Fairy Tale

As a recording category, fairy tale covers spoken-word and dramatized albums that present traditional wonder tales (Grimm, Perrault, Andersen, and Kipling) for home listening, principally for children. Mid-century labels such as #Caedmon Records# cast stage and screen actors, among them *Boris Karloff*, *Joseph Schildkraut*, and *Carl Sandburg*, as narrators, often with small instrumental scores and sound effects. Releases ranged from straight readings like "Rootabaga Stories" to full dramatizations and musical adaptations such as *Danny Kaye*'s "Hans Christian Andersen", forming a staple of the children's LP era before home video displaced them.