The Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air
CBS
CBS · 1946–1946
Broadcasts
14
Cadence
Seasonal
Rated
PG
Since
1946
The run
- Network
- CBS
- Years active
- 1946–1946
- Surviving broadcasts
- 14
- Genre
- drama
The Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air ran on CBS in the summer of 1946, with Orson Welles revisiting Mercury productions — Around the World in 80 Days, The Count of Monte Cristo, Jane Eyre — in half-hour form, alongside Lucille Fletcher's The Hitch-Hiker. These recordings are public domain.
Source collection
Internet Archive audio collections
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
4 dated broadcasts across 81 years on the air, with 80 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 2026, in original transmission order.
- 1. The Case of the Missing Hour · 5 May 2026
- 2. Sign Off · 12 May 2026
- 3. Dead Air · 19 May 2026
- 01
Signal at Midnight
4 Aug 2026 · 29 min
Recorded on location, with the room left in.
- 02
A Room Above the Street
28 Jul 2026 · 44 min
- 03
The Long Silence
21 Jul 2026 · 59 min
- 04
Dead Air
14 Jul 2026 · 22 min
Three interviews, one archive reel, and a question nobody wanted asked.
- 05
Sign Off
7 Jul 2026 · 37 min
- 06
The Case of the Missing Hour
30 Jun 2026 · 52 min
- 07
Night Broadcast
23 Jun 2026 · 15 min
- 08
The Last Train Out
16 Jun 2026 · 30 min
Also on CBS
CBS in 1946–1946
Other series the network carried while The Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air was on the air.
Same seasons
drama on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
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