Creighton University Archives and Special Collections

Carlson Fable Collection

Item Set

Items

• Barkface & Rootnose and Other Fables
  2008 Barkface & Rootnose and Other Fables. Jonathan Kruk, Master Storyteller. Music by Matt Noble. Dedicated to "Fr. Greg -- One tale is good till another is told." Signed by Jonathan Kruk. Berger Platters. Gift of Jonathan Kruk, Nov., '09. A second copy is inscribed "Enjoy! I hope this makes a worthy addition to your collection! Jonathan Kruk." This copy adds to the first: "Parents' Choice Approved." I taught Jonathan in a course probably called "Greek Literature" at Holy Cross College in the 1970's. In a course in which students had to make some artwork in response to the literature we were reading, Jonathan made a wild oversized line-drawing of Jason making an indecent gesture to Medea with her children lying dead in the Sun-God's cart. The crazy, many-viewpointed drawing featured a cameo of Fr. Carlson! I displayed it proudly to years of subsequent students as I enlisted their artworks. In this disc we hear six stories with excellent sound effects, music, and various voices: "Barkface and Rootnose"; "Big Fish Small Pond": "Fox & Crow"; "Rabbit & Turtle"; "Squeak & Roar"; and "Tailor's Tale". The third, fourth, and fifth, are traditional Aesopic fables well told. The first story is about competing seeds who, as trees, learn to work together. Big fish learns that the big river has lots of threats in it and returns happy to the little pond. In LM, the mouse spearheads a movement to help the lion, and then maybe "he will not be so mean." The mouse helps when the lion has got a thorn in his paw. In a second phase, the lion is caught in a hunter's net. "Tailor's Tale" is a tale told for the fun of telling a tale. Good work, Jonathan! Your old teacher more than approves!
• Classic Fables
  2007 Classic Fables. Texts from Joseph Jacobs. Dalian University of Technology Press Co., Ltd. 19.80 Yuan from Hangzhou Wholesale City Trading Co., Oct., '10. This disc accompanies a paperbound book with the same title. The CD runs through the 150 stories consecutively beginning with the first. There is a female reader and no musical background. The reader's British accent is excellent. In the first few fables, she trips only once, pronouncing the word "begged" in two syllables. Somehow there are only 149 story tracks on the CD. Some eager researcher can pursue this question: "Which of the 150 stories is omitted on the CD?" Click on the image to see a larger version.
• An Aesop Adventure
  2005 An Aesop Adventure. For use with a booklet of the same name, featuring "Fables, Songs and Activities for the Elementary Classroom." By Cristi Cary Miller and Sally Raymond. Hal Leonard Corporation. $5 from an unknown source, Sept., '10. Here are lively musical tracks, both vocal and purely instrumental, to accompany each of the booklet's eight fables. For example, the song for "The Farmer and the Stork" stresses that bad company will hurt a person. FG gets the repeated refrain "Hey, what do you say? He didn't want it anyway." This music is certainly upbeat! The purely instrumental version of each would allow the students to sing to musical accompaniment. The musical titles, listed on the CD, help communicate these lessons well. "Nobody Believes a Liar" and "One Step at a Time" are good examples. At first I listened to this disc without reference to its booklet and without seeing these titles, and I sometimes had to wonder which fable might be involved.
• Aesop Goes Modern
  2004 Aesop Goes Modern. CD. 29 tracks. Directed by Daniele J. Suissa. Written by Kim Terrell. Produced by Marc Solomon. Virtual Theatre Project. Boris Trajbar, Boca Raton, FL, through Ebay. "Charming Educational Stories for Ages 4 and Up!" I agree. Seven-year-old Asher meets Aesop and Aesop's father, and they start to tell him fables. They wisely tell him early that there is no right answer to a story. There are musical interludes leading into this encounter and filling in as Asher asks other people what they think a fable means and returns with his best "answer." The last track in fact has a lyre playing for the donkey who cannot play it himself. Track 20 brings Danielle, who recites a La Fontaine's DW section by section in French, and Aesop translates. This version pleases me more than the one Aesop presented as his first fable. I expected a more radical "modernization" of Aesop here. I would say that his storytelling is here taken seriously for what it is.
• Hover: Six Fables
  2003 Hover: Six Fables. Chamber Choir of Armenia. Based on the writings of Vardan Aigetski. New music composed by Stepan Babatorosyan. Cambridge, MA: Pomegranate Music. From Oddbanana through Ebay: uncertain cost and date. This is lovely contemporary orchestral and vocal music. Beautifully, professionally executed. Of course it is all in Armenian! Three of these six fables are Aesopic in one way or another, although my sense from the texts offered here in English in the accompanying booklet is that they are more morality tales than fables. "The Eagle and the Arrow" is straight from Aesop. "The Ailing Lion and the Fox" is also straight from Aesop, though in this "Eastern" version it is a donkey's ears and heart that are in question. In Western Europe, at issue was a deer's heart that the fox eats and then tells the lion that the deer had none. In a switch from a different fable, the lion was told that he needed these things to cure his disease. The young camels and donkeys ask their mothers why they have to work for food but the pigs do not. The mothers answer that patience brings understanding. The understanding comes on slaughter day for the pigs! Aesop survives in a lot of ways in a lot of places!
