I Sort of Get It!

Now that we've hit December and the heat is kicking in more often: 

I get it (gas prices are higher), but I don't get it (I don't speak pounds)!

So Not Sure!

From the "I Don't Know Much About This One" department, here's an interesting illustration with an emphasis on the "Ghost Story":

Also not sure* if it's an actual book cover or just a print!

*not sure bring a euphemism for no clue !

Friendly!

Another fun game one can play on one's phone is the popular Words with Friends (2).

One regular feature of the game is the Solo Challenge, where you work your way up through a series of increasingly difficult computer opponents.

For this holiday season, the Challenge had "A Christmas Carol" for the theme! 

Here's a look at the ladder:

Kind of an interesting mix of representations there! Martha Cratchit seems the most traditional and she actually seems to function as Mrs. Cratchit.

I did eventually defeat Scrooge, by the way!

"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.

"A Christmas Carol" All-Star Team - Day 19

 

As we continue to put together our All-Star Team, we encounter the Ghost of Christmas Past!

This particular spirit is the one that varies the most from one adaptation to another, due to the hard-to-capture description in the book, which is hard to depict in illustrated form, let alone live-action!

One depiction to me captures the "like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium" pretty well, though - Joel Grey in the 1999 made-for-TV version starring Patrick Stewart:

I think Joel Grey has always had a child-like quality anyway and with his age at the time (67) and some special effects, he nails it!

Of course in my little world, the Oscar, Tony and Grammy winning Mr. Grey is best-known as the son of master song satirist Mickey Katz:

But that's a whole 'nother story!

"A Sesame Street Christmas Carol" (2006) - Part 2

Since "A Sesame Street Christmas Carol," the 2006 direct-to-video special, actually has "A Christmas Carol" in the title, is it an actual adaptation of the classic story?

Well, no, not really. It's a takeoff on it, with Oscar the Grouch standing in for Scrooge, but it does follow the past/present/future structure and contains a few nods to the original.

This is by no means a Sesame Street version of "The Muppet Christmas Carol," despite what the title may imply.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Sesame Street productions are aimed at young kids, whereas the Muppet billed ones seem to seek more of a family audience. As such, I'm not really going to "review" this special, but just point out a few things.

This all got started because Tim Curry's the narrator here. He's only at the beginning and end, but sets a good tone, with Dickensian phrases like "to begin with" to give it flavor.

I have to admit that I'm a sucker for "fourth wall" type gags, so I think it's really funny how Oscar talks back to the narrator. It reminds me of how Boris Badenov, say, would interact with William Conrad's narrator on "Rocky and His Friends" and its later incarnations.

The story gets going with Oscar being visited by Joe Marley, who delivers Ghost-O-Grams. The Marley name is just used as an homage, as the character doesn't really seem to have a Marley-like connection to Oscar.

Oscar receives three Ghost-O-Grams, which summon the three spirits, who show Oscar some clips that appear to be from earlier Sesame Street episodes or specials.

In the Christmas Past sequence, the them is for Oscar to understand giving from the heart. The ghost here is Rhubarb, a legendary grouch from London of 1843. I get it! He came in an old baked beans can. The two grouches don't seem to learn too much, though!

The vintage Bert and Ernie "Gift of the Magi" segment is very good if predictable for adults familiar with that O. Henry story. You know this is older, as it features "Mr. Hooper," who had passed away in-universe after actor Will Lee died in 1982. Good to see him.

The next spirit comes in a jack-in-the-box and she's Christmas Carol, an anthropomorphic Christmas tree. She shows Oscar a few different holiday traditions to represent the present. I though the Hanukah and Kwanzaa segments were informative and the food in each looks awesome!

I enjoyed Kristin Chenoweth's voice characterization of Carol.

The spirit who shows what Christmas Future will look like is i-S.A.M., a robot operated with a  remote. His segment features a wacky animated take on the future.

