Reel R-1351

Reel-to-reel · Radio reels MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Ask about this tape

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(60) MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) MERCURY THEATRE "Thirty-Nine Steps" Pgm. # 4, 7/22/38 (1938) aired 7/22/1938 [1938-07-22]
(60) MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) MERCURY THEATRE "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" 9/26/38 (1938) aired 9/26/1938 [1938-09-26]
(60) MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) MERCURY THEATRE "War of the World's" 10/30/38 (1938) aired 10/30/1938 [1938-10-30]
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) 'War of the Worlds'
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Facts behind broadcast uncovered
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) "Run-Through, A Memoir,"
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) -by John Houseman; Simon & Schuster; Illustrated, 297 pp., $3.95
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) A really astonishing fact about Orson Welles' radio play of a Martian invasion wasn't that it panicked millions of Americans, but that it ever got on the air at all
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Another is that of law suits totaling more than $750,000 for damages ranging from mental anguish through injury to miscarriage, not one litigant from coast to coast ever collected a penny
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) This inside stuff on the famous (or infamous) radio adaptation of "War of the Worlds," by H. G. Wells, comes from John Houseman, now a vigorous 74, who with Orson Welles was the play's co-producer
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Mercury Theater of the Air was at the bottom of the play barrel for its 17th weekly production in late October, 1938. The choice was between just extremely dreary version of "Lorna Doone" and "War-of the Worlds." (1938) aired 1938
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Houseman relates in "Run-Through" how he opted for the Martian piece, and turned it over to a adept and reliable script writer, Howard Koch
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Koch "slaved" three days to make something out of the Wells novel; then, late on a
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Orson Welles
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Anything But 'Lorna Doone'
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Tuesday night (Sunday was play night), he frantically phoned Houseman and said he was ready to give up
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) But anything rather than "Lorna Doone"; Houseman urged Koch to try again - but fast. Koch came through, and on Thursday came first rehearsal, and a record was cut for listening purposes
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Written Houseman:
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) "We listened to it rather gloomily... in Orson's room at (New York's) St. Regis ... He was dead tired and thought it was a dull show. We all agreed that its only chance of coming off (on Sunday night) lay in emphasizing its newscast style - its simultaneous eyewitness quality."
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) It was rehearsed again with sound effects Saturday night - without Welles, and the players left the studio. Welles phoned a few minutes later, got a sound man, and asked how it came out, Houseman relates. The sound man said it "just didn't come off."
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Twenty seven hours later," Houseman continues, "quite a few of his employers would have found themselves a good deal happier if he had turned out to be right."
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Sunday, Oct. 30, 8 p.m., in a Columbia Broadcasting System studio "littered with coffee cartons and sandwich paper, Orson swallowed a second container of pineapple juice, put on his earphones, raised his long, white fingers, and threw the cue for the Mercury (musical) theme ... 'War of the Worlds' was on the air. Writes Houseman:
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) "Within a few minutes, people all over the United States were praying, crying, fleeing frantically to escape death from the Martians. Some remembered to rescue loved ones, others telephoned farewells or warnings, hurried to inform neighbors, sought information from newspapers or radio stations, summoned ambulances and police cars."
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Trouble was, Houseman says, that Mercury's play started off deceptively slowly; also that a poll showed only 3.6 percent of the listening audience tuned to Mercury, while 34.7 was tuned to Edgar Bergen and his ventriloquist stooge, Charlie McCarthy. Finally, Bergen, at 8:12 p.m. introduced "a new and not very popular singer." Radio dials were turned - most apparently to Welles Mercury Theater - but unfortunately in the middle of violent action without knowledge of the earlier explanatory matter
MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR (1938) Houseman blames two factors for the state of listeners' nerves: That the play came a month after the harrowing experiences of peace vs. war which brought the Munich "settlement"; and that the show's "sheer technical brilliance" was due in large part to the newly developed radio technique of breathless "on-the-spot" reporting. Thus the reality factor was radically heightened. ("I could have been carried off in no other medium but radio.") - Victor Wilson, Chicago Daily News