene represented.

Interestingly, you can't really see the notoriously hard-to-illustrate Ghost of Christmas Past!

"A Christmas Carol" - The MacMillan Company (1950) - Stave 1

Here's the first set of illustrations by Robert Ball from MacMillan's 1950 edition of "A Christmas Carol":

I like these a lot! You can follow the story without the text!

"A Christmas Carol" - The MacMillan Company (1950) - Intro

"A Christmas Carol" (1950)

Illustrator: Robert Ball

The MacMillan Company (1950)

Here's a snappy American edition of "A Christmas Carol" from 1950, published by the MacMillan Company and illustrated by Robert Ball.

This looks to me like it's for kids based on the artwork, with an illustration every couple of pages, but the text is not changed at all, so it's not Americanized or dumbed-down.

It reminds me most of the Wonder Books edition from 1957 (discussed here, here, here, here, here and here ) but that one did have the text adapted.

I like Robert Ball's art, which seems very 1950s to me.

I can't find much information about the artist, as the name is relatively common.

There's a prominent British artist named Robert Ball who was active in 1950, but this doesn't appear to be the illustrator of this book.

Anyway, since there are a lot of illustrations, let's do a stave by stave breakdown!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

"A Christmas Carol" (1914 Edition) - Part 2

Now let's take a look at the color plates from the 1914 edition of "A Christmas Carol" as illustrated by A.I. Keller:

A few things to point out:

I think it's interesting that none of  the ghosts, including Marley's Ghost, are illustrated.

Also, of the eight color plates, four of them are from the end of the book. They actually have to start them early to get them all in!

But I like 'em a lot!

Here's a photo of A.I. Keller: