Rec Room: Meakin Armstrong: Mercury Theatre on the Air

If there was ever a king of all media, it’s not Howard Stern, but Orson Welles. Some—perhaps those who don’t know enough about Welles—consider him to have been a pathetic one-hit wonder who came up with Citizen Kane and then ended his life morbidly obese and cutting commercials for Paul Masson.

Those people probably don’t know about his earlier theatrical career (he revolutionized theater at the age of 20), nor have they seen his films, The Magnificent Ambersons, Lady from Shanghai, and Touch of Evil. His film, The Trial is a masterpiece, and in fact, may well be the greatest film ever made in a found location (an abandoned train station). He wrote and directed for television, but also for radio during its golden age.

As a dramatic form, radio is dead, so people probably don’t think to look for his work there. Of course, we’ve heard of his War of the Worlds—after all, it panicked the nation when it dramatized an alien invasion. But his other shows—most know nothing of them. Listen to all surviving shows—including War of the Worlds—on the Web site, The Mercury Theatre on the Air .


Bio: Meakin Armstrong is Guernica’s fiction editor. Read his last recommendation of Extras here.

Tags: media, orson welles, radio, television, theatre

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