War of the Worlds Radio Broadcasts | Old Time Radio

As the nip of autumn air takes hold and the bright orange pumpkins at the farmer's markets are rimmed with morning frost, many of us begin to anticipate hanging fake cobwebs in the front yard, carving a jack-o-lantern or two, and making sure that there is a big bowl of treats near the front door. Even though cold winter snows are just a few short weeks away, this is a time for fun and enjoying as many Tricks as we do Treats.
Tricks and treats may have been a consideration for young Orson Welles eight decades ago when he came up with the idea of presenting H.G. Wells' science fiction masterpiece The War of the Worlds in an updated format on the network-sustained Mercury Theatre. Even though Welles had yet to reach his mid-Twenties, by the fall of 1938 he already had a reputation for "tinkering" with literary classics to forward his own concepts and agenda. He produced a version of Julius Caesar with modern costumes as a commentary on Italian fascism and staged Voodoo Macbeth with an all-black cast. Welles had discussed the power of radio, especially the reaction to Herbert Morrison's reports of the Hindenburg airship disaster. The notion of presenting a story over the radio in the form of a news report was intriguing, just a few weeks before the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast, Welles had H.V. Kaltenborn provide commentary in a broadcast of Julius Caesar to make the play resemble a March of Time documentary.
An urban legend has built up over the decades since the historic broadcast which claims that Welles' "irresponsible" broadcast caused panic in the streets because listeners believed that Martians had actually landed and were running amok in New Jersey. The supposed panic was reported by the newspaper wire services, but when modern historians investigated they found no hospital emergency room reporting any cases resulting from the panic. There were phone calls to local stations and the network, some complaining about the network airing such a realistic show while others asked where people could donate blood to help with the "emergency". Several of the calls were to congratulate Mercury Theatre for such an exciting Halloween program.
The supposed panic was created by the newspapers, and certainly did not hurt their circulation, but the most important outcome was a chance for the print media to attack the upstart radio industry. Radio was siphoning advertising income away from the newspaper industry (much like TV would do to network radio a decade and a half later), a serious blow during the Depression. Of course, judging by the newspaper reports immediately following his broadcast, Orson Welles could not be sure if he would ever be allowed to appear on the radio again, or even if he could avoid being arrested.
There were two important, actual results from the broadcast. One was to help the Science Fiction genre to gain greater acceptance in mainstream entertainment. Stories of space travel and little green men remained the purview of pulp magazines, but The War of the Worlds allowed more readers to take a closer look and discover the fun of imagination. The more immediate result was to bring greater attention to 23-year-old upstart director Orson Welles. RKO offered Welles an unprecedented contract for an untried movie director, which resulted in Citizen Kane (1941), a scandalous box office tragedy when it was released but now considered one of the greatest motion pictures of all time.
As mentioned earlier, Welles' War of the Worlds helped to fuel the acceptance and popularity of Science Fiction, and "Invaders from Mars" is a popular topic. Lux Radio Theatre presents an adaptation of the film version of The War of the Worlds (1953), like the 1938 broadcast it is a modern telling of H.G. Wells story, this time set in California and filled with Cold War references (Spoiler: the Martians have little to fear from atomic weaponry). Also included are The Mysterious Traveler and Dimension X episodes which have some entertaining Martian Invasion tales.
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I was in high school during the 90’s in a radio/tc communication class when I first heard this program.
I have listened to this show, yearly, around Halloween time - going on 30 years this year for that tradition.
Love this program and the part if plays in the history of radio. A moment that will forever be branded into history, and never experienced again.
Welles' Mercury Theater was costing CBS a fortune. This was a huge scam to get a sponsor for the show. And in a month, they got the sponsor with Campbell's Soup. The show was renamed the Campbell Playhouse in just a few weeks.
The idea that people across the US completely freaked out was made up and still gets perpetually told 80 years after the fact. The show stated it wasn't real a few times. There was actually less of a "panic" than widespread anger when people realized they'd been hoodwinked.
