1938 : Welles scares nation
Orson Welles causes a nationwide panic with his broadcast of
"War of the Worlds"--a realistic radio dramatization of a Martian
invasion of Earth.
Orson Welles was only 23 years old when his Mercury Theater
company decided to update H.G. Wells' 19th-century science
fiction novel War of the Worlds for national radio. Despite his
age, Welles had been in radio for several years, most notably as
the voice of "The Shadow" in the hit mystery program of the
same name. "War of the Worlds" was not planned as a radio
hoax, and Welles had little idea of the havoc it would cause.
The show began on Sunday, October 30, at 8 p.m. A voice
announced: "The Columbia Broadcasting System and its
affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury
Theater on the air in 'War of the Worlds' by H.G. Wells."
Sunday evening in 1938 was prime-time in the golden age of
radio, and millions of Americans had their radios turned on.
But most of these Americans were listening to ventriloquist
Edgar Bergen and his dummy "Charlie McCarthy" on NBC
and only turned to CBS at 8:12 p.m. after the comedy sketch
ended and a little-known singer went on. By then, the story of
the Martian invasion was well underway.
Welles introduced his radio play with a spoken introduction,
followed by an announcer reading a weather report. Then,
seemingly abandoning the storyline, the announcer took
listeners to "the Meridian Room in the Hotel Park Plaza in
downtown New York, where you will be entertained by the
music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra." Putrid dance
music played for some time, and then the scare began. An
announcer broke in to report that "Professor Farrell of the
Mount Jenning Observatory" had detected explosions on the
planet Mars. Then the dance music came back on, followed
by another interruption in which listeners were informed that
a large meteor had crashed into a farmer's field in Grovers
Mills, New Jersey.
Soon, an announcer was at the crash site describing a
Martian emerging from a large metallic cylinder. "Good
heavens," he declared, "something's wriggling out of the
shadow like a gray snake. Now here's another and another
one and another one. They look like tentacles to me ... I
can see the thing's body now. It's large, large as a bear. It
glistens like wet leather. But that face, it ...it ... ladies and
gentlemen, it's indescribable. I can hardly force myself to
keep looking at it, it's so awful. The eyes are black and
gleam like a serpent. The mouth is kind of V-shaped with
saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver
and pulsate."
The Martians mounted walking war machines and fired
"heat-ray" weapons at the puny humans gathered around
the crash site. They annihilated a force of 7,000 National
Guardsman, and after being attacked by artillery and
bombers the Martians released a poisonous gas into
the air. Soon "Martian cylinders" landed in Chicago and
St. Louis. The radio play was extremely realistic, with
Welles employing sophisticated sound effects and his
actors doing an excellent job portraying terrified
announcers and other characters. An announcer reported
that widespread panic had broken out in the vicinity of
the landing sites, with thousands desperately trying to
flee. In fact, that was not far from the truth.
Perhaps as many as a million radio listeners believed that
a real Martian invasion was underway. Panic broke out
across the country. In New Jersey, terrified civilians
jammed highways seeking to escape the alien marauders.
People begged police for gas masks to save them from
the toxic gas and asked electric companies to turn off the
power so that the Martians wouldn't see their lights. One
woman ran into an Indianapolis church where evening
services were being held and yelled, "New York has been
destroyed! It's the end of the world! Go home and prepare
to die!"
When news of the real-life panic leaked into the CBS
studio, Welles went on the air as himself to remind listeners
that it was just fiction. There were rumors that the show
caused suicides, but none
were ever confirmed.
The Federal Communications Commission investigated
the program but found no law was broken. Networks did
agree to be more cautious in their programming in the future.
Orson Welles feared that the controversy generated by
"War of the Worlds" would ruin his career. In fact, the
publicity helped land him a contract with a Hollywood
studio, and in 1941 he directed, wrote, produced, and
starred in Citizen Kane--a movie that many have called
the greatest American film ever made.
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General Interest
1938 : Welles scares nation
http://www.history.com/tdih.
1908 : Queen of American high society dies
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1995 : Quebec separatists narrowly defeated
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