Radio History of The Mercury Theater and host

Mecury Theater In The Air

1938

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The Mercury Theatre began in July 1938, but became The Campbell Playhouse in December of that same year and continued to air until 1941 (Dunning, 133).

A Standard Opening:

Announcer: "The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on the Air in 'The War of the Worlds' by H. G. Wells.

(Music plays, then fades.)

Announcer: "Ladies and gentlemen, the director of The Mercury Theatre and star of these broadcasts, Orson Welles."

An Opening Narration:

Welles: "We know now that in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own. We know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns, they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacence people went to and fro over the earth about their little affairs, serene in the assurance of their dominion over this small, spinning fragment of solar driftwood which, by chance or design, man had inherited out of he dark mystery of Time and Space. Yet across an immense ethereal gulf, minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts of the jungle, intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly but surely drew their plans against us..."

An Ending Narration:

Welles: "This is Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you that 'The War of the Worlds' has no further significance than as the holiday offering it was intended to be. The Mercury Theatre's own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying Boo! Starting now, we couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night, so we did the next best thing: We annihilated the world before your very ears and utterly destroyed the CBS. You will be relieved, I hope, to learn that we didn't mean it, and that both institutions are still open for business. So goodbye everybody, and remember please, for the next day or so, the terrible lesson you learned tonight. That grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody's there, that was no Martian. It's Halloween."

The Standard Closing:

(Music plays, the fades under narration.)

Announcer: "Tonight the Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations coast-to-coast have brought you 'The War of the Worlds' by H.G. Wells... The seventeenth in its weekly series of dramatic broadcasts featuring Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on the Air. next week, we present a dramatization of three famous short stories. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System."

(Music fades up to conclusion.)

Hear An Actual Episode!

(Courtesy of The Monster Club)

The War of The Worlds - The original "War of the Worlds" broadcast. This is the show that scared millions into the streets and sent them running to the hills. (At least the ones who cut in late and didn't know it was a drama.)

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