| Start: | Oct 30, '08 8:00p |
It was broadcast on Halloween Night, October 30th, 1938. It made Welles a household name overnight and established the impetus for his spotty career as a Hollywood director and his long tenure as an actor and international celebrity.
Below--From Market Watch Website:
NEW YORK, Oct 29, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ Tomorrow marks the 70th Anniversary of "War of the Worlds," the groundbreaking radio broadcast that terrified millions of Americans who thought that the fictional audio play was real and Martians were actually landing in Grover's Mill, New Jersey.
The original hour-long broadcast, which aired on the eve of Halloween, October 30, 1938, was part of CBS's Mercury Theatre On the Air, directed and narrated by Orson Welles, adapted from the H.G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds, with the audio play written by Howard Koch (writer of Casablanca). It simulated a live news report of a Martian invasion with a series of realistic newscasts seeming to interrupt regularly scheduled programming.
According to Ron Simon, Curator of Radio and Television, Paley Center for Media: "Blurring reality and fiction so seamlessly, Orson Welles established himself as a major artist, and helped to legitimize radio as an artistic medium and major force in American culture."
As part of the program, a fictional CBS news reporter tracks the Martians progress until he himself keels over ...
"Five great machines ... They rise like a line of new towers on the city's west side ... Now they're lifting their metal hands. This is the end now. Smoke comes out ... black smoke, drifting over the city. People in the streets see it now. They're running towards the East River ... thousands of them, dropping in like rats. Now the smoke's spreading faster. It's reached Times Square. People are trying to run away from it, but it's no use. They're falling like flies. Now the smoke's crossing Sixth Avenue ... Fifth Avenue ... a... a hundred yards away ... it's fifty feet ..."
The broadcast is said to have been heard by over 6 million people that night. According to historians, various factors contributed to the widespread reaction: Tensions were running high leading to World War II, the convincing natural delivery of the cast, long stretches of commercial free airplay and only three disclaimers during the broadcast clarifying its fictional nature. As a result, the show ignited a reaction of fear and confusion among listeners across the country. News reports cited people fleeing their homes, and police lines flooded with listeners trying to determine the validity of the Martian invasion.
The broadcast, considered one of the great moments in media history, continues to live-on through re-airings, live re-enactments and adaptations all over the world, introducing a new generation to the power of radio.
For more information and to listen to the entire original broadcast, please visit www.radioheardhere.com/waroftheworlds.
whoa, 6 million listeners THEN?
ReplyDeleteImagine, if you will: Doug the power of a simulated radio / internet thing, to circumvent things IF done today...they are able to produce holograms, in the sky to simulate saucers and jesus!
An arm of the DOD/NSA has been toying for years on this, the Navy runs HAARP in Alaska, after the USAF got out of it, supposedly. The British originally handled this for a while, then the USAF, now the Navy...They amped up the set of antennas to millions of kb',s in hertz output signalling when you would never under most circumstances, need that overdrive, in the ionosphere under any conditions, war, peace, chaos, etc., it makes no sense, as it has been found the amplification of these signals from the site in Alaska, DOES impact our weather here in the lower 48 states, and elsewhere...
they found out, by a series of 'accidents, or whatever excuse', and took it over, now they are off and running with this... I have heard this possibly deals with Nikola Tesla's experiments on free energy, and power as a weapon, electromagnetic plasma fields and radiation parameters...scary, yet fascinating....
Thank you for this post...I remember reading a text of the radio show in grade school. in history class!!!
Wasn't Orson a complex man? Very gifted.
I've not heard a copy of the broadcast since I was very young. But I remember listening to it and wondering how people could have possibly believed it.
ReplyDeleteStill, it was pretty good for the time. Actually, I'd like to hear it again. I'm sure it's out there somewhere online.
Very interesting modern background, Catherine. Nothing that the NSA might be up to would be a complete surprise to me. Hopefuly there is someone in charge with a moral compass.
ReplyDeleteOrson Welles was indeed a complex man, and so gifted. His early success in so many mediums was astounding. I think he tried to do too many projects at once when getting off the ground after "Citizen Kane" and that hampered his career in Hollywood.
I first heard it on a radio broadcast in the mid-80s and wondered the same thing. There were disclaimers in the broadcast, but I gather people missed them. But I have to admit it's still a scary drama to listen to--I stil have it on cassette and heard it again a couple times since. They captured the feel and sounds of a news broadcast very well. And don't think people were as media-savvy as they are today--remember radio and the movies were about it for people back then.
ReplyDeleteHere's part of a documentary on the broadcast on You Tube. The broadcast it self is also available in ten-minute segments on that site as well.
yes, I remembered the program, from TV, likely a PBS program.!!!!
ReplyDelete