On the night of Oct. 30, 1938, America was invaded by Martians. Over the next couple of hours, the aliens killed millions and conquered Earth, but then germs (today it would be fast food) killed them because they had no immunity. Naturally, many people listening to news reports on their radios panicked. They later learned they had been duped by fake news. It was the ultimate Halloween prank. And it made Orson Welles famous.
Welles was the director and main performer of the low-rated CBS’ Mercury Theater on the Air. It was a drama program that was new, in its 17 weeks, some of the books that were recreated were “Dracula” (the first show), “Treasure Island”, “A Tale of Two Cities”, and “Jane Eyre”. Producer John Houseman decided HG Wells’ 1898 novel “War of the Worlds” would be next, but head writer Howard Koch found the book inane and boring. He was having trouble with the radioplay when he and Welles decided to take a different approach. They would structure it as a series of live news bulletins. Despite the new approach, most of the cast and crew were sure the broadcast would be a failure and they sure as hell didn’t think it would become a national news story.
The program began with Welles borrowing from the start of the novel to tell listeners “We know now that in the early years of the twentieth century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man’s yet as mortal as his own . . .” This disclaimer is followed by music which is interrupted by a report of mysterious explosions on Mars. Next, an unidentified object is reported to have landed in New Jersey. A reporter is on site when creatures emerge and proceed to fry a crowd of onlookers with a heat ray. (Radio actor Frank Readick tried to evoke the iconic coverage of the Hindenburg disaster.) Further reports chronicle the Martians landing in other places like Chicago and St. Louis and their conquest of Earth. A National Guard unit gets wiped out. A reporter on a skyscraper in NYC describes poison gas killing thousands and then chokes to death. The last third of the broadcast has Welles as a survivor talking about how the invasion was ended by germs killing off the invaders. Hey audience, the program was just he and his troupe “dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying ‘boo’!” Little did he know how much trouble he was in.
During the broadcast, thousands of listeners had called in to police to ask what the hell was going on. At one point, a large group of police arrived at the studio to try to shut down the program. They were prevented by studio personnel. However, Welles woke up next morning to a s— storm. He had to do a press conference where he proclaimed surprise (he was a good actor) that he had caused so much pants-p—ing. “I had no idea it had suddenly become some sort of national event.” What he actually was surprised about was how much the newspapers would use the incident to turn people against its main competitor for dispensing news. The press sensationalized the panic. Calls for government punishment led to a Federal Communications Commission investigation that found no malice, but it did issue a warning for radio to be more cautious in the future. Welles supposedly worried about his career, but three years later he made “Citizen Kane”. As far as the myth that lots of people fled their homes and some committed suicide, much of that was written into history through interviews given by Welles where he kept upping the mayhem.
We now know that the turmoil was exaggerated, but real. Although not planned, the initial disclaimer was not heard by many listeners who surfed to CBS after the comedy opening (Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy – that’s right people listened to a ventriloquist on the radio!) of a popular competing program transitioned to a singer. The second disclaimer did not come until 40 minutes in. As evidence that Americans have not recently become stupid enough to fall for obviously fake news, some listeners in 1938 actually thought Martians could launch spacecrafts from Mars and in a few minutes reach Earth. They also believed that Martians could conquer Earth in less than an hour. In defense of the morons, the sound effects by Ora Nichols were outstanding. Before we clown some of our ancestors for not bothering to turn the dial to discover no other radio station were carrying the biggest news story of the century, do you think people turn away from their favorite 24 hour news network to check on breaking news elsewhere?
You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0K4ApWl4g
https://www.neh.gov/article/fake-news-orson-welles-war-worlds-80
https://npg.si.edu/blog/orson-welles-and-70th-anniversary-war-worlds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(1938_radio_drama)
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