Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00And now back to the Campbell Playhouse and our fifth annual presentation of A Christmas Carol.
00:05A Christmas present from the makers of Campbell's Suits.
00:14On the stroke of one, Scrooge awakened suddenly and sat in bolt upright in his own bed.
00:20You remember the words of Marley's Ghost and wondered from which direction the second specter would appear.
00:26At that moment nothing between a baby and a rhinoceros would have astonished him very much.
00:31Now being prepared for almost anything, he was not by any means prepared for nothing.
00:38And consequently when no shape appeared, he was taken with a violent fit of trembling.
00:43Five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of an hour went by yet nothing came.
00:48Then as he sat in his bed he became aware gradually of a great blaze of ruddy light
00:53that seemed to shine upon him from the adjoining room.
00:56He got up softly and shuffled in his slippers to the door.
00:59It was his own sitting room, no doubt about that.
01:03But it had undergone a surprising transformation.
01:06The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green that it looked a perfect grove.
01:12From every part of which bright gleaming berries glistened and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney
01:19that had never been known in Scrooge's time or for many and many a winter season gone.
01:24Heaped up on the floor to form a kind of throne were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, great joints of meat,
01:31sucking pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince pies, plum puddings, barrels of oysters, red hot chestnuts
01:38and seething bowls of punch that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam.
01:43In easy state upon this couch there sat a jolly giant, glorious to see,
01:49who bore a glowing torch in shape not unlike Prentice's horn
01:53and held it up high up to shed its light on Scrooge as he came peeping round the door.
01:58Come in, come in, Ebenezer Scrooge and know me better, man.
02:02You? You?
02:03I am the ghost of Christmas present.
02:06Look upon me. You've never seen the light of me before.
02:09You're different from the other spirit. You're tall, almost as giant as that great torch you carry.
02:19Yet life falls into the homes of rich and poor alike.
02:22Spirit, take me where you will.
02:25Last time I went against my will and learnt a lesson which is working now.
02:30If you have anything to teach me, let me profit by it.
02:35Touch my robe, Ebenezer Scrooge. Touch my robe.
02:44What have you brought me, spirit?
02:45An humble dwelling, an humble street.
02:48It's miserable enough.
02:50Yet there is happiness there.
02:52Who are these people? Who's that woman and the children?
02:56These are the family of your clerk, Bob Cratchit.
02:58He and his wife dressed in their twice-turned gowns, but brave in ribbons,
03:02laying the table for their Christmas dinner.
03:04And there, assisting her, is their daughter, Belinda,
03:06and the young man with a fork in the stuffing.
03:08That's Master Peter Cratchit, and the two little Cratchits.
03:12Listen, Scrooge.
03:13Here's Martha, Mother.
03:14Martha!
03:19God bless your heart alive, Martha, my dear. Merry Christmas to you.
03:22Merry Christmas, Mother.
03:24Merry Christmas.
03:25How late you are, my dear.
03:26Oh, we had a deal of work to finish up last night, and we had to clear away this morning.
03:30Well, never mind so long as you're here now.
03:32Sit you down before the fire and have a warm. Lord bless you.
03:35Where's Father?
03:36He's been to church with Tiny Tim. They'll be along directly.
03:39How is Tiny Tim, Mother? Any better at all?
03:41Sometimes I think he is.
03:43And sometimes I think, oh, dear God, if anything should happen to Tiny Tim.
03:47Mother, you mustn't even think of such a thing.
03:50Here we are.
03:51Here's Tiny Tim.
03:52Merry Christmas, everybody.
03:54Martha, welcome, my dear.
03:56Merry Christmas, Father.
03:57And Tim.
03:58Merry Christmas, Martha.
03:59Oh, Tim, you darling.
04:01Oh, Father, I'm so glad to be home.
04:03And we're so glad to have you, Martha.
04:05And how did little Tim behave in church, Bob?
04:07Oh, as good as gold and better.
