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| Rating: 5/5 |
Its October! Here's something to get that Halloween mood going.
In 1938 Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater did a live radio broadcast of their radio adaptation of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds. With only two station identifications throughout the 60+ minute broadcast, listeners tuning into the middle of the adaptation became convinced that what they were hearing was actually happening. Panic ensued as many individuals were convinced that Earth was being invaded by Martians and destroying the planet.
Granted, no one really knows exactly how widespread this panic was and numbers vary, but this broadcast and the panic it caused reached newspapers across the world and did much for Welles's fame and notoriety. This broadcast is cleverly put together not simply as an adaptation that exists merely for entertainment, but they put in news broadcasts, music, and other things to make the adaptation sound genuinely like a radio program that is interrupted by news of a martian invasion. It's not surprising that it caused a panic; listening to the broadcast gives the listener a sense of dread as innocuous reports of gas jets from mars turn into broadcasts from army soldiers that go silent as they are killed from martian heat rays.
The fall season and cooler nights are approaching and this is a nice broadcast to listen to with a cool drink and a nice autumnal breeze blowing.
Orson Welles 1938 Broadcast: Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 , Part 5 , Part 6 , Part 7
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