When I first heard an episode of Lady Esther Presents Orson Welles I was dumbfounded; I love Orson Welles' work and this came out during a particularly strong peak of his radio talent. How had I missed this series before? The answer is... we old-time radio hobbyists can be a little inconsistent. Depending on which radio log or archive you turned to, Lady Esther Presents Orson Welles was either categorized as Screen Guild Theater, Orson Welles Theater, Mercury Theatre or even Orson Welles Alamanac! But Lady Esther Presents Orson Welles is truly its own series that needs to be separated out from other (related) programs.
Lady Esther Presents Orson Welles ran just a few months on CBS - September 15, 1941 to February 2, 1942. This came after CBS' fruitful partnerships with Welles on the Mercury Theatre on the Air and the Campbell Playhouse, but shifted him from an hour-long format to a half-hour one (which became the typical length for his radio shows thereon). Like those earlier programs, the series featured adaptations of popular works, particularly a few to which Welles was very warm towards ("I'm a Fool" was one he'd done before; "the Apple Tree" and "the Happy Prince" would both be dramatized again). However, the series also looked ahead to the format he'd adopt in the Orson Welles Radio Almanac where he would recite poetry and randomly share odd facts from an almanac.
The first few Lady Esther Presents Orson Welles programs are particulary odd as they feature Cliff Edwards reprising his character of Jiminy Cricket from Disney's Pinocchio, appearing on the program as Welles' conscience, reminding him of things he should share with the listening audience. They're very bizarre asides and I don't think they're successful, but at least they demonstrate the playful side of Orson Welles.
Welles was joined by a lot of familiar voices such as Joseph Cotten, Ray Collins, Dolores Del Rio and the music of Bernard Herrmann. Some of the programs featured original stories, such as the very good "That's Why I Left You" by John Nesbitt concerning a man's fable as to why he left his wife. There's a terrific adaptation of Saki's "the Interlopers" and the very funny "Maysville Minstrel" by Ring Lardner. Fans of Escape will notice there's an adaptation of "Wild Oranges"; I'm not particularly wild about that story to begin with and I find Welles' adaptation a bit tedious - the Escape was at least trying to be a fast-paced action story, while the Welles adaptation is concerned with despair and heartbreak.
But the most historically interesting episode of Lady Esther Presents Orson Welles is one we don't currently have: the debut broadcast of Lucille Fletcher's story "The Hitchhiker" aired on November 17, 1941. Welles later performed in the famed Suspense version but it would be great to hear that missing broadcast.
Truly, though, as an Orson Welles and Mercury Theatre fan, I would be very happy to hear more from this series. The few fragments we do possess demonstrate Welles and his contributors at their best.
We have only a few full episodes of this program, although various short excerpts from episodes are in circulation which suggests full copies of those episodes might yet emerge. There's a very good collection of Lady Esther Presents Orson Welles at the Internet Archive.
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