The Mercury Theatre on the Air

People used to listen to radio plays.

His team acted out famous stories. They used music to help the tales. They also made many special sounds.

One time, they needed a scary sound. They tried using a cabbage. It did not sound right.

Then, they used a big melon. They hit it with a hammer. The sound was very real!

These shows were very famous. People loved to hear them on the radio.

Orson Welles led a famous radio show. It was called The Mercury Theatre on the Air.

The show began in July 1938. It was a weekly program on CBS Radio. A group of actors performed classic stories. Bernard Herrmann made the music for the shows.

Orson Welles wanted every sound to be perfect. One time, the team needed a scary sound. They wanted to mimic a stake hitting a heart. They tried using a cabbage and a broomstick. Welles said it sounded too leafy. Then, they tried a watermelon. Welles hit the melon with a hammer. The sound was so real that the audience shuddered.

The show became very famous for one story. It was called "The War of the Worlds." This broadcast happened in October 1938. It made many people feel great panic. After that, the Campbell Soup Company helped pay for the show. The series ended in December 1938. A new show called The Campbell Playhouse began soon after. In 1988, the show joined the National Radio Hall of Fame.

The Mercury Theatre on the Air was a special radio show. It was a weekly series of live radio dramas. Orson Welles created and hosted the entire program. He used a group of talented actors called the Mercury Theatre repertory company. These actors performed classic stories for listeners. Bernard Herrmann helped make the show feel real with music.

Making the perfect sound was a very big job. Orson Welles wanted every sound to be just right. For the story "Dracula," the team needed a scary sound. They needed the sound of a stake hitting a heart. They first tried a cabbage and a broomstick. Welles said the cabbage sounded too leafy. He then used a hammer to hit a watermelon. The sound was so real it made the audience shudder.

The show started on July 11, 1938. It first aired on Mondays at 9 pm ET. Later, the show moved to Sundays at 8 pm. The series was a sustaining program on the CBS Radio network. Orson Welles and John Houseman worked hard to run it. They even hired Howard E. Koch to help write scripts. Koch wrote the famous "The War of the Worlds" script.

One night, the show became very famous. On October 30, 1938, they broadcast "The War of the Worlds." This episode caused a lot of panic among listeners. It is one of the most famous radio moments ever. After this, the Campbell Soup Company became the sponsor. The Mercury Theatre on the Air ended on December 4, 1938. A new show called The Campbell Playhouse began on December 9.

This radio show changed how people heard stories. It showed how sound can make a story feel alive. Even though it used simple things like melons, it felt real. The show was so important that it earned a big honor. In 1988, it was put into the National Radio Hall of Fame. This proves that great storytelling can last for a long time.

The Mercury Theatre on the Air was a weekly radio drama series. It featured live performances of classic literary works. Orson Welles created and hosted the entire program. He led a talented group known as the Mercury Theatre repertory company. These actors worked together to bring famous stories to life. Bernard Herrmann provided the music through composing and arranging. This music helped set the mood for each drama. The series was a major part of the CBS Radio network during the late 1930s.

Producing these shows required incredible attention to detail. Orson Welles demanded perfection from his sound effects team. He often pushed them to create sounds that had never been heard before. For the episode "Dracula," the team struggled to find a specific sound. They needed the sound of a wooden stake piercing a heart. At first, they tried using a sharpened broomstick and a savoy cabbage. Welles rejected this because it sounded "too leafy." He then suggested drilling a hole in a cabbage and filling it with water to simulate blood. When that failed, he used a watermelon and a hammer. The resulting sound was so realistic that the studio audience shuddered.

The show followed a specific schedule on the CBS network. It began its run on July 11, 1938. Initially, the program aired as a sustaining program on Mondays at 9 pm ET. A sustaining program is one that is not yet supported by a single commercial sponsor. On September 11, the broadcast time changed. The show moved to Sundays at 8 pm. This change helped organize the weekly schedule for listeners across the country. The series ran for several months during that intense year of 1938.

Writing the scripts was a complex task for the production team. Orson Welles and John Houseman could not write every broadcast alone. For the episode "Hell on Ice," which aired on October 8, 1938, they hired Howard E. Koch. Koch was a writer who had previously worked with the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago. He had moved to New York to leave his career in law. Because the show was a sustaining program, Houseman offered Koch a unique deal. Koch received the rights to any script he wrote for the series. This arrangement proved very valuable for him later on.

One specific broadcast changed the history of radio forever. On October 30, 1938, the team aired "The War of the Worlds." This episode became one of the most famous broadcasts in radio history. It allegedly caused a great deal of panic among the people listening. The impact of this single episode was massive and immediate. Following this event, the Campbell Soup Company signed on as the official sponsor. This move brought more stability to the production through commercial support.

The original series had a relatively short but impactful life. The Mercury Theatre on the Air made its final broadcast on December 4, 1938. Only five days later, a new program began on December 9. This new show was called The Campbell Playhouse. Howard E. Koch continued his work as a writer for a time. He eventually left the show for Hollywood after five months. His final script for the production was "The Glass Key," written on March 10, 1939.

The legacy of the Mercury Theatre remains significant in the world of media. Its ability to use sound to create intense emotion is still studied today. The show's importance was officially recognized many years after it ended. In 1988, the series was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. This honor celebrates the high quality of the drama and the skill of the performers. The show remains a landmark example of how radio can captivate a nation.