Alexander Scourby
Nov. 13, 1913 - Feb. 22, 1985
Again, I must stress that if you do only one thing and do it better than everyone else, you'll be famous. This is a philosophy I stole directly from Col. Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, but I must add that he is dead and cannot, therefore, sue my ass.
One man who did sue and win from beyond the grave was Alexander Scourby.
Now, Scourby was an actor with an incredible voice, and is credited on the Internet Movie Database with having appeared in at 78 least projects. But none of these are what made him famous, nor was his abundant stage work (he appeared in at least four productions of Hamlet and played a different role in each). No, Alexander Scourby made his name by reading The Bible. The whole Bible, front to back.
He recorded the entire King James Bible in from 1941-44 for the American Foundation for the Blind, and these recordings became bestsellers when released to the general public as The Talking Bible in 1966. You might remember we used to listen to these things on vinyl discs called "records", and the entire set contained 169 of these funny round objects and ran 84.5 hours. It is now part of the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.
Scourby re-recorded the entire Bible again in 1972-74 for the Episcopal Radio and TV Foundation. He agreed to a reduced fee if proceeds from the sales were to go to non-profit purposes, but filed a lawsuit when tapes were released commercially as the "Authorized Alexander Scourby's Latest Narration". This suit raged on for years, and Scourby died before it could be resolved in 1990. The verdict handed the rights to the 1970s recording to the deceased Scourby and drove the Episcopal Radio and TV Foundation out of business.
While Alexander Scourby is known to have read the entire Bible at least twice, he didn't seem to have any particular religious affiliation.
Bah, Godless Hollywood types!
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