Four Different Christmas Carol's on Old Time Radio

Here are some more Christmas and Holiday themed shows that are available via old time radio. If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#82). He has a number of great programs available this week as he has gone 100% Christmas episodes. You can also get a large number of these programs at a variety or resources on the web. One place to find these shows is the 500 OTR Christmas Shows from the Internet Archive. This is a great resources for many of these wonderful radio shows!


Here is our cat Cosmo in the Christmas Tree back in 2008!

So when you are thinking about Christmas, it is very easy to think about Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (available here via Project Gutenberg).  Well this has been a very commonly used them in popular media since...well, a longtime.  Not only is it used on numerous television shows and movies, it was the theme on many old time radio programs - either in a faithful adaptation or a nice retelling to fit the theme of the show.  Here are four of my favorites.  Enjoy!

1. Orson Welles' A Christmas Carol on the Campbell Playhouse (December 24, 1939)
Orson Welles served as the narrator and Lionel Barrymore played Ebeneezer Scrooge in this hour long presentation.  Here are some additional Links:

• Different online files of this performance
• Other episodes of the Campbell Playhouse

2. Lionel Barrymore on Mayor of the Town (December 24, 1942)
Staying with Lionel Barrymore, this is a shorter presentation on his show Mayor of the Town.  This is a great series that is something I discovered not that long ago.  Here are some additional Links:

• Other episodes of Mayor of the Town (batch 1 - 1942)
• Other episodes of Mayor of the Town (batch 2 - 1943)
• Other episodes of Mayor of the Town (batch 3)
• Episode from January 21, 1948 - The Burning Christmas Tree (it is great catch it)

3. A Christmas Carol from Richard Diamond, Private Detective (December 24, 1949)

This is definitely a fun one.  Richard Diamond is a great series staring Richard Powell.  Powell's Richard Diamond was smart, funny and could sing a great tune as he solved crimes in New York City.  The wonderful element of A Christmas Carol from Richard Diamond was how he used his normal supporting cast as the characters in the story.  This story was written by Blake Edwards, who was a regular writer for Richard Diamond before gaining fame in the movies. Visit this link to hear more Richard Diamond.

4. Britt Ponsett's Christmas Carol from The Six-Shooter (December 20, 1953)

This is another great one staring Jimmy Stewart, who played Britt Ponsett in the NBC Series The Six-Shooter.  Jimmy Stewart was a frequent star on old time radio programs and this is a real treat.  The story is set in the old west and was produced and directed by Jack Johnstone.  Besides a great story, there is a fantastic advertisement prior to the show encouraging men to get their wives a radio for Christmas, so they can listen to the great programs on NBC while they are in the kitchen.  Visit this link to hear other episodes of The Six-Shooter.

There are many, many more - and you may find them on the 500 OTR Christmas Shows from the Internet Archive.  Let us remember the words that Charles Dickens gave to Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one!"

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!