Episode 68: Mercury Theater On The Air - Dracula

Dr. P's Daily Time Machine

Hello, and welcome back to the time machine. Today we will continue focusing on the career of Orson Welles. Firstly however I would like to take a quick sidebar, if you’d like to just listen to the episode please feel free to skip to 3ish minutes.

I would like to apologize for the very interrupted upload schedule here on the time machine. It is a one man operation and this one man has been dealing with a lot in the way of mental health for the last few months. I am lucky to have been surrounded by some very encouraging family and early supporters like Mark and AB. I am also lucky to find solace in these stories and the way that they can take you away to somewhere you’ve never been all while just driving to work. I hope you do too, and that is what will keep the time machine running. Additionally with a full week this week where we will actually cover Orson Welles, I will add a bonus episode made for Patreon that was recorded last week and should show up in your feeds by the time this is published. If you are already a subscriber to the Patrieon or through spotify, you would have already heard this episode before so to Mark that goes to you :)

Now enough with all of that. On this episode we will travel back to 1938 for what Mr. Welles is probably most famous for other than Citizen Kane and War of the Worlds. His role as the writer, director, and star would have broken any other 23 year old man, but by age 23 Orson was already considered one of the greatest broadway writers and directors in the world.

In this episode we will go visit the Mercury Radio Theater for the first theatrical adaptation for radio of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I have struggled for years to get into classic literature, and I am sure I have attempted Dracula numerous times throughout my life. Well leave it to Mr. Welles to finally tell a great tale in a “more modern” way. Keep in mind that this is their very first episode aired, all the way back on July 11th, 1938, so please, sit back, and hear the unabridged version of Mercury Radio Theater On The Air and their version of Dracula.