84 years ago tonight: On the evening of 30th October 1938, Orson Welles broadcast his famous dramatised production of the H G Wells novel The War of The Worlds on CBS American radio.
The play started conventionally enough with Welles reading the first part of the novel more or less verbatim. The play then reverted to what appeared to be a typical evening of dance band music which was suddenly interrupted by a newsflash of a mysterious object falling to ground in New Jersey.
More newsflashes followed in increasingly dramatic and hysterical fashion and eventually, as legend has it, an entire nation panicked thinking that they were being invaded by Martians. The following morning the newspapers were full of condemnation of Welles for misleading the nation (read that line again, such irony!).
The size of the panic has since been hugely disputed, but the newspapers did their job and Orson Welles became famous overnight.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 
classic early terror and an unexpected response
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It’s funny just how many shows featured “Martians” on old radio. If you listen to the show, it really sounds like it could be real stuff. Kudos to the sound effects people.
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Experts
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also has to do with the Cold War and people’s fear of ‘the other’, as was the message in many a twilight zone episode. later, it was about us venturing out into the unknown of space. lots of fear
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Indeed
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I love that he did this…and people bought it. It really launched his career.
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Can you imagine all those folks freaking out?
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great piece of history to be reminded of. Fun story and does make one nostalgic for when people both listened to radio en masse and believed the media.
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