Opening discussion of the August 8, 1938 First Person Singular show, which is usually simply described as "Three Stories," those three being Sherwood Anderson's "I'm a Fool," Saki's "The Open Window," and Carl Ewald's "My Little Boy."
Welles would resurrect two of the three in his series for Lady Esther, "I'm a Fool" being performed on the Sept 29, 1941 episode, and "My Little Boy" on the January 19, 1942 episode. Welles claimed that "My Little Boy" was the most popular thing the Mercury did on air, which is sort of surprising, but then again, maybe not.
I think the second performance of "I'm a Fool" is better than this one, which starts off with Welles acting the part too sleepily; the later performance is more jittery and amusing, though Welles still isn't really right for the role, at least to my ears. I'm not a huge fan of the piece in general, but it's okay.
"The Open Window" sort of lost my interest, but I need to give it another listen. Welles had a fondness for the tale with the twist or blackly comic ending, certainly, and Saki was right up his alley.
"My Little Boy" is what it is, a sentimental tale of being a parent and seeing your child grow up. It isn't a maudlin as it could be certainly, and does what it aims to do well. I like the performance of the child in the Lady Esther version a little better I think.
Weekly Welles Radio Discussion - Week 5: Three Stories (8 August 1938)
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by Glenn Anders » Sun Nov 07, 2004 5:28 pm
This entry in the Mercury series seems to me to represent a fresh experiment, a departure from the previous efforts, dealing for the first time with short forms; and in that regard, it is quite successful.
If we look at what they had done so far, a pattern emerges. First, there was "Dracula," a dramatic adaptation of a Gothic novel written in epistolary form. Next, "Treasure Island" adapted conventionally but with vivid sound effects, the classic boy's romantic adventure story. Third, "A Tale of Two Cities" took on a long historical novel, and covered a complicated plot structure full of Dickensian characters, over a number of years. Last time, we listened to "39 Steps," a radio version, done in cinematic style, of one of the most successful entries from the spy novel genre. [We might also note the obvious, from our advantage of 75 years; each of the original source materials, in the previous five or ten years, had been the subject of at least one highly publicized motion picture.] And now we have adaptations of three short stories which involve the young.
Each of the first Mercury productions appears an experiment in adapting an older form to the new medium of Radio. If so, the three works presented here extend the pattern, drawing from three different cultures, realizing each in a slightly different dramatic format.
"I'm a Fool" is one of the best known short stories by Sherwood Anderson, a disturbing writer in his time, little mentioned today. For one thing, as Welles suggests, Anderson was disturbing because, when a successful manager of an Ohio factory, he walked out of his office one afternoon, abandoned his wife and children, to entrain for a bohemian life of writing short stories in Chicago. Like his more voluminous contemporary, Thomas Wolfe, he was widely mistrusted as a figure who encouraged young people in his stories to leave the safety of an American home for the sinister uncertainties of a wider world. His spare stories generally represent the struggles of sensitive souls -- "grotesques," he called them -- to escape the strictures of Midwestern conformism "between the wars." Ironically, in a coincidence which an Ohio Evangelist might proclaim to be God's wrath, Anderson succumbed in a freak accident a couple of years after this Mercury production. On a luxury liner to Rio, he swallowed the toothpick from his Martini and died subsequently of peritonitis.
"I'm a Fool" is about one of those who does not escape Western Ohio, but who wishes that he had. Telling the story in a straight forward way, Welles, plays his age (about 23), bringing his voice up to his true range, but as you suggest, Jeff, sounds tentative and even more unsure of himself than his character calls for. Much of "I'm a Fool" is compressed within a neat little dramatic sketch of the story's "big scene." Once again "the soundscape" is an experimental marvel evoking the atmosphere of that most classic of midwestern sports, Sulky or Harness Racing, and the music evokes Stephen Foster's older America. Welles may indeed have been drawn to the story because Western Ohio, along the shores of Lake Erie, might have reminded him of his boyhood near another of the Great Lakes, at Kenosha, Wisconsin. Finally, I don't think it too great a stretch to imagine that Bernstein's "girl on the ferry" may have been, if not born, at least encouraged by the radio play of "I'm a Fool" to remain in the final script of CITIZEN KANE, the emotional situation ringing true here, and the scene being one of the true gems in Welles' first film.
