Around the World in 80 Days

The Columbia Broadcasting System presents the Mercury Theater on the air. Ladies and gentlemen, the star and director of the Mercury Theater, Orson Welles. Good evening. On Thursday, July 14, the 2.29 in the afternoon, aviator Howard Hughes said his big twin-motored monoplane world fair 1939,

down at Floyd Bennett's deal for a new record in Round the World Flying. From take off the landing, the trip of almost 15,000 miles took just three days, 19 hours and 17 minutes. That was about three months ago.

But back in the 1870s, so Jules Verne tells us, a group of English gentlemen made a wager on what they were confident was a sure thing. Their clubmates, Phileus Spog, had the fantastic notion that a man traveling from west to east could get around the world in 80 days is a tenth, as I think you'll agree, to remain at the least more incredible and

that's the huge achievement. And that's the story of adventure and breakneck speed that Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the air bring to life for us tonight. George Burns, around the world in 80 days, with Orson Welles as Billy S. Boggs.

My name is Billy S. Boggs. I will tell you of my personal habits and what I require of a servant. I am a man of simple faith without relative or family. I have my tea and toast for 23 minutes after 8, my shaving water at 37 minutes after 9.

I dress at 20 minutes after 10. At 12 o'clock you will serve me my lunch, consisting of a boiled fish with reding sauce of the finest quality, a slice of roast beef, garnished with mushroom, a rubab and gooseberry tart, and a piece of cheddar cheese.