The Orson Welles Almanac was a format that intrigued Welles throughout the early 1940s: it consisted of everything from odd facts to jazz. But it was heavy with dramatized short stories, such pieces as The Apple Tree and The Hitchiker, both of which Welles would do again on The Mercury. The 1944 series spotlighted readings from John Donne, Thomas Paine, and other giants of poetry and prose. But Welles had a running battle with his sponsor, Mobil Oil, and the run was short lived._{John Dunning}