A Welles Radio Sampler, Sans the Pictures

This unusual laser video disc--”Theatre of the Imagination: Radio Stories by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre”--has no video on it at all, just six hours of monaural audio crammed onto its digital and analog audio tracks. In this theater of the mind, you supply your own images.

The audio has been remastered from original acetate recordings from the Orson Welles Collection at the Lilly Library in Indiana University. Included are examples of Welles’ genius as a radio storyteller--full-length radio adaptations of well-known novels (“Rebecca,” “Heart of Darkness,” “A Tale of Two Cities”), original radio dramas (“The Hitch Hiker,” “My Little Boy”), Welles reading the poetry of John Donne and appearing as “The Shadow,” and bits and pieces of commentary, poetry (“The Song of Solomon”) and drama (“Hamlet’s” soliloquy).

There is also a documentary produced by Frank Beacham and narrated by Leonard Maltin, “Theatre of the Imagination: The Mercury Company Remembers” focusing on Welles’ famous radio theater cast and production (comments from John Houseman, Bernard Herrmann, cast members and Welles are included).

Although the famous, often-heard and overrated “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast that shocked the nation in 1939 is not included (it’s available on records), there is a fascinating broadcast called “H.G. Wells Meets Orson Welles” that took place in 1940 on a San Antonio, Tex., radio station.

The sound is beautifully preserved (the broadcasts date from 1938 to 1946) and the visuals supplied by your imagination may just be far superior to anything on the small screen today.

* “Theatre of the Imagination: Radio Stories by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre,” CLV Extended Play laserdisc, 6 hours, audio only, the Voyager Co. (1351 Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica, CA 90401; (213) 451-1383, $39.95.