Arthur Miller’s 1941 Radio Play — “Joel Chandler Harris”

Lain — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:30:36 +0000

In 1941 Arthur Miller wrote a radio play for Cavalcade of America called “Joel Chandler Harris.” Karl Swenson, he of Little House on the Prairie fame, plays the lead role.

The play runs about 26 minutes and is sort of an “aw shucks!” biography. Still, the writing is well done. The accents, however, are questionable.

“Joel Chandler Harris” by Arthur Miller

The play is based in fact but it isn’t entirely factual. For example, there’s a scene where Harris meets Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Twain at the White House. In reality the incident in question did occur, but with only Mark Twain and in New Orleans.

Compared with many of the historical inaccuracies we usually deal with, however, this feels like a case of tomato/tomato.

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