Columbia Workshop, adaptation of The Fall of the City. This episode aired on Columbia Broadcasting System, Sunday, April 11, 1937.

The Fall of the City, written by Archibald MacLeish is the first American verse play written for radio. The broadcast (script and production value) were highly successful and lauded by most. The story is an allegory on the rise of Fascism.

Cast: Orson Welles (Announcer), Burgess Meredith (Orator), House Jameson (Studio Director), Adelaide Klein (the Dead Woman), Carleton Young as 1st Messenger), Dwight Weist (2nd Messenger), Edgar Stehli (Priest), William Pringle (General)

CBS Radio CEO, William S. Paley, said of the broadcast: "We had a CBS experimental theater of the air called the Columbia Workshop, which pioneered all kinds of special sound effects and other dramatic techniques. In 1937 it put on a poetic drama by Archibald MacLeish called The Fall of the City, featuring a 22-year-old actor with an unforgettably expressive voice. The play was a sensation, which helped point the way to what radio could achieve. It also made the actor, Orson Welles, an overnight star." (Wikipedia)

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