Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Orson Welles 'Snow White' Radio Performance, 1945

A studio audience admission ticket for this live CBS performance...

Image and additional info courtesy of Rick Payne of dadric's attic.


Sixty Seven years ago tonight, Cresta Blanca Wines sponsored a CBS radio dramatization of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The live broadcast took place at the Columbia Square Playhouse in Hollywood and aired on the program, "THIS IS MY BEST", a series hosted by Orson Welles.

In the introduction to the show, Welles shares that it's his oldest daughter's seventh birthday and that he knows of no better story to share with her than Snow White. As one would expect, his narration is rock solid. Jane Powell, who starred in the 1944 Screen Guild Theater performance, repeats her role as the princess. A full cast of Queen/Witch, Prince and Dwarfs fills out the presentation. Excerpts of the songs from the film are performed throughout with live orchestra accompaniment.


Original Airdate: March 27, 1945...

Listen to the entire half hour CBS radio broadcast starring Orson Welles and Jane Powell, courtesy of the Orson Welles on the Air archive collection: http://ia600303.us.archive.org/2/items/OWOTAB/owota64.mp3

3 comments:

  1. Wow, neat! Never heard of this one before... thank goodness it survived all these years.

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  2. Great post, I love those kind of radio retelling ! Thanks for sharing !

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  3. Major... Yeah, I hadn't heard of it either until SW enthusiast Rick Payne sent me a scan of the ticket. I was doubly happy and surprised to find the original show online. I'm continually amazed by just how much Snow White stuff is out there and that I haven't yet even heard of.

    Alexandre... Glad you like the old radio program. I enjoy them quite a lot too. I think I've now found 5 different Disney Snow White old-time radio shows online, and I know there were at least 2 to 4 more that were broadcast. Hopefully, someone will have the recordings from these and will upload them sometime.

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