Mercury Summer Theatre

[Terry]

Tonight and every Friday night, Pabst Blue Ribbon presents you with a front-row seat in America's favourite summer theater, so while America's famous Producer/Writer/Director Orson Welles entertains you, pour yourself a tall, frosted glass of Pabst Blue Ribbon and enjoy at the same time great entertainment and this truly great beer.

http://www.archive.org/details/1946MercurySummerTheatre
http://www.archive.org/details/1946Merc ... eatrepart2

[Le Chiffre]

Sometimes those commercials seem almost cringingly surreal. One moment, Romeo and Juliet are committing double suicide, and ten seconds later, the announcer is telling you to be patient for the next beer delivery. These are pretty good shows though, on the whole, and the sound quality at Archive is fairly consistent, although I wish they had a better copy of "The Moat Farm Murder", which is probably the best of this group:

Around the World - Pretty Good 6
Count of Monte Cristo - Pretty Good 6
The Hitchhiker - Very Good 8
Jane Eyre - Fair 4
Passenger to Bali - Good 7
The Search For Henri Lefevre - Fair 5
Life With Adam - Fair 5
The Moat Farm Murder - Pretty Good 6
Golden Honeymoon/Romeo and Juliet - Good 7
Hell on Ice - Very Good 8
Abednego the Slave - Good 7
I'm a Fool/The Tell Tale Heart - Pretty Good 6
Moby Dick - Pretty Good 6
The Apple Tree/Cynara - Pretty Good 6
Scenes from King Lear - Pretty Good 6

[Le Chiffre]

The new IU/Lilly website has 11 of the 15 MST shows, all in significantly improved sound.
https://orsonwelles.indiana.edu/collections/show/2

Around the World - Pretty Good 6 at Archive.org
....(8 Very Good at IU/Lilly)

Count of Monte Cristo - Pretty Good 6 at Archive.org
....(8 Very Good at IU/Lilly)

The Hitchhiker - Very Good 8 at Archive.org
....(N/A at IU/Lilly)

Jane Eyre - Fair 4 at Archive.org
....(7 Good at IU/Lilly)

Passenger to Bali - Good 7 at Archive.org
....(7 Good at IU/Lilly)

The Search For Henri Lefevre - Fair 5 at Archive.org
....(7 Good at IU/Lilly)

Life With Adam - Fair 5 at Archive.org
....(8 Very Good at IU/Lilly)

The Moat Farm Murder - Pretty Good 6 at Archive.org
....(8 Very Good at IU/Lilly)

Golden Honeymoon/Romeo and Juliet - Good 7 at Archive.org
....(8 Very Good at IU/Lilly)

Hell on Ice - Very Good 8 at Archive.org
....(N/A at IU/Lilly)

Abednego the Slave - Good 7 at Archive.org
....(7 Good at IU/Lilly)

I'm a Fool/The Tell Tale Heart - Pretty Good 6 at Archive.org
....(9 Excellent at IU/Lilly)

Moby Dick - Pretty Good 6 at Archive.org
....(8 Very Good at IU/Lilly)

The Apple Tree/Cynara - Pretty Good 6 at Archive.org
....(N/A at IU/Lilly)

Scenes from King Lear - Pretty Good 6 at Archive.org
....(N/A at IU/Lilly)

[Terry]

Here's the original recording of the Brainerd Duffield script for Moby Dick which Welles performed (odd that he hadn't penned his own adaption yet.) This one stars Charles Laughton and was released by Decca earlier in 1946:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46LefuK6v0M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k30bre4fzPA

Duffield would appear with Welles a few years later in Macbeth.

[Terry]

Upgrades (for me at least) of The Apple Tree and King Lear were posted on Archive.org by some kind person.

https://archive.org/details/OrsonWelles ... thy%5D.mp3

https://archive.org/details/OrsonWelles ... are%5D.mp3

[Le Chiffre]

Very nice. KING LEAR, especially, is better than I've heard before. I wonder if this is the only time Agnes Moorhead ever did Shakespeare on radio.

[Wich2]

Yes, thanks, Terry (he says, having just Zoomed some Bard, and prepping to do more...)

Chief, I imagine everyone here knows that Orson wanted Aggie for his film of The Scottish Play. I don't see other Bard broadcasts from the divine Ms. M.? I also looked at records she recorded, and saw classic texts, but not Will's?

Kinda surprised, actually. Maybe she was one of those rare actors who don't love his work.

- Craig

[NoFake]

Looks like this is as close as Aggie came to Wills. Unfortunately, it doesn't look good for either of them.

According to an IMDb user, in Irwin Allen's 1957 The Story of Mankind, "Shakespeare is described by Queen Elizabeth (Agnes Moorehead) as a 'young actor-poet,' but is played by veteran character actor Reginald Gardiner, who'd been in films for 25 years at this point."

[Wich2]

Well, NF, two words:

"Irwin Allen"

But, if we're gonna list near-misses like that ~

" 'The Adventures Of Leonidas Witherall.' September 07, 1943. CBS. The adventures of a boy's school headmaster who looks like William Shakespeare, and is very good at solving murders. This story takes place at a mountain resort where a murder has been committed by someone who is very adept at throwing knives. Walter Hampden, Agnes Moorehead."

Best,
- Craig

[NoFake]

Well, Craig, I'm word-less. (Probably best, as I'm not nearly so "adept at throwing knives" at this hapless production as that "someone" was at . . . whatever. Would love to think it was Aggie. )

NF