#still acceptable for Orson Welles in 1951

[byneddiedingo]

Claude Laydu and Jean Danet in Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951) 

Cast: Claude Laydu, Jean Riveyre, Adrien Borel, Rachel Bérandt, Nicole Maurey, Nicole Ladmiral, Martine Lemaire, Antoine Balpêtré, Jean Danet, Léon Arvel. Screenplay: Robert Bresson, based on a novel by Georges Bernanos. Cinematography: Léonce-Henri Burel. Art direction: Pierre Charbonnier. Film editing: Paulette Robert. Music: Jean-Jacques Grünenwald.  The still above, of the young priest (Claude Laydu) happily accepting a ride on the back of a motorcycle from Olivier (Jean Danet) is not meant to be representative of the film as a whole. Quite the contrary, Olivier is a cousin of Chantal (Nicole Ladmiral), who, along with the rest of her family, has caused the priest much pain. Olivier is a soldier in the Foreign Legion, a character whose life is about as far from the priest's tormented spirituality as possible. The scene is a brief, liberated  one, suggesting a world of potential other than that of the spiritual and physical suffering the priest has known in his assignment to the bleak and hostile parish of Ambricourt. The priest returns to his suffering after his motorcycle ride: He learns that he has terminal stomach cancer and dies in a slovenly apartment watched over by a former fellow seminarian, Fabregars (Léon Arvel), who is living with his mistress. As ascetic as the young priest has striven to be, he has to come to terms with a world that seems irrevocably fallen, even to the point of taking the last, absolving blessing from the lapsed Fabregars. Of all the celebrated masterworks of film, Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest may be the most uncompromising in making the case for cinema as an artistic medium on the same level as literature and music. In comparison, what is Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) but a rather blobby melodrama about the rise and fall of a newspaper tycoon? Even the best of Alfred Hitchcock's oeuvre is little more than crafty embroidery on the thriller genre. The highest-praised directors, from Ford, Hawks, and Kurosawa to Godard, Kubrick, and Scorsese, never seem to stray far from the themes and tropes of popular culture. Even a film like Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953) falls back on sentiment as a way of engaging its audience. But Bresson strives for such a purity of character and narrative, down to the refusal to use well-known professional actors, and such a relentless intellectualizing, that you can't help comparing his film favorably to the great works of Flaubert or Dostoevsky. Having said that, I must admit that it's a work much easier to admire than to love, especially if, like me, you have no deep emotional or intellectual connection to religion -- or even an outright hostility to it. Does the suffering of the sickly young priest really result in the kind of transcendence the film posits? Are the questions of grace and redemption real, or merely the product of an ideology out of sync with actual human experience? What explains the hostility he encounters in the village he tries to serve: the work of the devil or just the bleakness of provincial existence? On the other hand, just asking those questions serves to point out how richly condensed is Bresson's drama of ideas. I love the movies I've alluded to above as somehow lacking in the intellectual seriousness of Bresson's film, but there's room in the pantheon for both kinds of film. Diary of a Country Priest remains for me one of film's great puzzles: What are we to make of the young priest's intellectualized faith? Is it a film for believers or for agnostics? In the end, these enigmas and ambiguities are integral to its greatness.

[greatmuldini]

When the Sheffield Repertory Company, on 18 October 1948, invited local journalists to meet the new talent for the new season, it was not the shy smile of a timid stranger that for the Telegraph photographer epitomized the joyous occasion but the incandescent, albeit no less self-conscious, charisma of the naturally gifted performer - who may have begun his formal training on that very day in 1948 but who, by his own admission, had been acting “since birth.”

Indeed, the formal introduction of the new Assistant Stage Manager came a good seven months after the young prodigyhad been granted permission to study with the Company: his first appearance to that effect in the Minutes of the Executive Committee on 9 March 1948 was followed over the summer of 1948 by small to medium sized roles for which he received full credit but no regular pay. The precarious arrangement was revised when a "striking performance" in The Hasty Heart convinced the Executive Chairman that a “very difficult part” had been “played remarkably well.”

