Episode 427: The Search for Henri Le Fevre

[00:00:16] Speaker A: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society podcast. Welcome to the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society, a podcast dedicated to suspense, crime and horror stories from the golden age of radio. I'm Eric. [00:00:35] Speaker B: I'm Tim. [00:00:36] Speaker C: And I'm Joshua. [00:00:37] Speaker B: We love mysterious old time radio stories, but do they Stand the test of time? That's what we're here to find out today. [00:00:43] Speaker C: I chose the Search for Henri Lefebvre from the Mercury Summer Theater of the Air. [00:00:50] Speaker A: In the summer of 1946, Orson Welles returned to the medium that made him famous with Mercury Summer Theater of the Air, a 15 week CBS series produced, directed and starring Wells himself. The program deliberately echoed his earlier Mercury Theater on the Air and the Campbell Playhouse, reuniting many familiar collaborators, including Bernard Herman and Agnes Moorhead. But this new incarnation was leaner than its predecessors, condensing stories into 30 minute broadcasts and drawing not only from classic literature but from radio's own growing body of original dramas, including the one you're about to hear. [00:01:28] Speaker B: The Search for Henri Lefebvre first aired on suspense in 1944 starring Paul Muni, remembered today for his iconic performance in the original Scarface. The script was written by Lucille Fletcher, whose radio classics include Sorry, Wrong Number and the Hitchhiker, the latter of which Welles also revived for a Mercury Summer Theater. Along with Fletcher's two scripts, Welles revisited Norman Corwin's the Moat Farm Murder, first produced for Columbia workshop in 1944. [00:01:53] Speaker C: The series also served as advertising for another ambitious Welles project, his lavish Broadway musical Around the World, based on Jules Verne's around the World in 80 Days, with original music and lyrics by Cole Porter, Welles devoted the premiere episode of Mercury Summer Theater to a half hour adaptation of the musical. In the process, he preserved what remains the only surviving recording of Porter's music for the project. Although the musical was hailed by Bertold Brecht as the greatest night at the theater he had ever experienced, the its enormous cost doomed it to a relatively brief run. Mercury's Summer Theater of the Air proved equally short lived and in retrospect marked the end of an era. It was the final reunion of the Mercury Players and Welles last American radio series before he moved his career overseas. [00:02:47] Speaker A: Now let's listen to Lucille Fletcher's the Search for Henri Lefebvre from Mercury Summer Theater on the Air, starring Orson Welles and Mercedes McCambridge, originally broadcast July 12, 1946. [00:03:01] Speaker B: It's late at night and a chill has set in. You're alone and the only light you see is coming from an antique radio. Listen to the sounds coming from the speaker. Listen to the music and listen to the voices. [00:03:14] Speaker D: Good evening. This is Orson Welles, your producer of a special series of broadcasts presented by the makers of Pabst Blue Ribbon, the Mercury summer theater of the air. [00:03:31] Speaker E: Tonight and every Friday night, Blended Splendid, perhaps Blue Ribbon presents you with a front row seat at one of the greatest plays ever produced. And now is America's most famous producer, writer, director, Orson Welles. [00:03:46] Speaker D: Our story tonight, ladies and gentlemen, is an original for radio by that most original of radio writers, Ms. Lucille Fletcher. Its title, the Search for Henri Lefebvre. Mercedes McCambridge will be heard as Madame Lefebvre. And so that our story may move without interruption, there'll be no between acts intermission on this broadcast. Our sponsors having very kindly omitted their usual commercial message at that time. So right now, before we get started, let's give Jim Amici a chance to [00:04:11] Speaker E: say his say about about Blended splendid Pabst Blue Ribbon. Friends, as you relax in the comfort of the summer Evening to enjoy Mr. Welles exciting radio drama, I hope that right beside you on chair arm or table is a tall frosted foam cap glass of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Believe me, the makers of Pabst Blue Ribbon are doing their best these thirsty days and nights to supply your dealer and thus supply you with all this truly great beer you like. Occasionally, conditions make this pretty difficult, but of this you can be sure every bottle you do get will be, as always, the happy result of blending never less than 33 fine brews into one great beer. As always, 33 fine brews blend their individual taste tones to give you that splendid flavor. Not too light, not too heavy, but fresh, clean, sparkling, with the real beer taste coming through just the way you like it. So please, keep right on asking for it. It's sure worth asking for Blended splendid Pabst Blue Ribbon. And now Orson Welles and his own Mercury production of the Search for Henri Lefebvre. [00:05:37] Speaker D: I had just set down the last note on paper. Do you know what it is to write a piece? The agony, the drudgery, the exultation. To wrest the thought out of the drab days of rain. To hear music in one's head while outside the drizzle patters down and the heads of the mountains are shrouded in mist. And then one morning, it comes. It is spring. In the branches outside the window, the mountain glitter. The air is blue and bright and the melody comes into your heart and nestles close as though it had always been there. A fever consumes you. Hours melt away at the Piano time. People mean nothing. The world revolves around this rocking song, this tender magic. There are no terrors, save to break the spell. So it was with this piece. I had just set down the last note on paper. I was happy and weary and full of peace. I lay down on the sofa to relax before Ms. Warren brought in my supper. There is a radio near the couch. That night, I turned it on. Horror. Horror crawls upon me sometimes out of the shadows. Like a animal thing. It grimaces at me from the corner of my room. But this time it was upon me. It was in my brain. For that music on the radio playing now was the music I had just set down on paper. Miss Warren. Miss Warren. Miss Warren, come here. Listen to this thing. You hear it, don't you? That is real music playing. [00:07:56] Speaker F: Yes, sir. The radio's playing. Playing real music. [00:07:57] Speaker D: It is not an illusion, an hallucination of some kind in my own brain. [00:08:02] Speaker F: Of course. It's real music. And very pretty to me. Pretty. You don't like it? We'll turn it on. [00:08:07] Speaker D: No, no, leave it alone. Listen to it. Sit