The Campbell Playhouse

The Campbell Playhouse

Orson Welles in 1937 (Carl Van Vechten)
Genre	Anthology drama
Running time	60 minutes
Country	United States
Language(s)	English
Home station	CBS
Host(s)	Orson Welles
Starring	Bea Benaderet Frank Readick Agnes Moorehead Ray Collins George Coulouris Georgia Backus Everett Sloane
Writer(s)	Howard Koch Howard Teichmann John Houseman Orson Welles
Director(s)	Orson Welles
Producer(s)	Orson Welles John Houseman
Air dates	December 9, 1938 (1938-12-09) to March 31, 1940 (1940-03-31)
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	56
Audio format	Monaural sound
Opening theme	Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor

The Campbell Playhouse (1938–1940) is a live 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.

After the departure of Welles at the end of the second season, The Campbell Playhouse changed format as a 30-minute weekly series that ran for one season (1940–1941).

The Campbell Playhouse is also the title of an NBC television series later called Campbell Soundstage and Campbell Summer Soundstage (1952–1954).

History

As a direct result of the front-page headlines Orson Welles generated with his 1938 Halloween production The War of the Worlds, Campbell's Soup signed on as sponsor. The Mercury Theatre on 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).^{[citation needed]}

After signing a film contract with RKO in August 1939, Welles began commuting from Hollywood to New York for the two Sunday broadcasts of The Campbell Playhouse. In November 1939, production of the show moved from New York to Los Angeles.^[2]

After 20 shows, Campbell began to exercise more creative control over The Campbell Playhouse, and had complete control over story selection. Diana Bourbon, an account executive from the Ward Wheelock agency, was appointed as liaison between Welles and Campbell. Bourbon acted as de-facto producer, and she and Welles frequently clashed over story and casting. Amiable classics were chosen over many of Welles's story suggestions, including Of Human Hearts; the rights to many works, including Rogue Male, Wuthering Heights and The Little Foxes, could not be obtained. As his contract with Campbell came to an end, Welles determined not to sign on for another season. "I'm sick of having the heart torn out of a script by radio censorship," he said. After the broadcast of March 31, 1940 — a reprise of Jane Eyre, after Welles's suggestion of Alice Adams was not accepted — Welles and Campbell parted amicably.^[3]

The Campbell Playhouse returned to radio November 29, 1940, as a 30-minute weekly CBS series that was last broadcast June 13, 1941.^[4] The program was produced by Diana Bourbon. The series' focus shifted away from classic play and novel adaptations to lighter, more popular fare, still with casts drawn from the ranks of film actors.

Episodes

Unless otherwise noted, the source for episode and cast information is Orson Welles on the Air: The Radio Years (1988), published by The Museum of Broadcasting.^[5]

Television

The Campbell Playhouse is also the title of a 1952 television series that aired on NBC. The collection of 30-minute dramas aired Fridays at 9:30 p.m. June through August as a summer replacement series for The Aldrich Family. Episodes included "The Cavorting Statue" starring Cesar Romero and Ann Rutherford; "Return to Vienna" starring Ruth Warrick and Cameron Mitchell; and "This Little Pig Cried" starring Frances Rafferty and Robert Rockwell.

In July 1953 the series returned as a permanent replacement for The Aldrich Family, with a new format — hour-long dramas produced live in New York — and a new title, Campbell Soundstage. James Dean, Lillian Gish, Brian Keith, Jack Lemmon, Roddy McDowall, E. G. Marshall, Walter Matthau and Betsy Palmer were among those starring in the series of O. Henry-style stories with surprise endings.

In June 1954 the title of the series was changed to Campbell Summer Soundstage, and filmed presentations (many previously aired on Ford Theatre) were featured until the show left the air in September 1954.^[7]

See also

References

• The Definitive: Guide to The Campbell Playhouse
• Frank M. Passage's Campbell Playhouse log

External links

• Campbell Playhouse at the Internet Archive
• The Campbell Playhouse: Script of A Christmas Carol (December 24, 1939) (full text)
• Mercury Theatre site with Campbell Playhouse shows
• Campbell Summer Soundstage at the Internet Movie Database