Charles Laughton was well known for his one-man show of readings, with which he toured in the 1940s and 1950s. Just recently I became aware that one (or more) of his shows had been recorded and released as a double-LP in 1962, as The Story-Teller: A Session with Charles Laughton. This recording has been digitized and is freely available at the Internet Archive:
![Image](http://z2-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B007N5NP2U.01-A17SFUTIVB227Z._SX420_SCLZZZZZZZ_V374423591_.jpg)
https://archive.org/details/TheStory-teller
The recording(s) appear(s) to be from the mid-1950s (sometime after the passing of his friend Carl Milles in September 1955). I wasn't sure if I would like the show, concerned that his readings might tend toward over-hamminess without a director's guidance, so I was nicely surprised to find, for the most part, that is not the case. In fact, I found most of it to be riveting and I envied the live audience(s). The sound quality is very good, was probably professionally recorded. There are thirteen readings total: if one doesn't have time to listen to all, I would place a high priority on the reading from Julius Ceasar, which is almost twenty minutes yet flies by -- can you imagine that anyone other than Laughton himself would cast him as Mark Antony?! He's terrific. Second priority I would give to the Fiery Furnace passage from the Bible.
I found a couple more spoken-word albums by Laughton at the Archive; these are studio recordings, not quite so exciting, but may be of interest:
![Image](http://z2-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B008011IPW.01-A17SFUTIVB227Z._SX420_SCLZZZZZZZ_V389082379_.jpg)
https://archive.org/details/CharlesLaug ... omTheBible
![Image](http://z2-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B005XH1X9C.01-A17SFUTIVB227Z._SX420_SCLZZZZZZZ_V389253007_.jpg)
https://archive.org/details/Mr.PickwicksChristmas
If anyone wants more, additional recordings have been digitized and are available commercially through Amazon and iTunes.
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