Paramount Really Blew It With This One....

You would've thought that with the mighty Paramount behind it, they would have made a bid for "Scrooge" to be the Christmas attraction at Radio City Music Hall, or even made it the Christmas showcase at its own Paramount Theatre on Times Square. But no. For the New York area, Paramount slipped it out to the neighborhood houses of its rival Loew's chain on December 13, 1935, bypassing the first-run houses of Broadway. Then on December 21, 1935, "Scrooge" was given a four-day run at the Plaza Theatre, a cinema off Madison Avenue that specialized in presenting Fine Arts films (for the record, the respective Christmas shows at the above-mentioned theatres that year were "The Littlest Rebel" at Radio City, and "The Bride Comes Home" at the Paramount). When the Paramount lease expired, the US rights were acquired by a company that specialized in film rentals for schools, clubs, and libraries, cutting the film to 60 minutes, the better to fit on two jumbo reels, and "Scrooge' faded into oblivion.

Then in the 1980's, a miracle happened. A PD pirate discovered a worn, scratchy, and creaky print, and put it out on VHS, where it became a big hit. Before long, other PD pirates followed, and with the coming of the digital age, a complete, clear 72-minute version showed up to replace the worn-out, almost unwatchable version, and to give the history of this movie a happy ending!

And so, as Tiny Tim observed, "God bless us, everyone!"