--------------
"The Open Widow" by Saki (H.H. Munro) is regarded as one of the perfect English short stories, concise, subtle, and elegantly sophisticated in conveying a tragic incident with wryly absurd humor. While the Mercury adaptation admirably realizes the story's strengths, I follow Jeff's judgment. It makes a terrible error at its start.
Had the play begun like the short story, we would have been right into the play:
"'My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel,' said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; 'in the meantime you must try and put up with me.'"
As it is, perhaps because a slavish need to carry out the Mercury goal of "first person narrative," it takes us too long to become involved, and the delicious irony of Framton Nuttel's situation is lost on us.
I would also agree that whoever played the ingenue did not have the brittle, romantic energy of what would become known as "a bright young thing."
Incidentally, Welles in his usually erudite afternotes, inexplicably identifies Saki as "H.K. Munro," and unless Munro had three given names, compounds the error by calling him Hector Kenneth Munro, rather than his more common identification: Hector Hugh Munro.
---------------
Finally we have the longest of the adaptations, if we can call it that, of "My Little Boy," by the most obscure of writers so far tapped, the Danish translator and children's story writer, Carl Ewald (1856-1908). It is more of a condensation than an adaptation, though the narrator's son and his wife do make appearances.
I've never quite gotten the usual interpretation of Ewald's short book on which the Mercury radio play is based; that a father enters into his son's problems in growing up as a kind of co-conspirator, and isn't that wonderful, la-la-la-la? My take on it is that Ewald, at least as Welles tells the tale, creates a rather mordant parable about how a child is shaped by experience and society to make the same sad mistakes of previous generations.
In any case, as you point out, Jeff, when Welles repeated the story for "The Lady Esther Show," in 1942, he claimed that of all the Mercury radio productions, it was "My Little Boy" which received the most listener comment.
Sorry to take so long with this one, but I was busy with other matters.
Glenn
If we look at what they had done so far, a pattern emerges. First, there was "Dracula," a dramatic adaptation of a Gothic novel written in epistolary form. Next, "Treasure Island" adapted conventionally but with vivid sound effects, the classic boy's romantic adventure story. Third, "A Tale of Two Cities" took on a long historical novel, and covered a complicated plot structure full of Dickensian characters, over a number of years. Last time, we listened to "39 Steps," a radio version, done in cinematic style, of one of the most successful entries from the spy novel genre. [We might also note the obvious, from our advantage of 75 years; each of the original source materials, in the previous five or ten years, had been the subject of at least one highly publicized motion picture.] And now we have adaptations of three short stories which involve the young.
Each of the first Mercury productions appears an experiment in adapting an older form to the new medium of Radio. If so, the three works presented here extend the pattern, drawing from three different cultures, realizing each in a slightly different dramatic format.
"I'm a Fool" is one of the best known short stories by Sherwood Anderson, a disturbing writer in his time, little mentioned today. For one thing, as Welles suggests, Anderson was disturbing because, when a successful manager of an Ohio factory, he walked out of his office one afternoon, abandoned his wife and children, to entrain for a bohemian life of writing short stories in Chicago. Like his more voluminous contemporary, Thomas Wolfe, he was widely mistrusted as a figure who encouraged young people in his stories to leave the safety of an American home for the sinister uncertainties of a wider world. His spare stories generally represent the struggles of sensitive souls -- "grotesques," he called them -- to escape the strictures of Midwestern conformism "between the wars." Ironically, in a coincidence which an Ohio Evangelist might proclaim to be God's wrath, Anderson succumbed in a freak accident a couple of years after this Mercury production. On a luxury liner to Rio, he swallowed the toothpick from his Martini and died subsequently of peritonitis.