Originally performed on Broadway in January 1945, The Hasty Heart takes place at a British military hospital somewhere in South-East Asia, where six wounded Allied soldiers are recuperating from their war wounds. Each one of them represents his particular corner of the Empire or, in the case of “Yank,” a former colony. Looking after them is the equally archetypal female character, Sister Margaret, whose no-nonsense style of nursing soothes fraying tempers, and her compassionate approach helps to heal not just physical wounds. One patient, however, presents an existential problem: proud and stubborn Scotsman Lachlen McLachlen is terminally ill but has not been told he has very little time left. Margaret falls in love with Lachlen and agrees to marry him despite the looming death sentence. When Lachlen finds out he is furious but can in the end be convinced to accept the inevitable as he learns to accept the heartfelt friendship of his comrades and the unconditional love of his fiancée.

Lachlen’s change of heart is the result of an intervention by the “difficult” character, whose presence is required for the sole purpose of effecting that change. As the catalyst who brings about the final reversal of Lachlan's fortune, Blossom provides the evidence of their shared humanity - ironically by being different from everybody else. When Lachlen, hurt and angry at the perceived betrayal of his friends, and the indignity of his situation, declares his intention to leave the hospital and die alone, it is Blossom who steps forward to offer a parting gift. Blossom - who does not speak a single word of English and therefore would not have been aware of what the others knew - communicates non-verbally the pure, raw, primitive emotion that he alone can express. His affection is pure, untainted by superior knowledge or ulterior motives and allows Lachlen to recalibrate his own highly irrational response.

Blossom is a "difficult" character for the actor, who must convey meaning mostly through mime - and who must perpetuate the racial stereotype of the “silent black warrior” as dictated by the script, the tastes of the time, and stage conventions beyond his control: in New York, the part was played by African-American actor Robert Earl Jones (1910-2006, father of James); the 1946 West End cast featured Nigerian expatriate and star of stage and screen, Orlando Martins (1899-1985), who also took the role in the 1949 film version. The Sheffield Repertory Company, as a permanent ensemble, remained throughout the post-war period a close-knit group of local players whose white working class background would have matched the equally homogenous crowd in the auditorium.

While “exotic” characters and locations were a welcome diversion from the daily grind of the steel mills, true-to-life authenticity would not have been the foremost concern on anyone’s mind. Likewise, any lofty notions of "inhabiting the character" would have been dismissed out of hand in the fast-paced environment of the repertory system with its weekly or, as in Sheffield, bi-weekly change-over. Unlike the commercial long-running ventures on Broadway or Shaftesbury Avenue, regional repertory companies relied above all on the "quick study" and improvisation skills of the actor, favouring versatility over diversity. The need for speed also meant that certain shortcuts were considered legitimate, including the use of Blackface to indicate a character's non-white ethnicity.

The challenge for the actor underneath the generic makeup would have been to preserve the dignity of the individual in his care. The experienced producer, for his part, who elected to trust the most junior member of the Company with that responsibility, would have made his choice fully expecting his protégé to succeed. More than an adequate performance, Geoffrey Ost would have seen the “disciplines of the theatre” brought to life on stage - for the final time by the amateur. With their next production, the Sheffield Playhouse set the scene for a professional debut that could have launched a respectable career for the new Assistant Stage Manager had the fierce young “teaboy” been so inclined.

[redsoapbox]

MY TOP TEN CHRISTMAS MOVIES

Now that December is finally here, the McGrath household can upgrade the nightly Christmas movie from Hallmark seasonal romance to accepted Christmas classic. (Although in admitting defeat on winning the girls over on Miracle on 34th Street - either version) - I have to acknowledge that the list of films that we can all agree on as festive classics is a little shorter than I would like.

Here is my list of top ten Christmas movies -

10. The Santa Clause (1994) - John Pasquin

John Pasquin’s cinematic debut, he had previously worked on numerous T.V. shows including Newhart and Thirtysomething, opens with the risky gambit of having Santa fall to his death from the roof of Scott Calvin’s home. Calvin (Tim Allen), believing his home is being burgled, confronts Santa and startles him into plummeting to his doom. Before you know it, and after much urging from his son Charlie (Eric Lloyd), Calvin has donned the big red suit and his transformation into Santa has begun.

The Santa Clause combines rather broad comedy - there is much fun to be had with Calvin’s overnight weight gain and Charlie’s class presentation on how his Dad is actually Santa - with the usual Christmas sentiment. In this particular case, the healing of Scott’s relationship with Charlie and ex-wife Laura (Wendy Crewson).

