News, History & Ephemera · CBS
Hello Americans
November 15, 1942 – January 31, 1943 · 12 broadcasts
Orson Welles's twelve-week wartime broadcast on the Americas. Fresh from filming in Brazil for Nelson Rockefeller's Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, Welles produced, directed, wrote for, and hosted this CBS series (Sundays, 8 p.m., November 1942 to January 1943) as a piece of Good Neighbor diplomacy set to music. Each half hour took a country, a theme, or a rhythm -- Brazil and the samba, the Andes and Bolivar, the Caribbean and Haitian independence, Mexico from Montezuma to Juarez -- and built it out with narration, dramatization, and live orchestra, the Mercury Theatre players in the roles and guests like Carmen Miranda on the mic. Welles put the mission plainly: sell South America to North America. Illness cost him two January broadcasts, both turned over to Lud Gluskin's orchestra as all-music "Ritmos de las Americas" showcases; the sponsors judged the audience too small and let it lapse after twelve. All twelve survive -- a rare, listenable half-hour survey of Latin-American history and music from the height of the war.
Collection status:
12 of 12 held (100% complete)
◆ ◆ ◆
Episode Spine
Grouped by year. Jump to the full list below, or open a season on its own page.
1942
November 15, 1942
Brazil
Listen
(MP3)
The opener. Welles takes up Brazil -- the roots of the samba, the country's mix of peoples, the reach of the Amazon -- and shares the microphone with Carmen Miranda. The debut later resurfaced as a bonus on the 2013 restoration of Welles's film The Stranger.
November 22, 1942
Andes
Listen
(MP3)
The mountains as a way into South American history, carried through Simon Bolivar and the conquistador Pizarro, with Edmond O'Brien voicing the Liberator and a score drawn from the Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Gomes.
November 29, 1942
The Islands
Listen
(MP3)
The Caribbean and the making of Haiti -- the road from slavery to independence through the liberator Toussaint Louverture and the emperors who followed.
December 6, 1942
The Alphabet A to C
Listen
(MP3)
First of three programs that survey Latin-American culture letter by letter, from A to C -- touching on Bolivar and circling back to Haiti's early-19th-century king Henri Christophe, with guest singer Miguelito Valdes.
December 13, 1942
The Alphabet C to S
Listen
(MP3)
The middle stretch of the alphabetical survey, carrying the letters from C to S through the cultures of the Americas.
December 20, 1942
The Alphabet: Slavery (Abednego) to End
Listen
(MP3)
The last of the alphabet trilogy, running from "Slavery" to the end of the letters, from a script by Welles and John Tucker Battle.
December 27, 1942
The Bad Will Ambassador
Listen
(MP3)
A dramatized cautionary tale from a Richard Brooks story -- the bad-will ambassador, the very opposite of the neighborliness the series set out to promote.
1943
January 3, 1943
Ritmos de las Americas No. 1
Listen
(MP3)
An all-music half hour. With Welles laid up by illness, Lud Gluskin and his orchestra fill the hour with the rhythms of the Americas.
January 10, 1943
Mexico
Listen
(MP3)
Mexico told through two figures at the far ends of its story -- the Aztec emperor Montezuma and the reforming president Benito Juarez.
January 17, 1943
Feed The World
Listen
(MP3)
An allegory adapted from a Milton Geiger story, turning the hemisphere's land and harvest toward the war effort.
January 24, 1943
Ritmos de las Americas No. 2
Listen
(MP3)
The second music-only broadcast, Gluskin's orchestra again carrying the program while Welles remained out sick.
January 31, 1943
Bolivar's Idea
Listen
(MP3)
The finale circles back to Bolivar and his dream of a united hemisphere, closing the run on inter-American democracy and what it meant in wartime. It was the last broadcast; the sponsors ended the series here.
The Story
Orson Welles's twelve-week wartime broadcast on the Americas. Fresh from filming in Brazil for Nelson Rockefeller's Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, Welles produced, directed, wrote for, and hosted this CBS series (Sundays, 8 p.m., November 1942 to January 1943) as a piece of Good Neighbor diplomacy set to music. Each half hour took a country, a theme, or a rhythm -- Brazil and the samba, the Andes and Bolivar, the Caribbean and Haitian independence, Mexico from Montezuma to Juarez -- and built it out with narration, dramatization, and live orchestra, the Mercury Theatre players in the roles and guests like Carmen Miranda on the mic. Welles put the mission plainly: sell South America to North America. Illness cost him two January broadcasts, both turned over to Lud Gluskin's orchestra as all-music "Ritmos de las Americas" showcases; the sponsors judged the audience too small and let it lapse after twelve. All twelve survive -- a rare, listenable half-hour survey of Latin-American history and music from the height of the war.
Full story — coming soon while it's being curated.
Gallery