[78-L] "Dramatic Sketches", "Medea" & Dame Judith Anderson's 112th or 113th birthday-any more 78s?

[victrola78s at aol.com]

On this date in 1898 or 1897(depending on which source you believe) 
Dame Judith Anderson was born in Adelaide, Australia. I have here in my 
hot little hands(well, one, anyways) Victor Red Seal DM-960, "Judith 
Anderson in Dramatic Sketches". This is a 3-record set, 12" discs. When 
was this recorded, & was it ever issued on Lp or CD? The first piece 
has an voice intro stating "This dramatization opens with a scene in 
the living room of a little farmhouse anywhere in the United States 
during 1943"-who was the voice? Sounds like a wartime set issued to 
bolster American morale & wave the flag(which I don't have a problem 
with). The reference to 1943 supports my surmise, but...

  The pieces read are: Milton Geiger's "Lincoln's Letter to Mrs. Bixby", 
"The Fog" & "The Statue of Liberty" by John Latouche, & "Passages fron 
the Sermon on the Mount(from Chapter V of the Gospel according to St. 
Matthew". Label credits only mention "with Gene Leonard and supporting 
cast, unaccompanied mixed quartet"-nothing else in the way of musician 
credits at all. Who was Gene Leonard? My feeling is this is the kind of 
material Nathaniel Shilkret would've overseen, rather like "Ballad for 
Americans". Also, there seems to be quite a long lead-in time to each 
side before the recording starts up again-was this an awkard dub? I 
recall that the sides to Lynn Fontanne's "White Cliffs of Dover" start 
the same way.

Anderson's "Medea" Decca 78rpm set & DL-9000 Lp have a copyright year 
of 1949 on the album jacket. Anyone know when this was recorded? The 
first time I heard this was on the 78s, loaned to me by Rosemary S. 
Nesbitt, my theatre professor at SUNY-Oswego. Nesbitt had seen the 
Broadway run of "Medea" in 1948, & in 1981 had directed the play at the 
college(where yours truly at 19 was engaged as a spear-carrier in 
Jason's guard). I picked up the Lp version in 1986 at a library sale, & 
later got it autographed by Anderson.

  I had the extreme pleasure of meeting  Dame Judith twice in 1989 in 
Santa Barbara, when she was 91. The first event was at the Lobero 
Theatre, where at the close of Zoe Caldwell's show she reprised her 
role as the nurse in "Medea" with Caldwell in the lead. The second 
event was at the Alchema Theatre, where after an introduction by Robert 
Mitchum she did a reading of Robinson Jeffers' prose & poetry. This was 
videotaped on a Sony Betacam-wondering if that ever saw the light of 
day, except in an archive.

Incidently, Anderson wasn't made a Dame until 1960. She had done TV 
versions of "Medea" in 1959 & "Macbeth" in 1960. Rewarded in the 
queen's honors for these dramatic plums? No, she got her DBE after 
finishing "Cinderfella" with Jerry Lewis. Well, hey, what was the evil 
stepmother but a watered-down "Medea" or "Lady Macbeth" anyways?

Dennis "Creon" Forkel