Balladeer’s Blog’s Eighth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues! Back in the 2012 edition I reviewed Rich Little’s Christmas Carol, his 1978 television special. In that review I mentioned impressionist Little’s earlier, shorter, stand-up version of the special in which he used the voices of entirely different celebrities for the characters in A Christmas Carol.
This time around I will look at that 1963 AUDIO version. Rich Little had compiled the piece over the course of years, stretching back to his days as a DJ when he would ad-lib much of the material.
A historical footnote is the fact that – since Rich Little prepared the material far in advance of Christmas – he used the voice of John F Kennedy for the Ghost of Christmas Present. The record album version was released mere days after JFK’s assassination.
The voice lineup for the other characters went as follows:
Scrooge – Jack Benny
Bob Cratchit – Eddie “Rochester” Anderson
Nephew Fred – Jimmy Stewart
Narrator – Fred MacMurray
Charity Collectors – Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Durante
Carol Singer – Bing Crosby
Marley – John Wayne
Ghost of Christmas Past – Walter Brennan
Fezziwig – Jackie Gleason
Dick Wilkins – Gregory Peck
Ghost of Christmas Present – John F Kennedy
Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come – Ed Sullivan
Party Attendees – Peter Lorre, Raymond Burr and Van Hefflin
Non-Mourners of Scrooge – Jack Webb, Orson Welles, James Mason, Dana Andrews and George Burns
Christmas Morning Boy – Dennis Weaver (as Chester on Gunsmoke.)
LISTEN FOR YOURSELF – CLICK HERE
FOR MORE VERSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/category/a-christmas-carol-2/
I once saw a play adaptation of christmas carol involing sherlock holmes which was fun this is a joy to listen to, great job on the voices.
That Sherlock Holmes one sounds fun! I agree he did very well on the voices.
The play is called: Sherlock Holmes and the case of the Christmas carol
Thanks! I will check it out!
Rich Little was so funny.
I agree.