Orson Welles with an entirely African American cast, and the political musical "The Cradle Will Rock". In 1937 he and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company that presented a series of productions on Broadway through 1941. Welles found national and international fame as the director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel "The War of the Worlds" performed for his radio anthology series "The Mercury Theatre on the Air". It reportedly caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was actually occurring. Although some contemporary sources say these
Orson Welles in a film for Cohn for no further fee. The stage show soon failed due to poor box-office, with Welles unable to claim the losses on his taxes. In 1946, Welles began two new radio series—"The Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air" for CBS, and "Orson Welles Commentaries" for ABC. While "Mercury Summer Theatre" featured half-hour adaptations of some classic Mercury radio shows from the 1930s, the first episode was a condensation of his "Around the World" stage play, and is the only record of Cole Porter's music for the project. Several original Mercury actors returned for the series, as