In early 1943 Orson Welles was in production alongside Joan Fontaine with 20th Century Fox for Jane Eyre.

Although Welles enjoyed acting for the screen, he preferred live radio. In March, when Jack Benny took ill with pneumonia, Welles filled in as host of The Jack Benny Program.

Jack returns on April 11th, but Orson isn’t quite ready to let go.

(Photo: Actors Mickey Rooney, Jack Benny, and Orson Welles talk things over before going on the air in a recent broadcast here in connection with the March of Dimes for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.)

Jack Benny Program: Orson Welles Guests as Jack Returns from Illness—04/11/1943

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting.

Jack Benny Program: Orson Welles Guests as Jack Returns from Illness—04/11/1943

The WallBreakers