Radio drama critical acclaim. Some of the many storytellers and monologists on early 1920s American radio might be able to claim even earlier dates. Perhaps America's most famous radio drama broadcast is Orson Welles' "The War of the Worlds" (a 1938 version of H. G. Wells' novel), which convinced large numbers of listeners that an actual invasion from Mars was taking place. By the late 1930s, radio drama was widely popular in the United States (and also in other parts of the world). There were dozens of programs in many different genres, from mysteries and thrillers, to soap operas and comedies. Among
Orson Welles Reed, Elke Sommer and Herbert Lom. In 1975, Welles narrated the documentary "", focusing on Warner Bros. cartoons from the 1940s. Also in 1975, the American Film Institute presented Welles with its third Lifetime Achievement Award (the first two going to director John Ford and actor James Cagney). At the ceremony, Welles screened two scenes from the nearly finished "The Other Side of the Wind". In 1976, Paramount Television purchased the rights for the entire set of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories for Orson Welles. Welles had once wanted to make a series of Nero Wolfe movies, but Rex Stout—who