Orson and H.G talk Art and War
The War of The Worlds broadcast of 1938 is one of the most legendary broadcasts of Old Time Radio.
The notoriety and hullabaloo that surrounded that Mercury Theater of the Air Presentation forever linked the two Mr Wells, H.G Wells and Orson Welles in the public mind.
As artists, they shared some traits. An understanding of character and story, a gift for observation, an appreciation for history and its evolution into the present day.
But they were men from different times and places, H.G. having been born in 1866 in Victorian Britain and Orson born in 1915 in Wisconsin.
Old Time Radio was on the scene to preserve some great unscripted historical moments. The Hindenberg explosion, interviews with the last civil war soldiers, and moments like this when two great minds spontaneously speak with and listen to each other as together they make sense of their art and the world around them.
H.G. Wells died at age 80, six years after this recording. Orson Welles greatest success “Citizen Kane” was released a year after this recording. Orson is also no longer with us, passing in 1985.
