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re: Best radio dramas, past and present(?)
Posted on 10/30/25 at 10:15 pm to Kafka
Posted on 10/30/25 at 10:15 pm to Kafka
Oops, almost forgot this year
quote:
Happy Anniversary!quote:The Mercury Theater Of The Air - "The War of the Worlds" (October 30, 1938)
The 17th episode of Orson Welles’ “Mercury Theatre on the Air” began on CBS Radio at 8 pm on Sunday, 30 October 1938 with a brief announcement that the program would be an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds.
Welles then read an introduction that closely adhered to the novel before returning to a seemingly typical radio broadcast of music. The programming was then interrupted with a series of news bulletins regarding events at Grover’s Mill, NJ, which quickly became eye witness reports of a Martian invasion.
Producer John Houseman recalled that the total broadcast time, “from the first mention of the meteorites to the fall of New York City, was less than forty minutes.“ “During that time, men travelled long distances, large bodies of troops were mobilized, cabinet meetings were held, savage battles fought on land and in the air. And millions of people accepted it—emotionally if not logically.”
Announcements that “The War of the Worlds” was a dramatization of a work of fiction were made 4 times during the broadcast: at the beginning, before the middle break (at 30 minutes into the broadcast), after the middle break, and at the end. Still, many listeners were fooled by the news-like structure of the drama and calls were made to local police across the country, and to the radio station. Police entered the building to stop the broadcast, but were not allowed into the control room.
After the broadcast, Houseman recalled, “hustled out of the studio, we were locked into a small back office on another floor. Here we sat incommunicado while network employees were busily collecting, destroying, or locking up all scripts and records of the broadcast.”
According to the head of CBS News, the 23-year-old Orson Welles “sat alone and despondent. ‘I’m through,’ he lamented, “washed up.’” The broadcast, of course, made him famous.
The news of panic caused by the broadcast have been debated ever since (with most historians concluding that the panic was exaggerated by the media, and subsequently by CBS itself to promote its network), and while Welles initially denied the panic, he ultimately contributed to the myth.
After the broadcast, Welles pleads his case to reporters.
All's Welles that ends Wells: Orson meets H.G. at a San Antonio radio station, 1940.
1
Posted on 10/31/25 at 1:07 pm to Kafka
Posted on 10/31/25 at 1:40 pm to Pectus
Art Bell
Coast to Coast
Coast to Coast
Posted on 10/31/25 at 4:52 pm to travelgamer
quote:"There's something behind the comet Hale-Bop. We do not know what it is, but it's not acting like a normal heavenly body. It seems to be... maneuvering."
Art Bell
Coast to Coast
Posted on 10/31/25 at 5:07 pm to Pectus
This channels has a pretty good collection. I didn't realize there were so many. I enjoy listening to the voices of actors I only knew from the movies/tv.
Hearth and Home
One of my favorite shows.
Hearth and Home
One of my favorite shows.
Posted on 10/31/25 at 7:23 pm to Pectus
Radio Classics Ch. 148 on Sirius XM is all old time radio. I've found the drama, crime, suspense, etc. stand the test of time. Most are at least listenable, some are really great. The comedy, OTOH, is almost universally lame. Even the "greats," like Bob Hope and Jack Benny, just don't translate well.
Posted on 10/31/25 at 8:00 pm to Jim Rockford
quote:I kind of agree w/you, partly, at least as far as Hope is concerned. His timing is perfect, but he may need to be seen to get the full impact. Several of his 40s movies are classic
The comedy, OTOH, is almost universally lame. Even the "greats," like Bob Hope and Jack Benny, just don't translate well.
Totally disagree on Benny, Many of his shows are brilliant.
Norm Macdonald was a big OTR listener. He was a huge fan of Benny (as am I), but he didn't care for Fred Allen, who has always been acclaimed as a genius. IMHO Allen was a great comedian, especially as an adlibber. But his beloved Allen's Alley bits, where he interviews various eccentrics -- a New England farner, a Jewish housewife, a poet, and a windbag Southern politician, Senator Claghorn (stolen by Warners as Foghorn Leghorn) -- are, aside from Claghorn, not very funny,
My 2nd favorite radio comedian, after Benny, was a guy named Henry Morgan. He was the Letterman of OTR - irascible and often cantankerous (in real life too, apparently), During a newspaper strike he made like Mayor LaGuardia and read the papers to the kiddies on the air. But he didn't read the comics -- he read the ads., The highlight of his shows was his ribbing of the sponsors.
Morgan starred in precisely one film vehicle, a favorite of me and Martin Scorcese. If these two giants can't convince people to watch it...
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