THE HOBBIT Rankin/Bass 1977 JRR Tolkien Vinyl 2-Record Deluxe Box Set COMPLETE

$

150

THE HOBBIT Rankin/Bass 1977 JRR Tolkien Vinyl 2-Record Deluxe Box Set COMPLETE.

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Includes 2 LPs, booklet, iron on sheet and poster!

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THE RANKIN/BASS PRODUCTION OF THE HOBBIT
Complete Original Sound Track Recording
Buena Vista Records #103 (Two 12” LP records with 11-page book / Mono / 77 minutes)

Dialogue and Music from the Original Sound Track
Disneyland Records Storyteller #3817 (One 12” LP record or cassette with 11-page book / Mono / 40 minutes)

Released in 1977. Album Producer: Jymn Magon. Film Producer/Directors: Arthur Rankin, Jr., Jules Bass. Associate Producer: Masaki Izuka. Screenplay: Romeo Muller, from the Book by J.R.R. Tolkien. Music: Maury Laws. Lyrics: J.R.R. Tolkien, Jules Bass. Choral Director: Lois Winter. Sound Engineering: Bob Elder, John Curcio, Dave Iveland. Sound Effects; Tom Clack. Production Design: Arthur Rankin, Jr. Character Design: Lester Abrams.

Voices: Orson Bean (Bilbo Baggins); John Huston (Galdalf); Hans Conreid (Thorin); Theodore Gottlieb (Gollum); Cyril Ritchard (Elrond); Richard Boone (Smaug); Otto Preminger (Elvenking); Paul Frees (Bombur, Troll, Spider); John Stephenson (Bard, Dori, Great Goblin); Don Messick (Balin, Lord of the Eagles, Goblin, Troll); Jack DeLeon (Dwalin, Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Nori, Bifur, Bofur, Goblin); Glenn Yarbrough, Thurl Ravenscroft, Bill Lee, Gene Merlino, Gloria O’Brien (Vocalists).

Songs & Verse: “The Greatest Adventure (The Ballad of The Hobbit),” “That’s What Bilbo Baggins Hates,” “Gandalf’s Recitation,” In the Valley, Ha! Ha!,” “Down, Down to Goblin Town,” “Gollum’s Riddle,” “Roads,” “Rollin’ Down the Hole,” “Funny Little Things,” “The Mountain King’s Return,” “Misty Mountains Cold.”

The Rankin/Bass legacy has largely become their holiday specials, some of which still command high network ratings and all of which can be found somewhere on TV or home video at this time of year. Their other landmark, Mad Monster Party, has grown in stature and recognition over the years. But The Hobbit was probably the most prestigious and highest-profile production they ever undertook.

Animation fans and Tolkien enthusiasts will forever debate whether they succeeded. But when it aired Sunday night, November 27, 1977 on NBC, the ratings and the response was largely positive, and the film won the George Foster Peabody Award and the Christopher Medal. There was no Emmy nomination at all; Rankin/Bass was nominated only once, for The Little Drummer Boy Book II.

According to TV Guide, scriptwriter Romeo Muller—who had written almost all the other Rankin/Bass specials—went through numerous drafts before the final one was approved by the Tolkien estate. Arthur Rankin said Orson Bean was his first choice for the voice of Bilbo Baggins.

“I loved doing The Hobbit!” said Orson Bean on The Larry King Show. The veteran actor/humorist was a frequent guest on panel and talk shows, where he promoted the film in earnest, comparing it to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and likening the Rankin-directed voice sessions to classic radio drama. He even appeared on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (also on NBC) to promote the upcoming broadcast and describe the film as a gigantic animated Smaug float blew smoke around the street.

The lavish Abrams coffee table book was certainly on many holiday gift lists (the book was also reprinted in paperback and in a concise hardcover edition). And there were records—lots of records, all on the Disneyland label and its more generic brand, Buena Vista).

“Rankin/Bass approached us to release some of their sound tracks, since they didn’t have a record label,” said Emmy winning and Grammy nominated writer/director Jymn Magon, who was Supervisor of Product Development at Disneyland/Vista. “[Record company President] Gary Krisel negotiated the deal. So we did sound track albums for two of their holiday specials, Frosty’s Winter Wonderland and ’Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

Most of the other major R/B sound tracks had already been released on other record labels, so when the highly-touted Hobbit came their way, Disney went all out with a line of products and promotional materials equivalent even to those projects originating in the Walt Disney Studios. Magon was given the voice, music and sound effects tracks, along with the script to create the various versions.

The top of the line was the complete sound track of The Hobbit, a two record set boxed with an eleven-page book illustrated with stills from the movie. Interestingly, this set is only the third in the Buena Vista catalog of multi-record sound track packages, the first being Fantasia (#101) and the second Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (#102). The two-record set was nominated for a Grammy Award.

As in virtually all Rankin/Bass specials and most of their features, the audio can carry the story on its own since so much is described either through narration or dialogue, one can follow along easily. Very little is lost without the visual, impressive as The Hobbit was in design, especially for television at that time.

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