Well, I am grateful for this misunderstanding, as it gave me the opportunity to think of Walter Matthau dressed up like The Mummy, going, “Again with the finger?!”
What I want to know next is…what makes you think Walter came first? Although Random House could have released a phonograph record or something with the narration of the story sometime between the publication of the book in 1957 and the first airing of the animated special in 1966, Walter Matthau would have been an obscure choice to narrate at the time. He was only doing parts on the TV playhouses and minor movie roles at the time, and his big starring role in The Odd Couple didn’t come until two years after Karloff voiced the animated Grinch.
Mobo, imdb lists it in his filography as having been in 1957. The copyright on the back of the box (I happen to own the video) also gives the date as 1957, and 1992, which I find odd. Until last Christmas I had no idea it existed, and I wasn’t born until the late 70’s, so I can’t give any antadotal evidence of it’s existance, so I’ll have to believe the film company that it’s from either 57 or 92.
So what? The IMDb is user-supported, and someone just probably put the date the book was released as the release date. I still think Matthau would have been a weird choice at the time, seeing as he wasn’t a “big name” at the time-also, what medium would it have been recorded on?
A number of Seuss books were released on this format by Random House Home Video sometime in the 1980s. For some reason, Matthau is the only celebrity narrator in the series.
1957 is most likely the copyright for the book itself, which it is based on, and 1992 the copyright for the video version. (Some were released in the 1980s as I mentioned earlier, so this must have come later.)
I can’t be the only one waiting for mobo85 to call someone “Potsy.”
Me, I’m just imagining Boris Karloff saying “gesundheit” to Marty Balsam at the end of The Taking of Pelham One, Two Three.
It was Balsam he busted, right?
I’m very sketchy to King Nifty, whom I believe you are referring to, and even sketchier still as why you are comparing me to him.
Indeed, “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” has a copyright date of 1957 (according to Amazon.com), and Amazon lists the Walter version as 1957. However, Rottentomatoes.com lists it as 1992, as does Ifilm.com and a few others.
So either the film was made in '57 when the book was released, was made after '57 but only the book’s published date was given credit, and/or it was released or re-released in 1992.
Working for the university that Theodor Geisel called home, you’d think I’d know these things…
Esprix
I’d say mobo is right. The 1957 copyright is for the artwork and 1992 for the video itself.
Walter Matthau website