Mercury Theater on the Air
The Mercury Theater on the Air was an hour-long dramatic radio program which began in the summer of 1938 on the CBS radio network. It was created by Orson Welles, who also starred in most of the productions, and his collaborator John Houseman, and dramatized many works of classic and contemporary literature. Houseman wrote the early scripts for the series himself, turning the job over to Howard Koch at the beginning of October. Music for the program was conducted by Bernard Herrmann.
The series began with a dramitization of Bram Stoker's Dracula, with Welles playing both Count Dracula and Doctor Seward. Originally scheduled for nine weeks, the network extended the run into the fall, moving the show from its Monday night slot, where it was the sumemr substitute for the Lux Radio Theater, to a Sunday night slot opposite Edgar Bergen's popular variety show. It was in this time slot that its most famous performance, a newscast-style version of War of the Worlds, took place.
The War of the Worlds notoriety had a welcome side effect of netting the show a sponsorship, guaranteeing its survival for awhile, and beginning on December 9, 1938, the show was known as the Campbell Playhouse. Welles revived the Mercury Theater title for a short series in the summer of 1946.
Many of the Mercury Theater productions can downloaded from The Mercury Theater on the Air website:
