"Scrooge and the Stars" (1963) - Rich Little - Part 3

You can enlarge the picture to see the stars!

Rich Little's 1963 album "Scrooge and the Stars" featured John F. Kennedy was the Ghost of Christmas Present, but it also had a bunch of other celebrities, all from the entertainment world.

Being an aficionado of retro pop culture, I'm familiar with all of the performers and feel reasonably qualified to judge the impersonations.

It's an interesting mix, with a lot of them having been prominent for quite some time, but still around in 1963, including Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante, George Burns, John Wayne, etc.

This is also true of the "star" of the recording, Jack Benny. He's a great choice to be cast as Scrooge for a comedy project, as his stinginess was the dominant trait of his show-biz persona. By all accounts, he was a very generous man in real life, but everyone thought he was stingy. Throw in his perpetual claim of being 39 years old and his violin playing and there's plenty of comedy fodder.

I'm a huge Jack Benny fan and I think Rich Little nails the impersonation. You start thinking you're actually listening to Benny himself and that's as good as it gets!

Jack seems reluctant to pay "Rochester" his 15 shillings!

Since you need to have a Bob Cratchit, it's extremely helpful if your Scrooge "actor" already has a put-upon employee. In this case we have Jack Benny's longtime valet "Rochester" in that role. His real name was Eddie Anderson, but he was usually just billed as "Rochester," as he is here, or sometimes Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. It was a common radio practice for actors to be billed as their character names and the public seemed to think they really were who they played on the radio. Fans thought Rochester was actually Jack's valet. Whatever the case Eddie Anderson was a great performer with one of the most memorable voices ever. And unlike Cratchit, "Rochester" was usually one step ahead of his own boss.

The narrator of the piece is Fred MacMurray, who's not the first star you think of as being a target for impressionists, but he was very popular at the time with the "My Three Sons" TV series and movies such as "The Absent-Minded Professor" (1961) and "Son of Flubber" (1963). Rich Little's impersonation is excellent, so good that it probably was a factor in having "Fred" narrate.

Rich also does a great Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne and I remember them being staples of his act back in the day, so it's no surprise to see them here, along with the mandatory Ed Sullivan.

A couple of the stars seem odd choices to me, mainly Van Heflin and Dana Andrews. I've seen both of them in tons of movies and enjoy their work, but I'm not sure what made them relevant in 1963 as they were never huge stars.

Gregory Peck was huge star, of course, and had just won the Best Actor Oscar for "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962), so that's definitely the most star power ever associated with Dick Wilkins!

And Jackie Gleason is a fun Fezziwig!

Jack Webb is here although "Dragnet" was in between TV incarnations. Everybody would still "get" that impersonation, though, as Sgt. Friday was very memorable. Raymond Burr is in full "Perry Mason" mode here and the over-the-top Walter Brennan, à la "The Real McCoys" is awesome!

He passes the Lucy Van Pelt test!

Fascinating to me is that "Chester" from the TV series "Gunsmoke" is billed as the celebrity, rather than Dennis Weaver. It seems like a throwback to Rochester and such. Looking back, I associate Dennis Weaver with "McCloud" as much as "Gunsmoke" and I also remember him from the "Gentle Ben" TV series. But in the early 1960s, he must have just been Chester!

I know Chester was big as he's the only celebrity namedropped by the Chipmunks in their 1960 recording of "Chipmunk Fun." Alvin even throws a little imitation of him!

Just for fun, here's that record:

We have a few other celebrities in the mix, but the mystery here is why whoever "plays" Tiny Tim does not get billing. I think it's Liberace, though. Anyone have any thoughts?

So lots of fun impressions and Rich Little's talent is just off the charts. No wonder he was going to make inroads into U.S. prominence soon!

Next up, the obligatory plot breakdown...

"Scrooge and the Stars" (1963) - Rich Little - Part 2

If you got the chance to listen to Rich Little's 1963 album "Scrooge and the Stars," I'm sure you'll agree that it's something!

I had always known that Rich Little was Canadian, and at this point in time he was well-known in his home country, but had not appeared yet on American TV and I don't think this album saw an American relase, although every star that gets imitated was known to American audiences.

One thing that worked against this album was an issue that no one could have anticipated. The Ghost of Christmas Present was "played" by John F. Kennedy and this album was released in Canada right about the time that JFK was assassinated. Bad timing for any hope of Americans enjoying this album.

A couple of quotes from "JFK" that come from the book (more or less) are poignant in retrospect. He says, "My life upon the globe is brief. It ends tonight. As a matter of fact, it ends as quickly as you can say your name."

Kind of eerie as well, but now that 50-odd years have passed, you can think, "Hey, he did a pretty good JFK!"

The album on the left was out, the album on the left was in.

I presume not many people in America was aware of Rich Little's album anyway, but he certainly fared better than American comedian Vaughn Meader, who had a quick rise to fame impersonating JFK on "The First Family" comedy album in 1962. There was no market for such a thing a year later.

To show what comes around goes around, in 1981 Rich Little headlined a new album in that series, "Then First Family Rides Again," which spoofed the newly elected Ronald Reagan and featured Vaughn Meader in a small role.

But what about the other celebrities on the "Scrooge and the Stars" album?

We'll talk about them next!