The War of the Worlds - A Halloween Classic

No, it's not the 2005 Spielberg movie starring Tom Cruise.  Nor is it the 1953 version starring Ray Bradbury.  Nor is it even a very faithful adaptation of the 1898 H.G. Wells novel.

No, this is the Mercury Theatre on the Air's original vision of "The War of the Worlds".  To understand the impact it had on American society, take a listen to last week's show after you hear this one. 

So, in what has become tradition - we celebrate Halloween by playing "The War of the Worlds", starring Orson Welles and his Mercury players, on the Old Time Radio Express.

Mercury Month - Week #4

Welles at his craft

This week we focus on the great man himself, the man who brought all the other players of the Mercury together - Orson Welles.

I do not suppose I shall be remembered for anything. But I don't think about my work in those terms. It is just as vulgar to work for the sake of posterity as to work for the sake of money.  - Orson Welles

Welles made his mark on old time radio before flitting off the Hollywood to capture America's imagination on film.  In this broadcast, we have him in a comedic role, guest starring on the Fred Allen Show.  Welles could do comedy just fine, thank you, as he even had a run as fill-in for Jack Benny when Benny was out sick for a 4 week stretch in the 1942-3 season.

I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time. - Orson Welles

And out of step he was, as we'll see next week on the Old Time Radio Express, when we play that instant classic - The War of the Worlds.  After the Fred Allen Show, we get you all prepared for everything you'll need next week.

Nobody who takes on anything big and tough can afford to be modest. - Orson Welles

And modest he was not.  As I'm sure he would have told you.

Mercury Month - Week #2

Bea Benaderet and Ray Collins are our featured Mercury players this week on the OTR Express.

Benaderet is featured in an early episode of The Great Gildersleeve on this week's show.  She also had a role as Gertrude Gearshift, a telephone operator who gave Jack Benny fits on The Jack Benny Show.  There, she met her second husband, Eugene Twombly, who was the sound effects man.  Sadly, after Benaderet died in 1968, Twombly died on the day of her funeral - four days after her death. 

Ray Collins was at his best playing the white collar heavy on film - the man whose voice threatened violence, but who would never carry out the dirty work himself.  On this program from Suspense called "Marry for Murder", he plays quite a different role, and one that shows his versatility.  I don't know why, but I had to pick one actor from Mercury who you might call Welles' right hand man, I would pick Ray Collins.

Sit back and enjoy these two greats! 

Mercury Month - Week #1

It's Mercury Month on the Old Time Radio Express.  It's a celebration of that crucible of acting talent known as the Mercury Theatre on the Air.  Under the thumb direction of the great Orson Welles, this troupe created one of the most famous radio plays of all time - The War of the Worlds.  Individually, the cast had success as well.

This week we feature shows starring two of the more famous Mercury players, Agnes Moorehead and Everett Sloane.

Moorehead may be best known for her role as Endora on "Bewitched", but she conquered just about every medium she tackled.  She was a superb radio actress, and an equally good film star, garnering 4 Academy Award nominations.  (Though not one of her most famous, try her in "Dark Passage" to see her at her scheming best. Bogie and Bacall ain't bad either...)

Sloane had a fine radio career, with weekly roles on some of the best shows of the era - The Shadow, Cavalcade of America, and Inner Sanctum Mysteries.  If you want to get a glimpse of Sloane on the screen, he has a wonderful role in The Lady From Shanghai.  (And Rita Hayworth ain't too bad to look at either...)

Back in Black...

Another hot summer day and we celebrate with the color of the shimmering pavement outside...BLACK.

The Black Museum was a 52 episode BBC production whose main attributes are its gimmick (stories based on artifacts related to famous crimes worked on by Scotland Yard) and its narrator (American genius Orson Welles).  Likely Welles found himself lacking money while working on the movie Othello in Europe and agreed to record The Black Museum series for a little extra cash.  That would have been Wellesian.

Beyond the gimmicks, The Black Museum is standard crime fare spiced up by British sensibilities.

The Voyage of the Scarlet Queen is the second of the shows on the Old Time Radio Express.  Enjoy the episode of the "Fang Rubies and the Black Siamese".  Captain Philip Carney captained the ketch Scarlet Queen around the globe, finding adventure and beautiful women in every port.  One of my favorite shows. 

A quick bit of trivia about this particular show - Elliot Lewis as Carney plays opposite his lovely wife Cathy Lewis, as the beautiful but proper sister of the dead man.  The Lewises often worked in the same show, and the shows were the better for it.  Enjoy...

Show #29 - You Can't Do Business With Hitler and Lights Out!

The Old Time Radio Express celebrates Memorial Day with a couple of programs related to the evils that our fighting forces faced in WWII - namely, Hitler and the Nazis.

We start with a program more informational and educational than entertaining - You Can't Do Business With Hitler.  In fact, this is the premier episode of the program, cleverly titled "Heads They Win, Tails We Lose".  (As a sidebar, did anyone else play that game with a younger sibling when younger?  Or how about trying to convince your younger sibling to trade dimes for your nickels because they were bigger?  Or was that just me?)