04:09I like church, Mother. Oh, they sang the nicest songs.
04:12I hope people saw me there.
04:14Saw you there? And why, Tim?
04:16Well, don't you see? Because I'm lame.
04:19And if they saw my crutch, it might be pleasant for them to remember on Christmas who it was
04:25who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.
04:29Oh, bless you, my son.
04:31Are we ready to eat, Mother? Come on, let's eat.
04:33Yes, children, we're all ready.
04:35Come, take your places now.
04:37And I'll wait your turn.
04:38There's plenty of stuffing and dressing and plum pudding for all of you.
04:42Martha, you take care of Tiny Tim.
04:44Let's see that he eats plenty.
04:45He must get strong and well.
04:47Now, sit down.
04:48Sit down, everyone.
04:49And now, my dears, shall we say grace?
04:54Spirit, tell me if Tiny Tim will live.
04:59I see a vacant seat in the porch in the corner,
05:02and a crutch without an owner carefully preserved.
05:06Oh, no, no.
05:07No, no, kind spirit.
05:10Say he'll be spared.
05:12Say he'll live.
05:13If these shadows remain unaltered by the future ever-liver,
05:17the child will die.
05:20Amen.
05:22And now, my dears, with such a dinner, a toast.
05:25A merry Christmas to us all, and God bless us.
05:29God bless us, everyone.
05:31And now to Mr. Scrooge.
05:33I give you a toast to Mr. Scrooge,
05:36the founder of the feast.
05:38The founder of the feast, indeed,
05:40who pays you all a fifteen shillings a week.
05:42I wish I had him here.
05:43I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast on,
05:45and I hope he'd have a good appetite for it.
05:47Oh, my dear, the children, Christmas Day.
05:49It should be Christmas Day, I'm sure,
05:50on which one drinks the health of such an odious,
05:52stingy, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge.
05:54You know he is, Bob.
05:56Nobody knows it better than you, poor fellow.
05:58My dear Christmas Day.
06:00I'll drink his health for your sake and the day's,
06:03not for his.
06:04Long life to him.
06:05A merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
06:08He'll be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt.
06:12And I say God bless him too, Mother, and everyone.
06:16God bless you, dear.
06:20♪♪
06:43There was nothing of high mark in all this.
06:47They were not a handsome family,
06:49not these cratchits.
06:50They were not well-dressed.
06:52Their shoes were far from being waterproof.
06:55Their clothes were scanty
06:57and had known very likely the insides of a pawnbroker's.
07:02But they were happy, grateful,
07:04pleased with one another and contented with a time.
07:08When at last they faded,
07:10Scrooge had his eye upon them
07:11and especially on Tiny Tim until the last.
07:14♪♪
07:18Many calls Scrooge made that night
07:20with a ghost of Christmas present.
07:22Down among the miners they went
07:24to labor in the bowels of the earth
07:26and out to sea among the sailors at their watch.
07:29Dark, ghostly figures in their several stations.
07:32Much they saw and far they went.
07:35And many places they visited.
07:38But always with a happy end.
07:41The spirits stood beside sick beds and they were cheerful.
07:44On foreign lands and they were close at home.
07:47By poverty and it was rich.
07:49In almshouse, hospital and jail
07:52where vain man in his little brief authority
07:55had not made fast the door and barred the spirit out,
07:59the spirit left his blessing.
08:02It was a long night.
08:05If it was only a night.
08:08And it was strange too that while Scrooge remained unaltered
08:12in his outward form,
08:14the ghost grew older.
08:17Clearly older.
08:19My life on this globe is very brief, Ebenezer.
08:22It ends tonight.
08:24Tonight?
08:25Tonight at midnight.
08:28Hark, the hour has come.
08:30Oh, no, no, not yet. Not yet.
08:33There are still more things I wish to learn.
08:36These you will learn from still another spirit.
08:40Still another spirit, Ebenezer.