When all is said and done, Oscar wakes up on Christmas morning and meets little Joey Dickens, who resembles Joe Marley, which seems to indicate the whole thing was a dream. He gives Joey a smelly old sneaker as a present, so I guess he learned something?

In any event, it's a cute little special aimed at kids and if looked at that way, it's not bad. It's 46 minutes long, which is a good running time for something like this.

One thing I always thought was interesting about Oscar the Grouch is that he wants to be miserable, but if he is miserable, then he's happy, which he doesn't like, so he's miserable again and so on. I remember an episode of "Sesame Street" addressing that conundrum when I was a kid and thought it was deep stuff!

"Donald Duck and the Christmas Carol (1960) - A Little Golden Book - "Stave 2"

Next we take a look at "Stave 2" of our review of "Donald Duck and the Christmas Carol," a Little Golden Book from 1960.

The First of the Spirits:

I like where this is going!

My theory, by the way, is that this first "spirit" is Louie, as evidenced by the green wreath he's wearing on his head...

Ready for Stave 3?

Victor Records: "Scrooge" - Parts 1 & 2 (1916) - William Sterling Battis - Part 2

If you got the chance to listen to William Sterling Battis with his 1916 recordings of "Marley's Ghost" and "The Ghost of Christmas Past," I'm sure you'll agree they're pretty fun.

With these 12-inch 78 rpm records, he gets some room to stretch out, so it's interesting what scenes get highlighted.

I have to wonder if Side One set a new record for most "humbugs" in less than five minutes!

These records are billed as "Character impersonation with effects," although I don't think Side 1 has nay effects, whereas Side 2 has a few, including the fiddler at Fezziwig's party. It's mostly Battis, though.

I think his monologue style is interesting, as he's sometimes he's talking to another character, but you only get his side of the conversation. It reminds me of those telephone routines that Bob Newhart used to do.

I can't really uncover a lot of information about William Sterling Battis, but he was based in America and seems to have been a Dickens specialist.

This little clipping from Dickinson College in December 1927 is very interesting:

Fascinating that they namedrop Bransby Williams!

I imagine that this sort of character impersonation would have been running out of steam in a few years once talking movies became established.

One other related piece of ephemera is also intersting. This ad for Victor Records touting them as educational tools:

Look who's on there!

I'll have to stay on the look out for the other record in the series.

Meanwhile, I think we have to wait 25 years for another recording of "A Christmas Carol" for the home market. Paging Ronald Colman!

Victor Records: "Scrooge" - Parts 1 & 2 (1916) - William Sterling Battis - Part 1

"Scrooge - Part 1 - 'Marley's Ghost'" (1916)
b/w "Scrooge - Part 2 - 'The Ghost of Christmas Past'
Victor Records
Scrooge: William Sterling Battis

Here's one more early monologue, this time by American William Sterling Battis, another noted impersonator of Dickens characters.

He cut four 12-inch 78 rpm records in his "Scrooge" series. I've only been able to track down the first record which pairs "Marley's Ghost" with "The Ghost of Christmas Past."

They're not the same sketches as presented by Bransby Williams on his Scrooge series but they're equally fun.

Give 'em a listen:

Part 1 - "Marley's Ghost"

Part 2 - "The Ghost of Christmas Past"

Stave Two. The First of the Three Spirits. (Part 2!)

Now the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge on a journey to the past. They're there strictly as "shadows," so they can't interact with anyone or change anything that's already happened.

I've broken down five distinct periods and/or events that the spirit shows Scrooge in the book. The various adaptations always include some of these, but it's rare to see them all. Each offers its own insights.

First, we go back to the town where Scrooge attended boarding school. He's excited to see it once again. However, when they go inside the schoolhouse and see the lonely young Ebenezer, he weeps. He compares himself as a boy to the caroler that he chased away, so he's already learning a lesson!

An interesting little touch that occasionally pops up is that Scrooge sees the characters from the books that the young Ebenezer is reading (Ali Baba, Robinson Crusoe, etc.). Old Scrooge is excited to see them!

