CAVALCADE OF AMERICA: THUNDER FROM THE HILLS (RADIO)

Summary

The second of two programs on this tape. One in this series of historical dramas. In this original radio play by Arthur Miller, Orson Welles narrates the story of and portrays Mexico's President Benito Juarez, whose life is compared to that of his contemporary, Abraham Lincoln. The play dramatizes several key moments in Juarez's life: the young lawyer's defense of peasants' rights against wealthy landowners; Juarez's courtship of his wife Margarita; Juarez's acts of generosity toward the poor after becoming governor and his subsequent exile by dictatorial President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna; Juarez's decision to mount a successful revolution against Santa Anna; Juarez's defeat of the Napoleonic invasion, reestablishing his presidency with the help of arms supplied by the U.S.; and Juarez's case against pardoning the Emperor Maximilian. After the play, Welles describes a celebration in Juarez's honor he attended in Mexico. Includes a commercial for Du Pont describing the company's achievements, including building war plants.

(Network affiliation varies; on CBS, 1935 to 1939; as above, 1940 to 1953.)

The acquisition and cataloging of The Arthur Miller Collection was made possible by The Laura Pels Foundation.

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