The Orson Welles Show (radio series) debut of "The Hitch-Hiker", an original radio play by Lucille Fletcher (wife of Bernard Herrmann) that has become a classic of suspense. On the broadcast of December 29, 1941, Rita Hayworth was the guest player; this was the first meeting between Welles and Hayworth, who were married in September 1943. Welles concluded the final broadcast of "The Orson Welles Show" February 2, 1942, with a statement: "Tomorrow night the Mercury Theatre starts for South America. The reason, put more or less officially, is that I've been asked by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to do a motion
Around the World with Orson Welles existing footage of Welles could be used. The seventh episode was not originally completed or broadcast. For many years, it was believed that the third episode, "Revisiting Vienna", was lost. (The episode is also known as "The Third Man Returns to Vienna"; Welles starred in "The Third Man" in 1949.) In June 2011, the episode was found in the archives at the Wisconsin Historical Society Center for Film and Theater Research in Madison, Wisconsin by Ray Langstone, completing the series. Orson Welles also worked on a seventh episode entitled "The Tragedy of Lurs", which was not completed. The documentary was