"I'm a Fool" is about one of those who does not escape Western Ohio, but who wishes that he had. Telling the story in a straight forward way, Welles, plays his age (about 23), bringing his voice up to his true range, but as you suggest, Jeff, sounds tentative and even more unsure of himself than his character calls for. Much of "I'm a Fool" is compressed within a neat little dramatic sketch of the story's "big scene." Once again "the soundscape" is an experimental marvel evoking the atmosphere of that most classic of midwestern sports, Sulky or Harness Racing, and the music evokes Stephen Foster's older America. Welles may indeed have been drawn to the story because Western Ohio, along the shores of Lake Erie, might have reminded him of his boyhood near another of the Great Lakes, at Kenosha, Wisconsin. Finally, I don't think it too great a stretch to imagine that Bernstein's "girl on the ferry" may have been, if not born, at least encouraged by the radio play of "I'm a Fool" to remain in the final script of CITIZEN KANE, the emotional situation ringing true here, and the scene being one of the true gems in Welles' first film.
--------------
"The Open Widow" by Saki (H.H. Munro) is regarded as one of the perfect English short stories, concise, subtle, and elegantly sophisticated in conveying a tragic incident with wryly absurd humor. While the Mercury adaptation admirably realizes the story's strengths, I follow Jeff's judgment. It makes a terrible error at its start.
Had the play begun like the short story, we would have been right into the play:
"'My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel,' said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; 'in the meantime you must try and put up with me.'"
As it is, perhaps because a slavish need to carry out the Mercury goal of "first person narrative," it takes us too long to become involved, and the delicious irony of Framton Nuttel's situation is lost on us.
I would also agree that whoever played the ingenue did not have the brittle, romantic energy of what would become known as "a bright young thing."
Incidentally, Welles in his usually erudite afternotes, inexplicably identifies Saki as "H.K. Munro," and unless Munro had three given names, compounds the error by calling him Hector Kenneth Munro, rather than his more common identification: Hector Hugh Munro.
---------------
Finally we have the longest of the adaptations, if we can call it that, of "My Little Boy," by the most obscure of writers so far tapped, the Danish translator and children's story writer, Carl Ewald (1856-1908). It is more of a condensation than an adaptation, though the narrator's son and his wife do make appearances.
I've never quite gotten the usual interpretation of Ewald's short book on which the Mercury radio play is based; that a father enters into his son's problems in growing up as a kind of co-conspirator, and isn't that wonderful, la-la-la-la? My take on it is that Ewald, at least as Welles tells the tale, creates a rather mordant parable about how a child is shaped by experience and society to make the same sad mistakes of previous generations.
In any case, as you point out, Jeff, when Welles repeated the story for "The Lady Esther Show," in 1942, he claimed that of all the Mercury radio productions, it was "My Little Boy" which received the most listener comment.
Sorry to take so long with this one, but I was busy with other matters.
Glenn
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by mteal » Tue Nov 16, 2004 11:39 pm
Still haven't heard this broadcast, but after reading Saki's THE OPEN WINDOW, it's hard to imagine how they converted it into a "first person" narrative- or why they would try. It's a good little story, though, and only 4 pages long, so it only takes about 5-10 minutes to read. The ending is funny. In his later years Welles read another great Saki story, SHREDNI VASHTAR, as part of the Orson Welles Library set.
I'M A FOOL would seem perfect for the "First Person Singular" style. It's sometimes described as a missing link between HUCKLEBERRY FINN and CATCHER IN THE RYE, but it's more lighthearted then either of those. You're right, Glenn, that it is reminiscent of Bernstien's "Girl-with-the-parasol" story from KANE. I've heard Welles' Lady Esther version of it, and I agree with Jeff that Welles wasn't right for the character. In the LE version he uses the same overwrought whine that he used for George Amberson Minafer in the radio Ambersons, and fails to capture the character's scatterbrained charm convincingly. One correction, Glenn: I believe the character is only 19 years old, so maybe Welles was a little too old for the part.
