The Mercury Theatre on the Air

The Mercury Theatre on the Air
Orson Welles (July 1938)
GenreAnthology drama
Running time60 minutes
Country of originUnited States
Language(s)English
Home stationCBS
Hosted byOrson Welles
Starring
Created byOrson Welles
Written by
Directed by
Produced by
Executive producer(s)Davidson Taylor (for CBS)
Narrated byOrson Welles
Original releaseJuly 11 (1938-07-11) –
December 4, 1938 (1938-12-04)
No. of series1
No. of episodes22
Opening themePiano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor by Tchaikovsky

The Mercury Theatre on the Air is a radio series of live radio dramas created and hosted by Orson Welles. The weekly hour-long show presented classic literary works performed by Welles's celebrated Mercury Theatre repertory company, with music composed or arranged by Bernard Herrmann.[a] The series began July 11, 1938, as a sustaining program on the CBS Radio network, airing Mondays at 9 pm ET. On September 11, the show moved to Sundays at 8 pm.

The show made headlines with its "The War of the Worlds" broadcast on October 30, one of the most famous broadcasts in the history of radio due to the panic it allegedly caused, after which the Campbell Soup Company signed on as sponsor. The Mercury Theatre on the Air made its last broadcast on December 4 of that year, and The Campbell Playhouse began five days later, on December 9.[2]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference TIOW was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 448–455. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).