08:44Scrooge looked about him for the ghost that had vanished
08:47and he found himself once more in his bed and his dressing gown
08:50and his nightcap on his head.
08:52He heard the clock strike and then
08:54he remembered the prediction of old Jacob Marley.
08:58And lifting up his eyes, beheld
09:01the third spirit.
09:07A solemn phantom
09:10shrouded in black
09:13draped and hooded
09:16coming towards him slowly and silently like a mist along the ground.
09:21Ah, I know you.
09:24You...
09:25You are the ghost of Christmas yet to come.
09:29You will show me the shadows of things that have not happened
09:33but will happen in the time before us.
09:36Answer me, spirit.
09:38Ghost of the future,
09:40I fear you more than any specter I've seen.
09:45Yet I know your purpose is to do me good
09:48as I hope to live to be another man from what I was.
09:52Lead on. Lead on.
09:55Night's waning fast.
09:57Time's precious.
10:03Spirit.
10:05Why have you brought me here again?
10:08Here to Bob Cratchit's home?
10:11But it's not the same.
10:13Why is it so quiet?
10:15So very quiet here.
10:20Mother.
10:22Mother, please.
10:24My son.
10:26My little son.
10:28Tiny Tim.
10:30I loved him so.
10:32Mother dear, you mustn't.
10:34It's almost time for father to be home.
10:37Don't let him see you crying.
10:39Yes.
10:41Yes, mother.
10:43He's late tonight.
10:45He walks slower than he used to.
10:48And yet I've known him to walk very fast indeed
10:51with Tiny Tim on his shoulders.
10:53So have I, mother.
10:55But he was light to carry.
10:57And his father loved him so that it was no trouble.
11:01No trouble at all.
11:03Good evening, my dear.
11:05You're late, Bob.
11:07Yes, I'm sorry, my dear.
11:09I went to the churchyard today.
11:11I wish you could have gone with me.
11:13It would have done you heart good to see how sweet and green a place it is.
11:17But you'll see it often. I promised him.
11:20Yes, I promised Tiny Tim we'd walk there on a Sunday.
11:23Father dear, it's God's will, Bob.
11:26I'm trying to understand it, my dear.
11:29My son.
11:32My little son, Tiny Tim.
11:35And I loved him so.
11:38Oh, that's cruel.
11:40Cruel.
11:42Spirit.
11:44Can't you give me one ray of hope that I may change all that?
11:48That Tiny Tim may live?
12:01Where are you taking me now?
12:04Here, on a common street, Spirit?
12:08What is there for me to learn here?
12:10Who are those men?
12:12I don't know much about it, either way.
12:14I only know he's dead.
12:16When did he die?
12:17Last night, I believe.
12:19It's likely to be a very cheap funeral for a poor man's life.
12:22I don't know anybody to go to it.
12:24Suppose we make up a party and volunteer.
12:26I don't know anybody to go to it.
12:28Suppose we make up a party and volunteer.
12:30I don't mind going if a lunch is provided.
12:33Come to think of it, I wish I was his best friend.
12:37We used to nod to each other when we met in the street.
12:44Spirit, tell me.
12:47Who is this man that died?
12:50Is there no one to mourn the poor creature?
12:53No one to follow him to the grave?
12:55Perhaps they'll give him a green grave, at least, like poor Tiny Tim.
13:00Perhaps...
13:04Spirit, where are we now?
13:07Merciful heaven, a churchyard.
13:11Overrun by grass and wind.
13:14Choked with too much burial.
13:16Desolate.
13:18Lonely.
13:19Crumbling grave.
13:21Grave.
13:24Spirit, before I draw nearer to that gravestone, answer me one question.
13:31Are these shadows of things that will be?
13:35Or are they shadows of things that may be only?
13:39Huh?
13:41Will you not speak to me, Spirit?
13:44What is that grave to which you point?
13:48Huh?
13:49Ah!
13:50Oh, yes.
13:53There's writing on that stone.
