Orson at War

The 1942 version of Orson Welles appeared on the air last week in two new programs.

Over CBS (Sunday, 5-5:30, P.W.T.) the sonorous Welles voice besought North Americans to get to know their South American friends better. His first broadcast (Hello, Americans!) for Nelson Rockefeller's Inter-American Affairs committee was laid (by dramatic license) in Rio de Janeiro, where Welles had recently passed three months making a picture (It's All True, as yet unreleased). With the assistance of Carmen Miranda, an orchestra, a cast, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica, enthusiastic Orson took his listeners on a radio Cook's tour of Brazil that was lively, though bumpy in spots.

On Monday (CBS, 7:15-7:30, E.W.T.) Welles was in better form. He had a more Martian subject--aviation (Ceiling Unlimited), for Lockheed Aircraft Corp. His thesis: the absurdity of U.S. isolation. He let some veterans in an Old Soldiers' home argue the point. The plane was ending U.S. isolation, and the old soldiers, assisted by Welles's high-voltage narration, eventually agreed. The air drama had pace, sense, suspense, and a skillful touch.

In his new capacity Orson Welles regards himself as public-relations man for the U.S. For the first time in his life he cannot avoid early deadlines. Army censors insist on seeing the Lockheed scripts two weeks ahead of time. Nelson Rockefeller, on the other hand, trusts Welles so completely that he does not even go over the South American scripts.

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