Radio:
The Orson Welles Show
Sponsored by Lady Esther Cosmetics
The Orson Welles Show, as sponsored by Illinois-based cosmetic maker Lady Esther, sought to provide something new to radio listeners. Unfortunately, the program format proved unpopular with the target audience of Lady Esther (ie middle class women), and the show eventually settled into a "story of the week" format. Originally scheduled for 26 weeks, the show ended prematurely when Welles left on his ill-fated It's All True trip to Brazil. Early episodes featured a mix of comedy, drama, recitations, and patter, all delivered by the mainstays of the Mercury Theater: Welles, Agnes Moorehead, Joseph Cotten, and Ray Collins, and others, with additional guests as stories required. While the shows are quite entertaining in most cases, listener surveys indicated an unwillingness to adapt to the new format, finding it too scattershot and unfocused. LIsteners who preferred the tried and true "one show, one story" format got their wish, as the series settled into that format for its final episodes.
| 9/15/41 |
Shredni
Vashtar; An Irishman & a Jew
|
| 9/22/41 |
Golden
Honeymoon; Murder in the Bank; The Right Side; The Sexes
|
| 9/29/41 |
The
Interlopers; Song of Solomon; I'm a Fool
|
| 10/6/41 |
The
Black Pearl; Annabel Lee; There's a Full Moon Tonight
|
| 10/13/41 |
If
In Years to Come; Noah Webster's Library; Dorothy Parker Poetry
|
| 10/20/41 |
Romance;
Kublai Khan; The Prisoner of Assiout
|
| 11/3/41 |
Wild
Oranges
|
| 11/10/41 |
That's
Why I Left You; Maysville Minstrel
|
| 11/17/41 |
The
Hitchhiker; Sonnet from the Portugese
|
| 11/24/41 |
A
Farewell to Arms
|
| 12/1/41 |
Wilbur
Brown-Habitat Brooklyn; Something's Going to Happen to Henry
|
| 12/8/41 |
Symptoms
of Being 35; Leaves of Grass
|
| 12/22/41 |
The
Happy Prince
|
| 12/29/41 |
There
are Frenchmen and Frenchmen
|
| 1/5/42 |
Garden
of Allah
|
| 1/12/42 |
The
Apple Tree
|
| 1/19/42 |
My
Little Boy
|
| 1/26/42 |
The
Happy Hypocrite
|
| 2/2/42 |
Between
Americans
|
Status of shows: A number of shows from this series appear to be lost; about six to seven, however, circulate among collectors. Fourteen episodes appear to have survived. Shows in red are believed lost.
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