I had mentioned last time that the story element of the World Record Club's 1960 recording of "A Christmas Carol" is very condensed, with large chunks not present.
So, I feel it's my duty to discuss what's there and not there!
We start off with the usual introduction of Scrooge and he interacts with Bob Cratchit and the charity solicitors. No mention of Fred at all, though.
When the narrator tells us about the caroler at Scrooge's keyhole, we hear him sing the beginning of "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen" then the choir takes up the song and sings the whole thing.
Now we understand that the story will be paused occasionally for a choral or orchestral number.
When we get back to the story, Scrooge and Bob close up the office in the usual manner and Scrooge eats his dinner at that melacholy tavern before going home. We do not hear whether he sees Marley's face in his knocker, however.
Marley's Ghost does get quite an introduction and he gets to talk to Scrooge quite a bit, describing his own torment and telling Scrooge to expect the other spirits.
The Ghost of Christmas Past appears and shows Scrooge just a couple of scenes.
They go back to see lonely young Scrooge at school, but no Fan, which makes sense, since there's no Fred.
Scrooge's former self reminds him of the caroler, so that's one lesson.
They then go to Fezziwig's party and that scene gets a pretty good description. Dick Wilkins even gets a mention!
Scrooge says that he'd like to have a word with his own clerk, so that's another lesson.
The past segment ends without any mention of Belle.
Scrooge is then visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present and they go to Bob Cratchit's house right away.
The Cratchit family's Christmas dinner is the only scene during this segment and it gets quite a lot of attention. I'd say it's the longest segment in the whole thing.
Just about everything you'd expect is here but when Scrooge asks the spirit about Tiny Tim, the spirit says Tim will die, the "excess population" bit is not included because Scrooge didn't use that line to the charity solicitors at the beginning.
So, that's good from a continuity standpoint but I think it was a missed opportunity to show that Scrooge is still learning things.
The Ghost of Christmas Present quickly vanishes and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come appears.
The future segment is pretty short. We don't get any visions of the future on the recording, but Scrooge says the spirit showed him "much."
So, we don't know what lessons Scrooge may have learned from the future.
Scrooge begs for mercy and promises to change as the spirit dissolves into Scrooge's bedpost.
Scrooge talks to the boy out the window and engages him to buy the turkey for the Cratchits.
There's a musical number plopped in the middle of their conversation, which is particularly jarring.
The narrator wraps up the rest of the story, explaining that Scrooge raised Bob's salary and that Tiny Tim did not die.
One more choral number and we're done!
I do wonder how this project was assembled. Was there a longer version of the story recorded and it was edited down? I tend to think this rather than this version of the story being planned all along.
I mentioned the lessons that Scrooge was learning to get a sense of whether this adaptation holds together as a story.
If you were unfamiliar with the story and heard this version, would you get the full impact? Maybe not!
Most of what we hear is straight from the book, with only a few minor changes. What's here is in the book, but most of the book isn't here!
I like what's here, but would like more of it. I timed the story portion at about 25 minutes, so it's roughly two-thirds story and one-third music. That's actually a fair amount of time to tell the story for a commercial recording, relatively speaking, but the structure seems odd.
I have no idea what the deal is with the "Mrs. Kennedy" who is credited with the adaptation. What did that mean to the record's target audience back in 1960? Was it a selling point?
I'm guessing she's not the former Jacqueline Bouvier who was soon to take up residence in the White House!
