Cavalcade of America

[Wellesnet]

I had always thought that Welles did four "Cavalcade of America" shows circa 1942 ("The Great Man Votes", "Juarez: Thunder From the Mountains", "Admiral of the Ocean Seas", and "In the Best Tradition"), but Woodstock Celebrates has brought to our attention that Welles did at least one other program in the series. On 5 October 1942, Orson Welles's production of "Passage to More than India" was broadcast on "Cavalcade of America," NBC-Radio. There's not much info online about the show online, and I don't know that a recording of the broadcast survives, but the script does at the Lilly Library.

[Wich2]

Hmmm...

Both Haendiges and Goldin list another show for that date:

"I WAS MARRIED ON BATAAN" 10-05-42 Madeleine Carroll Author: Arthur Miller

Maybe Welles' was written, but not produced?

-Craig

[Terry]

I have the following Cavalcades with Welles:

351218 Defiance of Nature (sound quality: fair)
360101 The Declaration of Independence (fair)
360115 Building and Architecture (fair)
360129 Enterprise (fair)
411215 The Great Man Votes (excellent)
420928 Thunder from the Mountains (excellent)
421012 Admiral of the Ocean Sea (East Coast) (excellent)
421012 Admiral of the Ocean Sea (West Coast) (excellent)
421026 In the Best Tradition (excellent)

If Passage to More than India isn't an erroneous title for Admiral, then it's lost.

[Dan_UK]

Ooh, I've not heard of those 4 from 1935/36. Are they available online anywhere?

Hmmm...

Both Haendiges and Goldin list another show for that date:

"I WAS MARRIED ON BATAAN" 10-05-42 Madeleine Carroll Author: Arthur Miller

Maybe Welles' was written, but not produced?

-Craig

I solved this. I think I posted about this in another thread. Or maybe I thought about it but didn't get round to it.

On 5 Oct 42 I Was Married On Bataan was broadcast, with no Welles content. Perhaps people who list it as a Welles show are confusing it with of Ballad Of Bataan which was done 3 times, once on Almanac, again on Treasury Star Parade, and again on Ceiling Unlimited (although no recording exists of the latter).

For 5 Oct 42 This Is Orson Welles lists Cavalcade Of America : Passage To More Than India.

"Passage To More Than India" is a line of dialogue from the following weeks "Admiral of the Ocean Sea". So we can assume that "Passage To More Than India" was a working title for "Admiral of the Ocean Sea".

[Terry]

Ooh, I've not heard of those 4 from 1935/36. Are they available online anywhere?

They are as soon as I upload them for you.

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/7d26t8 ... of_America

I should update my trade list, though sending cassette dubs through snail mail is a thing of the past, thank God.

[Dan_UK]

Thanks!

Yes, I remember waiting weeks and weeks for a package of cassettes to arrive in the post. I've got shelves and shelves of the things.

[Terry]

Upgrades for several of the Welles episodes here, and we can right-click and save-as - nice.

https://auislandora.wrlc.org/islandora/ ... 28orson%29

[Wich2]

Thanks, Terry.

(I was just about to post that link; the material there really is great stuff, from original discs I believe.)

- Craig

[Dan_UK]

Upgrades for several of the Welles episodes here, and we can right-click and save-as - nice.

https://auislandora.wrlc.org/islandora/ ... 28orson%29

Cool, not only is "Admiral Of The Ocean Sea" different from the Lilly version (we already had the alternate mp3 but this is an upgrade), but Juarez is a different performance too!

The Declaration Of Independence show is missing from that page, but it's there too...

https://auislandora.wrlc.org/islandora/ ... aration%29

[Terry]

Is that the complete run of Cavalcade, Craig? It's a huge archive, and I see a lot of Mercury actors while browsing through the episodes (though of course they were all as over-employed as Welles back then.)

Dan is just the uber-detective and we're lucky he's here. I suspect there are other episodes in that collection where Welles has a line or two; that's a lot for us to listen through, and it's an intriguing and well-done series.

These sound better than Lilly's transfers, fuller-bodied with more low-end.

