Old Time Radio
Retrospective (1936 – early 1950s) Best known for his airing of “War of the Worlds”, Orson Welles made numerous appearances on a variety of different shows during his magnificent radio career. He was truly a creative genius in radio, before he went on to Hollywood. Between 1936 and 1941, Orson Welles was involved in more than a hundred radio drama productions as writer, actor and director. From this and his films, he is considered one of the outstanding figures in American creative arts. He continued on radio through the early 1950s. Radio was the golden key to his rise to fame. In September of 1937, Welles became the initially uncredited lead in the popular radio series, The Shadow. . Writer Walter E. Gibson had created the character for the pulps; it grew into nationwide popularity due to it’s fine adaptation to radio. From the first, Welles did the scripts with no rehearsal which, along with his wonderful voice and acting, gave the overtly melodramatic scripts an...