Mercury Theatre, Orson Welles -Radio -mp3 site

[dirty_pool]

Are there any other Orson Welles radio fans? Here's the following introduction from the site:


The finest radio drama of the 1930’s was The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a show featuring the acclaimed New York drama company founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman. In its brief run, it featured an impressive array of talents, including Agnes Moorehead, Bernard Herrmann, and George Coulouris. The show is famous for its notorious War of the Worlds broadcast, but the other shows in the series are relatively unknown. This site has many of the surviving shows, and will eventually have all of them.
The show first broadcast on CBS and CBC in July 1938. It ran without a sponsor until December of that year, when it was picked up by Campbell’s Soup and renamed The Campbell Playhouse. All of the surviving Mercury Theatre shows are available from this page in RealAudio format (some are also in MP3 format). There are several Campbell Playhouse episodes available here as well, in both RealAudio and MP3 formats; the rest are being added gradually

http://www.mercurytheatre.info/

[TheWagesofSin]

I listen to the original War of the Worlds broadcast every October 30th; I was thinking of having an Orson Welles listening party, but soon realized that I am only one of 4 people on the planet who would find that amusing.

[joenewberry]

I love old time radio shows. One of the reasons I listen to Phil is because his format of humor, variety, and something "different" reminds me of the old shows where you could do anything in the theater of the imagination. No one I've heard, with the excpetion of Phil and Rejection Slip Theater, has made much attempt to do anything new with the medium. Everything else breaks down to regular call in show, "funny" morning show, sports show, and news show.

I, personally, would enjoy having an Orson Welles listening party. But I would be lucky if just my wife showed up out of pity for me. Much like being a fan of Phil Hendrie, I have accepted the fact that when it comes to old time radio most people just don't "get it".

[The Dude]

I just downloaded the Orson Wells "War of the Worlds" mp3 and listened to it for the first time. Man, that was really cool. Thanks for the site!

[dirty_pool]

I listen to the original War of the Worlds broadcast every October 30th; I was thinking of having an Orson Welles listening party, but soon realized that I am only one of 4 people on the planet who would find that amusing.

Let's do the online version...October 30th...War of the Worlds. I am so going to get my party shoes on for that!

[MouthForWar]

I listen to the original War of the Worlds broadcast every October 30th; I was thinking of having an Orson Welles listening party, but soon realized that I am only one of 4 people on the planet who would find that amusing.

Let's do the online version...October 30th...War of the Worlds. I am so going to get my party shoes on for that!

That would be a cool idea! I was thinking of playing it on Yahoo's chat room. Anyone who wants to get together to listen to it, IM me on Yahoo. My IM s/n in mouthforwar_corp.

[TheWagesofSin]

I'm there, Oct. 30. I'll get the gin and ice ready.

[TheWagesofSin]

I'm there, Oct. 30. I'll get the gin and ice ready.

[TheWagesofSin]

Whoa, why did I post that twice? I must be some kind of 'tard.

[dirty_pool]

Here is a site that I've recently joined and I've been able to hear all the classics! My forum name is "Mandolay" but I haven't posted yet. Here is the intro to the website:

As a member you have access to over 5,000 old radio shows from the 1930s, 40s and 50s and this number is growing daily.

Amongst the many delights you'll find thrilling detective stories, gripping dramas, hilarious comedy classics, nail-biting tales of suspense and horror, and you can travel in time and space with some of the best science-fiction stories ever written.

ALL of these wonderful shows are available for you to download to your own computer. Once you have downloaded some shows there are several things you can do:

You can listen to them directly from your computer.
You can transfer them to a portable MP3 player.
If you have a CD burner you can burn the shows to CD to listen to on your hi-fi or whilst travelling in your car.
You can connect your PC to your hi-fi and record the shows onto cassette

www.rusc.com

[5AlarmChili]

Since Phil is basically a type of radio ventriloquist, some might like to hear Edgar Bergen (some clips here (http://www.snerdville.com/library.htm) in RealAudio, yes I hate RA too).

Bergen was quite risque for the time, but got away with it because he was speaking through a dummy (sound like anyone we know?) Mae West was banned from radio for a long time for her exchanges with Bergen's dummy.

As the story goes, most Americans were tuned in to Bergen's show instead of "War of the Worlds." However, many did switch over to hear Orson Wells' bit when Bergen started a musical hour 12 minutes in. So, they missed the disclaimer at the beginning.

What I think is funny is that Bergen was revered for being able to maintain the illusion of two characters over radio, where people could not see the dummy. Phil is far, far, better at that, but wouldn't stand up to him live because of the whole lip moving thing.

Bergen was also the father of actress Candice Bergen who was "Murphy Brown."

[TheWagesofSin]

That's a good point about Bergen. I wonder what would have happened if TV had never been invented, or at least failed miserably... if radio were still the dominant medium, what would the programs be like? Would Phil be as popular as Bergen in his own time? Or would there even be such a thing as talk radio? Wow, deep thoughts. :-k