There
is simply no end to the wonders of the web. One I recently
discovered is a web site which hosts many of the radio plays Orson
Welles created before Hollywood scooped him up. These are
brilliant and extremely entertaining productions in which Welles
experimented with the aural effects he later applied to his movie
soundtracks.
Though they have a patina of “artiness”, and are often adaptations of
famous works of literature, the shows are aimed at a popular audience
— they blend the ambitions of Welles' innovative stage productions
with the lessons he learned as an actor on commercial radio. The result is popular art of a very high order.
On the site you can download many of the featured shows in MP3 format and listen
to all of them in streaming audio. Check it out here:
The Mercury Theater On the Air
. . . and thank Kim Scarborough, who created the online archive, for a signal service to our culture.
Many thanks Lloyd for this pointer. I have been waiting many years to hear the original War Of the Worlds broadcast, ever since I saw an excellent (tele?) movie dramatisation of the broadcast and the street panic that ensued.
It's great fun — but all the Welles radio productions are worth listening to . . .