OW Almanac Question

[Le Chiffre]

Let me, however, throw in a possible extra special pleading for Welles, in this case. If we remember how careless Welles was about rehearsals for radio shows in his long experience, it is possibe that he had not read that line, written by someone else, until he got on the air.

Yes, that is certainly a possibility. If that's the case, I would have loved to have heard what Welles said to his writers after the show.

[Terry]

Welles said enough bad things about his writers DURING those shows!

It might have been a funny running joke, were it not so true that the scripts were so poor...

"My writers work like beavers, in fact some of them are beavers...I just wish I could figure out which ones! Let's get back to the script!"

Is this funny?

[Glenn Anders]

Imagining Welles' delivery of such a line?

Funny, certainly mildlly amusing.

Glenn

[Terry]

While the rest of Radio Almanac was a silly and fairly unsuccessful bid by Welles to become a radio comedian (and with the poor scripts the show had it would be hard to succeed,) the Invasion of Europe prompted Welles to offer the one serious broadcast of the entire series (and the adrenaline of the previous day seemed to engender a superior script as well.) The day America rolled the dice, with the certainty of massive loss of life, in a gamble to change the shape of the world was no time for buffoonery.

Welles is barely present in the show (due of course to some deep-seated psychological reason,) and Agnes Moorehead provides her last starring role under Welles' direction (while she was a regular on the Almanac series, the rest of the time she portayed a long-suffering member of The Orson Welles Swoon Club.)

Though the credits don't mention it, that sure sounds like a Bernard Herrmann score to me. Lud Gluskin provided the appropriately brash music for the rest of the series, but the sombre hand of Benny was more suitable here.

http://www.box.net/shared/v0jh0yleu4

[Steve Kostelecky]

Charlie Summers, who runs the invaluable OTR Digest, the Nostalgia Pages and his blog, Nostalgic Rumblings, has posted an episode of the Almanac not widely circulated, from May 31, 1944, at:

http://blogs.oldradio.net/archives/2008 ... y-31-1944/

Always glad to hear more of Welles's radio work. Please thank Charlie for his efforts if you visit him.
Best

[Wellesnet]

Thanks Steve. Good show:

Wonder Show Barker: “What’s the matter, soldier? Don’t you want to see Orson saw a woman in half?”

Soldier: “Mister, I ain’t been out with a girl in six months. Why should I go in there and watch him waste one?”

[Terry]

Welles' lament for Jimmie Noone and the piece Blues for Jimmie from the otherwise lost episode from April 19, 1944. Several of the musical segments with Kid Ory were released on glass discs (due to wartime restrictions on lacquer) and credited to the Welles Jazz Band.

https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/isl ... jaz%3A3226

Welles' intro and Sugar Foot Stomp from the lost episode for April 26, 1944.

https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/isl ... jaz%3A3032

Welles' intro and New Orleans Funeral - Old Style, perhaps from the lost episode for May 10, 1944.

https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/isl ... jaz%3A3156

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks Terry. I'd been wanting to hear the Jimmy Noone tribute for a long time, after having read about it in several Welles books. Nice intro by Welles, and even with the less than top-notch sound quality, one can sense that the band members were playing with heavy hearts, although still playing well. Good to see that at least segments of some of the missing episodes survive.