Roddy McDowell Reads Lovecraft (circa 1960's)

An odd pairing apparently from the 1960's has the renowned movie star reading two of Lovecraft's stories. The selection is also a bit obscure - two of Lovecraft's stories that were not part of the Mythos.

The notes are nearly impossible to decipher in this image, but I tried. If anyone has this album, would you please type a transcript into comments? Thanks !

Roddy McDowell Reads The Horror Stories of H. P. Lovecraft: The Outsider / The Hound
About Roddy McDowell

The union of Lovecraft and McDowell is certainly not one which would ahve occurred to a great many people. To put it {...} obvious level, it is likely to {...} fans of either the author or the actor - and it is a safe assumption that only a small number of people {...} - when they witness the friend and associate of Lassie {...} with the unnamed and unnameable horrors of Lovecraft.
It is more germane, however, to point out that both participants have {...} association as what Hollywood would {...} he {...} considerable impact in Lassic Come Home, Mt Friend Flicka, and How Green Was My Valley. A childhood association with dogs and horses, though, does not necessarily equip one to deal with the dark nocturnal animals of the supernatural immagination. And so it is extremely pertinent to point out that Mr. McDowell had done something which pehpas only three other performers have done in our time - the names are Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, and Mickey Rooney - he has made the extremely difficult transition from "child star" to serious {..} versatile performer.

The list of {...} is impressive, ranging as it does from comedy to tragedy and from {... movie roles}. He has played villains, something that one genuinely would have been considered unthinkable (inclusing a brilliant portrayal of an out-of-work actor on the {...} Naked City, which may {...} realize that it has a {...} star in actress Nancy {M...}. He has {...} caught the spirit of the writer's {...} personal playwritght Jean {A...} in the Fighting {...} and I feel myself particularly priveleged to have seen his {...} virtuoso performance in an unfortunately shortlived play {...Richar N...} Handful of {...}. All of which is only to say that Mr. McDowell is an actor and needs no other credentials. {...} for those who have stumbled upon this record thinking that {... ...} a rather Dostoyevskian portrayal that makes one wonder why any of those others were allowed on the screen.]

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, the author whose work is read on this record is another matter. T some, his work will seem outdated in an age when we are {f...} by the { Hydrogen, -CP} Bomb and several other malevolently Named horrors. It {..} and more difficult {... ...} stirring {...} adjectives. The {...} of this work, however is, in my opinon, outright admirable in these two {...}, and it takes {..} previous {...} like Mr. McDowell {...} stylists {..} and emerges with what {...} that is of universal {...}.

The Outsider is a {...} that will {...} the contemporary reader or listener, bring to mind the name of Colin Wilson more readily than that of Lovecraft. {... ...} point to the Lovecraft story as a stylistic {p...} In metaphorical terms of the feeling of being outside that {.. ...} contemporary if only Lovecraft had not experienced it as {a...} hismelf. The remianing {...} The Hound {...} in thought it had been influenced by Muupassants' Against The {Grain} - mentioned in the story - and reminds one that the methods of amusement are only more ghoulish than the {...} today {...} bizarre.

Mr. McDowell brings to each of these stories a unique approach - in the Hound, particularly, he is more self effacing in the service of the story than most actors would dare to be - and makes {a...} each of them a hearing experience.

Notes Joe Goldberg.

{There are extensive comments by August Derleth, also, but these are summaries of Arkham House books in print and where the stoires had been printed previously in Weird Tales}

The album is from a series which is amazing. Here is a list I found ...

Prestige Lively Arts 30000 series (12 inch LP)
LA 30001 Billy Dee Williams - Let's Misbehave
LA 30002 A Taste of Hermione Baddeley
LA 30003 Roddy McDowall Reads the Horror Stories of H.P. Lovecraft
LA 30004 Burgess Meredith Reads Ray Bradbury
LA 30005 Larry Storch Reads Philip Roth's Epstein
LA 30006 James Mason Reads the Imp of the Perverse and Other Stories by Edgar Allen Poe
LA 30007 James Mason Reads Herman Melville's Bartleby, The Scrivener
LA 30008 Morris Carnovsky Reads Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground
LA 30009 Norman Mailer Reads Norman Mailer