The Happy Prince and Other Tales

The Happy Prince and Other Tales (sometimes called The Happy Prince and Other Stories) is a collection of stories for children by Oscar Wilde first published in May 1888. It contains five stories: "The Happy Prince", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Devoted Friend", and "The Remarkable Rocket".

"The Happy Prince"

In a town where a lot of poor people suffer, a swallow who was left behind after his flock flew off to Egypt for the winter meets the statue of the late "Happy Prince", who in reality has never experienced true happiness. Viewing various scenes of people suffering in poverty from his tall monument, the Happy Prince asks the swallow to take the ruby from his hilt, the sapphires from his eyes, and the golden leaf covering his body to give to the poor. As the winter comes and the Happy Prince is stripped of all of his beauty, his lead heart breaks when the swallow dies as a result of his selfless deeds and severe cold. The statue is then torn down and melted leaving behind the broken heart and the dead swallow. These are taken up to heaven by an angel that has deemed them the two most precious things in the city. This is affirmed by God and they live forever in his city of gold and garden of paradise.

The Happy Prince (album)

The Happy Prince is a studio album of phonograph records by Bing Crosby and Orson Welles of the Oscar Wilde short story The Happy Prince.

The story had been adapted for radio by Orson Welles in 1944, featuring a musical score by Bernard Herrmann. It was aired on the Philco Radio Hall of Fame broadcast on December 24, 1944 featuring Bing Crosby alongside Orson Welles, with Herrmann's music conducted by Victor Young. Lureen Tuttle played The Swallow.

Decca Records soon signed up the participants to make a commercial recording.

Reception

Down Beat magazine liked the album saying: "If you’ve been getting smothered lately in record stores with scads of children’s’ albums by everybody from Artie Shaw through Ronald Colman by way of Gene Kelly, try this one on your small son. It’s the Oscar Wilde fairy tale with a Bernard Herrmann score, and in very much better taste than anything else being turned out for the Christmas rush."

Track listing

These newly issued songs were featured on a 2-disc, 78 rpm album set, Decca Album No. A-420.

The Happy Prince (film)

The Happy Prince is an animated short film adaptation of the short story by Oscar Wilde. The film was produced in 1974 by the Canadian-based Potterton Productions as a follow-up to its 1971 film The Selfish Giant.

Plot

A royal statue makes friends with a small swallow. The statue is moved by the suffering he sees around him and asks the swallow to peel off his gold covering leaf by leaf and give it to various poor and needy people.

Artists

Music

Howard Blake was originally hired to score the film, and after writing a theme for the bird, and a song, he called the director and found out they had hired Ron Goodwin without telling him.