A pre-Buzz Lightyear Allen gives a virtuoso performance as the would-be St Nick, and that went a long way to making the film a hit at the box office, spawning two sequels The Santa Clause 2 (2002) and The Santa Clause 3 (2006).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpzB4ubEqIE

9. The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) - Bharat Nallur

I reviewed this thought-provoking film on how Charles Dickens’ saved Christmas at the time of it’s release -

https://pardontheglueman.tumblr.com/post/169301253898/the-man-who-invented-christmas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx3ctBjG6yI

8. Get Santa (2014)  - Christopher Smith

When the always over-generous Empire film magazine only gives a movie two stars, then you know that you are going out on a very thin limb indeed. Still, a lot of what I want from a Christmas movie - a story about redemption, likeable characters with likeable lead actors, a splash of humour, a touch of Christmas magic, and, finally, a guaranteed have-to-make-a-quick-exit-to-the-kitchen-to-compose-myself ending - are all present and correct here. And Get Santa really delivers - like a hard-working postman trudging through six feet of snow on Christmas Eve just to make sure that your Auntie Maureen’s card can take its proper place on your mantelpiece.

Get Santa has a best of British cast too; Rafe Spall as ex-con Steve, Jodie Whittaker as his estranged wife and Jim Broadbent as a banged up Santa. Throw in Stephen Graham, Warwick Davis and Joanna Scanlan and you have the second best cast Christmas movie ever (nothing is ever going to beat Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore and Henry Travers in IAWL).

This may be the film on the list that you are most likely to have not seen, so in an effort to shore up support for this selection, I call my star witness - Mark Kermode who had this to say in his three-star Guardian review ‘It’s sweet -natured fare, boosted with spirited comic performances (Broadbent is a particular treat) and served up with plenty of DIY sparkle’.

7. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - Henry Selick

Tim Burton’s unique vision of Christmas/Halloween is brought to life by Henry Selick, a gifted animator who had worked for Walt Disney Studios and in a freelance capacity before making his name with this masterpiece. I simply didn’t get this on release (my admittedly old-fashioned notion of what constitutes a Christmas movie forming a great big mental road block to a full appreciation of the imagination, visual style, black humour, gothic charm and exquisite pathos on display here), and it was only through a recent viewing with my children as part of our Halloween movie get togethers that I finally saw the light. Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon) is a captivating character, brought to life by Danny Elfman’s songs and Selick’s ground breaking animation, and his desperate quest for belonging is one that we can all sympathise with, especially at Christmas. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGiYxCUAhks

6. Remember The Night (1940) - Mitchell Leisen

This is a golden-age of Hollywood classic screwball comedy, starring the legendary Barbara Stanwyck, arguably the greatest comedienne in Hollywood history, Fred MacMurray, arguably the nicest guy in film history (at least until his turn as the murderous Walter Neff in Billy Wilder’s terrific noir Double Indemnity), and penned by arguably the funniest man in film history, Preston Sturges.

James Harvey in his 700-page opus Romantic Comedy in Hollywood (From Lubitsch to Sturges), which is, arguably, the best ever book about Hollywood, reveals that it was the shabby treatment (in Sturges’ not so humble opinion) of his screenplay, and the slow pacing of Leisen’s direction, that drove the screenwriter to extraordinary lengths to gain control of his own movies - basically making a deal with Paramount that he would sell them his next screenplay for a nominal sum of ten dollars as as long as he got to direct the picture. That deal changed movie history, setting the precedent of a writer / director that Orson Welles was soon to follow with Citizen Kane (1941).

The plot is a unique one, not that it truly matters in a Sturges movie, and centres around hardboiled career criminal Lee Leander (Stanwyck) having to choose between spending jail in Christmas or being released into the custody of her prosecuting attorney John Sargant (MacMurray). Hey, I didn’t say it made any sense! Of course, the season works its magic and, hey presto, one reformed criminal later Christmas love is in the air!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKcLcT9dOFk

5. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) - Brian Henson

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is the greatest Christmas story ever written, and arguably the main reason that Christmas in Britain is celebrated in quite the way that it is today (see The Man Who Invented Christmas above). There have been all manner of adaptations down the years, and here it is re-imagined as a vehicle for Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzy and co in a way that works beyond anybody’s wildest expectations.

