Radio giant Norman Corwin dead at 101

[RayKelly]

One of the giants of radio is gone. Norman Corwin died at the age of 101.
You can read details of his death at http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2011/10/radio_pioneer_norman_corwin_de.html

I was fortunate to interview Mr. Corwin for a piece on the 70th anniversary of "The War of the Worlds" broadcast. Here are his recollections:

While Welles's Martians laid waste to Manhattan, Norman Corwin, a former reporter for the Springfield Republican, was busy in another CBS studio a floor above.
"I was rehearsing a documentary program, and was completely unaware that Orson had emptied the living rooms of America," Corwin, now 98, recalled recently from his Los Angeles home.
Corwin, a major figure during radio's golden age, said that the "War of the Worlds" broadcast "first demonstrated the up-to-then unrealized ubiquity of radio and its power to affect people - in this case to scare them out of their wits, and, in many cases, their homes.
"The fact that this effect was unintended and accidental only increased the surprise, shock, and dismay that it engendered," he added.

Corwin worked with Welles in later years. He told me he found to him to be a gentleman, professional and cooperative.

[RayKelly]

I just found an email Mr. Corwin sent me after our interview. Here is a portion of the text:

Dear Mr. Kelly:
I, then a director of radio for CBS, was in a studio exactly above the studio Welles occupied. I was rehearsing a documentary program and was completely unaware that Orson had emptied the living rooms of America.
Next morning I called a friend of a mine who had worked in master control the night before, and asked him what time the last call came in. He answered after 1 in the morning. The caller, he said, was a man who sounded like a truck driver from New Jersey "Lissen, mister, are you the guys who broadcast that mars program?" My friend admitted we were. and the caller went on, "Lissen here, man, my wife hoid that program and she got so scared she FLUNG open a door and FELL DOWN A WHOLE FLIGHT OF STAIRS! Jeez, it was a wunnaful program!"
Some weeks later came the report from a Central American country that a Spanish language rebroadcast of the Mars script so upset a community that angry listeners had attacked the radio station, and a man had been killed.
I hope this helps
Norman Corwin

[mteal]

That's a good anecdote about the truck driver. Here's a thread in the Radio Forum by Store Hadji on Welles and Norman Corwin (although none of the links work anymore):

http://www.wellesnet.com/phpbb2/viewtop ... f=3&t=1349

Corwin also had a career as a screenwriter, including LUST FOR LIFE, with Kirk Douglas (and produced by John Houseman), and uncredited work on Huston's MOBY DICK. There's also another Corwin-scripted film about Goya called THE NAKED MAJA (1957), with some interesting Welles connections, including music by Lavagnino and one of Welles's girlfriends, Lea Padavoni, in a small role.

Here's a very good documentary on Corwin, which can be watched at the Snag Films website:

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/corwin