Campbell Playhouse: A Christmas Carol 12/24/1939


(4.7 stars; 60 reviews)

The classic Campbell Playhouse dramatization of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens narrated by Orson Welles and starring Lionel Barrymore. Original commercials and network/station id included. Recently added is a fresh, high bit rate encode ripped from vinyl and uploaded to the archive in WAV format.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.

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Reviews

this is however slightly different. from 1939 recording, perhaps


(5 stars)

A Christmas Carol


(3 stars)

Any praise for Lionel Barrymore is well deserved, but if you want a truly classic recording of "A Christmas Carol," then the 1938 version of this program is far superior. Ironically, Mr. Barrymore's poor health prevented him from traveling to New York to perform and Orson Welles played the role of Scrooge as well as narrating the story. The 1938 production has a lot more energy than poor Mr. Barrymore could muster in 1939. It is also tauter and fuller. There was considerable padding at the end of the 1939 broadcast to fill the time slot because so much of Scrooge's role was pared back to spare Mr. Barrymore. But in the 1938 broadcast, Mr. Welles is more than up to the task.

Crystal Clear


(5 stars)

This version has been in circulation for some time, but this is the very best sound quality that I have heard. Thanks to whoever posted this to keep in mind that the mp3 format is lossy which means some sound quality is lost when encoding to mp3 or ogg, or any other lossy format. Flac and wav are not lossy.


(5 stars)

The best story, best author, and best actors. I have listened to this radio version and read the full book every Christmas for many, many years. This is a very special book and author. Merry Christmas to "All”. ⛄️

THE DEFINITIVE performance of a Christmas Classic


(5 stars)

A must listen every season. While there are many, many versions of Dickens in every medium yet invented, this is the best, hands down. None better. Tops. Cream of the crop.


(5 stars)

Fantastic! Our small children enjoyed the dramatization very much.