The Campbell Playhouse
The Campbell Playhouse (1938–41) was a live CBS radio drama series directed by and starring Orson Welles, and produced by John Houseman.
Following the publicity generated by Welles' broadcast of The War of the Worlds, Campbell's Soup became the sponsor of The Mercury Theater on the Air series, which was renamed The Campbell Playhouse in December 1938.
The first two seasons comprised hour-long adaptations of classic plays and novels, along with occasional adaptations of popular films.
After Welles' departure, the third and final season changed the format to 30-minute episodes.
Perhaps uniquely, The Campbell Playhouse broadcast a radio adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca before the film went into production. Radio historian Martin Grams, Jr. has speculated that producer David O. Selznick sold the radio rights to the novel to Welles partly in order to see how Welles tackled some of the trickier parts of the plot.[1]
- Rebecca (The Campbell Playhouse, 09/Dec/1938)
Links
Notes & References
- ↑ "Good Evening: Alfred Hitchcock on Radio" by Charles Huck and Martin Grams, Jr.
