Peter Ibbetson - September 10, 1939 - 00:42:52 - 19.6 MB

On September 10, 1939, Orson Welles presents Peter Ibbetson by George du
Maurier on The Campbell Playhouse, a sponsored continuation of The Mercury
Theatre on the Air. Cast: Orson Welles (Peter Ibbetson), Helen Hayes (Mary,
Duchess of Towers), John Emery (Colonel Ibbetson), Agnes Moorehead (Mrs.
Deane), Vera Allen (Madame Seraskier), Everett Sloane (Crockett), Eustace
Wyatt (Warden), Ray Collins (Governor), George Coulouris (Chaplain), Edgar
Barrier (Judge), Richard Wilson (Turnkey), Kingsley Colton (Peter as a child),
Betty Philson (Mary as a child). Directed by Orson Welles. Produced by John
Houseman.

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"Repeatedly, Welles had to be reminded he was doing a commercial broadcast...
Helen Hayes was signed - at $5000 per program. Miss Hayes not only had great
audience appeal, she was able to draw out the best from Welles' abilities as
a radio actor. This led to the wise decision to cast her in Peter Ibbetson...
Peter Ibbetson had earlier (1935) been made into a film with Gary Cooper and
Ann Harding. However, this fantasy romance seems more suited to the suspension
of disbelief radio allowed...

"In his sign-off, Welles, aware that the program was an emotional tour de force,
champions the cause of radio drama. It is not, he insists, something rolled up
in celluloid and stored in cans (yet, how he yearned to roll that celluloid!) 
but a kind of theater that employs a nationwide auditorium featuring a series
of first nights..." - The Medium and the Magician by Paul Heyer: Orson Welles,
the Radio Years, 1934-1952. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005)