halloween cheer

Archive.org has mp3s of Mercury Theater and Campbell Playhouse (Mercury Theater with a sponsor) programs. I'm currently partway through Dracula, with Orson in the title role.

http://www.archive.org/download/mercurytheaterOTRKIBM/1938-07-11-Dracula.mp3

Lots of other great titles are on the page. War of the Worlds, Treasure Island, The Thirty-Nine Steps, The Man Who Was Thursday, Seventeen, and more.

http://www.archive.org/details/mercurytheaterOTRKIBM

There are lots of Campbell Playhouse shows here, including The Magnificent Ambersons, Dinner at Eight, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Lost Horizon, Mutiny on the Bounty, and Rebecca.

http://www.archive.org/details/otr_campbellplayhouse

They're not hi-fi. I don't know if commercial versions of these are any better, though. The version of "War of the Worlds" that I got from OTRCAT.com said it was "uncut," and it does seem to be six minutes longer than the one I got from archive.org, but their free Mercury Theater show now is The Hitch Hiker. (They were offering WOTW for free yesterday, but today it's The Great Gildersleeve's halloween show.)

Anyway, many happy returns of the day. Don't lose your soul.

Kip W
.