"A Christmas Carol" - Mutual Broadcasting System (December 25, 1949) - Part 3

A few odds and ends concerning Lionel Barrymore's 1949 broadcast of "A Christmas Carol" sponsored by Capehart...

The sponsor and network information got a blurb in "Billboard":

This was Lionel Barrymore's first time playing Scrooge on the Mutual network, after having appeared on CBS, NBC and ABC in the past.

Announcer Gene Baker indicates that it's Mr. Barrymore's fifteenth year playing Scrooge, but I think it's his fourteenth time, if my math is right. He started in 1934, didn't do it in 1936 or 1938, so 1949 would be his fourteenth time, right?

And you have to chuckle that Gene basically says Capehart is to television sets as Barrymore is to acting and Dickens was to literature!

Announcer Baker was probably most famous for his announcing duties on the radio and TV versions of "Queen for a Day," which was popular at the time, but can be cringe-worthy today. The show, not Gene himself, as he was excellent at his job.

The casts of radio shows don't always get mentioned on the air, but Gene Baker does us a solid by rattling off a bunch of names, most of them recognizable as busy radio actors, although he doesn't indicate who played which part.

A couple of names jump out because we've run into them before.

First is Eric Snowden, who had played Bob Cratchit opposite Ronald Colman on his 1941 album and his 1949 "Favorite Story" syndicated broadcast. It sounds to me like he's paying Bob here as well!

And Joe Kearns was also on the "Favorite Story" show, so the two of them worked on at least two radio versions of "A Christmas Carol" in 1949 alone! 

I wonder if they thought anything of it or were just so busy going from show to show that it was another day's work!

Another notable name in the cast is the narrator, Bill Johnstone. He's most famous for his work on another Mutual show: "The Shadow!"

So, radio Shadows Orson Welles, Bret Morrison and Bill Johnstone all got a crack at narrating "A Christmas Carol" at some point!

One more tie-in with 1949 is courtesy of Lyn Murray, the music director. He conducted his singers on the carols that were included on the B-side of the LP of Basil Rathbone's recording of "A Christmas Carol" which was first reissued in that form in 1949!

Throw in Ronald Colman's version being issued on LP in 1949, as well as Edmund Gwenn starting his run as Scrooge on "Stars Over Hollywood" and it was a big year!