All the human drama, the pathos, the cry from the heart for social justice that Dickens conveyed in his peerless book survives this, the most unlikely of screen adaptations. Much of the credit must go to Michael Caine, who despite sharing top billing with a bunch of muppets, emerges as a genuine contender for the crown of greatest screen Scrooge. Throw in a script by Jerry Juhl, which has The Great Gonzo as Charles Dickens, narrating his ghostly tale with a straight face, and Paul Williams’ super sing-along songs  “Marley and Marley” “One More Sleep ‘Till Christmas” and “Thankful Heart” , and you have an all time Christmas classic that can be enjoyed by everyone from 1 to 92. Bravo!  

4. ELF -  (2003)  John Favreau

Elf is the Shawshank Redemption of Christmas Movies - no matter who, where  or when you poll an audience, this charmingly comic celebration of Christmas always punches above its weight, getting the better of some very famous films in the process. Elf finished 10th in the IMDB poll for Greatest Christmas Movie and came 2nd in both the Time Out and Radio Times polls. It’s A Wonderful Life always, always comes top, but as someone who is still reeling from Citizen Kane losing first place to Vertigo in Sight and Sound’s celebrated Greatest Movie poll, I can see a time when Elf goes one better too.

Elf has a career-best performance from Will Ferrell, a winningly elfin turn from Zooey Deschanel and a series of fine cameo’s from Bob Newhart, Ed Asner, Faizon Love and Peter Dinklage as “angry” elf Miles Finch to recommend it, but it’s the hard to beat combination of laugh-out-loud set pieces, father and son second chances, and an opposites attract love story to top them all that makes this a genuinely affecting festive treat.

3. A Christmas Carol (1999) - David Jones

Of the umpteen takes on Dickens’ grasping miser, of which Alastair Sim’s turn as Scrooge (1951) is by far the most celebrated, I just prefer Patrick Stewart in this excellent T.V. movie. This may seem a deliberately obscure choice, but that is far from the case. Firstly, there is an A-list cast featuring Richard E Grant, Saskia Reeves, Dominic West and, at the top the bill, Stewart himself. 

As Screen Rant describes it, ‘Stewart plays a far more blunt, bitter and straight forward version of the miser... without feeling maniacal’. In short, he underplays the part, keeping the mugging down to a minimum. The clincher, though, is Stewart’s handling of the scene when he awakes to find it is still Christmas morning and that the spirits have granted him a second chance at life after all. He tries to emit a happy, life-affirming laugh, but is so unused to the sensation that he almost chokes himself. Wonderful stuff! There will be all the usual Scrooges to choose from this Christmas - Sim, George C Scott and Albert Finney amongst them, but the Stewart version will be there somewhere in the middle of the night on ITV3. If you peruse the Radio Times long enough you’ll find it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vviOGFiGrHc

2. Miracle on 34th Street - George Seaton (1947)  &  Les Mayfield (1994)

Okay, a bit of false accounting going on here in grouping the two films together. The original is the better version, but I’ve always loved the re-make too. After all, who can’t bring themselves to believe in Dickie Attenborough as Kris Kringle! Both films are perfectly cast - the romantic leads John Payne and Maureen O’ Hara are convincing enough in the black and white original, but are probably just shaded on the chemistry front by Dylan McDermott and Elizabeth Perkins. The unhappy children are sensationally cast, with Natalie Woods and Mara Wilson coming out even. The unthinkable happens, though, when it comes to the playing of Kris Kringle, because although Dickie scores a fab 9 out of 10 on my Santometer, Edmund Gwenn, who picked up a best supporting actor Oscar for his Kringle, scores a perfect 10.

The Oscar-winning original story, by Valentine Davies, must be known to just about everyone by now - a perfectly nice old man, given to the belief that he is really Kris Kringle, becomes, more by accident than design, Macy’s famous department store Santa. No sooner is he in post, than Kris begins to challenge the corporatisation of Christmas, directing customers to other toy stores all over town, where hard up parents can buy their presents at discount prices. He is about to face the sack, when Macy’s realise that he is a great loss leader for them, prompting arch rivals Gimbles to try and nobble him. Kris is committed to an institution for the insane on cooked up charges, and a battle rages to secure his release by Christmas Eve, so that the children of the world won’t be disappointed on Christmas morning! Each film uses an interesting plot device to allow a judge, desperate not to be seen as the man who gives a court ruling that Santa doesn’t exist, a way out without losing face, and there is a happily romantic final scene to round things off in the accepted festive manner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibDD8Y3IJrg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCNbTAtD-jU

1. It’s a Wonderful Life - Frank Capra (1946)

I reviewed this seasonal great for Wales Arts Review last Christmas -

https://www.walesartsreview.org/rewatching-its-wonderful-life/

The next best Christmas films - The Bishop’s Wife, Arthur Christmas, A Christmas Story, Christmas in Connecticut

Merry Christmas to all.

