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[Wich2]

Terry, I believe Markle's* first notice in the States was his "playing Orson" in LIFE WITH ADAM? And of course, he was the driving force behind STUDIO ONE, a direct attempt to keep alive the kind of serious one-hour radio drama that the Merc did in its early years.

Chief, Elliot Lewis* (often with wife Cathy) was another polymorph radio man.

And as far as the writing of the early Mercs, I wonder if Orson ever wrote one SOLELY in his own hand...? Except maybe THURSDAY, where the story goes that he was feverishly cutting and pasting till the very end. Most accounts generally imply several hands in the adapting: at least Welles, Houseman and Koch. And Arthur A. told of those guys having marathon sessions at their favorite deli near CBS, where they hashed out scripts - especially, the last-minute replacement DRACULA.

-Craig

*P.S. - And both were still active in the field, at least as late as SEARS RADIO THEATER in 1980.

[Terry]

In War of the Worlds, the "scraping noise inside the thing" was removed along with the vinyl surface noise. Oops. So much for these being unmodified archival copies.

[Wich2]

Oh boy...

That's always a risk, with noise reduction: going too far, and/or not knowing what is noise and what is sound.

If that's true here, that's One Big Problem.

-Craig

[Terry]

And that's THE ONE, Craig, you'd think they'd give it their most special attention. Ah well, we fans can combine it with the Paul Stewart master to make a hybrid Frankenstein.

I found I had messed up Man Who Was Thursday when removing the 60 Hz mains hum from my rip of it. If you're doing restorations, ALWAYS keep your original masters.

[Wich2]

And that's THE ONE, Craig, you'd think they'd give it their most special attention.

True. I checked their version... the scraping IS still there - but barely! (But again: rumor is some real pros are working on a great WOTW restoration...)

>I found I had messed up Man Who Was Thursday when removing the 60 Hz mains hum from my rip of it. If you're doing restorations, ALWAYS keep your original masters.<

Also true! You have to use the tools like scalpels, not hammers. And you have to know the material: what IS "noise," and what is "sound."

[Terry]

If anyone's still interested and/or had trouble accessing Lilly's collection of hidden files, here are the ten bonus Welles programs: http://www.mediafire.com/folder/4r71mh0 ... dden_Files

[Le Chiffre]

Good job, Terry. Now people have no excuse (except not being interested, of course).

[Terry]

Good job, Terry. Now people have no excuse (except not being interested, of course).

Not being interested is no excuse. It's like eating your spinach. It's good for you. And no, you may not leave the table nor feed the Welles broadcast to the dog.

Looking at the date of his unsold Greatest Book in the World (March 22nd 1940,) it predates the final Campbell's Playhouse by a week, meaning this was the (or a) series he was intending as Campbell's replacement (perhaps as a summer series, a good place to try out experimental material, as had been the case with First Person Singular.) Of course it wasn't picked up, but if it had, then we might have had Orson Welles, Theologian or Orson Welles, Bible Popularizer added to the dizzying array of hats he already wore in the 40s.

As it was he didn't have another series until September of 1941, 18 months later. I wonder why the gap between series was so long. I can't accept 'he was busy making Kane' as an excuse, since he'd been busy for years simultaneously juggling his stage productions and regular radio work in New York. Perhaps he didn't want another Diana Bourbon dictating what he could and could not do on his own show? Of course that happened on his next series (Lady Esther) anyway, where his Almanac format was quickly dumped in favor of half-hour stories at the sponsor's insistence.

[Terry]

Lilly's copy of "The Flying Fortress" from Ceiling Unlimited is the broadcast version, which we didn't have before. Previously we've had the demo version, which in this case was picked up as a series.

[Terry]

I've been comparing the various copies of WOTW I've collected over the years. You can tell them apart from the surface noise, which comes in three patterns (or flavors.) Most are the commercial version (which comes from an unknown live master or dupe,) with the other two being Lilly's disappointing restoration of Welles' glass-disc dupe (where careless use of noise reduction removed key sound effects, among other problems) and Randy's copy of the Paul Stewart live master (which hopefully can itself be used as the basis of a restoration.) Yes, I've heard of further restoration being done for Lilly and hope that's true.

None of these are really great due to the condition of the discs, but just today I found that the copy on Wikipedia is the best quality (and closet to the original source) of the commercial version I've ever come across and is pretty archival, right down to the surface noise:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... _full.flac

[Le Chiffre]

Yes, that's a better sounding version than most I've heard. What would WOTW be without surface noise? Adds to the verisimilitude.

I seem to recall the CD included with this 2003 book was a good one too.
https://www.amazon.com/War-Worlds-Audio ... B007PT9PA0

BTW, another Campbell where Welles was a quadruple threat was AMERICAN CAVALCADE, a show where he co-starred, as well as co-wrote, with Cornelia Otis Skinner.

[Terry]

AKA "Things We Have," I'd forgotten about that one, thanks. Of course Welles was in charge of all his scripts anyway: he hired the writers, commissioned the work, supplied the creative angles he wanted to focus upon, edited them all, and owned the scripts (though Houseman supposedly gave Howard Koch ownership of the scripts he had adapted so as to ameliorate his poor pay.) What's that quote Welles cited about Alexander Dumas not having read his latest novel? Something about it not being expected of pharaoh to build his temples with his own hands? An apt quote for Welles as well.

I've been browsing through copies of Radio Guide from the 1940s and came across news of Welles' new sustaining series of Bible readings being put on hold as CBS thought it had real commercial potential after another religious series was a surprise hit, so they were shopping for a sponsor. Later there's mention of Welles' well-known conflicts with the sponsor during the run of Campbell's Playhouse, and Lady Esther giving him creative carte blanche for the new series they were sponsoring. Looking at the episode list for that series, Welles' almanac format lasted about three months, so he had free reign longer than I thought, and I think he was choosing his own half-hour stories until the end.

[Wich2]

What would WOTW be without surface noise? Adds to the verisimilitude.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sorry.

But in this era of really wonderful FILM restoration, it makes me CRAZY when folks still yearn for dirt, wear and schmutz in their RADIO classics!

-Craig

[Le Chiffre]

Relax, Craig, it was a joke. If a pristine copy comes along I'll be very happy. But I have my doubts that will ever happen. Per Terry's posts, I'd rather put up with surface noise than have sandblasting eliminate important sound effects.

[Wich2]

I was obviously exaggerating to effect, too!

But you'd be surprised how many "OTR Fans" (?) still long for faults... "The static and the clicks make me think of the old days!"

So of course, Balance In All Things:

The Sweet Spot lies between a dirty multi-dubbed disc, and an over-scrubbed digital file.

-Craig

P.S. - As I think I mentioned here before, a little birdy tells me that there may be a best-yet WOTW coming for Halloween - and done by folks who know_their_stuff.