Posted by Siamang on: 10.31.2006 /
Hi everyone,
I’ve been asked to contribute sometimes to the Ebay Atheist blog. I’m going to try to have it on Mondays, but due to a technical hiccup, I’m just posting now.
I think it’s a good idea to keep the Ebay Atheist blog and discussion going. So we’ll be doing that.
SIAMANG.
We’ll start with something off-topic, because it’s timely….
October 30th 1938, Grover’s Mill, New Jersey was invaded by creatures from Mars. It was all a prank, of course. Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater broadcast a radio drama that was so realistic that it convinced many Americans that there was indeed an invasion from outer space.
It was based on H.G. Wells classic novel “The War of the Worlds” and there is no need to recount the plot, as it’s probably the most classic plot in all science fiction.
Well, since it’s Halloween, I’m in the mood for a little spooky fun. Here’s the radio broadcast. Turn the lights down low, snuggle up in a blanket and give it a creepy listen.
We’ll close with Welles’ immortal words:
“So goodbye everybody, and remember please, for the next day or so, the terrible lesson you learned tonight. That grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody’s there, that was no Martian… it’s Halloween.”
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
1Thanks Siamang - great topic for Halloween!
Comment by: Mike O
2I have the original broadcast. It’s hard to believe anyone believed it, but that was 50 years ago. I’ve got extraneous background on it, too. Let me see if I can find it.
Comment by: Mike O
3I forgot to look for that WOTW info I have. I’ve been swamped and forgot all about it last night. Anyway, let me check tonight … if I remember, that is. I’m leaving at 5:30am for the Revolution Conference tomorrow.
Comment by: Mike O
4Here is a writeup I had on War of the Worlds.
Radio programs are interrupted by reports of a Martian invasion of New Jersey. Martian war machines quickly conquer the Earth, but one survivor retains hope for the future of mankind.’
On October 30th, 1938, many listeners missed The Mercury Theatre on the Aire’s opening introductions identifying the show as an adaptation of H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, having begun the hour listening to Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on his broadcast of NBC’s Chase and Sanborn Hour. Some switched stations when Nelson Eddy’s musical numbers replaced the comedy segment, intending to return to the NBC’s top-rated program in time for Edgar and Charlie’s next comedy sketch. Instead, they remained tuned to CBS upon hearing apparent news remotes telling of a Martian invasion of new Jersey. A few days after the broadcast, Welles received a telegram from Alexander Woolcott: “This only goes to prove, my beamish boy, that the intelligent people were all listening to the dummy, and all the dummies were listening to you.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio news. At twenty minutes before eight, central time, Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars.”
The power and magic of radio’s “theatre of the mind” was forcefully demonstrated on the night of October 30, 1938 when Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre company convinced a substantial percentage of the radio audience that the Earth had been attacked by invaders from Mars. Much of the radio duties fell upon Paul Stewart, who directed the Thursday rehearsal while Welles perfomed in Archihbald MacLeish’s “Air Raid” on The Columbia Workshop. Orson pronounced the program “dull” upon hearing Stewarts rehearsal recording: “Nobody’s going to believe a word of this.” Impressed by MacLeish’s use of simulated news remotes in “Air Raid,” Welles asked that the simulations be incorporated into Howard Koch’s script adaptation. Script editor John Houseman agreed that the program’s “only chance of coming off lay in emphasizing its newscast style — its simultaneous, eyewitness quality.” To prepare for his role as field reporter Carl Phillips, Frank Readick borrowed the recording of Herb Morrison’s live reportage of the Hindenburg disaster and listened to it repeatedly, then recreated a newsman’s frenzied reaction to unimaginable horror in the program’s most memorable performance.
Approximately six million listeners heard the broadcast and it is estimated that a million believed the invasion to be real, fleeing their homes and filing churches and bus terminals. Government officials were unamused by Welles’ explanation that it had all been a Halloween prank, “the Mercury Theatre’s own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying ‘Boo.’” “We thought the audience would have as much fun as we did pretending that this was happening,” recalled cast member William Alland, who later produced the science fiction films It Came from Outer Space, This Island Earth and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. “By the time it was finished, the control room had about ten cops in there … They ushered the whole cast into a room which had 20 desks, each with a phone on it. All the phones were ringing. We all started answering the phones … The calls were from people all over the country saying, “What are you doing? You scared us to death.” At the end of the room was William Paley, the head of CBS, in his bathrobe and slippers. They had visions of millions of dollars worth of lawsuits.”
“For a few days, I was a combination Benedict Arnold and John Wilkes Booth,” Orson Welles later recalled. “But people were laughing too hard, thank God — and pretty soon the papers had to quit.”
Comment by: Siamang
5Great! Thanks for that!