Harmonious!

Columbia Records had another nice cover for Basil Rathbone's recording of "A Christmas Carol" when they reissued it on the Harmony budget label (1960s?):

Can't beat that first edition John Leech artwork!

William Sterling Battis Returns - Part 3!

Just a couple of notes on "Scrooge" by William Sterling Battis and the year of 1916...

One thing that jumps out at me is that the 12-inch 78 rpm records were $1.25 each.

That seems expensive to me for 1916, so let's convert that into 2022 money... Wow, that would be $32.54! That's a lot for about nine minutes of audio entertainment!

The label also indicates that this is a "Character Impersonation with effects." You do hear some violin and percussion here and there and some research indicates that Ted Levy played the violin and William H. Reitz played the "traps" on the recording.

Both of those musicians were very busy with session work for Victor during the first quarter of the twentieth century.

So, for fun let's hear Ted Levy on violin as part of the Victor String Quartet in 1915:

And William H. Reitz playing the chimes on this 1913 record:

Very charming!

Bringing things back to a Christmas vibe, Mr. Reitz played the chimes on the 1915 recording of "Adeste Fidelis" by legendary Irish tenor John McCormack on the fancy Victrola label:

And while we're here, let's listen to the greatest tenor of all, Enrico Caruso with "Cantique de Noël" from 1916, also on Victrola:

Caruso and McCormack sold tons of records back then and you can hear why: those guys were the goods!

William Sterling Battis Returns - Part 2!

 

I think the "Scrooge" series of records from 1916 by William Sterling Battis are a lot of fun, but, as I mentioned last time, I do have one beef!

It's nothing new, just that Scrooge keeps saying how the visits from the spirits were dreams!

Within the context of this particular adaptation, I can understand Scrooge thinking that the visit from Marley's Ghost was a dream when he wakes up during the night. But after the Ghost of Christmas Past leaves, he thinks that was a dream too. 

So, he would have had to been dreaming that Marley's Ghost visited him, then within that dream he would have dreamed that he woke up, then had a dream within that dream that the Ghost of Christmas Past appeared. And so on...

Makes your head spin after a while!

Of course, Bransby Williams goes as far as to name the parts of his monologue as "Before the Dream," "The Dream" and "After the Dream," so there's no mistaking  his take on it!

Was that a thing then? That it was all a dream or series of dreams?

And if it were a dream, it wouldn't be "A Ghost Story of Christmas," would it?

William Sterling Battis Returns - Part 1!

Hey, if Bransby Williams can return, so can fellow Dickens monologist William Sterling Battis!

With his return he brings us the second 12-inch 78 rpm of his "Scrooge" performance from 1916 on Victor Records, which we didn't have back here.

Let's hear Parts 1 and 2 again:

And now the much-anticipated (by me anyway!) Parts 3 and 4:

Next: My beef with it!

Oh, You Meiser!

I like the cover of the 45 rpm EP of Basil Rathbone's "A Christmas Carol" recording for Columbia Records:

I think the cover was done specifically for this release (early 1950s?) rather than it just being another version of the original 78 rpm album cover, which was this:

The original LP issue from 1949 (which added the carols from the Lyn Murray singers to extend the run time) did rework the 78 rpm album cover in a not overly exciting manner:

Oh, and I hadn't thought of it before, but I'm presuming that Edith Meiser, who did the adaptation for the recording, pronounced her last name like "miser."

It takes one to know one!

New Blog!

In what I consider to be big news, I started a new blog!

It's Wheezer's Warehouse where I'll post my various pop culture-type stuff that's not related to "A Christmas Carol" or its characters or performers or whatnot.

So I moved the non-related posts over there.

My intention is to keep this blog relatively on topic, but I'll still stray a little bit to provide context, but it will be a somewhat logical progression!

These blogs are my own benefit, but my thought is that if someone someday strays over here because they're interested in "A Christmas Carol," they won't be scared off by too much non-related content.

So, if you do stray over here, let me know!

Happy "Star Wars" Day!

 May the Fourth...

...be with you!