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THE FREE COMPANY PRESENTS:

A COLLECTION OF PLAYS ABOUT THE MEANING OF AMERICA

For what avail the Plow or Sail

Or land or life, if freedom fail?

The Free Company was formed by a group of American writers concerned that, withthe approach of WWII, American's should remember the fundamental freedoms and rightsfor which they might well have to fight. Volunteering their talents without compensation,each of the writers created a radio play about some distinguishing aspect of America,about freedom of speech and the press, the right to a jury trial, equality before the lawirregardless of race or creed. As James Boyd, Chairman of The Free Company explained,the authors' conversations about what distinguished America from other countries, whatmade the country worth defending, led to a shared conviction that it was the rule of lawand the Bill of Rights which formed the "bedrock of the system guarding the citizen in hisinalienable basic freedoms and establishing against even the law itself, his sanctity as anindividual."

The authors who belonged to The Free Company included some of the best known and

most accomplished writers of the period: Maxwell Anderson, Sherwood Anderson,Stephen Vincent Benet, Marc Connelley, Paul Green, Archibald Macleish, WilliamSaroyan, Robert F. Sherwood and Orson Welles. All were part of what Michael Denninghas called "the cultural front," a loose association of liberal artists, writers, and filmmakerswho sought to transform american culture during the Depression just as workers -- and thegovernment -- were attempting to transform the country's social and economic relations.

The radio dramas they created thus reflect an attempt by artists at a critical juncture inthe nation's history to shape American's conception of their individual and collectiveidentity. They are also signficant in what they tell us of the power -- imaginative andpolitical -- of radio in its golden age, before it became the commericalized andhomogenized medium it is today. They also complicate and enrich our notions of the

artistic careers of each of the authors. And, of course, they also provide us with a piece ofthat remarkable "soundscape" of the interwar period, of those audible cultural texts withwhich most Americans would then have been familiar but which we have largely ignoredas a resource for understanding their times.

What we offer here is merely a begining, the radio dramas themselves. With time andwith luck, we'll try to put them into fuller context, providing fuller accounts of the authors,of the social and political controversy that the programs set off and that eventually drovethem from the air, and of the relation between radio as an art form and other forms of theday. For now, however, sit back and listen to The Free Company Presents.

Airtime for each program is approximately 30 minutes; each QuickTime file weighs +/- 38

mb; when selected, each program will open a small separate window while it loads.

The People With Light Coming Out Of ThemA loving invocation of small town America written by William Saroyan and starringBurgess Meredith, Henry Fonda, John Garfield, Edmund Gwenn, Nancy Kelly andTim Holt. Originally broadcast February 23, 1941.

The Mole on Lincoln's CheekWritten by Marc Connely, this play argues for intellectual freedom and againstcensorship. It features Burgess Meredith, Robert Young, and Charles Bickford.

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8/7/2019 The Free Company

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12/4/10 3:he Free Company

Page ttp://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/RADIO/Free/main.html

Originally broadcast March 2, 1941.An American Crusader

Written by Robert Sherwood, this is an historical drama about Elijah Lovejoy,abolitionist newspaper publisher and martyr to the ideal of Freedom of the Press. Itfeatures Franchot Tone, Gail Patrick and Burgess Meredith. Originally broadcastMarch 2, 1941.

One More Free Man

James Boyd is the writer of this drama about Freedom of Speech. It features Betty

Field, Dorothy McGuire, Elia Kazan. Directed by Norman Corwin. Originallybroadcast March 16, 1941.

Freedom's A Hard Bought ThingWriten by Stephen Vincent Benet, this is a story about a slave who catches thedisease of "Freedom." Features Eric Burroughs, James Boyd, Harrington Lewis,Georgette Harve and the Juanita Hall Singers. Originally broadcast March 23, 1941.

His Honor, The MayorOrson Welles wrote this story of "Freedom of Speech" in a small American town. Itfeatures Welles, Ray Collins, Agnes Moorehead, Evertt Sloane, Paul Stewart, andErskine Sanford. Originally broadcast April 6, 1941.

A Start In LifeWritten by Paul Green, this story about the daily indignities of the lives of anAfrican-American family. It features Canada Lee and Luis Van Rooten. Originallybroadcast April 13, 1941.

The States TalkingA blank verse drama written by Archibald MacLeish, in which the states answer thecriticisms of Europe, especially the Axis Nations. Burgess Meredith is the host; itwas directed by Irving Ries and Leif Stevens conducted his own score based onAmerican folk song Manuscripts in the Library of Congress. Originally broadcastApril 20, 1941.

The Miracle on the Danube

Maxwell Anderson wrote this drama of a Nazi Captain who is visited by Christ andundergoes a spiritual and political conversion. It features Burgess Meredith and Paul

Muni. Originally broadcast April 27, 1941.Above SuspicionInitially, this script was to have been written by Sherwood Anderson. When he dieda month prior to the broadcast the project was evidently completed by othermembers of the Company. The story of a visitor from Nazi Germany who has greatdifficulty understanding basic values of American life. It features George M. Cohan,Paul Henreid, Eddie Ryan Jr., Lily Valenti, Betty Jane Tyler, and Earle Chaney.Originally broadcast May 4, 1941.

For additional radio programs from the 1930s, please go to AS@UVA On The Air, thevirtual radio station from the American Studies Programs at the University of Virginia.

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