13:55The name on the gravestone is...
14:00Ebenezer Scrooge.
14:03Ebenezer Scrooge!
14:06Oh, no, no, Spirit.
14:09No, no, no, no, hear me.
14:11I'm not the man I was.
14:13Why show me this if I'm past all hope?
14:17Tell me that I can change these dreadful shadows you've shown me by an altered life.
14:22I'll honor Christmas in my heart.
14:25I'll try to keep it all the year.
14:28I'll live in the past, the present, and the future.
14:31And I'll not shut out the lessons that they teach.
14:35Tell me, Spirit.
14:36Oh, go on, tell me.
14:38Tell me that I can sponge away the writing on that stone, Spirit.
14:43I beg you, Spirit.
14:45I beg you!
14:53Spirit, I promise.
14:56I promise on my knees.
14:59I promise.
15:01I promise.
15:03I...
15:04I...
15:06I watch this.
15:10It's my own blackboard.
15:12Oh, I'm home.
15:14In my own bed.
15:16In my own room.
15:19And the sun!
15:21The sun's shining.
15:23It's clear.
15:24It's bright.
15:26No fog.
15:27What a beautiful day.
15:30Oh, glorious, glorious.
15:34Du Bois!
15:35Oh, boy!
15:37Yes, sir?
15:38Well, what's today?
15:41What's that, sir?
15:42Well, what day is it, my fine fellow?
15:45Today?
15:46Why, it's Christmas Day!
15:48Ah-ha! Christmas Day!
15:50Then I haven't missed it.
15:51The spirits have done it all in one night.
15:55All in one night!
15:56Heaven be praised.
15:58How's that, sir?
15:59Hey, listen, my lad.
16:02Do you know where the poultry is in the next street?
16:05I should say I do.
16:07Ha! Intelligent boy.
16:09A remarkable boy.
16:11Tell me.
16:12Do you know if they sold the prized turkey that was hanging in the window?
16:16The one as big as me?
16:18What a delightful boy.
16:21It's a pleasure to talk to you.
16:23Yes, my buck?
16:24It's hanging there now, sir.
16:26That's wonderful.
16:28Go around, will you?
16:30And tell them to send it to Bob Cratchit and his family on Broad Street.
16:34And mind you, they're not to know who paid for it.
16:38Go along. Hurry, hurry, my lad.
16:40Here, wait a minute.
16:41Here's half a crown for your trouble.
16:43Yes, sir. Yes, sir, and a Merry Christmas, sir.
16:45Ha-ha! And a Merry Christmas to you, my boy.
16:49Oh, I don't know what to do.
16:52I'm as light as a feather.
16:54As happy as an angel.
16:56I'm as merry as a schoolboy.
16:59Merry Christmas! Ha-ha!
17:01A Merry Christmas to everybody!
17:04A Happy New Year to all the world!
17:07Whoo!
17:18My dear sir, how do you do?
17:21I... I beg your pardon?
17:23Oh, you, sir.
17:24Aren't you the gentleman who came to my office in regard to that charity?
17:28Oh, yes, sir.
17:29A Merry Christmas to you.
17:31Oh, yes, sir.
17:33Allow me to ask your pardon, sir.
17:36And will you have the goodness to accept...
17:40I prefer to whisper this.
17:43But... but, Lord bless me.
17:46My dear Mr. Scrooge, are you serious?
17:48If you please. Now, not a farthing less.
17:51A great many back payments are included in it, I assure you.
17:55Will you do me that favor?
17:57My dear sir, I don't know what to say to such munificence.
17:59Oh, don't say anything, please.
18:01Come and see me.
18:02Will you come and see me?
18:04I will, I will indeed.
18:05Ha-ha, thank you.
18:06I'm much obliged to you.
18:07I thank you fifty times.
18:09Bless you.
18:10Merry Christmas!
18:17Next morning, Scrooge was early at his office.
18:21He went early for a reason.
