Lacquer disc recordings of performances, rehearsals, and Mercury Theatre productions
Orson Welles is regarded as one of the most significant figures of the 20th century. Known most for his 1938 radio broadcast of H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds and film Citizen Kane, Welles acted and directed on stage, radio, film, and television, made numerous recordings, and authored plays, film scripts, and a newspaper column. He was even a political activist.
The depth and breadth of Welles’ work make him an ideal subject for students and scholars in a broad variety of disciplines, both at IU and beyond. The Lilly Library at Indiana University is home to the Orson Welles materials–thousands of one-of-a-kind audio and film recordings, images, and correspondence that comprise numerous collections.
The Lilly’s Welles holdings feature 600 lacquer discs of Mercury Theatre radio performances and rehearsals of series such as Ceiling Unlimited, Hello Americans, This Is My Best, and various incarnations of the Orson Welles Almanac. The library continues to add new materials to its collections. Recent acquisitions include a third copy of one of Welles’s earliest publications, Everybody’s Shakespeare: Three Plays (1938), as well as a series of love letters and whimsical self-portraits from Welles to his wife Rita Hayworth.
Visit Orson Welles on the Air, 1938–1946