Follow a Star · 1937–1954
Agnes Moorehead
The finest actress radio had
Moorehead was a founder member of the Mercury company and then the most reliable dramatic voice in American radio — and the medium repaid her by almost never announcing her name. The journey follows the work rather than the credits: the Mercury seasons, Margot Lane opposite Welles, and the twenty-two minutes on Suspense that she played eight times because nobody else could.
138 recordings across 4 chapters
Chapter 1 · 1943–1960
Sorry, Wrong Number
One woman, a telephone and a crossed line. Suspense brought it back again and again with Moorehead in the chair every time; several of those performances survive here.
- Series
043 Sorry, Wrong Number
Suspense · 1943 · 29 min
- Series
CBS Suspense Sorry, Wrong Number East Coast
Radio News 1943 · 1943 · 30 min
- Series
CBS Suspense Sorry, Wrong Number West Coast
Radio News 1943 · 1943 · 29 min
- Series
054 Sorry, Wrong Number
Suspense · 1943 · 29 min
- Series
080 Sorry, Wrong Number
Suspense · 1944 · 29 min
- Series
157 Sorry, Wrong Number
Suspense · 1945 · 32 min
- Series
Sorry, Wrong Number
The Jack Benny Program · 1948 · 28 min
- Series
315 Sorry, Wrong Number
Suspense · 1948 · 30 min
- Series
re 684 Sorry, Wrong Number
Lux Radio Theater · 1950 · 59 min
- Series
721 Sorry, Wrong Number (131-44) 23969 24m55s AFRTS
Suspense · 1957 · 24 min
- Series
840 Sorry, Wrong Number
Suspense · 1960 · 24 min
Chapter 2 · 1938
The Mercury company
She was in the repertory from the beginning, taking whatever the week's adaptation needed — mothers, spinsters, narrators, children.
- Series
11 Dracula
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
- Series
18 Treasure Island
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 4m
- Series
25 A Tale of Two Cities
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
- Series
01 The 39 Steps
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 1m
- Series
08 Three Short Stories: I’m a Fool | The Open Window | My Little Boy
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
- Series
15 Abraham Lincoln
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
- Series
22 The Affairs of Anatol
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
- Series
29 The Count of Monte Cristo
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
- Series
05 The Man Who Was Thursday
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
- Series
11 Julius Caesar (Rehearsal)
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 2m
- Series
25 The Immortal Sherlock Holmes
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 58 min
- Series
09 Hell on Ice
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 0m
- Series
16 Seventeen
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 0m
- Series
23 Around the World in 80 Days
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 58 min
- Series
30 War of the Worlds
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 57 min
- Series
30 War of the Worlds (Alt Version)
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 0m
- Series
The War of the Worlds
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
- Series
06 Heart of Darkness | Life with Father
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 0m
- Series
13 Passenger to Bali
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 1h 0m
- Series
20 The Pickwick Papers
The Mercury Theatre on the Air · 1938 · 59 min
Chapter 3 · 1937–1940
showing 30 of 105
Margot Lane
The early Shadow seasons, opposite Welles: the only person who knows to whom the invisible Lamont Cranston is talking.
- Series
w (87) The Death House Rescue
The Shadow · 1937 · 29 min
- Series
w (91) The Temple Bells of Neban
The Shadow · 1937 · 29 min
- Series
w (92) The Three Ghosts
The Shadow · 1937 · 29 min
- Series
w (96) Circle of Death
The Shadow · 1937 · 29 min
- Series
w (98) The Death Triangle
The Shadow · 1937 · 28 min
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w (99) Cold Death
The Shadow · 1937 · 29 min
- Series
w (102) The League of Terror
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (103) Sabotage
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (104) Society of the Living Dead
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (105) Poison Death
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (106) The Phantom Voice
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (108) Hounds In the Hills
The Shadow · 1938 · 28 min
- Series
w (109) The Plot Murder
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (110) The Bride of Death
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (111) The Silent Avenger
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (112) The White Legion
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (113) The Hypnotized Audience
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (114) Death from the Deep
The Shadow · 1938 · 28 min
- Series
w (115) The Fire Bug
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (116) The Blind Beggar Dies
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (117) The Power of the Mind
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (118) The White God
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (119) Aboard the Steamship Amazon
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (120) Murders in Wax
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (121) The Message from the Hills
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (122) The Creeper
The Shadow · 1938 · 31 min
- Series
w (123) The Tenor with the Broken Voice
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (124) Murder on Approval
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (125) The Tomb of Terror
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
- Series
w (126) The Old People
The Shadow · 1938 · 29 min
Chapter 4 · 1940–1954
Where the announcer said her name
The handful of surviving transfers whose own titles or notes credit her. There should be hundreds. There are these.
What the record cannot tell us
Moorehead is on hundreds of broadcasts in this archive — Suspense, Cavalcade of America, the Mercury seasons — but the surviving metadata almost never names supporting players. These chapters follow the productions she is documented as belonging to, not a cast index, because no reliable cast index exists for the run.
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