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Podcast: Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting
Episode: BW - EP131—005: Orson Welles Is The Shadow—The Shadow Launches With Orson Welles
Description: In the fall of 1937, Orson Welles was busy readying for a Mercury Theater broadway production of Julius Caesar. The agency Ruthrauff and Ryan approached Welles about the possibility of starring in a weekly radio series. His signing was announced in The New York Times on August 29th, 1937. Welles’ contract allowed him to miss rehearsals and readings. He was paid seventy-five dollars per week, or roughly fifteen hundred today, for one-half hour of weekly work.
On Sunday September 26th, at 5:30PM the new version of The Shadow debuted. The program's announcer was Ken Roberts. Opposite Welles as Margot Lane was Agnes Mo...