• Aesop's Fables: Two Enchanting Tales in Story & Song
  2001 Aesop's Fables: Two Enchanting Tales in Story & Song. CD. "Donkey and Wolf" and BW. Purchased used. Los Angeles: Liberty International Publishing with Drive Entertainment. Unknown source. Wow! A full orchestra leads us, with a full chorus, into a narrator's energetic telling of the hungry wolf's approach to the waterhole. "I'm a Lone Wolf" is a great lonely monologue-song! A flirtatious donkey knows nothing of the wolf's eating intentions, even when he says she could use a little make-up, like ketchup! When she understands, she sings "Why Me?" to a cha-cha rhythm. This is perhaps the most professional musical presentation of Aesop I have run into. He answers with "Nothing Personal." He is just a wolf! She mentions the nasty thorn in her hoof…. Aesop comes through! She is just being herself! The shepherd boy is just lonely. He makes his cries in order to see another human face. The recording has the chorus singing the same "To the Rescue" song more and more slowly with each of his several calls for help. It is a delight to listen through this performance!
• Aesop's Fables
  2001 Aesop's Fables. Unabridged. 4 CDs. "Tracks every 3 minutes." Read by Mary Woods. Ashland, OR: Blackstone Audiobooks. Unknown source. Good readings without further accompaniment. The cover illustration of TH is taken from Arthur Rackham.
• Aesop: Alive and Well
  2001 Aesop: Alive and Well. CD. Diane Ferlatte, Storyteller. Erik Pearson, Guitarist. San Francisco: Olde West Inc. $4.64 from Jukebox On-Line, WindGap, PA, Nov., '09. Guitar background. Lively sung introductions to Aesop and to his life, followed by five stories 6 to 12 minutes in length. CP, BW, AD, "The Monkey & the Donkey," and DS. At the end there is a reprise of "Aesop, Alive and Well." I listened to "Poor Crow" and "The Shepherd Boy." Ferlatte continues to tell of Aesop's life between fables. Narration moves easily into song. The renditions are engaging. For example, the dying laugh of the shepherd boy at others' expense is very well done.
• The Sunday Telegraph Bedtime Stories: Aesop's Fables
  2000? The Sunday Telegraph Bedtime Stories: Aesop's Fables. Read by Anton Lesser. With music from Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" and other concertos. Telegraph.co.uk. For promotional use only: not for sale. Naxos Audiobooks. $10 from Xena 1309, Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, through Ebay, June, '10. The Vivaldi background contributes, as do sound effects, and voice transformations from Lesser. Naxos used this same recording on an audio cassette in our collection from 2000, and they will release it again on a CD for sale. 66 tracks. The stories are kept brief, and they are both well fashioned and well narrated. Of course there is a British accent. Lesser creates contrasting voices well for the lamb and the crane in the first stories, which I enjoyed. This may be the best simple CD recording of Aesop to recommend to listeners.
• Aesop's Fables
  2000 Aesop's Fables. Read by Anton Lesser. With music from Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" and other concertos. Naxos Audiobooks: Junior Classics. Made in Germany. Unknown source As in the promotional CD done by the Sunday Telegraph, the Vivaldi background contributes, as do sound effects, and voice transformations from Lesser. Naxos had used this same recording on an audio cassette in our collection from 2000 and for the Telegraph promotion. Again there are 66 tracks. The stories are kept brief, and they are both well fashioned and well narrated. Of course there is a British accent. Lesser creates contrasting voices well for the lamb and the crane in the first stories, which I enjoyed. This may be the best simple CD recording of Aesop to recommend to listeners.
• Aesop's Fables
  1999 Aesop's Fables. CD. Imagination Station. Imagelot Entertainment. Almost 23 minutes. $5.99 from Bidhere125 on Ebay, Oct., '03. Eight fables are performed quite exquisitely here, if the two that I enjoyed are any indication. LM is well performed, with good voices and sound effects. The lion seeks a nap in several places and finally finds the right one. The chatty female mouse gets off a great appeal, concluding with the appeal to become a friend. A week later she hears his roar and saves him. FG is also well told. Clearly articulated morals.
