Old Time Radio...OTR...chat & discussion

[bartermania]

The Mercury Theatre on the Air...(many files/programs are available for downloading and listening here...bm/kdp)
http://www.mercurytheatre.info/



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.

Mercury Theatre
Dracula (July 11, 1938)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Treasure Island (July 18, 1938)
Real Audio • Checksum

A Tale of Two Cities (July 25, 1938)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

The 39 Steps (August 1, 1938)
Real Audio • Checksum

Three Short Stories: I’m a Fool, The Open Window, and My Little Boy (August 8, 1938)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Abraham Lincoln (August 15, 1938)
Real Audio • Checksum

The Affairs of Anatol (August 22, 1938)
Real Audio • Checksum

The Count of Monte Cristo (August 29, 1938)
Real Audio • Checksum

The Man Who Was Thursday (September 5, 1938)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

The Immortal Sherlock Holmes (September 25, 1938)
Real Audio • Checksum

Hell on Ice (October 9, 1938)
Real Audio • Checksum

Seventeen (October 16, 1938)
Real Audio • Checksum

Around the World in 80 Days (October 23, 1938)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

The War of the Worlds (October 30, 1938)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Heart of Darkness / Life with Father (November 6, 1938)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

A Passenger to Bali (November 13, 1938)
Real Audio • Checksum

The Pickwick Papers (November 20, 1938)
Real Audio • Checksum


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Campbell Playhouse
Rebecca (December 9, 1938)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

A Christmas Carol (December 23, 1938)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Counselor-at-Law (January 6, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3

Mutiny on the Bounty (January 13, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

I Lost My Girlish Laughter (January 27, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Arrowsmith (February 3, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

The Green Goddess (February 10, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

The Glass Key (March 10, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Beau Geste (March 17, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Showboat (March 31, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

The Patriot (April 14, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Private Lives (April 21, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Wickford Point (May 5, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Our Town (May 12, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

The Bad Man (May 19, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Things We Have (May 26, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Victoria Regina (June 2, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Peter Ibbetson (September 10, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Ah, Wilderness (September 17, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

What Every Woman Knows (September 24, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

The Count of Monte Cristo (October 1, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Algiers (October 8, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Escape (October 15, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Liliom (October 22, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

The Magnificent Ambersons (October 29, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

The Hurricane (November 5, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (November 12, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

The Garden of Allah (November 19, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Dodsworth (November 26, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Lost Horizon (December 3, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Venessa (December 10, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

There’s Always a Woman (December 17, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

A Christmas Carol (December 24, 1939)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Vanity Fair (January 7, 1940)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Theodora Goes Wild (January 14, 1940)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

The Citadel (January 21, 1940)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

It Happened One Night (January 28, 1940)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (February 11, 1940)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Dinner at Eight (February 18, 1940)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Only Angels Have Wings (February 25, 1940)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Rabble in Arms (March 3, 1940)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Craig’s Wife (March 10, 1940)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Huckleberry Finn (March 17, 1940)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

June Moon (March 24, 1940)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums


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Rehearsals
The 39 Steps (August 1, 1938)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Julius Caesar (September 11, 1938)
Real Audio • Checksum


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Miscellaneous / Related
Les Miserables
(This seven-episode series was written, produced, and directed by Orson Welles for the Mutual Network in 1937. While not an official Mercury Theatre production, it featured many of the Mercury Players, including Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, and Everett Sloane.)

Episode 1: The Bishop (July 23, 1937)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Episode 2: Javert (July 30, 1937)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Episode 3: The Trial (August 6, 1937)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Episode 4: Cosette (August 13, 1937)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Episode 5: The Grave (August 20, 1937)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Episode 6: The Barricade (August 27, 1937)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Episode 7: Conclusion (September 3, 1937)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

H.G. Wells Meets Orson Welles (October 28, 1940)
(A short conversation between the two men, originally broadcast on KTSA San Antonio.)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums

Theatre of the Imagination (1988)
(A radio special about the Mercury Theatre on the Air hosted by Leonard Maltin, featuring interviews with the surviving members.)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums


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Video
Macbeth (excerpt from We Work Again) (1936)
(The only surviving footage from Welles and Houseman’s first stage production, a version of Macbeth set in Haiti with an all-black cast.)
MPEG • Checksum


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BitTorrent
I’m now making a BitTorrent available of all the files. If possible, please download this instead. Also, I’d really appreciate it if you left it running after the download completes.

Be sure to check back here from time to time; when I add files to the Torrent, I will increment the version number.

BitTorrent of all the files (version 1)