there beside the radio. I'll get it for you. [00:08:12] Speaker F: What, sir? [00:08:13] Speaker D: My score. My score. Here, here. Look at it note for note, even as they Play. [00:08:19] Speaker F: I'm sorry, Mr. Flynn, I can't read music. I don't understand. [00:08:23] Speaker D: Perhaps someone in this building has heard me playing. But no, no. The orchestration is the same. The orchestration is a secret, quiet thing that one does alone. Perhaps they've stolen the score, or someone has copied it. But I only finished it this afternoon. It has been here in this drawer and on the piano. Unless. Unless someone else. There is someone else. Someone like me. With my brain, my soul, my genius. A kind of double. Kind of [00:09:05] Speaker E: double. [00:09:15] Speaker F: It's over now, sir. Do you want me to turn it off? [00:09:17] Speaker D: No, no, no, no. See what they announce. See what they dare to say. [00:09:22] Speaker E: You have been listening to the Elegy for Orchestra, Opus 42 by Henri Lefebvre. [00:09:28] Speaker D: This concludes Henri Le Fevre. Henri Le Fevre, [00:09:37] Speaker F: huh? [00:09:46] Speaker D: After she left, I sat there staring at the freshly written pages. My brain was reeling. It was my music. Every little note, every turn of phrase. The silent radio faced me like a mocking, sardonic sphinx. [00:10:03] Speaker E: Adolphus, my good fellow. [00:10:04] Speaker D: Oh, Picard. Excuse me, old friend. Miss Warren, did you call the broadcasting station? [00:10:09] Speaker F: Yes, sir. [00:10:09] Speaker D: And what did they say? [00:10:10] Speaker E: Calm yourself. [00:10:11] Speaker D: What did they say, miss Warren? [00:10:14] Speaker F: Oh, Mr. Picard. [00:10:15] Speaker E: I'm afraid they said, Adolphus, that it was composed by this Henri Lefebvre, an old piece he wrote it nearly 15 years ago. [00:10:22] Speaker D: 15 years ago. But I finished it today. If I had remembered it, Picard, even in my own subconscious, it would have flowed out like a dream. But I had to struggle. Look at these erasures and these cuts. [00:10:34] Speaker E: Is called. And you say it was exactly this way on the radio. [00:10:38] Speaker D: Exactly as though they had copied out the parts in the twinkling of an eye and an orchestra was reading my score. [00:10:43] Speaker E: Very strange. [00:10:43] Speaker D: The man either stole my piece somehow or else there's some terrible coincidence, some simultaneous crooked streak of identical inspiration that leaped across the world. [00:10:57] Speaker E: Things don't happen. [00:10:58] Speaker D: 15. 15 years ago, they said. 15 years ago he set it down. And finally, like a wave traveling slowly across a boundless ocean, it came to me. Adolphus, who is this Henri Lefebvre? [00:11:16] Speaker E: He was a rather a famous composer. [00:11:18] Speaker D: But what's happened to him? Is he still alive? [00:11:20] Speaker E: I don't know, Adolphus. I'm not a musician. [00:11:22] Speaker D: But could you find out for me soon? [00:11:24] Speaker E: I suppose I could, but. Do you really think it wise? What good would it do you to see this man, this perfect stranger? [00:11:31] Speaker D: I must confront him, do you hear? There is some horrible linkage between this man and myself. Some string vibrating in his brain which has caused a like vibration in my own. I must find him. I must somehow break the spell. [00:11:47] Speaker E: And supposing this Henri Lefebvre is dead. [00:11:50] Speaker D: Dead or alive, I. I must find him. I must find him. [00:11:56] Speaker C: Begun. [00:11:59] Speaker D: I must find him. [00:12:06] Speaker F: Henri Lefebvre. Born 1885, Rouen, France. Educated at the Ecole Normale fellowship. Student in composition, the Paris Conservatoire 1 Prix de Rome 1980. Do you want me to go on, Mr. Plain? [00:12:28] Speaker D: No, no, no, Ms. Warren. These dictionaries tell you nothing. They make everything smell of dust. Dust and corruption. Adolphus, I'll Picard. [00:12:36] Speaker E: I have a letter from his publishers. He's still alive, thank God. That there's some mystery about him. They wouldn't give me his present address. [00:12:43] Speaker D: What do you mean? [00:12:44] Speaker E: They say they haven't heard from him in 10 years. His musical output has ceased. He submits nothing, doesn't answer their letters. [00:12:51] Speaker D: How do they know he's still alive? [00:12:52] Speaker E: They hear occasionally from Madame Lefebvre. [00:12:55] Speaker D: Madame Lefebvre? [00:12:56] Speaker E: He has a wife who lives in Rouen. [00:12:58] Speaker D: Madame Lefebvre. Rouen, Rouen. Word came at last from the Red Cross home of Henry Lefebvre in Rouen. [00:13:19] Speaker E: Destroyed by bombs. Whereabouts of composer and Madame Lefebvre unknown. [00:13:24] Speaker D: He's alive. I tell you. He's alive. If he were dead, I would not feel it. I would be Free. But I cannot take up my pen. I cannot write. I cannot even think one thought without wondering whether it may not already be his. [00:13:38] Speaker E: How can you think such things, Adolphus? This poor hounded, homeless man is probably ill, old, dying even. [00:13:45] Speaker D: Even dying. He's reached out a hand to clutch away my genius, Picard. Was I ever lazy. My musical outfit has been enormous. Symphonies, operas, tone poems, songs. Now what do I do? All day long I stand at my window and stare out at the mountains. And at night I am tortured by visions. [00:14:07] Speaker E: Visions. [00:14:07] Speaker D: Nightmares. Nightmares. Nightmares of crooked, foreign streets and church steeples and bells. Bells run by. Crackholk. The bells are tolling the hours. I dream of rooms. Dark, ugly little rooms. And a little girl. A little girl with long, honey colored hair who cries and cries. [00:14:37] Speaker E: You have been reading too much, Adolphus. Your brain is tired. [00:14:40] Speaker D: Don't you understand? These streets, these rooms. That little girl. It is his life of which I am dreaming. It is Rouen. You think me mad, don't you? [00:15:00] Speaker E: Picard. [00:15:06] Speaker F: Mr. Picard. [00:15:07] Speaker E: Yes? [00:15:08] Speaker F: There's a lady downstairs to see Mr. Flynn. [00:15:10] Speaker E: Lady? [00:15:11] Speaker F: She says she heard that Mr. Flynn was making some inquiries about her husband. [00:15:15] Speaker D: Madame Lefebvre. [00:15:16] Speaker E: Adulteresse. [00:15:17] Speaker D: Madame Lefebvre. Bring her up. Bring her up at once. I stood quite motionless in the center of the room. A woman dressed in black confronted me across the waist of polished floor. She was thin, middle aged, a little stooped. Her pale eyes looked washed out with crying. Yet there was another look in them. A look of some drowned and monstrous terror. [00:16:00] Speaker F: I am Cecile Lefebvre. I have