18:23If he could only be there first and catch Bob Cratchit coming late.
18:27That was the thing he'd set his heart upon.
18:30And he did it.
18:31Yes, he did.
18:33The clock struck nine.
18:35No Bob.
18:36A quarter past.
18:37No Bob.
18:39Scrooge sat with his door wide open that he might see him come in.
18:43At last he came.
18:44His hat was off before he opened the door.
18:45His comforter, too.
18:46He's on his stool in the jiffy,
18:47driving away with his pen as if he were trying to overtake nine o'clock.
18:51Twenty-one, six and carry the one,
18:52and twenty-four and carry the two,
18:53and thirty-one and eight and nine.
18:54Hello, hello, Cratchit!
18:56Yes, sir?
18:57Step this way, Cratchit, if you please.
19:02Cratchit!
19:03What do you mean by coming in at this time of day?
19:07Oh, I'm very sorry, sir.
19:08I am behind my time.
19:10You are.
19:11Yes, yes.
19:12I think you are.
19:13Oh, it's only once a year, Mr. Scrooge.
19:15It shall not be repeated.
19:16I was making rather merry yesterday, sir.
19:19I'll tell you what, my friend.
19:21I'll not stand this sort of thing any longer.
19:24And therefore, Bob Cratchit,
19:27I'm about to raise your salary.
19:30Mr. Scrooge, are you quite yourself, sir?
19:34No.
19:35No, thank heaven.
19:37I'm not quite myself.
19:39Merry Christmas, Bob.
19:42Merry Christmas, my good fellow.
19:44A merrier Christmas than I've given you in many a year.
19:48I shall raise your salary,
19:50and we'll see what we can do for Tiny Tim
19:52and the rest of your family.
19:54Huh?
19:55We'll discuss it this very afternoon
19:58over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop.
20:01Bob, make a fire.
20:03Make it up,
20:04and buy another cold scuttle
20:06before you dart another eye, Bob Cratchit.
20:11Scrooge was better than his word.
20:15He did it all,
20:17and infinitely more.
20:19To Tiny Tim, who did not die,
20:21he was a second father.
20:23He became as good a friend,
20:24as good a master,
20:26and as good a man as the good old city knew,
20:28or any other good old city, town, or borough
20:31in the good old world.
20:33Some people laughed to see the alteration in him,
20:36but he loved it.
20:38Some people laughed to see the alteration in him,
20:40but he let them laugh,
20:41and little he did them.
20:43His own heart laughed.
20:45That was quite enough for him.
20:47He had no further intercourse with spirits,
20:49but lived upon the total abstinence principle
20:52ever afterwards,
20:53and it was always said of him
20:55that he knew how to keep Christmas well
20:57if any man alive possessed the knowledge.
21:00May that be truly said of us.
21:03Of all of us.
21:05And so, as Tiny Tim observed,
21:07God bless us everyone.
21:35Merry Christmas!
21:40You have just heard our annual presentation
21:42of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol,
21:44starring Lionel Barrymore,
21:46brought to you by the makers of Campbell's Soups.
21:49And now here is Orson Welles.
21:51Ladies and gentlemen, at this point in the program,
21:53it's my custom, as you know,
21:54to present you with a few words of introduction,
21:57our guest of the evening.
21:58With your consent, I shall dispense with this tonight.
22:01To introduce tonight's guest
22:02to the Campbell Playhouse audience,
22:03or to any American audience,
22:05is an extravagant and superfluous procedure.
22:08For if ever an actor has won for himself
22:10a lasting place in the hearts of his fellow countrymen
22:13through years of unsparing and inspiring service,
22:16that actor is Lionel Barrymore.
22:19Mr. Lionel Barrymore.
22:21Oh, thank you, Orson Welles.
22:24Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
22:26Well, this is the fourth year
22:28I've had the pleasure of appearing
22:30in the Christmas carol here on the Campbell Playhouse,
22:34and I assure you all,
22:36it's a pleasure that never tires.
