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The Mercury Theatre was a theatre company founded in New York City by Orson Welles and John Houseman. They had initial success in the theatre, then went to radio, and one of the most notable radio broadcasts of all time, The War of the Worlds.
Their first production was the June 1937 staging of " Marc Blitzstein’s controversial labor union opera, The Cradle Will Rock." [1]
Later that same year, Welles and the Mercury company earned a reputation for their inventive adaptations of William Shakespeare's works: Julius Caesar set in contemporary Fascist Italy, and a voodooAlternate meaning: Voodoo (album For the military aircraft, see F-101 Voodoo. For the 3D graphics card, see 3dfx (the name of the manufacturer). The term Voodoo ( Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the-themed MacbethMacbeth is also a Scottish clan. William Rimmer, depicting the witches' conjuring of an apparition in Act IV, Scene I Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, based loosely on the historical King Macbeth of Scotland. Scholars think it an archetypal Ja with a primarily African AmericanAfrican Americans also known as Afro- Americans or black Americans comprise an ethnic group in the United States of America whose dominant ancestry is from Sub-Saharan West Africa. Many African Americans also claim European, Native American, or Asian ance cast.
Welles had already worked extensively in radio drama, playing The ShadowThis article is about the radio/pulp magazine/comic book hero. For other meanings, see shadow (disambiguation). The Shadow was best known as the hero (or anti-hero) of a long-running network radio show and pulp magazine. Later, he was featured in comic bo for a year, and directing a seven-part adaptation of Victor HugoVictor Hugo ( February 26, 1802 May 22, 1885) was a French author, the most important of the Romantic authors in the French language. His major works include the novels The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables and a large body of poetry. Life and wo's Les Miserables. In 1938, he was offered a chance to direct his own weekly, hour-long radio series, initially called First Person Singular, then The Mercury Theatre on the Air.
Welles insisted his Mercury company--actors and crew--be involved in the radio series. This was an unprecedented and expensive request, especially for one so young as Welles. He won out, however, and went on to produce some of the finest radio drama of any era.
The Mercury Theater on the Air was an hour-long dramatic radioRadio broadcasts have been a popular entertainment since the 1910s though popularity has declined some since television became widespread. In the early radio age, content typically included a balance of comedy, drama, news, music, news and sports reportin program which began in the summer of 1938 on the CBS radio network. Most episodes dramatized many works of classic and contemporary literature. Houseman wrote the early scripts for the series himself, turning the job over to Howard Koch at the beginning of October. Music for the program was conducted by Bernard Herrmann.
Their first radio production was of Bram Stoker's Dracula, with Welles playing both Count Dracula and Doctor Seward; other adaptations included Treasure Island, A Tale of Two Cities, The 39 Steps, The Man Who Was Thursday and The Count of Monte Cristo.
Originally scheduled for nine weeks, the network extended the run into the fall, moving the show from its Monday night slot, where it was the sumemr substitute for the Lux Radio Theater , to a Sunday night slot opposite Edgar Bergen's popular variety show.
The early programs were praised by critics, but ratings were low. One broadcast changed the ratings: The October 30, 1938 adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds.
Possibly thousands of listeners thought Martians were in fact invading the earth, due to the faux- news quality of most of the broadcast. signifigant publicity was generatated, and The Mercury Theatre On The Air quickly became one of radio's top-rated shows.
The War of the Worlds notoriety had a welcome side effect of netting the show a sponsorship, guaranteeing its survival for a period, and beginning on December 9, 1938, the show was known as the Campbell Playhouse .
Welles revived the Mercury Theater title for a short series in the summer of 1946.
The company moved to Hollywood for their second season, and continued briefly after Welles' final perfomance in March of 1940.
Many of the Mercury Theater productions can downloaded from The Mercury Theater on the Air website: