Mercury Theater
1 hour drama
Mercury Theater, also called Mercury Theater on the Air, was the creation of Orson Welles and John Houseman. Welles and Houseman created a theater group in New York in 1937, shortly after that, CBS wanted Welles to created a radio program for them. Somewhat surprisingly for such a young director, Welles was given complete creative control over the operation. Two key decisions he made were to keep his theater group, including such actors as Joseph Cotten, Martin Gabel, Alice Frost, Ray Collins, Paul Stewart, Virginia Welles, George Coulouris, Agnes Moorehead and Everett Sloane, and of course, Orson Welles.This same cast also played prominent roles in Welles' movies like Citizen Kane and the The Magnificent Ambersons. (Considered by many critics to be two of the best movies in American cinema.) His second decision was to create dramas specifically for the radio, not to simply record plays they already had in production. Radio has many shortcomings for presenting a story (no visuals), but Welles made sure fully utilize the strengths of radio and engage the audience's imagination more than a play or movie can.

Mercury Theater adapted works of classic literature to the radio, their first program was Dracula. The scripts were written by Houseman, then Howard Koch took over the scriptwriting. Other adaptations include The Man Who Was Thursday, The Count of Monte Cristo, Around the World in 80 Days, and others.

Their most famous show, and indeed a show that has entered American Pop Culture History is their broadcast in 1937 of “War of the Worlds.” Orson Welles and writer Howard Koch converted the well know H.G. Wells story into a seemingly live news broadcast; this episode of Mercury Theater terrified the nation into believing that the Martians were attacking Earth. Previous to the “War of the Worlds” broadcast, Mercury Theater was critically accalaimed, but ratings poor. After the broadcast, the country was hooked, and Mercury Theater's future was assured, it picked up sponsorship of Campbell's Soup, and changed its name to “The Campbell Playhouse.” Welles left the show in 1940, but briefly revived it in 1946.

Two of the most known aspects of Old Time Radio, even after 60-70 years are the character of The Shadow (first played by Orson Welles), and the “War of the Worlds” broadcast, created by Orson Welles. The guy knew what he was doing, and he was given the freedom to do it in Mercury Theater (later in his later career, the freedom was not quite there.)