If you got the chance to listen to "The Caltex Theater" broadcast of "Scrooge the Miser," I'm sure you'll agree it's a good production!
There's something of a mystery about the date of the broadcast, à la that AFRTS show with Otto Kruger as Scrooge, but not as much mystery as that Mystery Broadcast!
I don't know much about Australian radio shows and I've barely heard of Caltex, but I thought it would be easy to do an internet search and find a list of "Caltex Theater" shows and dates. But, nope!
The best guess seems to be that it's from the 1950s, but as I look for clues, I come away more confused than before!
If we listen carefully to announcer Ric Hutton, we get a few breadcrumbs...
One thing we hear is that "Scrooge the Miser" is a new play by Eric Jones-Evans, so it should just be a matter of determining when it was published.
That wasn't as easy as I thought either, but I found a couple of references to 1962, including this title page:
I'd be willing to go with 1962 as the year of the broadcast, except for one big but...
Another key is that we know the part of Scrooge is played by John Alden (who does a great job).
Now, you say "John Alden" to an American and we would most likely think of the pilgrim who was in the love triangle with Priscilla Mullins. But radio wasn't invented yet in the 1620s, so this would be a different John Alden!
A quick search does reveal that there was an Australian actor named John Alden who appeared on the radio in addition to his stage roles. Fair enough, but this gentleman passed away in November 1962.
So, the "Caltex Theater" show can't be from 1962, as he wasn't around for Christmas of that year. And even if the show was prerecorded, they wouldn't broadcast it as is, with Mr. Alden taking a curtain call and all.
And we're back where we started - a mystery!
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