The Stingiest Man in Town

This production, and the wonderful music from it, was an important part of our family's Christmas tradition for many years-until the Long Play records were finally broken by one of the grandchildren. Although the story line was obviously very familiar, the stage craft and music gave new life to Dickens beloved Christmas tale. The casting was truly inspired -with Basil Rathbone the best of the lot. The original musical score was extremely clever and well done by some of the best artists (both from popular and classical venues)of that time. It's a shame that a video reproduction of performance is not readily available in tape or compact disc form. It would be wonderful if I could purchase a copy of the record of the musical score or if someone could burn a compact disc from a copy and allow me to purchase the same. Thanks very much.

My daughter found the DVD of this wonderful original version of The Stingiest Man in Town and I watched it Christmas Eve. I was 10 when it was first telecast and, if I saw it then, I was probably nowhere near as impressed as I was to see it revived for the 21st century. The only drawback is the lack of color, and that because it was a rare color telecast back in 1956. It was also done live (videotape was a few years away), so all we have now is a restored black and white kinescope (that means it was shot on film off a TV tube during the live broadcast.) Unlike a lot of kines, this one comes off very well. You can see some scratches and other signs of filmic age, but the production shines through it all, and it is a great version of The Christmas Carol! Mr. Rathbone, who never claimed to be a singer, holds his own against Johnny Desmond, Vic Damone and the (now somewhat forgotten) Patrice Munsel - they were all pop music stars at that time.

Now that I'm an old codger myself, I miss the extravaganza network productions of 50s TV. Junk like American Idle (whoops! did I spell that wrong on purpose?) and Dancing with the Hasbeen Wannabes just don't hold a candle to the true variety and "special" productions that used to grace the tube in its early days.

If you're looking for the real thing, see if you can find this one! (And thanks to my kid for a nice Christmas Eve :o)>

In my senior year of high school (1974), we produced this musical. Ummm, yours truly played Scrooge. I had the LP of the original cast recording, but I'm too young to have seen the B&W original live action production on TV (I agree with the other posters who state that the animated version was disappointing compared to the live action production.

Please let me know when and how a DVD or download of the original B&W live action production of "The Stingiest Man in Town" becomes available.

Thank you, Steve Marcus semarcus1@yahoo.com

While this is an adaptation of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", it is unlike any other version of the story you may have seen.

An excellent cast and wonderful songs. I do not remember seeing the original broadcast, but I grew up listening to the LP recording, and searched for years for a video -- the DVD I found was released in 2011.

Because it is a Kinescope, the video quality may disappoint some, but it is still very watchable.

The opening and closing credits show how vast the changes in TV production have been since 1956. This was part of "The Alcoa Hour", but the DVD run time is 81 minutes.

I, too, have been searching for years for a video (now DVD) release of the original Alcoa Hour production of The Stingiest Man in Town, which I wish I had been able to see when it aired in the 1950's. In the late 1990s, I contacted NBC since the production was aired on that network. They told me they had a policy not to release certain productions, including this one. Hopefully they will change their mind about that policy. My parents had the record album, which I listened to as a child. But good news: A few years ago, the soundtrack/vocals (the original album) was released on CD, so I bought it to replace the scratched album (which I still keep, though). Also, here is a tidbit: One of the original Four Lads lives and was recently performing in the Cleveland (OH) area where I live. In the early 2000s, I went to a Four Lads performance with the album and asked him (Bernie Toorish) to autograph it. I also asked him about the Alcoa Hour production of Stingiest Man, and he gave me a few anecdotes about it. He mentioned that it was done live and that was somewhat stressful but fun, and he talked about how they (the Four Lads were the carolers/narrators) stood on the side of the stage, and it was a bit cramped in order to get it all on television at that time (given the cameras they used, etc.). When we talked, he said he wasn't sure whether a tape had been made of the original production. Mr. Toorish still resides in the Greater Cleveland area, as far as I know. He was really great to discuss the Stingiest Man in Town with me.