[chiseler]

Heavy

Long before his face became familiar to television audiences as the obese star of the long-running cop series Cannon, and long after his voice had become familiar to radio audiences as the star of everything from The Lone Ranger and Suspense to Gunsmoke and Buck Rogers, William Conrad was a busy character actor in films, bridging his earlier and later heroic roles by playing a string of killers, corrupt city officials, gangsters, and cowardly busboys, many of them uncredited, most offering him only a few brief moments of screen time, and all of them hard to forget. His smooth corpulence, thick mustache, toadish features, and resonant voice gave him a presence that made playing heavies all but an inevitability when Conrad moved from radio to screen. It also helps explain why a radio star of his magnitude (his voice was as recognizable to the masses as Orson Welles’) would be given such small roles when he made the leap. But the former WWII fighter pilot  made the most of them.

In his second screen appearance (after an uncredited role in 1945’s From Pillow to Post), a then-26 year-old Conrad made an indelible impression on audiences with his five-minute turn as Max, one of two hired assassins gunning for Burt Lancaster’s Swede in the opening minutes of 1946’s The Killers. He’s so coolly menacing yet so cruelly funny sitting in that diner with his partner Al (Charles McGraw) ordering things that aren’t on the menu (“You’re a real bright boy, aren’t you?” he asks the increasingly confused and  nervous counterman).  For as brief as it was, he turned in perhaps the most singularly memorable performance in an unforgettable  film.

The following year he had a larger and slightly less sinister role playing Quinn, the tough fight promoter counting on John Garfield in Body & Soul, before returning to gangster roles in Sorry, Wrong Number. In 1951 he appeared as both the sleazy, about half-legit club owner in Cry Danger and the mobbed up state inspector in The Racket.

He carried his girth well, inhabited it with a solid physicality which, combined with that voice of his, told you that he was not a man to be fucked with, nor was he a man who spent an undue amount of time contemplating the afterlife. Yet for as much as he brought to these supporting roles, the roles never seemed to get any bigger.

And maybe it’s for the best. Of all the roles Conrad played in the ‘40s and 50s, for as much onscreen menace as he could generate, he seemed to make even more of an impact playing smaller, quieter, almost invisible characters than he did  as a full-fledged co-star. And knowing full well how much potential violence he could carry into a room (though we rarely saw him unleash it), seeing it  fully contained, buried in a character who wasn’t a killer or a corrupt official, made his performances that much more interesting.

In the 1950 “psychopath holds a bar full of people hostage as they one by one re-evaluate their lives” drama, , for instance, Conrad plays Chuckles the bartender. Chuckles is a bitter man who’s stuck with a lousy bar (“a crumb joint,” he calls it) and an obnoxious, drunken crew of regulars (“crumbs” he calls them), who spends much of his brief screen time fiddling with and complaining about the bar’s new large screen television. He never smiles, never laughs, and as he moves from customer to customer he bluntly insults each one in turn. But as dour and misanthropic as he appears to be, he still quietly attempts to look out for each barfly’s well-being. When he’s the first to spot the escaped psycho sitting alone at the bar, he even tries to save the crumbs by making an excuse to sneak away and call the cops.  Unfortunately the psycho notices what he’s up to.  It’s a fascinating low-key (and brief) performance, but in those few minutes and with those few lines, he creates a much more complicated and compelling character than any of Chuckles’  regulars.

It was even a lower-key performance with fewer lines in ‘55’s Five Against the House, but Conrad nevertheless remains one of the most memorable things about the picture. AS five law students attempt to pull the perfect heist in a crowded Reno casino, Conrad, as a low-level casino employee, becomes an unwilling and integral element of the plan. As the would be thieves explain what he has to do and why he has no choice but to do it, he speaks only a small smattering of quiet lines and stands stock still. He plays the five-minute part almost entirely with his eyes, moving from confusion to hatred to fear to  resignation. It’s a nothing role for what could have been an invisible character—a part that could’ve been played by a cardboard cut-out—but he makes it his own. You have to wonder why the filmmakers chose someone like Conrad for the cameo  and why he accepted the offer, but I’m glad he did. Even not moving and not talking, he had a strange and fascinating charisma.

