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· Year: 1999 (CD), original recording date sometime between 1934 and 1953, with the exception of 1936 and 1938
· Contributors: Orson Welles (narrator), The Mercury Theatre troupe
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1. A Christmas Carol
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· According to Frosina Information Network, Barrymore performed the role every year from 1934 to 1953, when he died, except for 1936 (his brother John filled in while Lionel grieved over the death of his wife), and 1938 (Orson Welles took the part when Lionel fell ill).
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A recording of one of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre Radio productions of the Charles Dickens classic, in which an old miser is visited on Christmas Eve by several spirits who want him to mend his ways.
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On the great show Northern Exposure, Chris Stevens (John Corbett) once said, "Sometimes I'm nostalgic for a time I never knew." That's a rough summation of how I feel about this disc. Although this recording was made, at the very least, more than twenty years before I was born, I feel warmly toward it. Even the soft mix evokes a classic image of the family sitting in the den, the Christmas tree lit in front of the window, the kids lying on the floor listening attentively. Nostalgia is the major attraction of this recording, as condensing the story to fit on an album doesn't exactly work wonders for its narrative flow. Most of the speakers--though not star Lionel Barrymore--are terribly fond of overacting, and those who aren't are bland and safe, even the actor portraying Jacob Marley. This Carol is warm and welcoming, but it lacks the edge of other versions (and Dickens's original.
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