High Art for Low People

The things I do for you guys.

Okay, the short version. Heh.

The above two LP set derives from a 1951 NBC radio broadcast adaptation of the Shakespeare play. I got it out of the Teaneck public library when I was ten or eleven years old, and -- perhaps because it was my first exposure to Shakespeare, and definitely because I was already at that time a huge fan of radio dramas of a slightly less respectable type (The Lone Ranger, Suspense!, Space Patrol, The Green Hornet) -- I just flipped over it. And over the next couple of years I checked it out of the library countless times.

Seriously -- I had it memorized word for word, and that includes every one of the actor's inflections. You know how some people do air guitar? Well, I was the first kid in the world to do air Shakespeare.

Of course, not too long after, I was exposed to both the actual Shakespeare play on the printed page, and to various other versions (both live and on film), and I discovered that this one was, shall we say, rather severely abridged. And the other day, listening to it for the time in decades, I realized with some bemusement that Gielgud actually kind of sucks in the role.

That said, the album has never been on CD, and probably never will, so I took the liberty of having the LPs (which I got on eBay recently for more money than a sane person would have paid) professionally transferred and cleaned up by a pro engineer of my acquaintance (also for more money than a sane person, etc).

And so, here it is, more or less exactly as it was heard on my mono record player in 1959.

Enjoy!!!

Side 1

Side 2

Side 3

Side 4