By the early ‘60s, Conrad (born John William Cann Jr.), excused himself from screen roles almost entirely, concentrating on directing and voice-over work. As a director he concentrated mostly on television, but did helm a few mid-60s features like Two on a Guillotine and Brainstorm, and his voice became an unforgettable part of everything from The Fugitive to Bullwinkle. Then in the early ‘70s he stepped in front of the cameras again, once more taking on good guy roles.

As Hollywood careers go, Conrad’s was pretty remarkable—a radio star known only for his voice goes on to become a recognizable character actor playing very different roles, then a director, then caps it all off by starring in two hit television series. He even wrote a few songs along the way. He was a remarkable and wide-ranging talent, which makes it all the sadder that he’s mostly remembered today as the butt of fat jokes. But I’ll tell you—the crumbs and the bright boys who crack those jokes never would’ve dared back in the ‘40s.

by Jim Knipfel

(Woodcut by Guy Budziak)

[oltnews]

The definition of Wikipedia audio drama is as follows:Radio drama (or audio drama, audio playback, radio playback, radio theater or audio theater) is a purely acoustic dramatized performance. With no visual component, radio fiction depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and the story. " I started listening to radio dramas even before the audio books; in fact, radio dramas were the bridge I had to cross to start enjoying audio books, and I am extremely grateful that they taught me to be careful when listening seemed like a secondary task, something that I did something else. Admittedly, to this day, I still find it difficult to sit and listen, I generally play my audio books, podcasts or radio dramas while doing chores or crafts, but even if that does not seem to be a big problem, power Listen even keeping myself busy was a battle won, because my mind always tended to wander. The radio drama, with its different voices and sounds, projecting an atmosphere similar to that of a film, kept me focused long enough to teach me a certain auditory discipline. Although listening to radio drama may seem out of date, radio was the machine that transformed oral stories - often told within the same family - into a form of magical entertainment for an entire population. Before video, before television, radio dramas were the place where stories, beyond simple reading, took shape. In the 1940s until the 1950s, radio was the main popular entertainment. It was more than a source of information: music and novels were also an integral part of people's daily lives. In many ways, when people lived closed inside their own community, radio had to feel like the only direct thing connecting a whole family to those who lived far apart, in the country in which they lived and in the unknown world (rest of). This was true until at least the 1950s, and the only reason radio lost its appeal was because it was, in a sense, replaced by something that looked a little more like magic: the television. No matter how cool it was to listen to someone speak several miles away, nothing could beat the new enchantment created by the little magic box with tiny people trapped inside. Category ID: 1529 Audiobooks newsletter Register for Audio books to receive the latest news from the world of audio books. Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox. By registering, you accept our terms of use But while television became very popular, radio was the first to launch a wide distribution of plays, most of them adapted to radio. Finally, because it was difficult to make this adaptation, since the plays largely depended on what the audience saw, many plays began to be written specifically for broadcasting. This meant that with the help of sound effects - usually created with the most common objects and a lot of imagination - listeners had the full experience of a room, made only for their ears. The first radio dramas The first play written specially for the radio was A comedy of danger, by Richard Hughes, broadcast in January 1924, commissioned by the BBC in Great Britain. In the United States, the first radio drama is believed to have been a program called The wolf, adapted from a play by Charles Sommerville by Eugène Walter, also in 1924. But radio drama has its roots in another type of broadcasting, long before radio technology was developed. Between 1900 and 1920, people used a network of lines to listen to shows - it was called the theatrophone. Basically the equivalent of placing a glass against your neighbor's walls to listen to them play the piano (or to spy on their own personal dramas). Of course, the theophone was better installed, had better sound quality and was less discreet (and rude). It did, however, allow people to listen to things that they would not have been able to listen to otherwise. Also, here is a little nugget of knowledge that proves, once again, that times and technologies are changing, but people are pretty much the same: as new plays began to be written for radio, and others adapted, many claimed that radio was ruining theater sales. And the boy, they were angry. They didn't know that the two plays AND the radio would still amuse us today. Most of the dramas of the golden age of radio were live broadcasts and were not recorded. In fact, until the late 1940s, national networks prohibited the broadcasting of recorded programs because of its inferior sound quality. It was only after World War II, with the