Friday, November 27, 2020

03-Spoken Word Christmas

 

I'll go ahead and get this small collection of spoken-word Christmas items out to you here at the beginning of the season, just to get it out of the way. It's a short collection, and several of the selections are spread out over both sides of a record. My favorite is the above item, a commercial for Rexall Drugs featuring the great Jimmy Durante and radio personality Garry Moore. It's stuff like this that always keeps the collection at The Internet Archive interesting. Enjoy!

MEGA

Update-4 Jan 2023-Added tracklist to allow searching.

1. Claude Rains With Hugo Peretti Orchestra And Chorus-A Christmas Carol-Pt. 1
2. Franklyn MacCormack With Herbert Foote At The Organ-I Like Christmas
3. Ireene Wicker, The Singing Lady, Accompanied By Milton Rettenberg With Special Sound Effects-The Legend Of The Christmas Rose (Part 1)
4. Charles Laughton-Music By Hanns Eisler-The Oldest Christmas Story (The Gospel According To St. Luke)
5. Edward Penney, Prayer Recited By Larry Forbes, With Vocal Chorus-What Is Christmas
6. Claude Rains With Hugo Peretti Orchestra And Chorus-A Christmas Carol-Pt. 2
7. Bill Cook-A Letter To Santa
8. Garry Moore & Jimmy Durante with Justin Dart, Joseph Galvin, Stanley Culver, Till Bond, Howard Petrie, Suzanne Ellers & Roy Bargy-Christmas Greetings 1946
9. Anthony Rivers-The Christmas Tree
10. Ireene Wicker, The Singing Lady, Accompanied By Milton Rettenberg With Special Sound Effects-The Legend Of The Christmas Rose (Part 2)
11. Milton Cross With RCA Victor Salon Orchestra-The Night Before Christmas (Recitation With Musical Background)











12 comments:

  1. I love promos, so the Rexall item is priority no. 1 for me!

    I vaguely remember posting an Ireene Wicker item on my blog, also (I think) from Internet Archive.

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  2. I've posted some Ireene Wicker in the past as well, and I'm sure Lee has, too.

    The Rexall was interesting. There are four rips at The Internet Archive, each using a different stylus. And all of them skip quite a bit at the beginning to the record. I had to do a lot of work to get what sounds like a complete version. But I think it was worth the trouble to get the little bit of Jimmy Durante.

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  3. Another fun-looking set! I wonder if the Milton Cross is the version that also appeared with a pic sleeve and a red (?) label?

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  4. Lee, I think I have the other Milton Cross coming up sometime in the future, assuming it's the one you're thinking of. It's on red vinyl, if memory serves. I've also got a radio station record of his where he talks about various Christmas customs around the world from a couple years' back.

    https://ernienotbert.blogspot.com/2018/11/round-world.html

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  6. So not Christmas Eve In A Toy Shop?

    https://archive.org/details/78_christmas-eve-in-a-toyshop_milton-cross-and-supporting-cast-molly-donaldson-madge-t_gbia0001233a

    Oh, maybe it's this one...

    https://archive.org/details/78_jingle-bells-fantasy_milton-cross-rca-victor-salon-orchestra-clement-moore_gbia0017980

    The Archive puts a date based on first release, not when the particular issue came out. I'm not sure I like that. No idea when this version came out.

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  7. Duh. Didn't read your comment closely enough. Amazing Cross LP--the one you linked to. Unique and cool! If your upcoming Cross 78 is RCA Y 20 (45-5106, 10-inch), then that's the one. Only mine isn't on red vinyl. The label is a kind of reddish purple. It has a booklet-style sleeve with a pocket, with gorgeous 1940s art. I need to re-rip it. I know I had it up, way back when...

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  8. Deleted my original comment--sorry. Yes, it's the second Archive link. No sleeve art?

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  9. Sometimes they have the full art, but frequently they don't. There are three scans associated with this one, but I didn't look to see what they were. Doubt they would scan in the whole art anyway, usually just the front cover.

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  10. The Milton Cross 78 is 1939: https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/200040323/BS-042940-The_night_before_Christmas

    The flip, "Jingle Bells Fantasy," is also 1939. I'm guessing the red/purple-label issue is 1948, the year given at Discogs.

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  11. Yes, the center portion of the sleeve would be hard to scan, since the lettering carries over.

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  12. Thanks, Ernie! I am making an annual return journey to your site as we get ready to put up the tree but I don't think I've ever written to tell you how much I enjoy your selections. So - thank you for all your hard work and continued digging! (Isn't Internet Archive digging fun? Spent some quality time there this week myself.)

    Merry Christmas,

    Jeff M.
    Chicago

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