[Wich2]

Terry, not sure if they hold every ep. that is in circulation, as I'm not that big a CAVALCADE expert. (Beyond knowing that the show was generally solid, and that it was Dupont's attempt to whitewash its rep for profiteering in The Great War!)

It ran for nearly twenty years, and radio historian Martin Grams Jr. does catalog a handful of Lost eps here:

http://martingrams.blogspot.com/2016/09 ... de-of.html

- Craig

P.S. - As to why this group sounds sharper than Lilly's - I'd bet the discs had seen much less wear, and were subject to less restoration.

[Dan_UK]

Yes it looks like they have a complete set of the *known* Welles Cavalcades.

It's interesting that the voice actors are listed on that page, because they're uncredited in the actual episodes. Perhaps they had official transcription discs with documentation, as opposed to some of Lilly's discs which seemed to be copies (a disc being copied to another disc. (I'm talking about their collection as a whole, not specifically the Cavalcades)). It'd be strange documentation though because the dates aren't included.

It's possible Welles appeared in other shows, it'd require careful listening of each show to find others.

Since there are no dates you'd need an episode log so you could match those episodes (they have a lot!) up with dates, then listen to all the other episodes around Dec'35/Jan'36 and work outwards from there. A long job!

A shame they don't have any of the March of Time episodes as that's something that sorely needs upgrading. I've not been able to even find Welles in the couple I listened to (I gave up as the quality was so poor.)

[Wich2]

Discs rarely had much cast info - it's not needed, and there's not enough space.

Cast/crew info usually is sourced by diligent research in places like net documents, scripts, and newspaper coverage. And often, by informed listener's i.d.'ing.

Here are two decent (incomplete) logs (as always, sources merit comparison to others):

http://www.otrsite.com/logs/logc1007.htm

http://radiogoldindex.com/cgi-local/p2. ... %20America

- Craig

[Le Chiffre]

Upgrades for several of the Welles episodes here, and we can right-click and save-as - nice.
https://auislandora.wrlc.org/islandora/ ... 28orson%29

Terry and Craig, thanks for the link. Very nice site, and yes, the sound quality is better for these shows than I've heard before. I'd never heard the 1936 shows before and Welles's 30-second cameos in each suggest Welles may have made an arrangement to do his bit part and then dash back to his Voodoo Macbeth rehearsals.

As for Dan's question about other Welles appearances in other COA shows, I would think they would be just similar bit parts in other 1936 shows. By 1937, Welles was a rapidly rising star, and by 1942, when the other four COA programs were broadcast, he was a very big star who didn't need to make any appearances where he was not featured as such.

I'm not that big a CAVALCADE expert. (Beyond knowing that the show was generally solid, and that it was Dupont's attempt to whitewash its rep for profiteering in The Great War!)

Interesting. Wiki expands on that a little more:

"The show started as part of a successful campaign to reinvigorate DuPont. In the early 1930s, the Nye Committee investigations concluded that DuPont had made a fortune profiteering in World War I. The company stood accused of encouraging an arms race between World War I enemies, after being heavily subsidized by the Allies to increase black powder production. The negative effects of the investigation left the company demoralized, directionless and with a tarnished corporate image in the middle of the Great Depression.

DuPont's products were primarily not for public consumption, so there was no purpose in promoting them through advertising. As a solution to DuPont's troubles, Roy Durstine, then creative director of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, proposed the creation of Cavalcade of America using the company motto. This was to be an important element in the successful re-branding of DuPont as an American legacy engaged in making products for the well-being of Americans and humanity in general."

Encouraging an arms race during wartime for the sake of profit sounds strangely similar to the plot of Sydney Kingsley's TEN MILLION GHOSTS, which became one of Orson Welles's first starring roles on the stage in 1937. Of course, he later dismissed that play.

However, Welles biographer Charles Higham's TRADING WITH THE ENEMY (1983) later listed Dupont as one of the American companies that traded with Nazi Germany before, and perhaps during, WWII. Whether Welles knew about any of that (if true) will probably never be known. I like to think he didn't.

[Wich2]

Hope so!

(Cross-thread pollinization, with my nearby PETER ABSOLUTE note.)

- Craig