Flying Dutchman
06-12-2015, 11:32 AM
1938 War of the Worlds Broadcast
"The War of the Worlds" is an episode of the American radio drama anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938, and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by actor and future filmmaker Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds (1898). It became famous for allegedly causing mass panic, although the reality of this mass panic is disputed since the program had relatively few listeners.[3]
The first two thirds of the one-hour broadcast were presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress. Compounding the issue was the fact that the Mercury Theatre on the Air was a sustaining show without commercial interruptions, adding to the program's realism. Much of the radio audience was listening to Edgar Bergen and only tuned in to "The War of the Worlds" during a musical interlude, thereby missing the introduction that proved the show was a drama.[3]
In the days following the adaptation, there was widespread outrage in the media. The program's news-bulletin format was described as cruelly deceptive by some newspapers (which were losing advertising revenue to radio) and public figures, leading to an outcry against the perpetrators of the broadcast and calls for regulation by the Federal Communications Commission.[3] Despite these complaints—or perhaps in part because of them—the episode secured Welles's fame as a dramatist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio_drama)
"The War of the Worlds" is an episode of the American radio drama anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938, and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by actor and future filmmaker Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds (1898). It became famous for allegedly causing mass panic, although the reality of this mass panic is disputed since the program had relatively few listeners.[3]
The first two thirds of the one-hour broadcast were presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress. Compounding the issue was the fact that the Mercury Theatre on the Air was a sustaining show without commercial interruptions, adding to the program's realism. Much of the radio audience was listening to Edgar Bergen and only tuned in to "The War of the Worlds" during a musical interlude, thereby missing the introduction that proved the show was a drama.[3]
In the days following the adaptation, there was widespread outrage in the media. The program's news-bulletin format was described as cruelly deceptive by some newspapers (which were losing advertising revenue to radio) and public figures, leading to an outcry against the perpetrators of the broadcast and calls for regulation by the Federal Communications Commission.[3] Despite these complaints—or perhaps in part because of them—the episode secured Welles's fame as a dramatist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio_drama)