ORSON WELLES ON THE AIR (RADIO)

Summary

This program honors Orson Welles and was produced by radio station KBIG in Los Angeles. In this program, Welles's biographers Charles Higham and Barbara Leaming, and radio writer Norman Corwin discuss Welles's radio work as an actor, producer, and director. Excerpts from his programs include the following: "The March of Time"; "Columbia Workshop: The Fall of the City"; "Les Miserables"; "The Shadow"; the "Mercury Theatre on the Air" series; "Dracula" and "The War of the Worlds"; Welles's broadcast conversation with H. G. Wells; Norman Corwin's "We Hold These Truths"; appeals for war bond campaigns; Welles's stint hosting "The Jack Benny Program for Grape Nuts and Grape Nuts Flakes"; the 1943 U.S.O shows as part of "The Mercury Wonder Show," with Rita Hayworth and Marlene Dietrich; the 1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt campaign ads; an episode of "This is My Best" that Welles dedicated to his daughter; and his last radio appearance, in Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes."

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