Lit for Little Hands: "A Christmas Carol" (2019)

Lit for Little Hands: "A Christmas Carol" (2019)

Familius

Adapter: Brooke Jorden

Illustrator: David Miles

We jump ahead to the 21st century for this fun little adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" for youngsters from the "Lit for Little Hands" series!

It's a chunky little board book with a simplified (but not really dumbed-down) text and kid-friendly illustrations:

For extra kid-friendly fun, each two-page spread has some sort of moving part, that you pull or spin or whatever for some little detail. For example, on the left hand side of the above picture of Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past is a little tab (not visible in this stock illustration) that, when pulled, reveals the two of them flying through the window!

You can find out more at the Familius website.

Always good to see new treatments for a new generation!

And props for giving Scrooge a bit of that "frosty rime" on his wiry chin!

"A Christmas Carol" Magic Lantern Slides - Newton & Co. (Circa 1885)

We stay in the magic lantern world to take a look at this set of illustrations from "A Christmas Carol" as presented by Newton & Co. from around 1885.

There's 25 of them, so here's a slideshow:

Very nice, but they'd better be, if made by the "Opticians to the King!"

 

"A Christmas Carol" Magic Lantern Slides

While we're hanging around in the past, let's take a look at some magic lantern slides!

Magic lanterns were early slide projectors and offered visual entertainment way before movies and TV. As such, they were popular for a long time, but today are just curious artifacts.

Here's an example of one of the contraptions used to show the slides:

The works of Charles Dickens being so popular, it's not surprising that there were several sets of slides for the lanterns based on said works.

Which brings us to this set of 12 slides from sometime in the past (who knows when?):

The art is so primitive that it absolutely fascinates me!

The scene selection is interesting, as there are only 12 slides to illustrate the story and we get the rare depiction of activity in the city (Slide 2) and the lighthouse keepers (Slide 8).

What I don't quite get, however, is what's going on in Slide 9. It appears to show an aged Ghost of Christmas Present with two kids whom I presume are Ignorance and Want. But who's the crying woman?

Here's a snippet of what the presenter would read as the slides progress:

And for fun, here's an animation of the slides:

Old school fun!

Happy Easter!

"The Cinema" - No. 38, Vol. III (July 2, 1913)

We jump ahead a few years with Seymour Hicks and leave the stage world to enter the movie world with this 1913 issue of "The Cinema," another British magazine.

This issue has a few items related to the 1913 silent film "Scrooge":

These show that the title of this 1913 release was originally "Scrooge," not "Old Scrooge" as is sometimes indicated these days.

"Old Scrooge" was the 1923 reissue of the 1913 "Scrooge." I think the original 1913 cut is lost, but we're fortunate to have the reissue still around.

This rundown of the 1913 film shows it's pretty similar to the reissue cut:

The movie seemed to play well in 1913, but I think it would have seem dated by 1923.

I'm sure we'll encounter Sir Seymour again in the future, but this is the end of our little walk down memory lane for now!

Cassell's Magazine (December 1903 - May 1904)

We stay way back in the early 1900s with (not-yet-Sir) Seymour Hicks for this story from Cassell's Magazine, which profiles him and his wife Ellaline Terris:

A good portrait of Hicks as Scrooge and it's interesting to read about him in his earlier days.

"The Sketch" - Volume XXXVI (October 23, 1901 - January 15, 1902)

Here's a fun little find from a 1901/1902 issue of the British periodical "The Sketch":

A rare chance to see what a stage version of "Scrooge" starring Seymour Hicks!

We see both Bob Cratchit and Fred offering a toast to Scrooge.

A couple of takeaways from the Fred picture: Fred's last name is Wayland and it looks like he has four kids!

And I find it it interesting that the Cratchit family has a sign reading, "God Bless Us, Everyone." It's reminiscent of the scene from the 1901 silent movie:

I had though the movie had that sign because we couldn't hear Tiny Tim say his line, but apparently it was all the rage to have such a sign in 1901!

Do I need to hang one up for my next Christmas dinner?

In any event, this seems to indicate that Seymour Hicks was calling his adaptations "Scrooge" from way back when, not using the title "A Christmas Carol."

This issue of "The Sketch" also includes this little profile of the woman who composed the music for the "Scrooge" show:

Not sure if it's gossip, but interesting!