Harry Joins the Circus: The Mercury Theatre on the Air (April 25, 1952)

“Harry Joins the Circus” is an episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 25, 1952. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Harry Lime, the Third Man, questions Sir Evan about a photograph of Hans Hessel, a Nazi official wanted by the Allies, and asks whether he is still alive. Sir Evan reveals that the picture was taken in Coburg about eleven months earlier. Harry then joins a traveling circus, where a clown named Gico, who lost his mother and father to Hessel's wagons, is consumed by vengeance. Harry watches Gico closely, and when Gico's hatred turns on him, Harry follows him into a deserted mine.

Post-war Europe, including the city of Rome, the Austrian Tyrol, and a traveling circus in the mountains.

Characters: Harry Lime, Sir Evan, Hans Hessel, Gico

Listen for: Sir Evan's admission that the photograph was taken in Coburg eleven months ago, and Gico's account of Hessel's gas trucks disguised as circus wagons.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.