heard that you are searching for my husband. [00:16:07] Speaker D: Yes, madam. [00:16:09] Speaker F: Why do you wish to see him? [00:16:10] Speaker D: Why do I wish to see him? You have not heard of my strange predicament, madam? And what of your husband? [00:16:18] Speaker F: My husband remained in Switzerland. [00:16:21] Speaker D: Switzerland? [00:16:22] Speaker F: He has lived there for many years. [00:16:23] Speaker D: But why? I thought they said your home was in Rouen. [00:16:25] Speaker F: Rouen was my home. My husband and I have been estranged for the last 10 years. [00:16:36] Speaker D: You've not seen him for 10 years? Do you know his Opus 42, his elegy for Orchestra? [00:16:43] Speaker F: I do. [00:16:45] Speaker D: When did he write it, please? [00:16:48] Speaker F: About 15 years ago. [00:16:50] Speaker D: 15 years ago? Then you would know the music when you see it. Is this the piece, madame? [00:16:56] Speaker F: Yes. [00:16:58] Speaker D: I wrote this music, madame, a month ago. Out of my own head. [00:17:01] Speaker F: Impossible, monsieur. [00:17:02] Speaker D: Impossible. But I tell you it is so. [00:17:05] Speaker F: But how could this be? This is my husband's. I remember the night he wrote it. A hot midsummer night. The windows were open. We could hear the bells of Rouen ringing. The hours he could not sleep. Our little daughter had been crying. [00:17:23] Speaker D: Your little daughter? [00:17:24] Speaker F: He rose from his bed, saying that his head ached. A little while later, I heard the piano begin to play softly. I called down to him and warned him not to waken Louise. Our little daughter who had been crying. [00:17:38] Speaker E: Yes. [00:17:40] Speaker F: Then I fell asleep. Next morning when I woke up, the bed was empty. He was downstairs at the piano, writing out the final chords. [00:17:51] Speaker D: Go on. [00:17:52] Speaker F: He said it was her piece. It belonged to Louise. And that he had been thinking of her crying all the time. He set it down. It was as though all the sadness that was in his love for her had gone into that melody. [00:18:07] Speaker D: Sadness? But I still don't understand. I wrote this music out of beauty, out of spring, sunshine and wind and birdsong and joy. [00:18:19] Speaker F: My husband used to say this piece held in its heart all the horror of life. [00:18:24] Speaker D: Horror. [00:18:25] Speaker F: He could never understand why it was so popular. He did not want to publish it. He hid it away, saying it was like a premonition. That it had come to him from some. Some other world. Like a hideous omen from another world. And he was right. Monsieur? [00:18:47] Speaker D: How do you mean? [00:18:48] Speaker F: Our little daughter, Louise. She died a little while later. [00:18:54] Speaker D: Madame Lefebvre. [00:18:55] Speaker F: Yes, Monsieur? I beg your pardon for crying. [00:18:59] Speaker D: I do not want to see your husband or hear this music ever again. My search is ended. Do you believe in ghosts, madame? [00:19:08] Speaker F: No. I have been through too much to believe in poor, sad ghosts. [00:19:13] Speaker D: Oh, but I. I do. I believe that neither your husband nor myself wrote that piece. There is some further horror, some demon force at work in this music. It captured him. [00:19:28] Speaker E: It has captured me. [00:19:29] Speaker F: I do not know. My husband was always a wretched, melancholy man. [00:19:34] Speaker D: Tell me, madame, did your husband write any music after he wrote this piece? [00:19:39] Speaker F: Not much more. [00:19:40] Speaker D: You mean it wrecked his brain as it has wrecked mine, leaving him without inspiration? [00:19:44] Speaker F: No. No, it was not that. He continued to write. He still writes. But nothing he has written for 10 years has had any meaning. [00:19:50] Speaker E: What do you mean, Mr. Flynn? [00:19:52] Speaker F: Have you not already guessed the truth? My husband has gone mad. He has been mad for the last 10 years. Shut up in an asylum in Switzerland. I have told this to very few people. It is a form of horrible neurosis. Work neurosis, the doctors call it. He seems to have lost his heart. The events of his past life are meaningless to him. He has forgotten ruin. He has forgotten me. He has forgotten our little dead Louis. [00:20:24] Speaker D: Oh, how terrible. [00:20:25] Speaker F: Now he sits in a bare room and writes music all day long. He has become a slave, a machine. They tell me that his Shelf is packed with scores, but all of them are only an endless jumble of notes. Notes such as a child might scrawl across a paper. [00:20:42] Speaker D: And it was the music, the ghost music, that did this? [00:20:46] Speaker F: Who knows? Terrible things happen. The mind snaps. If I told you I should betray my husband, I should tell you something which has never passed my lips till now. [00:20:55] Speaker D: But you must tell me. Do you not see how vitally important it is to me? I am linked somehow with your husband. And perhaps I, too, am destined to go mad. [00:21:11] Speaker F: No, no, monsieur, you must not think such things. [00:21:13] Speaker D: There were the seeds of madness in this thing. Even from the beginning, there was something uncanny. Why should that radio play that music just after I had finished the piece? Why should you. You, a perfect stranger, have come here and found me? [00:21:31] Speaker F: Mr. Flynn, believe me, people do not go mad so easily. To be destroyed as my husband was destroyed, one must have deep sadnesses and love. One must have human ties. A wife, A beautiful little child. You have no such ties, have you? [00:21:59] Speaker D: No, I have no ties. I have no ties. [00:22:02] Speaker F: My husband went mad because he loved too much. When our little Louise died, he thought that he had killed her. She died of simple pneumonia, but he could never understand that. He became insane with grief. He thought he was her murderer. Don't you see, Mr. Flynn? You who live here alone, whose life is so quiet. [00:22:22] Speaker D: Madame. Madame Lefebvre. [00:22:25] Speaker F: I beg your pardon? [00:22:26] Speaker D: I have seen you before, Madame Lefebvre. I have met you somewhere. I have heard your story. You have come here before? [00:22:37] Speaker F: No, I have never come here before. [00:22:39] Speaker D: Then why should your face seem so suddenly familiar? And your words. There's something uncanny about this thing, madame. For a. For. For a moment, I thought I knew you. [00:22:56] Speaker F: Knew what? [00:22:57] Speaker D: I thought I knew you and your husband and Louise. [00:23:00] Speaker E: Louise. [00:23:02] Speaker D: I thought I had. I'd lived. Maybe it was only in one of my nightmares, but somehow I try to remember. Remember. [00:23:14] Speaker F: Remember