Again, I've only heard Welles' LE version of MY LITTLE BOY, but it seems pretty maudlin and sentimental by his standards. It is a first person story, though, and I suppose the Mercury was expirementing to see what kind of potential audience they had out there.
I'M A FOOL would seem perfect for the "First Person Singular" style. It's sometimes described as a missing link between HUCKLEBERRY FINN and CATCHER IN THE RYE, but it's more lighthearted then either of those. You're right, Glenn, that it is reminiscent of Bernstien's "Girl-with-the-parasol" story from KANE. I've heard Welles' Lady Esther version of it, and I agree with Jeff that Welles wasn't right for the character. In the LE version he uses the same overwrought whine that he used for George Amberson Minafer in the radio Ambersons, and fails to capture the character's scatterbrained charm convincingly. One correction, Glenn: I believe the character is only 19 years old, so maybe Welles was a little too old for the part.
Again, I've only heard Welles' LE version of MY LITTLE BOY, but it seems pretty maudlin and sentimental by his standards. It is a first person story, though, and I suppose the Mercury was expirementing to see what kind of potential audience they had out there.
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by Glenn Anders » Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:48 pm
Sorry, mteal, I was being imprecise about the reference to "I'm a Fool." I meant that Welles was playing HIS age, using what seems to have been his ordinary midwestern vocal range, not the one he learned from Walter Huston's Aunt in New York.
And certainly not necessarily true to the character's age.
I did not make that clear
-----------------
Saki really had an Eastern European sense of irony, grafted onto his British upbringing. Many of his stories take place in the Balkans, and one I remember, called "The Interlopers," is about two bitterly feuding characters -- like say a Serb and a Croat. They are stalking each other through a forest in a wintry wind storm. They are trapped and injured by a fallen tree, and taunt each other with suggestions of what will happen to the other when help arrives. At the end, there is a terrific crashing in the underbrush.
[paraphrasing.]
"Is it your familly or mine?" asks one confidently.
"Neither," the other, who is able to see beyond the tree, answers. "It's the wolves."
We could use Saki as a commentator on our "War on Terror"!
---------------
You know, I did not listen again to the Lady Esther "My Little Boy," which I have in The Theater of the Imagination. I depended upon the liner notes, which confirm Jeff's observation. The First Person Singular version definitely has a mordaunt edge to it.
I promise, I shall listen to the Lady Esther, and see if there is a difference in tone from the original. There may well be.
And certainly not necessarily true to the character's age.
I did not make that clear
-----------------
Saki really had an Eastern European sense of irony, grafted onto his British upbringing. Many of his stories take place in the Balkans, and one I remember, called "The Interlopers," is about two bitterly feuding characters -- like say a Serb and a Croat. They are stalking each other through a forest in a wintry wind storm. They are trapped and injured by a fallen tree, and taunt each other with suggestions of what will happen to the other when help arrives. At the end, there is a terrific crashing in the underbrush.
[paraphrasing.]
"Is it your familly or mine?" asks one confidently.
"Neither," the other, who is able to see beyond the tree, answers. "It's the wolves."
We could use Saki as a commentator on our "War on Terror"!
---------------
You know, I did not listen again to the Lady Esther "My Little Boy," which I have in The Theater of the Imagination. I depended upon the liner notes, which confirm Jeff's observation. The First Person Singular version definitely has a mordaunt edge to it.
I promise, I shall listen to the Lady Esther, and see if there is a difference in tone from the original. There may well be.
