That Voice!

Posted on September 24, 2002

In the pantheon of Great Voices, before James Earl Jones, before Barry White, before them all was the first Great Voice of the Airwaves: Orson Welles. Welles had a voice that was made for radio: rich, velvety, simultaneously seductive and commanding. It’s no wonder that he was able to convince a nation of rational men and women that the Martians were landing!

Amazingly, someone is providing a means by which we can reconnect with the Great Voice once again. The Mercury Theatre on the Air is a Web site dedicated to preserving Welles’ radio plays. They even stream them out over the Web in RealAudio and MP3 format (including the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast). If you’re unfamiliar with Welles’ work, you owe it to yourself to check this out and let the Great Voice work its magic on you.