the little house in Loire? The stone house. The tree in the garden. The coffee on Sunday afternoons. The Bechstein piano by the window. The bedroom with the calico curtains. The little. [00:23:25] Speaker D: The little doll carriage underneath the stairs. Louise's dark carriage. [00:23:33] Speaker E: Louise. [00:23:34] Speaker F: Louise. [00:23:37] Speaker D: What have they done to her? They've taken her away and I've killed her. Her little doll carriage waits at the bottom of the stairs. But she'll never come back. Never come. No. No. [00:23:48] Speaker F: No. She has been dead for 10 years. You must not think of her anymore. No. No. No. You are getting better now. Dr. Picard says you are getting better. [00:23:56] Speaker D: Doctor? Dr. Picard? [00:23:58] Speaker F: You're Dr. [00:23:59] Speaker D: Darling, what are you talking about? I am no doctor. [00:24:02] Speaker F: Don't you see? Don't you see, my darling? Your long search is over. You are Henri Lefebvre. And your own music has come back to you at last. And little by little, it will all come back. Your memories, your genius. You will be able to go out into the world again. [00:24:19] Speaker D: I. I am Henri Lefebvre. [00:24:23] Speaker F: Yes, darling. Hi. [00:24:31] Speaker D: It's rebel old madman. [00:24:33] Speaker F: No. [00:24:34] Speaker E: I. [00:24:35] Speaker D: Locked up in the walls of a lunatic asylum for 10 years, writing a jumble of notes like a little. Like a little child. Then who. Who is Adolphus Flynn? [00:24:52] Speaker F: A name you made up, my darling. A poor, mad name. [00:24:55] Speaker D: My symphonies are rubbish, you say. My adoring public are only shadows running across the walls. And these mountains beyond my window. These mountains. You are lying to me. I tell you, my name is Adolphus Ringari. [00:25:15] Speaker F: Look. This room, these bare white walls, These bars across the window. This door, one cannot open from the inside. For 10 years, aren't we? For 10 years I have waited for a glimmer to come, for some little memory like that music. For 10 years, I have prayed. [00:25:38] Speaker D: For 10 years. [00:25:39] Speaker F: Everything. [00:25:39] Speaker D: For 10 years. That's what I said. [00:25:42] Speaker F: Here. [00:25:44] Speaker D: I. I do not believe it. You call me Ori, too. [00:25:51] Speaker E: I cannot tell you how happy I am, Madame Lefebvre. The experiment has worked beyond our fondest hopes. Picard. And. [00:26:02] Speaker D: Am I Henri Lefebvre? [00:26:03] Speaker E: Yes. [00:26:05] Speaker D: I have been mad for 10 years. You deceived me for 10 years. [00:26:11] Speaker E: Not deceived you, my dear fellow. We only humored your whims, hoping that you'd snap back someday. It was your whim to think that you were a composer named Adolphus Flynn. Your whim to sign your name to all these scores. Your whim to live utterly alone and work all day and half the night. You were quite happy. Until one day a little piece you'd composed for your daughter long ago came back into your mind. Memory began again. You began the search for your lost self. Naturally, after 10 years, one cannot be cured overnight. But you will see. In a few months, we may hope for something quite remarkable. Monsieur and Madame Lefebvre. Him. [00:27:08] Speaker D: Him. In. In a few months. In a few months. In a few months, he said. In a few months I would be able to go back. I would. I would take up the threads of my old life as Henri Le Feld. Hmm. I'm still here. Here in this room with its bare white walls and its door that locks from the outside. I'm still here. Although I know now for sure Whitman. That my. That my name is Henri Lefebvre. Her sadness is in my heart. An unutterable sadness and pain that I can never conquer. Rua has come back. The stone house. The little doll carriage underneath the stairs. And my arms ache with longing for a little dead child with long honey colored hair. There is no music in me now. [00:28:59] Speaker E: No music. [00:29:00] Speaker D: Save that one tune which sings in my head all day long. My song for Louise. If I could only get it out of my mind, I might be able to work again. I might be happy as. I once was happy. I might look out of my window and find a symphony and a sunset on the mountains. That is why I will not go back. I will not leave this room. I will not leave this room until I find him again. Until I find Adolphus Flynn. [00:30:15] Speaker E: You've just heard Orson Welles Mercury production of the Search for Henri Lefebvre, a radio play by Lucille Fletcher. Mr. Wells will be back in just a few seconds to tell you about next week's offering of the Mercury Summer Theater. But first, a few words from our sponsors on a very important subject. The makers of Pabst Blue Ribbon are holding their prices at the levels established by OPA last month. Also, ever since government price control ended, they have urgently counseled each household distributor of Pabst Blue Ribbon throughout the country to do likewise. Further, the makers of Pabst Blue Ribbon strongly urge beer retailers all over the country to do the same, for we believe it's up to all of us to do our utmost in the battle against inflation. And now, Mr. Wells. [00:31:10] Speaker D: Well, next week, ladies and gentlemen, we're bringing you the first radio show we ever put on the air for cbs. We haven't done it since. We look back at it fondly. We hope our memories aren't mistaken. We hope you'll enjoy it. It's a great favorite, Everybody's childhood, and I don't think anybody ever outgrows it. The great tale of adventure by Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island. So join us next week, please, same time, same station. Until then, speaking for my sponsors, the makers of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and for the whole Mercury Theater, including, as usual, Maestro Bernard Herman, who was responsible, as usual, for the music on tonight's show. And speaking for Mercedes McCambridge, who was responsible for a very fine performance as Madame Lefebvre, for the whole gang, I remain, as always, obediently yours. [00:32:26] Speaker E: This program came to you through the courtesy of the Pabst Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, makers of blended, splendid Pabst Blue Ribbon. [00:32:37] Speaker D: This is cbs, the Columbia Broadcasting System. [00:32:44] Speaker A: That was the search for Henri Lefebvre from the Mercury Summer Theater of the air here on the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society podcast. Once again, I'm Eric. [00:32:53] Speaker B: I'm Tim. [00:32:53] Speaker C: And I'm Joshua. [00:32:55] Speaker A: Hey. Three quick things right out of the gate. First in the intro, Tim. [00:33:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:00] Speaker A: Norman Corwin's the Moat Farm Murder. [00:33:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:03] Speaker A: Isn't that something you did on stage? [00:33:06] Speaker B: Yeah. At this particular moment in time, which is always a little abstracted in podcast worlds, I have written a script and I'm performing it at fringe festivals that includes Samuel Dougal, the Moat Farm Murderer. [00:33:18] Speaker A: So I love that. I love that it was happy accident because two things. It feeds into my belief that everything is somehow connected. And happenstance really isn't happenstance, which also is ironic considering there's a lot of that in this plot and that things are all connected in some way, although it turned out not to be. Anyway, I don't want to get into that right now, but. Okay, cool. Second, he mumbles Orson Welles at the top, also starring Mercedes McCambridge, to the point where I listened four times. Is he saying Mercedes McCambridge? And I finally went, I think he is, I think he is. And then she comes in, the character she does play, and I'm listening, I think I hear Mercedes voice, very distinct voice. But wow, was it very unmercedes, like in performance, which was awesome because a great character for her acting ability, she stretched and wasn't just playing Mercedes McCambridge. You know what I'm saying? Like you, you could hear her voice, but not as distinct because that. That is a distinct voice quality. So I was really happy in the intro to say, oh, he did say Mercedes McCambridge. That was her last. Third thing I want to point out before we go. This is brilliant. I loved this so much. I just wanted to come out and just throw that out there. I enjoyed the bleep out of this. [00:34:47] Speaker C: That's interesting because I wasn't sure which way it would fall. I thought you, Eric, would either love it or hate it. [00:34:56] Speaker A: It is Victorian esque in its pace. Like it's a little. [00:35:01] Speaker C: The Slow dog is intentionally, I think, [00:35:04] Speaker A: overwrought a little bit and overwrought. [00:35:05] Speaker C: It's part of the style of it, for sure. [00:35:08] Speaker A: For sure. And really, it is a conversation. I mean, there's not much else going on but conversation. [00:35:14] Speaker B: One act. Yeah, yeah. [00:35:16] Speaker A: It's like a three person one act, mostly two. You are corrected on paper. If you said this is the premise, I would have said that's going to bore me to tears. But it was cool and revealing. And for me, it just kept twisting like it was twist upon twist upon twist. [00:35:35] Speaker B: What did you think I was going to think of it? What did you think? [00:35:37] Speaker C: I thought that Tim would fall in the squishy middle. [00:35:41] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:35:42] Speaker C: That's what I thought, that you would really like some of it. [00:35:46] Speaker B: But I adored this. [00:35:48] Speaker A: Okay, good. [00:35:49] Speaker B: I really, really liked this. [00:35:50] Speaker A: Yeah. When he says, I forget the character's real name. Gustave Flaubert. What was his real name? [00:35:57] Speaker D: Yes. [00:35:58] Speaker B: That's a very different show. [00:36:00] Speaker C: Yes. But when he says Adolphus. [00:36:02] Speaker A: Now he's in search of Adolphus. That was cool. It's a great ending. [00:36:06] Speaker B: I mean, the very, very start, the setup of. I've completed this work. I've described the pleasures and difficulties of creating a work of art in a very sort of Orson Welles, tolerably pompous way. And then get to. And I turn on the radio and I hear it. Lucille Fletcher scores big points. [00:36:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:25] Speaker C: And here's where I thought I would lose Eric with this one. And it's also why I think this play is especially brilliant, is that Lucille Fletcher almost weaponizes genre tropes and lets you start to think, oh, is this a ghost story? Is this an evil twin with a psychic connection? Is it demons? Is it time travel? All these things. And then it is so simple and it is so expertly hidden. It's not even hidden. She hides nothing. What she does is play on our cultural stereotypes of artists in general, and especially composers. I think as a little bit mad. Because if you go back and listen to it a second time, you're like, this guy's loony from the start. [00:37:22] Speaker A: Well, any episode of a 70s cop show, Columbo, Rockford Files. If it's a composer or a conductor, they're the murderer. They're always mean and yell at everybody, and they're all screamy. So, yeah, over the top, pompous, full of themselves. And then as it's being revealed that you are Henri, and you think, well, wait a minute. No. All these people were saying. And then you realize they were playing along with him to help him to remember. I thought it was just really, really laid down perfectly in the right order, at the right pace, at the right reveal. [00:38:07] Speaker B: And to that effect of listening to a second time, of them reacting to his dilemma with, like, measured. Maybe this is turning around. Maybe he's going to figure it out. [00:38:21] Speaker C: I don't know about you guys, but I thought it was amazing that I was suspicious that this Was the twist just seconds before his wife says, have you not already guessed the truth? Right. And I felt like that moment she was talking to both her husband as well as the listener. [00:38:41] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:38:42] Speaker C: Because her script is that well calibrated. She knows at each step where she wants and hopes the listener's going to be figuring things out. [00:38:53] Speaker A: Question this adaptation. This isn't a novel or a short story. This is a radio show that had [00:38:59] Speaker C: been done previously on Suspense. [00:39:01] Speaker A: On Suspense. And Lucille wrote that one, too. [00:39:05] Speaker C: Yeah, it's the same script. [00:39:06] Speaker A: Okay. So does the suspense episode exist? [00:39:09] Speaker C: Yes, I've heard both. [00:39:11] Speaker A: Great. I'm so glad. [00:39:13] Speaker C: And I brought this one because I think it is much stronger. Orson Welles direction on this, I think is really good. [00:39:21] Speaker B: I agree. Did Bernard Herrmann do the music on the suspense one? [00:39:24] Speaker D: Do you know? [00:39:25] Speaker A: I would imagine so. [00:39:26] Speaker C: I would think so, because often they were a pair. And that elegy is really creepy. It's the only piece of music in the entire play, essentially. [00:39:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:37] Speaker A: And it's really beautiful. It's truly a great piece of music. Which made me also want to ask, is that written just for this show, or is that a piece of