After the advent of LPs, spoken word albums became much more common. • The above-mentioned Ronald Colman
A Christmas Carol was transferred to LP, as were many other 78-RPM spoken word albums made by American
Decca, such as
Moby Dick, with
Charles Laughton as Captain Ahab; an uncredited actor provided the voice of Ishmael, the narrator. •
Disneyland Records issued many spoken word albums for children, including narrated adaptations of the
Disney films in their "Disneyland Storyteller" series. • Notable Broadway productions, such as
Don Juan in Hell (1950, with
Charles Boyer,
Charles Laughton,
Cedric Hardwicke and
Agnes Moorehead), the 1953 dramatized reading of the poem ''
John Brown's Body (with Tyrone Power, Judith Anderson, and Raymond Massey), the original 1962 Broadway version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (with Uta Hagen,
Arthur Hill,
George Grizzard and
Melinda Dillon), and
Richard Burton's Broadway production of
Hamlet (1964), were all recorded complete with their original casts by
Columbia Masterworks. • José Ferrer was heard in an album of excerpts from
Cyrano de Bergerac, with members of the cast of the 1946 Broadway revival in which Ferrer first played Cyrano, on
Capitol Records. •
Caedmon Records recorded the complete plays of Shakespeare as well as recordings of other plays, such as
Death of a Salesman with original stars
Lee J. Cobb and
Mildred Dunnock,
The Glass Menagerie with
Jessica Tandy, and a nearly complete
Cyrano de Bergerac with
Ralph Richardson, who had triumphed in the role in London in 1946. Many of these recorded dramas were played in high school literature classes to enable students to hear the play and follow along in their textbooks at the same time. • After the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, memorial collections of his speeches began to appear on LP. Most of the soundtrack of the commemorative documentary
John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums (1966), narrated by
Gregory Peck, was released on a Capitol Records LP. • Dialogue excerpts were also released of the film soundtracks of
Franco Zeffirelli's
The Taming of the Shrew (1967) (on
RCA Victor), and
Romeo and Juliet (1968) (on Capitol). RCA Victor also released a virtually complete 2-LP album of the film soundtrack of
A Man for All Seasons (1966). RCA Victor was also responsible for complete 4-LP album sets of
Laurence Olivier as
Othello and Zeffirelli's
National Theatre of Great Britain production of
Much Ado About Nothing, starring
Maggie Smith,
Robert Stephens, and
Albert Finney. •
Emlyn Williams recorded an edition of his one-man performance as Charles Dickens (for
Argo Records). •
Hal Holbrook recorded excerpts from his one-man
Mark Twain Tonight! for Columbia Masterworks. •
Having Fun with Elvis on Stage (1974), a spoken word album consisting only of banter by the
singer during concerts, was created as a ploy by his manager,
Colonel Tom Parker, so he could self-release an Elvis Presley album that his label
RCA Records would not own the rights to. ==Decline==