Erika Dowell, head of public services at the Lilly Library, shows one of the Orson Welles lacquer discs to student Grace Douglas. (Photo courtesy of Indiana University Lilly Library)
Updated May 5, 2016: Lilly Library has posted a preview online and promised more samples in the coming months adding, “In August 2017, the IU Libraries will be proud to host the most complete original source of audio for Orson Welles’s radio work, with the highest extant sound quality, presented in a web site rich in supplemental materials for exploring the work of this radio innovator.”
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Aided by a grant from the National Recording Preservation Foundation, Indiana University Libraries will preserve original recordings of The Orson Welles Show and establish a website where users can stream audio, search Welles’ radio scripts and access expert commentary.
In announcing its $25,000 grant to Indiana University, National Recording Preservation Foundation Executive Director Gerald Seligman said: “That there were so many extant scripts and vulnerable recordings immediately piqued our interest. That they were housed in Indiana’s venerable Lilly Library gave us great confidence that such an important collection was in the right restorative hands. This aligns well with the NRPF’s mission: acting quickly to save original, master recordings in danger of degradation and loss. These contain episodes that do not survive anywhere else.”
In a 2001 overview of the radio series, Wellesnet founder Jeff Wilson reported that 14 of the 19 episodes survived the passage of time. (See episode guide below). Indiana University Libraries announced on May 3 that Lilly Library has secured original lacquer discs containing 14 broadcasts, as well as other supposedly lost recordings.
The Orson Welles Show, which debuted Sept. 15, 1941, was sponsored by Illinois-based cosmetic maker Lady Esther and sought to provide something new to radio listeners. Unfortunately, the program format proved unpopular with the target audience of Lady Esther and it 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 Theatre: Welles, Agnes Moorehead, Joseph Cotten, and Ray Collins, and others.
Preservation of the 75-year-old recordings is a priority for the university, said Carolyn Walters, the Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries. As co-chair of IU President Michael A. McRobbie’s Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative, Walters helps oversee the mission of safeguarding unique and rare media, such as the Welles discs.
“Considering the number of unusually rich holdings at Indiana University, MDPI is a remarkable and bold commitment, drawing well-deserved national attention,” Walters said. “We are proud to be a leader in preservation through MDPI, and to partner with the National Recording Preservation Foundation to save and share these Orson Welles treasures.”
Together, the Orson Welles on the Air materials represent the most complete original source of audio for Welles’ radio work during the late 1930s and 1940s, with the highest extant sound quality.
Erika Dowell, head of public services at the Lilly Library, said that along with digitization, the Orson Welles on the Air project will include the creation of an interactive website to provide context for the collections. Librarians will build an imaginative online experience, where users will be able to stream audio of the recordings, search Welles’ scripts and access expert commentary.
Mike Casey, Indiana University’s director of technical operations for the Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative, said the grant will assist digitization experts as they embark upon the preservation of 324 master sound recordings in the form of lacquer discs and about 100 accompanying paper scripts. The script pages show tangible evidence of Welles’ creative process in their dramatic deletions and seemingly last-minute rewrites.
Casey appreciates the rapid action by the National Recording Preservation Foundation, allowing the first stages of the project to begin in late summer 2016.
“Most lacquer discs have an aluminum or glass base with a black lacquer coating,” he said. “It contains the grooves that carry the sound. This is not a safe way to store a treasure – lacquer discs are inherently chemically unstable and sometimes fail catastrophically.”
Lilly Library records show that in the last three years alone, 90 researchers – from 19 states and 11 countries – have accessed the library’s extensive collection of Welles manuscripts. For scholars, it is a treasure house with its holdings of canonical Welles series such as Mercury Theater on the Air, Campbell Playhouse and the most complete known set of The Doorway to Life.
Below is an episode guide for The Orson Welles Show. Shows believed to have been lost appear in bold.
9/15/1941 – Shredni Vashtar; An Irishman & a Jew
9/22/1941 – Golden Honeymoon; Murder in the Bank; The Right Side; The Sexes
9/29/1941 – The Interlopers; Song of Solomon; I’m a Fool
10/6/1941 – The Black Pearl; Annabel Lee; There’s a Full Moon Tonight
10/13/1941 –If In Years to Come; Noah Webster’s Library; Dorothy Parker Poetry
10/20/1941 – Romance; Kublai Khan; The Prisoner of Assiout
11/3/1941 – Wild Oranges<
11/10/1941 – That’s Why I Left You; Maysville Minstrel
11/17/1941 – The Hitchhiker; Sonnet from the Portugese
11/24/1941 – A Farewell to Arms
12/1/4191 – Wilbur Brown-Habitat Brooklyn; Something’s Going to Happen to Henry
12/8/1941 – Symptoms of Being 35; Leaves of Grass
12/22/1941 – The Happy Prince
12/29/1941 – There are Frenchmen and Frenchmen
1/5/1942 – Garden of Allah
1/12/1942 – The Apple Tree
1/19/1942 – My Little Boy
1/26/1942 – The Happy Hypocrite (incomplete)
2/2/1942 – Between Americans (incomplete)
(Special thanks to Michelle Crowe, director of communications at Indiana University Libraries).
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