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 "With Orson Welles: Stories of a Life in Film". Welles provided narration for the tracks "Defender" from Manowar's 1987 album "Fighting the World" and "Dark Avenger" on their 1982 album, "Battle Hymns". During the 1980s, Welles worked on such film projects as "The Dreamers", based on two stories by Isak Dinesen and starring Oja Kodar, and "Orson Welles' Magic Show", which reused material from his failed TV pilot. Another project he worked on was "Filming The Trial", the second in a proposed series of documentaries examining his feature films. While much was shot for these projects, none of them was