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by mteal » Wed Nov 17, 2004 11:31 pm
Funny that you should mention Saki's THE INTERLOPERS, Glenn, because as it turns out, Welles did that story on radio too, for Lady Esther. Welles plays one of the fueders, opposite Ray Collins if I remember correctly. I had no idea that was also a Saki story, and I don't recall if Welles mentions it on the program. At any rate, it's on an excellent collection of Welles radio programs put out by Radio Spirits about 15 years ago called THE GENIUS OF ORSON WELLES. Unfortunately that collection was only available on cassette, not CD, but it's still worth getting.
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by Glenn Anders » Fri Nov 19, 2004 9:00 pm
Thank you, thank you, mteal!
You know, I have The Genius of Orson Welles, but because the A-Side of Tape #4 has the Mercury "Abraham Lincoln," which I already had, and because it continues onto the B-Side, and because the three stories on the concluding Almanac (Lady Esther Show) that fills it out were not identified, I guess that I never listened to what is undoubtedly "The Interlopers." And it is also undoubtedly one of the best things Welles ever did on Radio: Welles, Ray Collins, music by Bernard Herrmann, narrated in part by Eliot Lewis (who followed in Welles' footsteps), and some marvelous sound effects. Thank you pointing this out, for I might never have found it otherwise.
It is on that same show that there is the second version of "I'm a Fool," and so in a sense, we are back on subject. What's more, in the lengthy list in the Lilly Collection of story titles Welles adapted or had adapted for Radio, the Almanac (Lady Esther) adaptation Anderson's story is listed, but the adaptation of Saki's "The Interlopers" is not.
I have not listened to the whole thing yet, but I think you are right; none of the stories are given credits, at least not in the show proper.
Two random observations: First, searching The Genius of Orson Welles, I came across another Almanac story, "If in Years to Come," originally written by Earl Reed Silvers, and I was struck by its similarity to "I'm a Fool," and how the general theme fits into "The Magnificent Amersons": Nostalgia and lost opportunity in the Midwest.
Second, Jeff is quite right about the Almanac or Lady Esther production of "I'm a Fool" is superior to the original Mercury Theater on the Air rendition.
And another, looking through John Dunning's Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio, I re-read the entry on the The Free Company, to which Welles contributed a worthy play (and got himself and the series into deadly trouble with W.R. Hearst and J. Edgar Hoover). Dunning notes that one of the writers for the series, Sherwood Anderson, had died that year (1941), and so again, we are back to "I'm a Fool.
Thank you again, mteal. You have given me a pleasant half hour to look forward to.
Glenn
You know, I have The Genius of Orson Welles, but because the A-Side of Tape #4 has the Mercury "Abraham Lincoln," which I already had, and because it continues onto the B-Side, and because the three stories on the concluding Almanac (Lady Esther Show) that fills it out were not identified, I guess that I never listened to what is undoubtedly "The Interlopers." And it is also undoubtedly one of the best things Welles ever did on Radio: Welles, Ray Collins, music by Bernard Herrmann, narrated in part by Eliot Lewis (who followed in Welles' footsteps), and some marvelous sound effects. Thank you pointing this out, for I might never have found it otherwise.
It is on that same show that there is the second version of "I'm a Fool," and so in a sense, we are back on subject. What's more, in the lengthy list in the Lilly Collection of story titles Welles adapted or had adapted for Radio, the Almanac (Lady Esther) adaptation Anderson's story is listed, but the adaptation of Saki's "The Interlopers" is not.
I have not listened to the whole thing yet, but I think you are right; none of the stories are given credits, at least not in the show proper.
Two random observations: First, searching The Genius of Orson Welles, I came across another Almanac story, "If in Years to Come," originally written by Earl Reed Silvers, and I was struck by its similarity to "I'm a Fool," and how the general theme fits into "The Magnificent Amersons": Nostalgia and lost opportunity in the Midwest.
Second, Jeff is quite right about the Almanac or Lady Esther production of "I'm a Fool" is superior to the original Mercury Theater on the Air rendition.