22:38As long as I can remember,
22:40this has been one of my favorite stories.
22:42When we were children,
22:44it was read to us regularly at this time of year,
22:47as it is to many millions of children right now.
22:50And like many of them, I'm sure,
22:52the three of us,
22:53Ethel, Jack, and I,
22:55with the aid of a sheet and some old ironware,
22:58made a play of it.
23:00I remember we had three Scrooges in that production.
23:03Who played Tiny Tim?
23:05I think we had three Tiny Tims, too.
23:08But seriously,
23:10I can think of no part
23:12that I've enjoyed playing again and again
23:15as much as I have the part of that squeezing,
23:18wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching,
23:21covetous old sinner, Ebenezer Scrooge.
23:26And I can think of no happier or more suitable choice
23:29for the makers of Campbell's Soups
23:31to offer the people of America
23:33as their Christmas present each year
23:35than Charles Dickens' well-beloved story,
23:38A Christmas Carol.
23:40Good night, Orson.
23:42Good night, everybody.
23:44And a merry, merry Christmas to you all.
23:47Good night to you, Mr. Barrymore.
23:49Thank you, sir, and a merry Christmas to you.
23:51Ladies and gentlemen, next Sunday night,
23:53we're happy to announce our version
23:55of a great and truly American story
23:57by a great American novelist,
23:59Come and Get It by Edna Ferber.
24:01Against a background of the mighty forests
24:03of Miss Ferber's own Wisconsin,
24:05it tells a stirring tale of the men and women
24:07who live and die in the woods
24:09in order that lumber may come down the rivers
24:11every spring into the cities of the modern world.
24:13Like so many of Miss Ferber's epic romances
24:15of American life,
24:17it was made from a best-selling novel
24:19into a highly successful motion picture.
24:21A story of a man and his son and the girl
24:23they both loved, Lotta.
24:25Lotta, played for us by one of the loveliest
24:27and most accomplished of Hollywood's younger
24:29dramatic actresses, Miss Frances D.
24:31And so until next week,
24:33until Come and Get It,
24:35my sponsors, the makers of Campbell Soups
24:37and all of us in the Campbell Playhouse
24:39remain as always obediently yours.
24:41But just one moment, please, Benny.
24:43Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen,
24:45it's the night before Christmas,
24:47and all through the Campbell Playhouse
24:49that doesn't join Lionel Barrymore
24:51in wishing you a merry, merry Christmas.
24:53This goes for all of us, for my sponsor,
24:55for myself, for all of us.
24:57From Don McBain, who runs the machinery in the control room,
24:59to Miss Helgren, who types the Campbell Playhouse scripts,
25:01a merry Christmas.
25:03From Benny Herman and his band of merry melodians,
25:05merry Christmas.
25:09From Max Tez,
25:11the canary-throated chorister,
25:13a very merry Christmas.
25:15And from Harry Essman and Chris Thorson
25:17and his crew of sound effect technicians,
25:19a merry Christmas.
25:21And from Orson Welles
25:23and his considerable aggregation of dramatic talent,
25:25who include, among others,
25:27Mr. Everett Sloan,
25:29Mr. Frank Reddick, Mr. Erskine Sanford,
25:31Mr. George Kalouris, Mr. Ray Collins,
25:33Miss Georgia Beckett,
25:35Miss Bea Benederit,
25:37and many, many others, a merry Christmas.
25:39How about it, everybody, a merry Christmas.
25:41That's right, and now as Tiny Tim says,
25:43God bless us, everyone.
25:47© BF-WATCH TV 2021
26:17If you have enjoyed our fifth annual presentation
26:19of A Christmas Carol,
26:21won't you tell your grocer so this week
26:23when you order Campbell's Soups?
26:25This is Ernest Chappell
26:27saying thank you
26:29and a very merry Christmas to you all.
26:47© BF-WATCH TV 2021