What happens
This is a retrospective documentary about Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio series that followed his early network radio career. Narrators and former members of the Mercury Company, including Richard Wilson, Arlene Francis, William Allen and Geraldine Fitzgerald, recall how Welles approached radio as a theatre of imagination. They describe his working relationships with producer John Houseman and composer Bernard Herman, the chaotic rehearsals, the use of sound effects, and the practical jokes he played on colleagues and network staff. The program also looks at the Mercury's stage productions and Welles' move to Hollywood. The transcript given here stops partway through the program, so the account covers only its opening portion.
New York and Hollywood, from the late 1930s onward, including the CBS studios and the Mercury Theatre productions
Characters: Orson Welles, Leonard Malton, Richard Wilson, Peggy Weber, Arlene Francis, Cliff Thorsen, William Allen, John Houseman
Listen for: Richard Wilson's account of Welles' practical jokes, and Arlene Francis describing Welles' forceful manner in radio work
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.