Orson Welles Commentaries

Orson Welles Commentaries is an ABC radio series produced and directed by Orson Welles. Featuring commentary by Welles, with reminiscences and readings from literature, the 15-minute weekly program aired Sunday afternoons at 1:15 p.m. ET beginning September 16, 1945. Lear Radio sponsored the program through the end of June 1946 when it failed to find a larger audience. The series was continued by ABC as a sustaining show through October 6, 1946. Orson Welles Commentaries was the last of Welles's own radio shows.

Episodes

#	Date	Program	Recording	References
1	September 16, 1945	Welles begins his weekly series of social and political commentary and readings, and discusses matador Fernando López.
2	September 23, 1945	Welles tells The Story of Bonito, the Bull by Robert J. Flaherty, the only part of the unfinished omnibus film It's All True he ever presented to an audience. Welles later told the story of Bonito in the final episode of his 1955 BBC-TV series, Orson Welles' Sketch Book.
3	September 30, 1945	Cast: Orson Welles
4	October 7, 1945	Cast: Orson Welles
5	October 14, 1945	Cast: Orson Welles
6	October 21, 1945	Cast: Orson Welles
7	October 28, 1945	Cast: Orson Welles
8	November 4, 1945	Welles discusses the ousting of Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas.
9	November 11, 1945	Welles reads a letter from Louis Armstrong in which he recounts his early days, while Barney Bigard, Zutty Singleton, Fred Washington and others play "Perdido Street Blues".
10	November 18, 1945	Cast: Orson Welles
11	November 25, 1945	Cast: Orson Welles
12	December 2, 1945	Cast: Orson Welles
13	December 9, 1945	A broadcast from the U. S. Naval Training and Distribution Center, Treasure Island, San Francisco, California, via KGO, featuring Commodore Robert W. Cary, USN, commander of the center. The three theatre complexes are named to honor three World War II heroes killed in action: John Basilone, Edward O'Hare and Doris Miller, the first African American to be awarded the Navy Cross. Includes a conversation on race prejudice with Miller's father, Connery Miller, via WACO in Waco, Texas.
14	December 16, 1945	Cast: Orson Welles
15	December 23, 1945	Cast: Orson Welles
16	December 30, 1945	Cast: Orson Welles
17	January 6, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
18	January 13, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
19	January 20, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
20	January 27, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
21	February 3, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
22	February 10, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
23	February 17, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
24	February 24, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
25	March 3, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
26	March 10, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
27	March 17, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
28	March 24, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
29	March 31, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
30	April 7, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
31	April 14, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
32	April 21, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
33	April 28, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
34	May 5, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
35	May 12, 1946	Due to illness, Welles is replaced by George Hays.
36	May 19, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
37	May 26, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
38	June 2, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
39	June 9, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
40	June 16, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
41	June 23, 1946	Welles calls for protest on the end of the Office of Price Administration.
42	June 30, 1946	Welles protests the end of OPA price controls and the imminent atomic test at Bikini Atoll—with his wife Rita Hayworth's image on the A-bomb, nicknamed "Gilda".
43	July 7, 1946	Lear Radios does not renew its sponsorship option due to low audience numbers, but ABC continues the program. Welles's pay is cut from $1,700 to $50 per show.
44	July 14, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
45	July 21, 1946	Don Hollenbeck substitutes for Welles, who is ill. Topics include compromise on OPA rent and price controls, and unrest in Bolivia.
46	July 28, 1946	First episode about the Isaac Woodard case. Welles reads an affidavit sent to him by the NAACP signed by Isaac Woodard, a black veteran who was beaten and blinded by South Carolina police hours after he had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Army. Welles promises to root out the officer responsible and makes the case a major focus of his weekly show. Bret Wood: "Welles took up the cause, having always been outspoken on issues of racism and turned the event into a scathing attack on postwar racism and ingratitude".
47	August 4, 1946	Second program related to the Woodard case. Welles remarks on world peace negotiations and Congress.
48	August 11, 1946	Third program related to the Woodard case. Welles reads from his July 1944 editorial, "Race Hate Must Be Outlawed".
49	August 18, 1946	Fourth program related to the Woodard case. Welles reads and responds to a letter from a white supremacist, and reads from his December 1943 editorial, "The Unknown Soldier".
50	August 25, 1946	Fifth and last program related to the Woodard case. Museum of Broadcasting: "The NAACP felt that these broadcasts did more than anything else to prompt the Justice Department to act on the case".
51	September 1, 1946	Welles is told in September that ABC is unable to continue his sustained program after the October 6 show.
52	September 8, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
53	September 15, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
54	September 22, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
55	September 29, 1946	Cast: Orson Welles
56	October 6, 1946	Last show of the series, and the last of Welles's own radio shows