development of high fidelity, that recording became more common. On the air… Panic! How Orson Welles Created a Radio Legend The story of War of the Worlds first appeared in two magazines in 1897: Pearson Magazine (in the UK), and Cosmopolitan (in the USA.). It became a real book from the publisher William Heinemann a year later, in 1898. The science fiction novel, written by HG Wells, is one of the first to imagine a struggle between humans and aliens invading Earth. In the evening of October 30, 1938, the radio adaptation was broadcast live as part of Mercury Theater on the air, narrated by Orson Welles. It could have been another adaptation, another radio show, but it is now etched in the history of radio drama forever. The original story takes place in England, but playwright Edward Koch decided to make the decor more attractive to American listeners and changed it to take place in New Jersey. Everyone involved in the production agreed that the first part of the adaptation would be made to resemble a news program, in order to appear more realistic. With the brilliant interpretation of Orson Welles and the excellent work of the production team, who managed to create what looked like a regular radio broadcast interrupted here and there with newsletters, they got exactly what that they had negotiated. And then some. Those at home who missed the opening announcement, which contained the only warning that it was a fictitious radio play, believed that the stories being told were really happening and took to the streets in panic. If they had stayed during the second half of the drama, which was broadcast in a more conventional style, they would have realized how stupid they had been. People got so angry at the repercussions of the play - and, I bet for being mistaken for fools, bless them - that the Federal Communications Commission had to make changes to the way broadcasters clarified the veracity - or fiction - of their radio dramas. Focus on drama. Later, when asked about the panic caused by the show, Welles was asked to say if he shouldn't have softened the drama, to which he replied: "No, you're not playing murder with sweet words." Congratulations to our man Welles. Of course, upon hearing this story, we would like to believe that we are wiser and more informed these days, but with all the false news that is spreading, we should all be ready to humbly descend from our great horses. It is metaphorically speaking. Many recordings released during the so-called golden age of radio are still available on the Internet Archive to this day. Some known classics, in addition War of the Worlds, are: The shadow Serial dramas of the 1930s, developed by Walter B. Gibson, some episodes also included Orson Welles. Lone ranger If Chuck Norris as Walker, Texas Ranger had a radio series, that would be it. He inspired a TV show and even a series of books. Its creator is unclear, being attributed either to George W. Temble (the owner of the radio station), or to Frank Striker (the writer). Archers The oldest radio soap in the world is BBC Radio 4 Archers, released for the first time in 1951, and still as solid. (A personal thought: I see a lot of male names linked to the creation of radio dramas, so when someone comes to tell you that women are starting the whole drama, please redirect them to this post.) Radio drama in present times Despite what many may have predicted when television began to take over the entertainment industry, radio drama seems to have made a steady comeback in the past decade, particularly thanks to the voices of independent creators. While our parents are still mostly used to listening to the radio, the younger generations are now listening to podcasts, which gives us the advantage of being able to actively choose what we listen to and what deserves our attention. Audio is no longer just a means of entertainment, but a new way to learn, follow the news and, often, advertise and develop a business. Although the British BBC is still the largest supplier of audio drama - at least per station, with BBC Radio 4 producing several drama and comedy shows and even hosting audio awards - radio dramas are no longer simply transmitted by radio stations usual: the teams creating and continuing them season after season with the help of their admirers, inviting them to support their work via Patreon or any other similar means. An example of this is Wooden overcoat, a radio soap opera featuring two funeral homes of competitors on a small (fictitious) island. The production - which is a comedy and deserves to be listened to - should record its fourth series this year, and although it is not broadcast by any public radio station, its fans have supported them massively (and economically) season after season since started in 2015. Welcome to Night Vale is another example in which an independent soap opera swept an audience, and it was reserved for 50 live broadcasts across the United States and Europe in 2020 alone. Because these are independent productions, they have more freedom to try different things and are more focused on what their fans expect from the series. The continuation or cancellation of these broadcasts is determined directly by their listeners, rather than on the agenda of a radio station. Of course, one of the reasons why audio entertainment has become so popular is due to the fact that it is now easier than ever to acquire the equipment necessary to start audio production. Even people on a very limited budget can create a podcast from scratch from their home