music that I just didn't recognize? [00:39:50] Speaker B: I mean, they wouldn't say Bernardi hen did the music if it wasn't. [00:39:53] Speaker A: Well, he nailed. [00:39:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:55] Speaker A: Wait, Herman's married to Lucille Fletcher, right? [00:39:57] Speaker C: Yes. [00:39:58] Speaker A: Okay. [00:39:58] Speaker C: At this point. [00:39:59] Speaker A: At this point, yeah. [00:40:00] Speaker C: They eventually divorce. [00:40:01] Speaker A: Right. [00:40:01] Speaker C: But I just thought, especially with the music, aside from the quality of it, is the choices of when to use music and when to use no music, when to lean into the silence and the blurring of diegetic and non diegetic. Like when Orson's character, when he is describing the creative process of composing this, and they are playing. We don't know it yet, but they're playing what I think is just incidental music underneath, which is a version of what he just wrote. Then when he turns on the radio, he. It comes back in. And I was so disoriented in a really fun way of like, wait, but that's the same music. Or is this suspense music kicking in to tell us that something sinister is going to happen on the radio? [00:40:48] Speaker A: Exactly. Yes. [00:40:50] Speaker B: Specifically, the radio started with static, and you hear a voice that is identifiable as this is meant to be on the radio. And then that fades into the music. As you say, they're like, this is unclear if this is the music on the radio or meant to be. [00:41:05] Speaker A: I love that. When I started to realize, oh, this is the music on the radio, I thought, this was underscoring the scene for a long time. [00:41:14] Speaker C: And later, when Suzette is looking up information about Lefebvre in the dictionary, the music dictionary, that music comes in again and then it suddenly stops and you realize, oh, because Henri was playing it on the piano while they talked. [00:41:30] Speaker A: Right. You know, you mentioned the silences. There are silences of performance in here. It's really, really difficult in radio drama to act with your face and not do anything. And I'm not quite sure how to do it. I'll be honest. I'm not sure what the formula is that you can be silent and the audience can see your face. Do you know what I'm saying? Like. And I don't know what the trick is to that, other than we're so involved before that. That you've won us over. You've earned that. That we are now seeing your face, that you can do silence. There is a great moment in this, and I'm so sorry. I don't remember what said to Orson's character, but his reaction is something of this nature. He was realizing what was going on. And you just hear him grunting and [00:42:30] Speaker C: he stammers a lot as he's trying to put it all together. [00:42:34] Speaker A: It was beautiful, though. It didn't. That can sound like forgotten lines. That can sound like dead air. That can sound. [00:42:42] Speaker B: It's the combination of script and performance that you are emotionally at one with this character. You are totally sympathetic to what their dilemma is. And when you get to that moment, the script sets you up for knowing where that character is. Even when they don't say it. Even when you don't hear their voice. [00:43:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:03] Speaker C: It's also an example of an effect you can achieve, especially with the demonstrative theatrical style of acting that Orson Welles just loved and what he is doing in this particular play, as well as Mercedes McCambridge. And it's also how Lucille Fletcher writes the dialogue that when it is this big and this heightened, the moments of silence are even more extreme. If this had been really naturalistic, there'd be a lot more pauses all throughout and some quiet and more modulation. But when you hit those moments or hit a stammer, it's like hitting a wall in a good way, because it really signifies that something significant or transformative is happening. [00:43:49] Speaker B: This is an interesting context of everyone involved with this. Very seasoned professional, highly skilled people in their field that particularly doing a lot of radio, have to do a lot of pick the script up, do it, figure it out the best they can, put it down, walk away Never do it again. [00:44:11] Speaker A: Right. [00:44:12] Speaker B: Thinking of this in terms of we don't give ourselves a second chance at the script and all the things we felt like we could have done, we [00:44:19] Speaker A: should have done when we did it on Suspense. [00:44:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:21] Speaker C: But it was a different cast. So Orson just heard this on Suspense and he's a big admirer, obviously of Lucille Fletcher's, and so he wanted a chance to do it. I think that's interesting too, because the other versions of Mercury Theater adapted classic literature. We are now far enough into Old Time Radio where he's looking back and wanting to adapt the classic radio plays that he sets alongside these classic pieces of literature. He's also adapting in this run that [00:44:55] Speaker B: at the time was just in the context of. This is just like feed for the grist. Grist for the mill. That's what I'm trying to think. This is just come and go week after week. [00:45:03] Speaker A: Yeah. He is, in essence, by doing that, stating something that probably wasn't really considered at the time that we doing this podcast now and others like us, that this is an art form. By redoing those, he's saying this isn't just Pablum entertainment. [00:45:24] Speaker C: Disposable. Yeah. [00:45:25] Speaker A: It isn't disposable. This is art. And we're going to elevates it can [00:45:29] Speaker B: be revisited and reinterpreted. [00:45:31] Speaker A: Right. And that's an interesting moment because radio is still young. However, the art of storytelling, only via audio isn't new. It's the oldest art form. But still. [00:45:46] Speaker B: But this right around the time that radio is really blossoming into dragnet and escape and all these really remarkable achievements [00:45:55] Speaker A: that also are remarkable because of how much they've learned from the past and adapted what works, what doesn't work. Yeah. It's coming into its own. Everything that we're saying right now, I think is testimony to the impact this had. It's making us possibly talk a little too deeply about everything. But it inspires this conversation and this passion because it's just so expertly done. It's such a great story and told so well. [00:46:28] Speaker B: And this whole Mercury Summer Theater is, I think Orson Welles attempt to like. Let's have a bigger discussion about audio storytelling. [00:46:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:37] Speaker