The next image is Scrooge growing and the same school getting older. He had been a boy, but now seems to be perhaps a teenager. He's visited by his "much younger" sister Fan, who has come to take Scrooge home because their father is kinder these days. No mention at all of their mother. Scrooge loved his sister very much.

The spirit reminds Scrooge that his nephew is Fan's son. Something else for Scrooge to think about.

Sometime later, Scrooge is now an apprentice with Fezziwig. He sees another version of his younger self, a little bit older, along with his fellow apprentice, Dick Wilkins. We only see Dick in this one sequence, but Scrooge says, "Poor Dick! Dear, dear!" which has always made me wonder what happened to him. Fezziwig is apparently deceased in the "present," as Scrooge exclaims, "It's Fezziwig alive again." Presumably Fezziwig had passed away from natural causes, as he was quite a bit older than Scrooge.

In any event, Fezziwig throws an awesome Christmas party, vividly described by Dickens. And through it all, present day Scrooge has a blast reliving it!

The spirit needles Scrooge a bit about whether Fezziwig is so great, which makes Scrooge realize that he's rather un-Fezziwig-like to his own employee! So, he's learning some lessons!

Next we get another version of young Scrooge, perhaps now in business for himself. Whatever the case, he's now consumed with the pursuit of wealth. This change does not sit well with his fiancée, who releases Scrooge from his promise. Present-day Scrooge certainly does not look upon this as a fond memory and the spirit has to restrain him in order to show him one more vision.

One thing to note is that, in the book, the fiancée comes out of nowhere. In so many adaptations, we see her interact with Scrooge at Fezziwig's ball. It's another one of those things that's so common, you would think it's in the original text. Definitely not, though!

The last sequence we encounter from the past is not actually one of Scrooge's own memories. From here on, everything he sees with this ghost and the others is new to him.

This last one takes place seven years earlier, on the night that Marley died. It shows Scrooge's former fiancée now married with a family. Scrooge catches on that this is something he missed out on, especially the oldest daughter (whom Dickens himself practically drools over!), who might have been "a spring-time in the haggard winter of his life" - great line!

The actual husband/father calls Scrooge's former fiancée "Belle" just one time, but naturally that gets retconned in the various versions where Scrooge sees her at Fezziwig's party. Is Belle her name or is her husband calling her by a pet name? We may never know!

Scrooge is getting more agitated and really does not like Belle and her husband pitying him. He gets so mad that he extinguishes the ghost with its cap and falls back asleep. Did the spirit have any other visions lined up?

One thing mentioned in the book that is seldom picked up on is that Scrooge sees all the faces the spirit has shown him in the spirit's face right before he extinguishes it. Another tough trick to pull off in live action.

Scrooge's past is an important part of the story, so these sequences get a lot of play in the various adaptations, but, as mentioned before, there are a lot of variations and many added twists.

There really are four distinct young Scrooges, but it's not common to have four different actors for each scene. It's no doubt much easier to cast a couple of actors and use them as necessary to show Scrooge aging.

Now that we're done with past, what's happening in the present?

Stave Two. The First of the Three Spirits. (Part 1!)

Scrooge now finds himself in the awkward position of having his bed curtains drawn aside to be greeted by the first spirit - the Ghost of Christmas Past!

An awesome line us used by Dickens here to indicate how close the ghost was to Scrooge: "As close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow." Love it, but it's hard to sneak in without a narrator!

The description of this ghost is pretty wacky, which makes it hard to depict visually, especially in live action versions. It looks like a child and an old man, with long, white hair, but no wrinkles on its face. It also has a jet of light streaming from its head. And if that's not enough, it fluctuates from having one head and arm and leg to multiples of each! At least the ghost's outfit of white tunic with summer flowers is easier to depict. It also sports a cap that acts as an extinguisher for its light.

This ghost definitely varies the most in appearance of any character in the various adaptations!

Befitting its name, the ghost will show Scrooge a series of events from past Christmases.

Next up, we'll take a look at each as originally depicted in the book itself!