
Great Magician, The
Broadcast: March 12, 1938
Starring:
Louis Hector,
Charles Webster,
Barbara Weeks,
Junius Matthews,
John McGovern,
Joseph Bell,
Peter Donald,
Peggy Allenby,
Alfred Shirley,
Lucille Wall,
Jack Costello,
Joseph Vitale,
Joseph Hauntie,
John Brewster,
Mark Smith,
Graham McNamee,
Jerry Macy,
Blevins Davis,
William Shelley,
Lawrence Kara,
Barbara Bruce,
Al Oakes,
Harold McGee,
Bradley Barker,
Francesca Lenny,
Elizabeth Adams
Added: Mar 14 2021
The Great Magician is a Commedia dell'Arte which was the popular theater of sixteenth century Italy from which evolved our modern vaudeville (1938). This play assembled from the extent scenarios the commedia players posted in the wings of their stages is designed somewhat in the terms of the modern idiom so that our audience today may catch the proper tone and flavor of a Commedia Dell'Arte as it might have been produced in the courts and public squares of old Italy. This production takes you to the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy in the year 1587, where the commentator gives you an eyewitness account of the strolling players improvised performance of The Great Magician.
(When hearing the music near the start you'll be thinking of an episode of Life With Luigi!)