The Great Gildersleeve - Recordings

Recordings

In full Gildersleeve character, at the height of the show's popularity, Harold Peary recorded three albums, reading popular children's stories for Capitol Records, in heavy-bookleted four-disc 78rpm record albums. Stories for Children, Told in His Own Way by the Great Gildersleeve, was released in 1945 and was Capitol's first-ever such release for children. With orchestral accompaniment, it featured "Puss in Boots," "Rumpelstiltskin," and "Jack and the Beanstalk." The second album, Children's Stories as Told by the Great Gildersleeve, in 1946, featured Hansel and Gretel and The Brave Little Tailor, again with orchestral accompaniment. The third and final album in the series, reverting to the title of the first and released in 1947, included "Snow White and Rose Red" and "Cinderella," once more with full orchestral accompaniment. The music was by Robert Emmett Dolan. To make sure stories would be unmistakably Gildersleevian without compromising their core integrity, Capitol brought in The Great Gildersleeve's chief writers, Sam Moore and John Whedon, to adapt them to Gildy's unmistakable bearing.

The Gildersleeve character was parodied in the 1945 Bugs Bunny cartoon Hare Conditioned, in which the rabbit distracts a menacing taxidermist by telling him that he sounds "just like that guy on the radio, the Great Gildersneeze!" The taxidermist responds with "I do?!" followed by Gildy's famous chuckle. The Gildersleeve voice in this cartoon was done by radio actor and voice artist Dick Nelson.