B: And wanting to revisit. I'm probably trying to guess too much [00:46:41] Speaker C: of what Orson Welles is thinking. He probably also had a tax. [00:46:44] Speaker B: Yes. [00:46:45] Speaker C: He had to pay off too well. [00:46:47] Speaker A: Also, let's not forget that you guys [00:46:49] Speaker B: fired me, you stupid jerks. I do my show. You see that Orson was impersonations. [00:46:57] Speaker A: I'm Orson Welles. There'll be no art before it's time. [00:47:01] Speaker B: Shit isn't keen. [00:47:04] Speaker A: Well, also, Orson was one of the first to actually start experimenting with audio drama with these radio shows as an art form. Fall of the City was really early in the process, and one of the first. And that's Columbia Workshop. [00:47:20] Speaker C: Yeah. And he was just a performer in that. [00:47:22] Speaker A: He didn't even write a direction, but still, it inspired, clearly. [00:47:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:47:25] Speaker A: War of the Worlds for sure, and many other things. [00:47:29] Speaker C: I know everyone has a different reaction to Orson Welles, but when I hear that voice say, good evening, this is Orson Welles, I always get a little bit of goosebumps because, like, love him, [00:47:42] Speaker B: get out of my room. [00:47:43] Speaker E: Right. [00:47:45] Speaker C: Love him, hate him, swing both ways, depending on the context, whatever you feel about him, I think there's a case to be made that he is the voice of Old Time Radio to a certain degree. War of the Worlds, the Shadow, the hitchhiker, Donovan's Brain, Harry Lime. Just these iconic moments. So I hear that voice, and I'm not just hearing Orson Welles or hearing the radio shows that Orson Welles was in. It seems like in that voice, I can hear the creaking door, the gong from lights out. [00:48:18] Speaker A: Right. [00:48:18] Speaker C: Dum, dum, dum, dum dragnet. You know, like the floodgates open. It's more like, good evening, this is Old Time Radio, which I think would do his pompous heart quite well to hear, even though he's long dead, and to then think he left that kind of indelible mark on cinema as well. For a man who failed so often, he is such a towering figure in so many mediums. [00:48:46] Speaker A: Did I tell you that Shannon and I went and saw Citizen Kane on the big screen just a few weeks ago? [00:48:52] Speaker B: Wow. [00:48:53] Speaker A: It's so good. It's so. I know. Best movie of all time. And people get tired of hearing it. And I was. I went. [00:49:02] Speaker B: I love that joke. It's not even his best movie. [00:49:05] Speaker A: But I went in there going, okay, maybe it's going to be tempered with all the other things I've seen heard in my life, because it's been 20 years. Actually longer than that. I probably saw it in my 20s. [00:49:18] Speaker F: Wow. [00:49:18] Speaker A: Yeah, it's unbelievably good. [00:49:20] Speaker B: It's that brilliant auteur who was. I'm gonna make my first movie and I'm gonna overthink everything. [00:49:27] Speaker C: Right. [00:49:28] Speaker B: And, you know, apply a lot of genius to this. That as a sort of older artist, like, I don't need to do all that. Some of these can be just plain old regular shots. [00:49:36] Speaker A: Someone we were with Said at the end. That reminded me of that warehouse scene in Indiana Jones. And we looked at him. It's an homage in Indiana Jones to that scene, Rosebud. [00:49:50] Speaker B: Such a cliche. [00:49:56] Speaker C: Oh, that's like the co worker of mine who had seen Rosemary's Baby, the Roman Polanski film, and was describing it to another coworker. [00:50:05] Speaker B: It was like. [00:50:06] Speaker C: It was just like an A24 film made 50 years ago. But the one thing I wanted to dig into a little bit before we wrap up is the way which this play grapples with the tension between art and truth. The production as a whole made me think of the Nietzsche quote, we have art in order not to die from the truth. And I think that's especially relevant to genre fiction. Crime and horror stories basically repackage the pain and anxiety of everyday life into something more exotic and thrilling and at the same time more tangible and defeatable and thus reassuring. Fletcher's script does the opposite. It strips away the cozy genre trappings, ghosts, demons, doppelgangers, or whatever you imagine the story to be about, and leaves you with something far more difficult to confront. Human frailty and tragic loss. [00:51:23] Speaker B: I'll jump in here that I. The two things I loved was. In the end, you realize his description of struggling to create this work of art is his struggle to remember this work of art. And they're indistinguishable to him. And I don't even know how to draw a conclusion of it. But the observation of this music sounds so sad. And his, like, this music was a celebration for me. Yeah. [00:51:49] Speaker C: And it's the same music. [00:51:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:51] Speaker C: Which ties back to that terrifying idea at the end, that he's found the truth, who he really is, and now he must find his way back to [00:52:01] Speaker A: madness because that was where he was happier. [00:52:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Art is a coping mechanism that was working. [00:52:07] Speaker A: Yes. [00:52:08] Speaker C: Fletcher turns art into a literal escape. Not a metaphorical escape, not a half hour distraction, but it is an actual, like, escape from reality and sanity. [00:52:20] Speaker A: When it was at the point of he is somehow connected to another human being on the planet. When that was the possible premise of this, I was very excited because I started to go, oh, this has got some quantum physics quality to it. I don't. I'm not an expert on it. I can't. I don't know when quantum physics was actually first introduced. But the point is, that's what I was like. And I was like, that's a great premise. That's going to be so cool that these two are connected somehow. You would think I would get disappointed when I was that excited at that premise that it wasn't it. I was caught so off guard. I was clappy Glee. [00:53:03] Speaker C: Yay. [00:53:03] Speaker A: This is I'm caught off guard. And I loved that. [00:53:08] Speaker B: Ends to ride the coattails of your. This is every trope turned inside out. Listening to it and thinking like, this possible explanation. This possible explanation. Probably what it is is at some point he heard this music and doesn't remember hearing it, but it embedded itself in his brain. Like that's the logical out. Which was, again, a successful deceit. Because that's the actual answer is as reasonable as that. But totally the opposite. [00:53:36] Speaker C: Yeah. And there's something just so