| Genre | Anthology drama |
|---|---|
| Running time | 60 minutes (seasons 1-2) 30 minutes (season 3) |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | English |
| Home station | CBS |
| Hosts | Orson Welles |
| Starring | Bea Benaderet, Frank Reddick, Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, George Coulouris, Georgia Backus, Everett Sloane, Edgar Barrier; other radio, film, and theater personalities |
| Writers | Howard Koch Wyllis Cooper |
| Directors | Orson Welles George Zachary |
| Producers | John Houseman |
| Air dates | December 9, 1938 to June 13, 1941 |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 85 |
| Audio format | Monaural sound |
| Opening theme | Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor |
The Campbell Playhouse (1938–40) was a CBS radio drama series directed by and starring Orson Welles. Produced by John Houseman, it was a sponsored continuation of the Mercury Theatre on the Air. The series offered 60-minute adaptations of classic plays and novels, plus some adaptations of popular motion pictures.
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As a direct result of the front-page headlines Orson Welles generated with his 1938 Halloween production War of the Worlds, Campbell's Soup signed on as his sponsor. The Mercury Theatre of the Air made its last broadcast December 4, 1938, and The Campbell Playhouse began December 9, 1938. The series made its debut with Welles' adaptation of Rebecca, with guest stars Margaret Sullavan and Mildred Natwick. Bernard Herrmann composed and conducted the imaginative score, and later used much of it for the film Jane Eyre. The radio drama was the first adaptation of the 1938 novel by Daphne Du Maurier; the author was interviewed live from London at the conclusion of the broadcast.[1]
The same creative staff stayed on, but the show had a different flavor under sponsorship. This was partially due to a guest star policy which relegated the Mercury Players to supporting roles. There was a growing schism between Welles, still reaping the rewards of his Halloween night notoriety, and Houseman, who became more like an employee than a partner. The primary writer, as during the end of the unsponsored run, was Howard Koch.
Productions included The Citadel (with Geraldine Fitzgerald), A Christmas Carol (broadcast once with Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge, and once with Orson Welles himself in the role), a non-musical version of Show Boat (with Margaret Sullavan as Magnolia, Orson Welles as Cap'n Andy, Helen Morgan as Julie, and author Edna Ferber herself as Parthy), A Farewell to Arms (with Katharine Hepburn), Mutiny on the Bounty, Arrowsmith (with Helen Hayes), Les Misérables (with Walter Huston), Our Town, Ah, Wilderness, Dodsworth, Lost Horizon (with Ronald Colman), Dinner at Eight (with Hedda Hopper and Lucille Ball), Liliom (with Orson Welles in the title role and Helen Hayes as Julie), and Huckleberry Finn (with Jackie Cooper).
When Welles left the series in 1940, Houseman stayed to write scripts for the final season, which was initially produced by Diana Bourbon, one of the few women directors in network radio. Houseman wrote a script every other week, alternating with veteran radio writer Wyllis Cooper (he and Campbell announcer Ernest Chappell would go on to create Quiet, Please) . Later in the season, scripts by others were used, including one each by Norman Corwin and Ellery Queen. Reduced to a half hour, the series' focus shifted away from heavy play and novel adaptations to lighter, more popular fare, still with casts drawn from the ranks of film actors. Listenership increased—ratings were actually higher than the Welles-hosted seasons—but the series was expensive and the sponsor canceled it in June 1941.
| # | Date | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dec 09, 1938 | "Rebecca" |
| 2 | Dec 16, 1938 | "Call It a Day" |
| 3 | Dec 23, 1938 | "A Christmas Carol" (Welles as Scrooge) |
| 4 | Dec 30, 1938 | "A Farewell to Arms" |
| 5 | Jan 06, 1939 | "Counselor at Law" |
| 6 | Jan 13, 1939 | "Mutiny on the Bounty" |
| 7 | Jan 20, 1939 | "The Chicken Wagon Family" |
| 8 | Jan 27, 1939 | "I Lost My Girlish Laughter" |
| 9 | Feb 03, 1939 | "Arrowsmith" |
| 10 | Feb 10, 1939 | "The Green Goddess" |
| 11 | Feb 17, 1939 | "Burlesque" |
| 12 | Feb 24, 1939 | "State Fair" |
| 13 | Mar 03, 1939 | "Royal Regiment" |
| 14 | Mar 10, 1939 | "The Glass Key" |
| 15 | Mar 17, 1939 | "Beau Geste" |
| 16 | Mar 24, 1939 | "Twentieth Century" |
| 17 | Mar 31, 1939 | "Show Boat" |
| 18 | Apr 07, 1939 | "Les Misérables" |
| 19 | Apr 14, 1939 | "The Patriot" |
| 20 | Apr 21, 1939 | "Private Lives" |
| 21 | Apr 28, 1939 | "Black Daniel" |
| 22 | May 5, 1939 | "Wickford Point" |
| 23 | May 12, 1939 | "Our Town" |
| 24 | May 19, 1939 | "The Bad Man" |
| 25 | May 26, 1939 | "American Cavalcade" (subtitled "Things We Have") |
| 26 | Jun 02, 1939 | "Victoria Regina" |
| 27 | Sep 10, 1939 | "Peter Ibbetson" |
| 28 | Sep 17, 1939 | "Ah, Wilderness" |
| 29 | Sep 24, 1939 | "What Every Woman Knows" |
| 30 | Oct 01, 1939 | "The Count of Monte Cristo" |
| 31 | Oct 08, 1939 | "Algiers" |
| 32 | Oct 15, 1939 | "Escape" |
| 33 | Oct 22, 1939 | "Lilliom" |
| 34 | Oct 29, 1939 | "The Magnificent Ambersons" |
| 35 | Nov 05, 1939 | "The Hurricane" |
| 36 | Nov 12, 1939 | "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" |
| 37 | Nov 19, 1939 | "The Garden of Allah" |
| 38 | Nov 26, 1939 | "Dodsworth" |
| 39 | Dec 03, 1939 | "Lost Horizon" |
| 40 | Dec 10, 1939 | "Venessa" |
| 41 | Dec 17, 1939 | "There's Always a Woman" |
| 42 | Dec 24, 1939 | "A Christmas Carol" (Barrymore as Scrooge) |
| 43 | Dec 31, 1939 | "Come And Get It" |
| 44 | Jan 07, 1940 | "Vanity Fair" |
| 45 | Jan 14, 1940 | "Theodora Goes Wild" |
| 46 | Jan 21, 1940 | "The Citadel" |
| 47 | Jan 28, 1940 | "It Happened One Night" |
| 48 | Feb 04, 1940 | "The Broome Stages" |
| 49 | Feb 11, 1940 | "Mr Deeds Goes to Town" |
| 50 | Feb 18, 1940 | "Dinner at Eight" |
| 51 | Feb 25, 1940 | "Only Angels Have Wings" |
| 52 | Mar 03, 1940 | "Rabble In Armes" |
| 53 | Mar 10, 1940 | "Craig's Wife" |
| 54 | Mar 17, 1940 | "Huckleberry Finn" |
| 55 | Mar 24, 1940 | "June Moon" (first program before a live audience) |
| 56 | Mar 31, 1940 | "Jane Eyre" |
Campbell Playhouse was also the title of a television series aired on NBC between 1952 and 1954 as a replacement for The Aldrich Family. It was also known as Campbell Soundstage. Scriptwriters for that anthology series included Rod Serling.