We hang around Christmas 1943 for just a bit longer and swing back to "A Christmas Carol" with this blurb from the January 1, 1944 issue of "Billboard" magazine:
An extremely early television adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" - how cool is that?
Unfortunately, once the show was broadcast, it was lost into the ether. Live shows were not able to be recorded then, as I don't think they were even doing kinescopes (filming the broadcast from a monitor) back then.
But we're fortunate to at least be able to read a review by someone who saw it. Thanks, Wanda Marvin!
I'm not familiar with William Podmore, who portrayed Scrooge and did the adaptation, but a little research shows he was a British actor who seems to have performed on stage more than in movies.
In fact, the only name I recognize from the listed cast is Lon Clark, whom we heard in his role of "Nick Carter" on the radio series not too long ago.
As far as Christmas 1943 goes, the big hit and future standard was this classic recording:
A beautiful song, even more evocative in its original context of WWII.
As far as the cover of "Billboard" at the top, good to know that "orks" were doing so well!
That's Les Brown on the cover, so let's skip ahead a couple of years to 1946 and dig his plattering of "The Christmas Song":
That vocalist showed some promise. Whatever happened to her anyway?
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