John Houseman abandoned in favor of Bram Stoker's "Dracula", with Welles playing the infamous vampire. During an all night session at Perkins' Restaurant, Welles and Houseman hashed out a script. "The Mercury Theatre on the Air" featured an impressive array of talents, including Agnes Moorehead, Bernard Herrmann, and George Coulouris. "The Mercury Theatre on the Air" subsequently became famous for its notorious 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds", which had put much of the country in a panic. By all accounts, Welles was shocked by the panic that ensued. According to Houseman, "he hadn't the faintest
Dracula (radio drama) Dracula (radio drama) "Dracula" is an episode of the American radio drama anthology series "The Mercury Theatre on the Air". It was performed as an episode of the series on Monday, July 11, 1938, and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by actor and future filmmaker Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" (1897). "Dracula" was the first episode of the CBS Radio series "The Mercury Theatre on the Air", which was broadcast at 8 pm ET on Monday, July 11, 1938. Recalling Welles's sound-effects preparations for the series debut