Keith Scott:
I have been going through my Orson Welles collection and I came across a CD I had burned of two shows from his 1941 ORSON WELLES THEATRE / Lady Esther series. The first is a full show from October, featuring two short stories (Lucille Ball is the guest), but the other show is dated 11-17-41 and is just the section of the show with a performance of The Hitch Hiker (supposedly this is the first performance of this great Lucille Fletcher ghost story, a favorite of mine, ten months before his more well known SUSPENSE version from 9-2-42). My question is: does anyone recall where I might have sourced this from??...I can't seem to recall how I got it, because I was led to believe that this first version of The Hitch Hiker was a lost show from the Lady Esther run. I also have the Pabst version from June of 1946, but I know that came from the excellent 1988 Theatre of Imagination Mercury release. (Welles even did the show six weeks after SUSPENSE on The Philip Morris Playhouse in October of '42, no doubt due to public enthusiasm, but I'm almost certain that show doesn't circulate.) Any Welles experts know who released this 11-17-41 Hitch Hiker?...it sounds different to the SUSPENSE - I am tempted to say I hear Agnes Moorehead playing two roles, including Welles's mother, plus Ray Collins and Everett Sloane...but the recording ends at the conclusion of the drama, and is incomplete - circa 20 minutes of a full half hour show. And I wouldn't have known the date without my source recording stating it was 11-17-41. It also needs an audio upgrade as it's a little hissy and shows evidence of that old enemy, slight tape squeal in parts. A mystery indeed, only because everything I've read about The Hitch Hiker says that first show is missing, presumed lost.
If anyone has any info on this, it would be appreciated.
As I understand it, Welles performed Lucille Fletcher's THE HITCHHIKER four times on radio:
1. Lady Esther (11/17/41) (believed lost, although Mr. Scott says he has an incomplete copy).
2. Suspense (9/2/42) Available ar Archive's OW Suspense page: https://archive.org/details/OrsonWellesOnSuspense
3. Phillip Morris Show (10/16/42) Lost?
4. Mercury Summer Theater (06/21/46) Available at Archive's OW MST page: https://archive.org/details/1946MercurySummerTheatre.
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Here's a 2002 thread comparing the Suspense version to the MST version:
The Hitch-hiker versus The Hitch-hiker - Or Orson Welles vs. Orson Welles
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=1305