• Aesop's Fables
  1997? Aesop's Fables. Animated cartoon CD in Chinese. Vol. 14. Jade Animation: Asia Video Publishing Company. Unknown source, cost, and date of acquisition. Crude animation for three stories: "The Prophet"; "The Fox and the Woodcutter"; and "The Mouse and the Frog." The stories, each about 10 minutes long, expand their fables. For the first, I lose contact with the fable. The second and third are clear versions of traditional fables, though extended in Disneyesque fashion to include more exciting episodes. The second fable goes for two-thirds before arriving at the fable. How does the third make sense of the frog's ugly action? Three monkeys appear between stories; I believe I have seen them exercise that function before. This approach to cartoon presentation seems to love panning countryside in repetitive fashion.
• Aesop's Fables
  1995 Aesop's Fables. Performed by Eddie Albert, Gregory Hines, Cathy Moriarty, Rod Steiger, and Michael York. 45 minutes. Beverly Hills, CA: Dove Kids: Dove Audio. $16 from Gerard P. Lebel, Lynn, MA, through Ebay, Oct., '99. Very high quality performance by the readers. After each of the fables, the reader offers a personal remark climaxed by verse written for this disk by Judith Cummings. There is nice musical background to support the readings. If one wanted one English-language disk performance of fables, this would be a good disk to start with.
• Fables: A Musical by Robert Marcelonis
  1993 Fables: A Musical by Robert Marcelonis. CD. A restoration of the musical highlights taken from the original recordings. Produced by John Simon at J-Dog Music. JDM002. Gift of Miriam Barnett, Director of the musical, together with a videocopied program and personal note. 33 tracks, listed on the back of the CD jewel-case label. Marcelonis died of AIDS in Philadelphia in 1995. This musical was "was a continual work in progress from High School until he was forty. His artist friends came together and performed the play to standing room only audiences, sold out for its run" (Wikipedia). The Wikipedia account of his life is touching. It is not easy to match song and fable just by reading titles and listening to tracks. Some of the more obvious connections are in "The Belly As an Animal"; "Earn Your Keep"; "We Want a King"; "The Heiffer and the Ox"; and "Death."
• Aesop Wrote a Fable
  1993 Aesop Wrote a Fable. Anthony Thistlethwaite. Printed in France. London: Rolling Acres: Purpleteeth Productions. $9.99 through Ebay from Matt Reynolds at Too Many Records in West Palm Beach, FL, Feb., '99. This was a lark! I bid not knowing what the disc might entail. The disc is named after one song (the fourth track on the CD, lasting 2:17). That song starts with these words "Aesop wrote a fable about the tortoise and the hare. I always take the scenic route when I want to get somewhere." It soon moves into the refrain about the singer's woman: "She's a natural born lover, and she loves to take her time." Thus she never uses a calendar or remembers dates or hurries. Is she the tortoise or the hare? Aesop, you do not know what you started!
• Aesop's Fables the Smothers Brothers Way
  1990 Aesop's Fables the Smothers Brothers Way. Words and Music by John McCarthy. Arranged and Produced by David Carroll. Smothers Brothers. Redway, CA: Music For Little People #2178. Reproduced from 1965 original. Gift of Linda Schlafer, Feb., '92. Extra copy for $5.99 from Don Wheeler, May, '04. The CD format makes these delightful renditions even more available for use in the classroom or lecture situation. Seven fables are surrounded by an overture and a reprise and are interspersed with five "I'd better stay me" interludes. To listen to these renditions, visit Internet Archive. See my comment on the original record.
• Three View-Master Talking Reels. Color 3-D photography of figurines in various styles with sound.
  1959 Three View-Master Talking Reels. Color 3-D photography of figurines in various styles with sound. AVB 309. Portland, OR: GAF Corporation. $15.99 from Tim Hall-Stith, Portland, OR, through Ebay, Aug., '99. I knew of this special approach to View-Master that incorporates recorded sound and that Aesop's Fables were offered as one of the sets, but I doubted that I would ever find a set. Surprise! The second surprise is that two months later at an off-beat flea market on the state fair grounds in West Allis, I found a working player and got it immediately for half the asking price! The two actually function together quite well. One needs to experiment with the sound bar on the player to get the needle where it belongs on the recording track. The visuals are the same as those on the regular View-Master reels for this set; see my comments there. The read texts here are taken from the same booklet that came with the regular reels. I am impressed on this round with the mid-air fox on the one image for FG, with the shining eyes of the cat in Scene 3 of TMCM, and with the flying hare at the starting line in TH's first scene. I notice that those were also items that impressed me in the visual experience a year ago!
• Learning Centers Club: Fables and Tall Tales
  2000? "Learning Centers Club: Fables and Tall Tales." Boxed set of teacher's aids for teaching writing and math for grades 4-5. $20 from Judy Butler through Ebay, May, '14. Cataloguing this set of teacher's aids may set a record in this collection, as it has waited for eight years! What I now find inside the box are three envelopes and two posters, each about 11" x 17". Two of the three envelopes seem to offer helps in math and writing. A third envelope is titled "Presenting the Fable Fella."