Our second example of how radio battled Nazism is in Lights Out's production of a brilliant little radio play entitled "Execution", from April 27, 1943.

As I mention in the show, there are only 4 actors in "Execution" and although each primarily was a radio talent, allow me to cross media and make a movie recommendation for each.  Their talent deserves it.

The main Nazi, who has written the report, is voiced by Edgar Barrier.  He was not putting on a "voice" in this broadcast - that was his normal voice.  As you can imagine, he found himself playing a lot of Germans and other heavily accented characters, mostly villains, throughout radio.  Check him out in the Orson Welles/Joseph Cotten thriller "Journey Into Fear"

Mercedes McCambridge portrays the woman, and was an accomplished actress in both radio and film.  Her film debut, "All the King's Men", garnered her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.  If you want to hear her (but not see her) in something completely different, check out "The Exorcist".  You know the famous scene when the devil is talking out of the little girl's mouth?  Well, the lovely and innocent woman pictured to your right was that voice...only one of the most famous scenes in the horror genre!

Lou Merrill plays the soldier who leads the women up to the scaffold, and was all over radio, with a voice that was suited to both paranoid killers (on Lights Out) and Santa Claus (on The Cinnamon Bear).  He didn't do much in the movies, but has a nice bit part in the Orson Welles/Rita Hayworth classic "Lady From Shanghai".  He's one of the sailors in the early bar scene.  I can't find a picture of Lou Merrill on the internet for the life of me.  That tells you he was a true radio actor!

Lastly, the Nazi reading the report to Hitler had the most success of the four in the movies.  It was not for his looks, but rather for his versatile voice, that Mr. Hans Conreid relied on to get work.  Have you seen the Disney animated movie "Peter Pan"?  Then you've seen Conreid's work, as he play not one, but two roles, Captain Hook and Father Darling.  He was the quintessential supporting player on radio, comfortable especially playing kooks, both the violent kind on the horror shows and the professorial types on the comedy shows.  If you want to see Conreid's face, you can also see him in "Journey Into Fear" with Barrier.

One thing for sure, we'll hear lots more of McCambridge, Barrier, Merrill and Conreid....it'd be hard not to with how prolific they were.  Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Show #24 - Information, Please! & Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, part 2

This week on the Old Time Radio Express, we continue listening to "The Flight Six Matter" on Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, and listen to a 30 minute program of Information, Please!

I can think of no modern equivalent for Information, Please! on television.  It most reminds me of a program like the McLaughlin Group, a PBS show that I can remember my Grandpa Shelley watching regularly, but the only real similarity is that the show consists of a group of highly educated men sitting around discussing important things.  Information, Please! was a game-show of sorts, though, with the public submitting questions designed to stump the experts.  I don't know if the phenomenon of public interest in shows like Information, Please! and Quiz Kids - "high-brow" entertainment - has ever been duplicated.  These men on Information, Please! (Clifton Fadiman, Franklin P. Adams and John Kieran) were celebrities in their day.

On the Information, Please program on the OTR Express, guest Orson Welles joins the group with interesting results.

Our second program is the second installment of the Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar matter, "The Flight Six Matter", with new events that lead Johnny deeper into the rabbit hole...Enjoy! 

Cbristmas Bonus Episode!

What better way to share the Christmas spirit than to give you a little something extra this Sunday before Christmas.

Enjoy now a few extra tidbits about Lionel Barrymore and "A Christmas Carol" from the Campbell Playhouse that didn't make the cut on our December 20th Old Time Radio Express show.  I've also got for you a unique 30 minutes called "The Plot to Overthrow Christmas" on This is My Best - a Christmas tale told in verse and starring Ray Collins and Orson Welles, true radio heavyweights, literally and figuratively.  (Though to be fair, in 1944, Welles was not a literal heavyweight.  See the photo right of Welles in that same year in the movie, Jane Eyre.  Compare that with the below left photo of Welles from Touch of Evil in 1958).

Show #6 of the Old Time Radio Express - A Christmas Carol

This week on the Old Time Radio Express, you get very little of me and a very much of Lionel Barrymore, Orson Welles and great old time radio, in "A Christmas Carol" on The Campbell Playhouse.

I know you listen for various reasons - some love the radio and want less chatter from the host, and some are hearing OTR for the first time and like the tidbits.  This week, I'm giving you the best of both worlds - this episode is 60 solid minutes of some of the best OTR has to offer.  As a supplement, for those who want it, I'm posting an internet-only mini-OTR Express show with my thoughts on this program.  I'll also be sharing a much lesser known Christmas tale that I think you'll like.  I didn't plan it this way, but Orson Welles figures prominently in both programs.

Link: Show #6 - A Christmas Carol (Having a little difficulty with the typical podcast source, so bear with me!)

Enjoy!