Ebenezer Goes to Washington

 

Our Christmas celebration has just passed. I am reminded of one of the central characters of the many and varied stories of the holiday season. The one and only Ebenezer Scrooge. In the telling of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens introduces us to this unhappy cold-hearted miser. The original story has been retold countless times in plays, movies, and animated features. It is a story of redemption where the miserly skinflint is shown the error of his ways by four ghosts, and he repents. Scrooge starts as a mean and despised individual but ends up making a transformation for the better. Such changes in real life are few and far between.

I am also reminded of another character that has been with us unchanged for decades. I see his name used with a certain derision in old episodes of Law and Order which is set in New York. He pops up in various film pieces like Ghosts Can’t Do It with Bo Derek and Anthony Quinn. In that movie, he is a businessman who has dealings with mob figures. Not much of a stretch there. He also had a cameo in Home Alone 2 where he gives Kevin directions to the lobby of The Plaza Hotel. He was mentioned in Devil’s Advocate where he could have easily played a more central role. He is even used in American Psycho as the idol of the main character, Patrick Bateman, a rapist and murderer. Talk about your typecasting.

The fictional Scrooge had a happy upbringing but, when push came to shove, he chose his lust for gold over the love of his life. With the Ghost of Christmas Past, when he looks back on his life and sees his fiancé, he regrets his decision. Our non-fictional Scrooge also chooses his lust for gold but still craves love and affection. He seeks to buy it like a commodity. He would never understand the Beatles' warning that money can’t buy love.

There have been over 130 “Scrooges” in film adaptations of the Christmas classic. The best of them was probably Alastair Sim (1951) and the second best, was George C. Scott (1984). If they ever make a true horror version of A Christmas Carol, their role of Scrooge could find none better than that guy from Palm Beach, Florida.

Dickens supposedly patterned Scrooge after a noted British eccentric and miser named John Elwes. Had Dickens lived in New York in the latter part of the 20th Century he might have had an even more despicable central character. The updated A Christmas Carol might be more horror-tragedy than inspirational. Our modern-day Scrooge would bulldoze the Cratchit home to erect a condo, take away Tiny Tim’s healthcare, and kick his crutch when he wasn’t looking.