tragic about his discovery of the truth. [00:53:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:43] Speaker C: And that it brings him only suffering. [00:53:46] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah. [00:53:47] Speaker C: Oh, you're back. Remember our daughter? Remember how she died? Remember how you blamed yourself and couldn't write again? [00:53:55] Speaker A: I didn't. Until now. [00:53:57] Speaker B: You remember how this door doesn't open from the inside? [00:53:59] Speaker C: In a couple months we'll be able to live together again and share that sorrow once more. It's horrible. And so, of course someone would long for the amnesia of art or madness and how they are equated there. There's also the suggestion that this is a circular story to make it even more tragic. Like how many times does this repeat? Does he escape into madness? And then it resurfaces again. And his wife is hopeful again. The doctors are hopeful again. But they don't know why he's retreating into madness. It's their confrontation with him that is sending him back. [00:54:36] Speaker B: I was curious to ever get a chance to hear what other music he writes aside from this, of what's the gibberish that he writes. [00:54:47] Speaker A: But he isn't. Because they're just telling him that. That the other guy was writing gibberish. [00:54:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:55] Speaker A: But he was him the whole time. So. And he's been writing great things. Or maybe it was just gibberish and he thought it was great. Who knows? I don't know. [00:55:04] Speaker B: It is an open question. [00:55:05] Speaker A: All I know is it really makes me want to. In this world right now. I wish I could retreat into blissful madness. [00:55:14] Speaker D: Yes. [00:55:14] Speaker A: That would be quite lovely to just not know what a newspaper is or to wake up. Oh, man. [00:55:26] Speaker C: There are so many little beautiful turns of phrase in here from Lucille Fletcher when she writes that the elegy to him contained the madness of human love and the frailty of all loveliness. And you're like, oh, but yeah. A little true. [00:55:43] Speaker B: And I love the idea. So Bernard could You write that? [00:55:48] Speaker C: Yes. This is clearly someone who has lived with a composer, so, Bernard, I wrote a script. I'm calling it Worst Case Scenario. I need you to read it. [00:56:03] Speaker A: Also, it requires you to write what will be considered in this fictitious world the greatest piece of music ever written or one of them. Could you get me a little ditty? Could you write that? Should we vote? [00:56:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:18] Speaker A: I'll make mine short, sweet, and to the point. Classic. Top. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe top five. Top ten. For sure. Ever. I loved it. [00:56:30] Speaker B: Give this one of the highest accolades a Minnesotan can give. [00:56:34] Speaker C: Not interesting. [00:56:35] Speaker B: Not too shabby. So classic. Yes. I don't think I literally live as in my heart standing and clapping at the end of this. [00:56:45] Speaker C: Right, yeah. Everything we already said about it, it's amazing. But in case I didn't underscore it enough, I do think Mercedes McCabe and Orson Welles together are just phenomenal in this. The way they are able to lean into the grand theatricality of these characters, but also just absolutely share their humanity with us. [00:57:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:57:14] Speaker C: That's really, really hard to do. And to me, Welles is always, you know, a grand showman when he introduces all of his shows. Some of the Mercury Theater intros are the best part of the entire production. But here he says, an original radio play by that most original of writers. That's not hyperbole. No, this is a really original piece of writing. Her ability to transform the tragedy of mental illness into an actual subversive form of suspense without trivializing it. You feel every bit of it, but you're also a little on the edge of your seat. [00:57:57] Speaker B: The beauty of both the joy and the heartbreak combined, they are beautiful. [00:58:02] Speaker C: And nothing is hidden from the audience. Just the meaning of it is. That's hard to do. [00:58:07] Speaker B: Pretty darn good. [00:58:09] Speaker A: Not too shabby. [00:58:10] Speaker B: Yep, yep. [00:58:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, Tim, tell him stuff. [00:58:14] Speaker B: Then please go visit ghoulishdelights.com that's the home of this podcast. We have a bunch of episodes there. You can go listen to those episodes. Of course, you can find those anywhere you get your podcast episodes. So, you know, that's not a big deal. But there's more. You can leave comments, you can vote on polls, you can visit our swag store. You're like, click. And I want to click on a link and go to a store and buy some merchandise. You can do that. And you can find a link to our Patreon page. Yes. [00:58:41] Speaker C: Go to patreon.com themorals and gosh darn it support this podcast. We really appreciate it. Occasionally I like to step back from all the here's all the stuff you're gonn to get speech and thank our actual supporters because they're great people. They have helped to build a really nice community. It's fun to hang out with them. And if someone was thinking about joining Patreon and wasn't sure, the thing I would tell them to try to persuade them would just be you are going to meet a lot of really fun people via Zoom, via Discord, occasionally even at our live show. So just be a better person and support us on Patreon. [00:59:26] Speaker A: I ruined it. [00:59:28] Speaker C: So close. [00:59:29] Speaker A: So close. [00:59:29] Speaker C: So close to being genuine. [00:59:31] Speaker A: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society Theater Company performs live on stage recreations of classic old time radio shows and a lot of our own original work. If you'd like to see us performing live radio shows, just go to ghoulishdelights.com where you'll find out when we're performing, we'll what we're performing and how to get tickets. Ghoulishdelights.com we also record them the audio and that we supply that to our Patreons. Another perk of being a Patreon. The audio recordings of our live performances. What is coming up next? [01:00:04] Speaker C: Next is your pick, Eric. [01:00:06] Speaker A: Right. We're gonna dive into the series Rocky Fortune, which we have not done and a series called on a show called Double Indemnity. Until then, look out. [01:00:19] Speaker F: Wow. [01:00:19] Speaker C: You know how you can tell that was a really great show? We didn't once talk about blended Splendid Paps Blue ribbon. Next time PBR Next time.