A Christmas Carol
Season 13, Episode 13
December 22, 2025
Our community holiday tradition continues
Re-Imagined Radio presents "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens as our community holiday radio story. We've done this every holiday season since 2013. Listen and enjoy the The Campbell Playhouse performance, December 24, 1939, starring Lionel Barrymore, one of America's greatest stage and screen actors, as Ebenezer Scrooge, Orson Welles, and actors of The Mercury Theatre on the Air. This performance is considered by radio historians as the classic telling of this timeless tale (Wichman). Enjoy listening.
Access the episode script
Background
A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens finished his novella A Christmas Carol late November 1843. He was thirty one. Previously he had published the novels The Pickwick Papers (1836), Oliver Twist (1837), Nicholas Nickleby (1838), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840), Barnaby Rudge (1841), and Martin Chuzzlewit (1843). His newest novella took personal redemption as its theme.
Six thousand copies of A Christmas Carol, personally designed by Dickens, with special spine and end papers, and hand-colored illustrations by John Leech, were released December 19, 1843. By December 24, Christmas Eve, all were sold. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was an immediate sensation and has remained in print ever since. A much beloved holiday tale adapted from print to stage plays, motion pictures, television, and radio.
A Christmas Carol on radio
Craig Wichman is a real fan of A Christmas Carol. So much so that he has written the first detailed study of dramatizations of Dickens' novella on record and by television and radio broadcast. The following points are taken from his book, Standing in the Spirit at Your Elbow: A History of Dickens' Christmas Carol as Radio/Audio Drama. Stand by to be amazed.
The earliest recorded portrayal of Ebeneezer Scrooge may be as early as 1905, on Edison cylinders (Wichman 162).
The first radio readings from A Christmas Carol were in 1922 (162). A Christmas Carol was the first book transmitted over radio (LFink@ncte.org).
The first confirmed full cast dramatization of A Christmas Carol was December 24, 1924, by The WMAQ Players as heard on WMAQ radio, Chicago, Illinois (164).
The first radio network performance brought A Christmas Carol to several CBS stations, December 24, 1928 (169).
Lionel Barrymore's first radio reading of A Christmas Carol was December 24, 1934. This was also his first time performing on the radio (Wichman 173, Radio Broadcasts and Charles Dickens). It was but a short step from reading to acting and Barrymore portrayed Scrooge eighteen times on all four American radio networks as Ebenezer Scrooge before his death in November 1954 (Wichman).
He only missed twice, in 1936 and 1938. In 1936 his wife died, and Barrymore was replaced by his brother John.
"Good News of 1939"
In 1938, Barrymore opted not play Scrooge so that Reginald Owens might shine. The MGM motion picture
A Christmas Carol starring Owens as Ebenezer Scrooge, was released December 16, 1938. Owens
reprised his motion picture performance for the December 15, 1938 episode of Good News Of
1939, a variety entertainment program sponsored by Maxwell House Coffee, the title advanced
by a year to reflect a hopeful look ahead. Barrymore narrated the classic tale. Listen here.
In addition to Lionel Barrymore and Reginald Owens, listeners also heard Gene Lockhart, Kathleen
Lockhart, Ronald Sinclair, Ann Rutherford, Franz Waxman (music composer and conductor), Tony Martin.
Robert Young (host), and Warren Hull (announcer) (J. Goldin-Good News Of 1939).
LEARN more about the Good News radio program, collaborations between MGM and NBC to produce a variety show featuring actors from MGM movies. This was the first such collaboration.
Barrymore also made a studio recording for MGM, resulting in a grand total of 19 audio performances (OTR – A Christmas Carol (1939)).
The 1939 performance of "A Christmas Carol" was the fifth presented by The Campbell Playhouse with Barrymore starring as Ebenezer Scrooge. Orson Welles notes this in his introduction.
The Campbell Playhouse was a live radio drama series, heard on CBS, a sponsored continuation of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, offering hour-long adaptations of classic plays and novels, like A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Production
Significance
Re-Imagined Radio has offered some iteration of "A Christmas Carol" every holiday season since 2013. It's a tradition for us now. A community message of hope.