• Fables de la Fontaine 1 and Fables de la Fontaine 3
  1950? Fables de la Fontaine 1 and Fables de la Fontaine 3. Lestrade Stéréoscopes #9171 and #9173. Vues sur film Kodak. €5.50 each from Salim Benallag, Chinon, France, through eBay, July, '04. The existence of this medium was unknown to me until I found these two specimens. Each card provides ten stereoptic views. The first card has two views each of GA, LM, WL, FS, and MM. The second features ";The Cat, the Hare, and the Weasel" (three scenes); FG (one scene); and two scenes each of TT, WC, and FC.
• Fables de la Fontaine: Le Renard et les Raisins
  1900? Fables de la Fontaine: Le Renard et les Raisins. Stereopticon slide. From Sawyer Auctions and Antiques, West Fargo, ND, through eBay, Oct., '14. I presume that there is a significant collection of fable stereopticon slides. Here at least is one! The nobleman shuns the lady (ladies?) he is offered. Hand colored?
• Tru-Vue Viewer with nine story cards
  1950? Tru-Vue Viewer with nine story cards. Beaverton, OR: Tru-Vue Company. $10 from dalton2099 on Ebay, July, ’21. I had written 22 years ago that I would be amazed if I ever found a Tru-Vue viewer with which to view the fable card I had found. That comment came, I believe, before Ebay. This year I thought to take a look and immediately found a number of viewers, this one even including nine other samples.
• Aesop's Fables
  1960 Aesop's Fables. Tru-Vue stereo film card. F-14. ©1960 by Sawyer's, Inc. Beaverton, Oregon: Tru-Vue Company. $6 from Jim Watson, San Antonio, on a contact made originally through Ebay, May, '99. I did not know that there was such a thing as Tru-Vue till I found several items advertised on Ebay. When I lost the auction, I emailed Jim to ask if he might be willing to part with the Aesop portion of what he had bought. He was very gracious. The original package is still unopened! Its price back in 1960 was 35¢ TH receives three pairs of pictures, DS two, and LM two. The pictures seem to be heavy on red tones; perhaps they have faded into that color. Now I will be amazed if I ever find a Tru-Vue viewer!
• Playola Record Album "Famous Fables."
  1948 Playola Record Album "Famous Fables." Three records presenting LM; SW; TH, and BW. album No. 105. Along with a Playola Record Player for $45 on Ebay, April, '12. The album's four interior pages present each a rhyming quatrain for one of the fables. "'Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!' I cried. The villagers hastened to my side. But they were angry, everyone, When they found out I'd called for fun." Good condition. I am cataloguing these records, if my research guesses are accurate, nine years after we acquired them.
• NIC Ancien Dessin Animé
  1950? NIC Ancien Dessin Animé. La Cigale et la Fourmi. Paper Cartoon Movie. €2 from cartapapier on Ebay, August, '23. Here is a fascinating surprise! I had no idea how this little offering worked. It came as a spindle containing a roll of paper inside a broken sheath in an old box with a hand-written title. A little work reveals that there is some beautiful artwork and good storytelling on this product itself. And the product is a fascinating, if timebound, product of ingenuity. I found a website explaining the NIC system: https://www.jouetsanciens.fr/jouets-doptique-6/ The unusual thing about the paper film is that it has upper and lower images. Viewed quickly alternatively, the paired images create a quick repeated action, like walking or working. A rather large and complex projector had a crank for moving this paper movie through. I cannot tell how long the projector would linger on a given pair of alternating images. I scanned the paper in two halves and provide also an image of what a better box and sheath look like. Fascinating! And all of this for €2! By the way, I found a list of NIC movies and checked to see if our GA is the only fable movie. It turns out that there is a paper movie of FC. Now to find it! To help offer a sense of the lovely detail in this movie, I offer two detail sections: the ants playing pool and smoking in winter and the grasshopper dying.
• Animated publicity still from Aesop's Fables: A Whodunit Musical: An Animated Special from the "Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child" Series
  1995? Animated publicity still from Aesop's Fables: A Whodunit Musical: An Animated Special from the "Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child" Series. HBO. July 18, 7:30-8 p.m., ET. $9.99 from Baby Jane of Hollywood, West Hollywood, CA, through Ebay, Oct., '00. I presume from the information that I can find that this particular episode was in 1995, since that it when the show debuted. Angie Dickenson and Diahann Carroll were among the voices in the special. I think I can make out a tortoise and a fox on the left of this black-and-white still. If Aesop could only know all the things that are laid at his doorstep!