Welles at U Mich

[Jeff Wilson]

And here are the video materials at the exhibit:

ORSON WELLES AND THE ART OF ADAPTATION
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY, September 20th-December 1st
FILM AND TELEVISION PROGRAM on DVD

“THE HIDDEN ORSON WELLES”

CHAPTER 1: We Work Again, documentary produced by the United States Works Progress Administration, 1937; footage of live performance of Welles’s and Houseman’s Macbeth in Harlem begins at 11 min.; source: National Archive; Catherine Benamou Personal Archive [total duration: 15min.]

CHAPTER 2: “War of the Worlds,” Orson Welles’ Sketchbook television series, produced by Huw Wheldon, British Broadcasting Company, Saturday, May 21, 1955; Catherine Benamou Personal Archive [14min.45secs.]

CHAPTER 3: “The Police,” Orson Welles’ Sketchbook television series, produced by Huw Wheldon, British Broadcasting Company, Saturday, May 7, 1955; Catherine Benamou Personal Archive [23min.12secs.]

[Phil Rosenthal]

Is there any chance any of these audio recording will be offered for sale at some point? I'd buy them all!

[Jeff Wilson]

It's highly unlikely, given questions of likely copyright infringement.

[Joshua]

Here is an online article I found that gives the hours of the exhibit if anyone is interested:

http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases ... hp?id=6031

It's only about 3 1/2 hours from where I am, but they are only open for a few hours on Saturday unfortunately. I'll have to find time during the week somehow!

[Alan Brody]

Are those discs of the old radio shows the original Acetate discs? I'd love to hear the first Heart of Darkness broadcast in decent sound, finally.

[Jeff Wilson]

The audio comes from reel to reel tapes made by Richard Wilson, presumably from the original transcription discs, which all went to the Lilly, I think.

[Alan Brody]

Thank You, Jeff. I've only heard the 1938 Heart of Darkness broadcast at the Mercury on the Air site, and it's definitely the worst sounding of all the programs listed there, almost as if it were being recorded from a radio station with a bad signal. If anyone would care to give a listen to the show on reel to reel tape at the Ann Arbor exhibit, I would appreciate a report as to t's quality. Thanks.

[Glenn Anders]

I believe Wilson's reel-to-reel collection, left in his garage by Welles for many years, was used though a restored process in the Voyager 1989 release: The Theater of the Imagination.

Here is a sympathetic, rather poignant New York Times review (which mentions "The Heart of Darkness") by Richard Kostalanetz, who has been working for two decades on a legendary history of Radio in North America:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... A96F948260

Glenn

[Alan Brody]

Thank you for that excellent article, Glenn. I've got the Theatre of the Imagination set and the 1945 Heart of Darkness sounds very good on it. It's the first Heart of Darkness program from 1938 that I've never heard in decent sound quality. It's really impossible to adaquately judge the 1938 version as it can be heard at the Mercury on the Air site. I think that's great that the Michigan University exhibit has both together on one disc for direct comparism.

Mr. Beacham and Mr. Wilson also chose to include the 1945 production of ''Heart of Darkness,'' rather than the original of Nov. 6, 1938 (a week after ''War of the Worlds''), which is superior and better reflects the Mercury players' competence.

[jbrooks]

I don't have my set in front of me at the moment, but my recollection is that the introduction to the Theater of the Imagination set explains that, though they started with Richard Wilson's tapes, they ended up going back to the original record upon which the shows had been recorded live because the sound quality was better.

As I recall, the notes also explain that the quality of some of the original records -- such as the recording of The Magnificent Ambersons -- was degraded when Welles later repeatedly played the records while working on later adaptations of the material.

[Roger Ryan]

I listened to the 1938 "Heart Of Darkness" yesterday at U-M and found the quality to be pretty good although it varied throughout the program. By comparison, the 1945 version (preserved on the same disc) sounded like an overcompressed internet stream feed gone horribly wrong and was practically unlistenable (I think something might have gone wrong with the transfer). The only other recording I listened to was "The Follies Of Macbeth" which collected outtakes and flubs from a Mercury Theatre recording of the play from April 26th & 27th, 1940. The sound was so muffled as to be mostly unintelligible. Interestingly, both an excerpt from the "Macbeth" outtakes and the 1945 "Heart Of Darkness" showed up in much better quality on the "Theatre Of The Imagination" CD-rom.

[Alan Brody]

Thanks for the report Roger. That's too bad that the sound has been botched in both Follies and the '45 HOD, two very important artifacts. Maybe they can get it fixed somehow before the exhibit ends.

As I recall, the notes also explain that the quality of some of the original records -- such as the recording of The Magnificent Ambersons -- was degraded when Welles later repeatedly played the records while working on later adaptations of the material.

Yes JBrooks, I believe I've also heard that about the Campbell Playhouse version of Jane Eyre, which was said to have been one of their best shows. I think it's logical to assume the same thing may have happened to the '38 Heart of Darkness too, to some extent, although Roger's report that it's "pretty good" overrall is encouraging.

[Jeff Wilson]

I went to do some research at U of M today, and managed to fit in a listen to the Macbeth Follies before I had to go; it does sound fairly bad, though I could understand a good deal of it. The muffled sound is a problem, but it also sounded as if the pitch was off on many portions (voices that simply sound too high) and/or the sound was occasionally sped up.

[François Thomas]

Alan Brody:

I used to buy dozens of audio tapes of Welles's radio shows from Ted Davenport's Radio Memories :

http://www.radiomemories.com/radiomemories/index.html

It has recently changed to Audio Classics Archive but the services provided are apparently the same. My tape of the 1938 radio show of Heart of Darkness is quite good, as I recall. You should try that.

There are a lot of old time radio sites: old-time.com, otr.net, otr.com, otrcat.com . . . From them you can find many vendors that offer Welles's shows on tape, CD or MP3. But Radio Memories never failed me, and I received the tapes in Paris, France a few days after I ordered them.


Roger and Jeff:

I listened to the "Macbeth Follies" at the Lilly Library years ago. If memory serves, the sound quality was rather poor, too.

François

[Alan Brody]

Thanks Francois, I'm tempted to place an order.