1936–1945
Performed once, then gone
CBS gave the Columbia Workshop an hour a week, no sponsor and no format, and told Irving Reis to find out what the medium could do. What came back was a decade of firsts: verse drama written for the microphone, a live outside broadcast from inside San Quentin, Shakespeare with a castle built entirely out of sound effects. The Mercury Theatre grew directly out of that permission, and so did Norman Corwin, whose We Hold These Truths went out on all four American networks simultaneously eight days after Pearl Harbor — the largest audience a play has ever had in the United States. None of it was recorded for reissue. What survives survives by accident: a sponsor's reference disc, a network file copy, an engineer cutting an acetate for himself.
12 recordings · 2 broadcasters
Who carried it
18 July
1936
Archive recordings
29 min
The first Columbia Workshop broadcast: CBS handing an experimental hour to Irving Reis with no sponsor and no rules. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
5 September
1936
Archive recordings
29 min
A live outside broadcast from inside San Quentin prison, made by the Workshop in its first season. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
19 September
1936
Archive recordings
29 min
Shakespeare staged for microphone alone, performed live with the sound department improvising an entire castle. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
6 February
1937
Archive recordings
29 min
Coleridge performed live, an early demonstration of what the Workshop's sound engineers could build out of nothing. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
21 March
1937
Archive recordings
29 min
A sound-and-music experiment from the Workshop's most inventive season. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
11 April
1937
Archive recordings
26 min
Archibald MacLeish's verse drama, staged in a New York armoury with a crowd of hundreds and a young Orson Welles as the announcer — the first verse play written for radio. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
23 May
1937
Archive recordings
29 min
Lord Dunsany's one-act horror, played live to disc. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
11 July
1937
Archive recordings
29 min
Poe as a study in microphone intimacy: one voice, one heartbeat, no audience. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
23 July
1938
Archive recordings
59 min
T. S. Eliot's verse play given a full network broadcast, chorus and all. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
30 October
1938
Archive recordings
59 min
The complete CBS network broadcast of 30 October 1938, performed live in one take by the Mercury company with Bernard Herrmann's orchestra in the studio. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
15 December
1941
Archive recordings
1h 0m
Commissioned for the Bill of Rights' 150th anniversary and broadcast eight days after Pearl Harbor on all four American networks at once — around sixty million listeners, the largest audience for a dramatic programme to that date. Recording held by the Internet Archive;
8 May
1945
Archive recordings
58 min
Corwin's V-E Day broadcast, written and rehearsed against the clock and performed live on the day the war in Europe ended. Recording held by the Internet Archive;