and be successful. With just a laptop and a microphone, you're ready to bring great audio content to your home's merchandise. There are free programs like Audacity which allow you to record, erase and move audio tracks to create a flawless recording capable of engaging thousands of people. The possibilities extend to creativity. With the tools we have now - phones with great cameras and good technology are getting cheaper and more widely available - such productions could very easily be done in video form, but there are many advantages to choosing to produce - and - consume audio instead of video: audio is easier to record and edit than video, and it requires less storage space. It is also much cheaper to create an entire production based solely on sound effects than to create anything to tell the same story on video: the accessories, the decor and the costumes represent a lot of work and, above all, a big spent. For consumers, audio does not require as much attention and does not require as much of our time: with audio, we do not need to sit and watch. The soap opera allows us to be productive while we consume it, and it can even be used as a supplement for chores, and vice versa. My household chores, commuting, and exercising have become much more interesting since I discovered radio theater and audio books, as this now means that I can also read / learn. I take as much time to do chores as I do to finish listening to my favorite book, TED Talk or radio comedy. I am productive in two ways, and whatever the task at hand, I lighten up because I have something to have fun while I do it. The audio allows me to continue. On top of that, it doesn't really need a sophisticated device so as not to compromise on quality: I am still using a used 5th generation iPod touch, from 2012, and it works very well, but I could very easily listen to anything on my phone. We cannot be certain for sure how audio drama and audio entertainment in general will evolve over the next decade, but studies indicate an increase in the consumption of audio books, so we expect as the audio drama numbers and productions, will continue to increase in the same way. via GIPHY Listen to these radio dramas If you're looking to fill your life with new radio shows, here are some favorites! The White Vault "The White Vault presents international distribution and brilliant sound design. If you like the way sound can add spookiness and vibe to your horror, you're going to love what this audio drama makes of it. " —Vernieda Vergaras The Bright Sessions "The Bright Sessions was one of my first experiences with audio drama and the reason why I am such an avid listener of fiction podcasts now. The characters and their stories were so important to me in my own journey with identity, mental health, etc. over the years, and it remains my favorite forever. " —Patricia Thang Neverwhere and Good omens Both are productions of BBC Radio 4 and both are brilliantly produced. With a fantastic cast, Gaiman’s (and Pratchett, in the case of Good omens) wonderful stories really come to life in this production. Gaiman has seen other of his radio adapted books, but these are still my personal favorites. Cabin pressure First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2008, the series caught the attention of the whole world with the boom created by Benedict Cumberbatch and his BBC Sherlock. Benedict is part of the cast alongside Roger Allam, Stephanie Cole and John Finnemore, who is also the author of the series. The series is still my favorite to this day; it's amazing to see the evolution of each character through the four seasons, and it (always) scares me every time I listen to it again. Which I have done countless times. Wolf 359 Similar to the traditional dramas of the golden age of radio mentioned in the article, this podcast is a science fiction tale set on board the U.S.S. Hephaestus space station. The show draws as much on the development of their character as on their decor to create a story full of suspense. Adventures in New America Another science fiction drama, this time in the genre of Afrofuturism. His two main characters - "fat, lonely AI curmudgeon and lesbian thief Simon Carr", as described on the official website - are jostling New York to try to make ends meet. They end up facing a few unexpected enemies on the way to reach their goals. The face of the moon With a story that will come out at the center of its plot, it will strike particularly close to home for the children of emigrants who find it difficult to understand where they belong among the different cultures with which they grew up. The main character, Paul, wants to tell his mother about his sexuality, but she does not speak English and he does not speak Korean. It is a story of identity, in its different forms. Super ordinary Anika is a young woman with superpowers. The only problem is that her superpowers only show up when she has a panic attack. If she thought it was difficult to try to control her mind, the fact that she could no longer control her mind or her superpowers made it even more difficult to manage. With the help of her best friend, Anika tries to be heard and to tell her story. If you liked this article and want to know more about the audio drama, here are some links that you will find useful! Fiction podcasts to satisfy your love for stories More fiction podcasts to satisfy your love for stories Fiction podcasts for superhero fans https://oltnews.com/radio-drama-yesterday-and-today-book-riot?_unique_id=5ea173e9b1f1b