Sunday, October 26, 2008

RCA Victor Storyteller Single WY-434 - Alice and the White Rabbit

As you may (or may not) recall from this post, RCA put out a lot of records in a lot of formats for the Alice in Wonderland release. This is one of three storyteller singles, Alice and the White Rabbit, WY-434.

Check out that cover, our old friend Figaro-as-Dinah makes another appearance.

The storyteller singles came in two speeds, 45 (WY prefix) and 78 (Y prefix). This is the 45, and all the 45s were this cool transparent yellow vinyl (the transparent quality does not show up well in this scan).

The gatefold sleeve opens up to some pretty nice art illustrating the story segments told on this single, Alice meeting the White Rabbit, and entering Wonderland. Love those red-striped stockings!

These singles have some of the original cast from the film recreating their roles, but the dialog is not lifted from the soundtrack, these were all new recordings. Hard to imagine that they would go to the expense to re-record dialog...something I'm sure they would never do now, unless they used alternate cast. Some of the alternate cast on THIS recording is ... interesting. I must say that I find the Doorknob particularly annoying ... but I love the name of the vocal quartet - Three Beaus and a Peep! Quintessentially 1950s!

Take a listen!

Side A


Side B

1 comment:

Centaurette said...

It truly is amazing that these recordings are all individually produced little audio adventures--who would go to so much trouble (and expense!) nowadays? Also interesting is the fact that the cast varies from the full film deluxe Alice storyteller RCA released, indicating that unique recording sessions were dedicated to each product; they weren't just quickly thrown together.

Of course, in 1951, the voice-over talent pool consisted mainly of artists well used to the one-take perfection demanded by live radio, so maybe the studio time spent on these was not nearly so extensive--or expensive--as it might have otherwise been with so much material!