Starter of this subject: Douglas Lanier
Last post in this subject: 11/5/1999
Messages in this subject: 4
| Douglas Lanier | 11/5/1999 4 replies |
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I'm a scholar working on an article and bibliography of Shakespeare plays, speeches and characters appearing on OTR. I would appreciate any information anyone might have on this topic, particularly Shakespeare references in radio dramas. Reply to suw@mediaone.net. Thanks.
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| Lou | 11/5/1999 0 replies |
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Even better - post your replies here, so we ALL can learn something!
Lou |
| Jack French | 11/5/1999 1 replies |
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Network airwaves were filled with the Bard, the high water mark being in the 1930s, but few audio transcriptions of them have survived to present day.
Tony Wons got his start in radio at WLS Chicago in 1929 doing most of the voices in condensed Shakespeare plays. The summer of 1937 NBC and CBS went head to head with their own Shakespeare series. NBC called theirs "Streamlined Shakespeare" and had mostly Hollywood stars in leading roles of these radio plays. CBS called theirs "Columbia Shakespeare" and featured stage stars in their versions. In a publicity release that summer, NBC claimed that they had aired 70 Shakespearean plays from 9/29 to 4/37. "Great Plays" on NBC Blue did the classics from 1938 to 1942, including many plays of the Bard. "Radio Guild", also NBC Blue, from 1929 to 1940 did many of Shakespeare's comeddies and tragedies. Lux Radio Theatre must have done radio re-enactments of films such as "Midsummer Night's Dream" and Julius Caesar" but I don't have the dates. "Suspense" did a two-part radio play, "Othello", on May 11 and 13, 1953. CBS Radio Workshop did some works based on the Bard, including a "live radio interview" of Shakespeare. Also, a NBC radio sit-com entitled "The Magnificent Montague" (1950-51) starred Monty Woolley as a retired Shakespearen actor forced to earn his livelihood as a radio actor on a kids show. Jack French Editor: Radio Recall |
| E. Murphy | 11/8/1999 0 replies |
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Of course, Orson Welles was a noted Shakespearean actor and does quite a bit of the Bard on various radio programs, including an hour-long "Julius Caesar" on the 1938 Mercury Theatre series.
On an astonishing episode of The Rudy Vallee program (12-19-40), Welles squares off against John Barrymore in a lengthy scene from "Julius Caesar" -- available on Radio Spirits' 1994 "Genius of Orson Welles" box. There's a bit of Welles playing "Hamlet" on Voyager's "Theatre of the Imagination" CD-ROM. This is just off the top of my head. There's doubtless much more. Consulting some books on Welles would provide more detail. |
| Lou | 11/6/1999 0 replies |
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General info on Shakespear can be read at: http://daphne.palomar.edu/Shakespeare/
If you find any references to OTR there, let me know! Lou |