WELLESNET MESSAGE BOARD

On 22 August 1938, Orson Welles's production of "The Affairs of Anatol" was broadcast on "Mercury Theatre on the Air," CBS-Radio. A story of old-time Vienna by Arthur Schnitzler, who also wrote the story that Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut was based on. Broadcast just a couple of months after the Anschluss.

I recall this one as frothy fun, giving a sense that the cast felt the same!

And it's in very good quality as a part of the Radio Archive collection we've discussed.

-Craig

It is good fun, with Arlene Francis as one of the co-stars, but it seems to have a subtle political point as well, paying an affectionate tribute to an older, gay Vienna that, at the time of the broadcast, had just been brought under the Nazi umbrella. Right you are about that excellent CD set.

And true about the "civilization gone with the wind" aspect.

Showing the power of the Theater of the Imagination, I recall "seeing" the snowfall scenes! (I wonder if that's where the famous Orson/SFX story about same originates from?)

-Craig

I'm not sure what you're referring to, Craig, but you have me intrigued. What is the SFX story?

It's one of several apocryphal Welles sound effects stories; I think I might have heard it from one of the old pros like Bob Mott or Barney Beck...

Supposedly during a rehearsal once, Orson was trying to get a snow effect that worked on mic (a rather ridiculous goal, yes?) The poor sound man on the other side of the glass tried everything: maybe small rice, crumbled cornflakes, little hole punches of paper, everything. And nothing pleased our obedient servant...

So finally, someone whispered to the engineer, "Psst! Next time he drops the stuff - cut the mic!"

Through the glass, Welles saw the myriad little flakes fall down - and heard absolutely nothing.

"That's IT!," cried The Master!

Good story, hadn't heard that one before. Thanks Craig.