Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre on the Air: Seventeen (Part 1 of 6)

This is an adaptation of the 1916 Booth Tarkington novel "Seventeen" which tells the story of a 17-year-old boy named William Sylvanus Baxter in the early 20th Century who falls head over heels in love with Lola, "a howling bell of eighteen." It's basically a satire of puppy love and the awkwardness of teenage boys in general. (Kind of like "The Inbetweeners" except with less cursing and no English people). As with all of his radio adaptations of novels, Orson Welles played the protagonist himself and directed the production.

It was first broadcast on October 16, 1938, only two weeks before Orson Welles' considerably more famous "War of the Worlds" production. The novel was previously adapted for the screen in 1916 and would be again in 1940.

Category:

Entertainment

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• Orson
• Welles
• Mercury
• Theatre
• on
• the
• Air
• 1938
• Seventeen
• Booth
• Tarkington
• Teenage
• boy
• puppy
• Love

[fromthesidelines]

Very few people bothered to hear this when it originally aired, as the #1 program at 8pm(et) Sunday nights was NBC's "CHASE & SANBORN HOUR", featuring Don Ameche as host, and Edgar Bergen & his dummy, "Charlie McCarthy". This is why it was very easy for Orson and writer Howard W. Koch to create a modern-day adaptation of "The War of the Worlds" as a series of simulated news bulletins, two weeks later. Dan Seymour is the announcer; Bernard Herrmann is the composer/conductor.