And another, looking through John Dunning's Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio, I re-read the entry on the The Free Company, to which Welles contributed a worthy play (and got himself and the series into deadly trouble with W.R. Hearst and J. Edgar Hoover). Dunning notes that one of the writers for the series, Sherwood Anderson, had died that year (1941), and so again, we are back to "I'm a Fool.
Thank you again, mteal. You have given me a pleasant half hour to look forward to.
Glenn
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by mteal » Tue Nov 23, 2004 2:34 am
Glad you enjoyed the Interlopers program, Glenn. It's amusing to think of Welles trying to put across such a dark story to Lady Esther's predominantly female audience. Maybe that's one of the reasons why the association was short-lived.
HIS HONOR THE MAYOR, the play Welles wrote for The Free Company, is a good program, with Ray Collins very good as the mayor beseiged for allowing a pro-fascist rally in his town. Is it part of The Genius of Orson Welles set? My copy is packed away in storage so I can't remember offhand.
HIS HONOR THE MAYOR, the play Welles wrote for The Free Company, is a good program, with Ray Collins very good as the mayor beseiged for allowing a pro-fascist rally in his town. Is it part of The Genius of Orson Welles set? My copy is packed away in storage so I can't remember offhand.
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by Glenn Anders » Tue Nov 23, 2004 5:35 pm
No, mteal, "His Honor, the Mayor" is on another tape. That is the Free Company show which got him a dossier from J. Edgar Hoover. You may read an account of Welles' civil rights activities in my review of TOUCH OF EVIL:
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-56E ... 5F91-prod4
The Free Company did a number of other pieces which got them in trouble. (I particularly like the one where Paul Robson introduced "A Ballad for Americans" to a national radio audience at the end of a show. The people in the studio audience gave him a standing ovation which lasted for for over five minutes, well after the show was off the air. It is still stirring, and must have had the early day "Homland Security" types scribbling like mad.) Host Burgess Merdith, said over 50 years later, that when Welles appeared again on the show, the producers told him: "For God's Sake, don't ad lib!"
Glenn
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-56E ... 5F91-prod4
The Free Company did a number of other pieces which got them in trouble. (I particularly like the one where Paul Robson introduced "A Ballad for Americans" to a national radio audience at the end of a show. The people in the studio audience gave him a standing ovation which lasted for for over five minutes, well after the show was off the air. It is still stirring, and must have had the early day "Homland Security" types scribbling like mad.) Host Burgess Merdith, said over 50 years later, that when Welles appeared again on the show, the producers told him: "For God's Sake, don't ad lib!"
Glenn
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by Glenn Anders » Mon Nov 29, 2004 6:17 pm
Thank you, Jeff, for this wonderful site. I have only a couple of the Free Company shows, on tape.
And thank you, mteal, for the comments on my Epinions materials. I hope to put up some more soon.
Glenn
And thank you, mteal, for the comments on my Epinions materials. I hope to put up some more soon.
Glenn
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by Store Hadji » Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:44 pm
I'm sure it was intentional, but the voice Welles uses in I'm a Fool is unbearable - it's the same affectation which he donned for his Tarkington adaptions. Gahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!
My Little Boy is wonderful. This version runs longer than his later scripts.
My memory of The Open Window seems to have fallen out of one. I can't even remember it, which interrupts my favourite game of either kissing something's arse or smashing the crap out of it.
I guess in general I prefer the long scripts, not the shorts. My favourite of all Welles' broadcasts may be Les Miserables, which runs, what, over 3 hours in its entirety? Welles was great at epic length - too bad he preferred things 120 minutes or less.
My Little Boy is wonderful. This version runs longer than his later scripts.
My memory of The Open Window seems to have fallen out of one. I can't even remember it, which interrupts my favourite game of either kissing something's arse or smashing the crap out of it.
I guess in general I prefer the long scripts, not the shorts. My favourite of all Welles' broadcasts may be Les Miserables, which runs, what, over 3 hours in its entirety? Welles was great at epic length - too bad he preferred things 120 minutes or less.
Sto Pro Veritate
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