RADIO ACTION THEATER
Radio Action Theater, based in New York City and produced by Alabama writer and director Robert Clem, was broadcast on public radio in the U.S. and abroad from 1993 to 1998. The episodes feature performances by Eli Wallach, Ossie Davis, Betty Buckley, Stacy Keach, Jeffery Wright, David Strathairn, Hope Davis, John Glover, Lois Smith, Campbell Scott, Will Patton and Michael O'Keefe, and are based on Southern literature and Southern and U.S. history, with adapted stories by William Faulkner, Charles Chesnutt and William Gilmore Simms; and history plays based on the Hamilton-Burr duel, Woodrow Wilson's curious rise to power and the deadly expedition of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto through what is now the American South. Each episode was directed by Robert Clem with original music composed and performed by Donald Stark.
Episodes
12 episodes
BALD HEAD BILL BAULDY
The complete title of this wildly comic story based on Tall Tales from the Hunters' Camp by South Carolina humorist William Gilmore Simms is "Bald Head Bill Bauldy and How He Went Through the Flurriday Campaign....
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Episode 2
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28:36
THE UNTOUCHABLE DR. WILSON -- Part 1
A tale of the Progressive era, this two-part drama tells the story of how Woodrow Wilson becomes New Jersey's governor in 1910, embraces a progressive agenda and is soon on his way to the U.S. presidency. In Part One of the drama, ...
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28:31
THE UNTOUCHABLE DR. WILSON -- Part 2
In the aftermath of Wilson's victory in his campaign to become New Jersey's governor in 1910, Boss Jim Smith comes to collect his reward -- Wilson's support for Smith to fill a vacant seat in the U.S. Senate. But Democratic voters have d...
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28:10
DAVE'S NECKLISS -- Ossie Davis in a story by Charles Chesnutt
Charles Chesnutt was a pioneering African-American author who wrote a number of novels about middle class and professional blacks but found that white readers wanted only to hear about black characters from the lower strata, who spoke in d...
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43:25
HONOR -- Based on a story by William Faulkner
Broadcast worldwide as part of a radio series celebrating William Faulkner's 100th birthday, the short story "Honor" from 1930 shows Faulkner in his Hollywood mode. He worked as a screenwriter on several films directed by Howard Hawks, in...
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49:21
SPOTTED HORSES -- Based on a story by William Faulkner
Part of a drama series hosted by Stacy Keach, based on short stories by William Faulkner. Spotted Horses, one of his greatest stories, introduces the Snopes clan, a humorless, devious bunch who descend on Yoknapatawpha County like l...
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47:52
MOUNTAIN VICTORY -- Based on a story by William Faulkner
Part of a dramatic series based on short stories by William Faulkner. Mountain Victory, a dark tale written in 1932 at Faulkner's peak, tells of a Confederate officer and his former slave traveling home to Mississippi after the war's end...
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46:51
CHILD OF THE SUN The Expedition of Hernando de Soto
Hernando de Soto had helped conquer the Incas of Peru and in 1539 was sent by the Spanish crown to subjugate the native tribes of what is now the American Southeast, where he would look for treasures like those found in Central and South ...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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27:52
CHILD OF THE SUN -- Episode 2
After landing in Tampa Bay in 1539, Hernando de Soto finds that the natives have gone into hiding in the swamps. He burns their villages, then moves inland and northward, seeking gold. The Spaniards with some difficulty find their w...
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27:19
CHILD OF THE SUN -- Episode 3
Some of De Soto's lieutenants urge that a colony be established in the fertile country of Cofitachequi, near the Atlantic Ocean. But finding no gold in Cofitachequi only copper, mica and pearls, De Soto ignores the advice of his lieutena...
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27:50