For most of our live performances, Re-Imagined Radio has adapted the December 24, 1939 performance, for The Campbell Playhouse, staring Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge, Orson Welles, and the actors of The Mercury Theatre on the Air. It's considered by critics and radio historians as the definitive performance of this classic tale (Wichman).
This holiday season, rather than adapting from it, Re-Imagined Radio presents the actual, original and classic performance by Barrymore, one of America's greatest stage and screen actors. He was also a fine radio actor. Perhaps his most enduring radio role was as Ebenezar Scrooge, one he played eighteen times from 1934 until his death in 1954. It's time we listened.
Charles Dickens published his novella, A Christmas Carol, December 19, 1843. He was thirty three. His story of goodness and hope has morphed to other media forms, like stage plays, motion pictures, and radio.
Works Cited
Wichman, Craig. Standing In the Spirit at Your Elbow: A History of Dicken's Christmas Carol as
Radio/Audio Drama. BearManor Media, 2012.
Credits
Written, Produced, Hosted by John F. Barber
Post production, original music, sound design by Marc Rose
Graphics by Holly Slocum
Social Media strategies by Caitlyn Kruger-Lesperance
YouTube strategies and announcing by Rylan Eisenhauer
Producer's Notes
Regarding reading books on the radio . . . Americans in the 1920s and 1930s, the beginning of radio as an entertainment and information media, were accustomed to reading aloud with others. Often it was a family event, each member taking turns reading a portion of a book for each other. Providing this experience via radio gave listeners a familiar format and encouraged them to turn to radio for a pleasant program experience. Readings of A Christmas Carol were especially popular, given its long-term appeal in print form.
Frank Anderson, in an interesting and informative essay about pioneering University of Wisconsin radio station 9XM, says reading to listeners was quite popular. "Chapter a Day is one of the longest, if not the longest running program in radio history. It began in 1927 when a radio guest canceled his appearance on radio station 9XM, University of Wisconsin, forcing the host to read a library book to fill the time. Listeners loved it. By 1939, it was on the daily schedule". 9XM was later relicensed as WHA, making it the oldest public radio station in the United States (Anderson).
Ernest Chappel was well-established as an announcer for The Campbell Playhouse and The Adventures of Ellery Queen. But, as the narrator for Quiet, Please he rose to his greatest achievement. LEARN more about Quiet, Please.
Works Cited
Anderson, Frank. 9XM
- The First Transmission of Human Speech and the Creation of Public Radio.
Wisconsinology, April 5, 2020.
First published in Wisconsinology in 2008. Revised in 2020 by the Author.
Fishman, Karen. Our Favorite
Scrooge. Library of Congress Blogs, December 29, 2014.
https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2014/12/our-favorite-scrooge/
Goldin, J. David. Good
News Of 1939. RadioGOLDINdex: The Definitive Database of Old Time Radio Programs.
https://radiogoldin.library.umkc.edu/Home/RadioGoldin_Records?searchString=Good%20News%20Of%201939&type=Programs&count=40
Goldin, J. David. The
Cambell Playhouse. RadioGOLDINdex: The Definitive Database of Old Time Radio
Programs.
https://radiogoldin.library.umkc.edu/Home/RadioGoldin_Records?searchString=The%20Campbell%20Playhouse&type=Programs&count=50
Grams, Jr., Martin. Radio Drama: A Comprehensive Chronicle of American Network Programs, 1932-1962. McFarland, 2000.
LFink@NCTE.org. Radio
Broadcasts and Charles Dickens.
https://ncte.org/blog/2021/12/radio-broadcasts-charles-dickens/
OTR – A Christmas
Carol (1939). Monster Movie Kid, n.d.
https://monstermoviekid.wordpress.com/2020/12/24/otr-a-christmas-carol-1939/
Radio
Broadcasts and Charles Dickens. NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English)
Blog, Dec. 19, 2021.
https://ncte.org/blog/2021/12/radio-broadcasts-charles-dickens/#:~:text=A%20Christmas%20Carol%20was%20the%20first%20book,times%20before%20his%20death%20in%20November%2C%201954.
Wichman, Craig. Standing In the Spirit at Your Elbow: A History of Dicken's Christmas Carol as Radio/Audio Drama. BearManor Media, 2012.
Promotion
Press
Graphics