I played it for my school children one year. Surprisingly, they enjoyed it, yet could not believe people actually believed it was real. It led to a great discussion of cultural differences and changes in the last 100 years.
Orson wells I think was a genius in what he did for radio and movies he was ahead of his time. I love listening to this show. When I was a kid our teacher would play the lp for us. She also played the Hindenburg crash and other radio news lps. Maybe she was the one who turned me into otr? Anyway, a great show that doesn't go out of style.
The myth of a mass panic grew over the years but the reaction was significant enough at the time that it was front page and banner headline news in newspapers across the country the next day. If you are imagining clogged roads and mass evacuations, that didn't happen. If you were out and about you probably wouldn't have noticed anything. That is why there aren't any photos or film of the "panic." But if you were at a police or fire station, a radio or newspaper office, or a telephone switchboard, you knew something was up. Reports in local papers on local reaction the next morning are all very consistent. The first newspaper reports said "thousands" believed it. A public opinion survey done shortly after showed that a very small percentage of the population reported hearing it and believing it. Howard Koch, who wrote the script, wrote a book about it around 1970 called "The Panic Broadcast." Probably out of print but get your hands on a copy if you can.
I should add that listening to War of the Worlds began for me a lifetime interest in all things Orson Welles—including and attending a conference on him in Woodstock, Illinois for his 100th birthday. I met Many Welles scholars and I learned additional levels of appreciation and understanding in his work.
Met Ojar Kodar—Welles’ partner at the time of his death. I was able to shake the hands of people who shook the hand of Orson Welles! Holy Cow!
And please notice I purchased your latest compilation of Orson Welles radio work—now at 11 cd’s rather than 7. Holy Cow Again!
Such a great show! One of my personal favorites. However, the modern notion that the show sparked mass panic is not supported by the historical record. There were certainly isolated incidents in some communities across the country, and of course some individuals in otherwise 'dormant' cities got caught up in the story and panicked. But the idea of mass hysteria is apocryphal. Doesn't keep War of the Worlds from being a fantastic show from a master storyteller.
Well, it's whatever one chooses to believe.
Because I read all the stuff on it not being mass hysteria.
My Mom said they listened to that, and for some reason everyone in her family/household knew it was a show.
But she said their friends, neighbors were truly freaking out, didn't know what to do, and was trying to find shelter.
I've met quite few people of that generation, in the Midwest and the East Coast, who said many people were panicking.
Not all, so I guess the definition of mass hysteria is in question, but there were many who did believe it, and panicked.
“The gas is spreading over the city now. Hard to breathe.....” October 30, 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre of the Air broadcast “The War of the Worlds”. The realistic portrayal of an alien invasion created a panic throughout the USA, especially on the Eastern seaboard. Welles would go on the air later and apologize for the panic, but you could tell in his voice he knew that his celebrity stature had just grown by leaps and bounds.
That's because the actual myth is that it was exxaggerated.
Whether it was massive or not, there was a nationwide panic.
My Mom told me about it for years. It was real.
Don't know who these people are nowadays making up their own myth. It happened
I was in my late teens the first time I heard "WotW". I had heard about it, of course, but had never actually heard it. One night, I was channel-surfing on my transistor radio and I came across it. An aside... my brother and sister-in-law had just moved not far from that area so a lot of the place names mentioned in the broadcast were familiar to me. I got sucked in for about 10 seconds until I put 2 + 2 together and realized what it was. So, I maybe can believe that people thought it was real. One has to remember there was no CNN or Google back then but I supposed people could have just changed the station to see what other radio stations were reporting.
The most recent studies say that the stories of widespread panic are way overblown. Welles spread bigger and bigger tall tales about it, as the genuine facts began to fade in public memory.
And Welles later admitted that wasn't sorry at all..
CBS had been carrying live news from Europe for much of that year, using actual journalists like Ed Murrow and Robert L. Shirer. Listeners were getting used to the possibility of bad news as it was happening.