"War of the Worlds"

A few months ago, my dad showed me a documentary on a radio broadcast called "War of the Worlds".  CBS radio station hired Orson Welles to write a drama based on H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds".  The new radio show was to premiere on Halloween night in 1938.  World War II was starting to breakout in Europe, so there was a lot of increased paranoia of the oncoming war.

The highlighted act of that evening was a ventriloquist act with Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy that was playing at the same time "War of the Worlds" premiered.  At the beginning of the show, Orson Welles gave a disclaimer saying that the show is just a play.  However, most people only started to listen to the show once there was a commercial break in the ventriloquist act, so they did not hear the warning.  Many people only heard the "news bulletin" to report that an observatory in Chicago had seen explosions of gas from the surface of Mars and were heading to Earth.  Soon after, there was another announcement that martians landed in a farm in Grovers Mill, New Jersey.

Orson Welles

Of course, no such event happened, but soon all of America knew about the town of Grovers Mill, New Jersey.  Orson Welles confided that he had picked the town of Grovers Mill by putting his finger down on a map while his eyes were closed and choosing the city his finger landed on.  Even though the CBS supervisor was told to interrupt the program to let people who missed the disclaimer know that it was all fiction, Orson Welles decided to continue.

"War of the Worlds" Monument  in Grovers Mill commemorating the martian landing site

It is debated today the extent of panic the radio broadcast caused nationwide, and most historians speculate most newspaper exaggerated about the hysteria.  It is known that some people did commit suicide out of fear.  For the production crew, the hours following the broadcast were a nightmare of telephone calls and interviews.  Welles still stood by his writing even with all the criticism, and his new popularity helped launched his entertainment career.  He later went on to write, produce, and star in Citizen Kane.

The full documentary is here and goes more in depth at the plot and aftermath of "War of the Worlds".  While I do realize this post will cause you to back track back to 1938, I still think it was an interesting piece to share from the time period.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/welles-scares-nation
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/introduction/worlds/