Orson Welles and the War of the World Broadcast-1938

This was a time before television. Radio was in it's heyday,and one of the most popular programs playing on the radio at that time was Columbia Broadcast System's The Mercury Theater of the Air. It was the day before Halloween,October 30 1938.

On that night The Mercury Theater of the Air was planning a special Halloween adaptation of H G Wells The War of the World. The cast was planning to present the program in a simulated real life format to heighten the dramatic effect. The setting was switched from 19th century England to present day Grover's Mill,an unincorporated village in West Windsor Township,New Jersey. The play used actual name of place well known to people for added realism.The play began with the introduction from the novel. The program continues with dance music periodically interrupted by news flashes about astronomers observing huge explosions on the surface of Mars. The news grows more ominous as it's reported that a cylindrical shaped meteorite has crashed to earth in Grover's Mill New Jersey. One actor plays a reporter covering the breaking story. He and a crowd gather at the site of the crash and the reporter narrates as the top of the cylindrical object slowly began to turn. He describes the creature from Wells book. The creature obliterates the watching crowd including the reporter with a Heat Ray.

The broadcast is available online at several different sites, so I won't go any father into the play. It's the reaction to the play that mostly interested me.

Despite repeated warning at the show's start that it was a dramatic recreation many people who tuned in after the introduction thought that they were listening to a real news bulletin. This happen mostly on the East Coast due to the network broadcasting to the West Coast on a different time schedule. You hear stories of mass hysteria but from my understanding it was Thousands of people who thought that they were hearing a real news program,not Millions. Most people knew that it was a play. Still it did frighten a great deal of people. The police up and down the Northern seaboard and in parts of Canada received hundreds of calls reporting alien sighting. It must have been a fun night.

There a lot of different books and online sites that tell the story and others where you can hear the broadcast. I've listened to the broadcast online and it's easy to understand that if you weren't aware that it was a play you could very easily be misled. I hope that you enjoyed this and will read more.