Follow a Star · 1937–1954
Agnes Moorehead
The finest actress radio had
Moorehead was a founder member of the Mercury company and then the most reliable dramatic voice in American radio — and the medium repaid her by almost never announcing her name. The journey follows the work rather than the credits: the Mercury seasons, Margot Lane opposite Welles, and the twenty-two minutes on Suspense that she played eight times because nobody else could.
147 recordings across 4 chapters
Chapter 1 · 1943–1960
showing 12 of 18
Sorry, Wrong Number
One woman, a telephone and a crossed line. Suspense brought it back again and again with Moorehead in the chair every time; several of those performances survive here.
- Series
043 Sorry, Wrong Number
Suspense · 1943 · 29 min
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CBS Suspense Sorry, Wrong Number East Coast
Radio News 1943 · 1943 · 30 min
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CBS Suspense Sorry, Wrong Number West Coast
Radio News 1943 · 1943 · 29 min
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054 Sorry, Wrong Number
Suspense · 1943 · 29 min
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080 Sorry, Wrong Number
Suspense · 1944 · 29 min
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157 Sorry, Wrong Number
Suspense · 1945 · 32 min
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Sorry, Wrong Number
The Jack Benny Program · 1948 · 28 min
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315 Sorry, Wrong Number
Suspense · 1948 · 30 min
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re 684 Sorry, Wrong Number
Lux Radio Theater · 1950 · 59 min
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721 Sorry, Wrong Number (131-44) 23969 24m55s AFRTS
Suspense · 1957 · 24 min
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840 Sorry, Wrong Number
Suspense · 1960 · 24 min
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Suspense 1944-02-28 Sorry, Wrong Number AFRS#41 (from WC) 4MAGIX
Forces Outlets · 1944 · 30 min
Chapter 2 · 1938
The Mercury company
She was in the repertory from the beginning, taking whatever the week's adaptation needed — mothers, spinsters, narrators, children.
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11 Dracula
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
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18 Treasure Island
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 4m
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25 A Tale of Two Cities
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
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01 The 39 Steps
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 1m
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08 Three Short Stories: I’m a Fool | The Open Window | My Little Boy
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
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15 Abraham Lincoln
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
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22 The Affairs of Anatol
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
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29 The Count of Monte Cristo
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
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05 The Man Who Was Thursday
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
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11 Julius Caesar (Rehearsal)
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 2m
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25 The Immortal Sherlock Holmes
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 58 min
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09 Hell on Ice
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 0m
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16 Seventeen
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 0m
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23 Around the World in 80 Days
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 58 min
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30 War of the Worlds
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 57 min
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30 War of the Worlds (Alt Version)
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 0m
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The War of the Worlds
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
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06 Heart of Darkness | Life with Father
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 0m
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13 Passenger to Bali
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 0m
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20 The Pickwick Papers
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
Chapter 3 · 1937–1940
showing 30 of 105
Margot Lane
The early Shadow seasons, opposite Welles: the only person who knows to whom the invisible Lamont Cranston is talking.
- Series
w (87) The Death House Rescue
The Shadow · 1937 · 29 min
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w (91) The Temple Bells of Neban
The Shadow · 1937 · 29 min
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w (92) The Three Ghosts
The Shadow · 1937 · 29 min
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w (96) Circle of Death
The Shadow · 1937 · 29 min
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w (98) The Death Triangle
The Shadow · 1937 · 28 min
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w (99) Cold Death
The Shadow · 1937 · 29 min
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w (102) The League of Terror
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (103) Sabotage
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (104) Society of the Living Dead
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (105) Poison Death
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (106) The Phantom Voice
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (108) Hounds In the Hills
The Shadow · 1938 · 28 min
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w (109) The Plot Murder
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (110) The Bride of Death
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (111) The Silent Avenger
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (112) The White Legion
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (113) The Hypnotized Audience
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (114) Death from the Deep
The Shadow · 1938 · 28 min
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w (115) The Fire Bug
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (116) The Blind Beggar Dies
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (117) The Power of the Mind
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (118) The White God
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (119) Aboard the Steamship Amazon
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (120) Murders in Wax
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (121) The Message from the Hills
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (122) The Creeper
The Shadow · 1938 · 31 min
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w (123) The Tenor with the Broken Voice
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (124) Murder on Approval
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (125) The Tomb of Terror
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
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w (126) The Old People
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
Chapter 4 · 1940–1954
Where the announcer said her name
The handful of surviving transfers whose own titles or notes credit her. There should be hundreds. There are these.
- Series
Guest Star 1950-08-27 (179) Agnes Moorehead
Guest Star · 1950 · 14 min
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Guest Star 1953-08-23 (335) Agnes Moorehead
Guest Star · 1953 · 15 min
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Guest Star 1950-08-27 (179) Agnes Moorehead
Guest Star · undated · 14 min
- Series
Guest Star 1953-08-23 (335) Agnes Moorehead
Guest Star · undated · 15 min
What the record cannot tell us
Moorehead is on hundreds of broadcasts in this archive — Suspense, Cavalcade of America, the Mercury seasons — but the surviving metadata almost never names supporting players. These chapters follow the productions she is documented as belonging to, not a cast index, because no reliable cast index exists for the run.
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