film still
photo: Cohen Media Group
Today, May 6, is the birthday of Orson Welles who was born in 1918. He was an American actor, director, screenwriter and producer who is
remembered for his innovative work in radio, theatre and film. He is
considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.
Orson Welles is primary remembered for his infamous radio broadcast on October 30, 1938, when he and his Mercury Theatre actors terrified the nation with their broadcast on CBS of a dramatization of the H. G. Wells 1898 novel, The War of the Worlds. The Mercury Theatre on the Air became The Campbell Playhouse in December 1938.
The event has been documented, written about and recreated on radio with the production by The Lux Radio Theater as well as on television with a production by Studio One on CBS (link below).
But Welles produced and directed many other brilliant shows for theater with an amazing variety of talent!
Viewfinder links:
Horse Eats Hat - 1936
Voodoo Macbeth - 1936
Faustus - 1937
The Columbia Workshop broadcast of the Archibald MacLeish radio play The Fall of the City (April 11, 1937) made Welles an overnight star.
The Fall of the City - 1937
Citizen Kane - 1941
The Magnificent Ambersons - 1942
Journey into Fear - 1943
The Stranger - 1946
The Lady from Shanghai - 1947
Macbeth - 1948
Viewfinder links:
The Boston Globe ~ Magician
Styrous® ~ Wednesday, May 5, 2021
