War of the Worlds radio broadcast - 1938

[LogDog75]

On Oct 30, 1938, Orson Wells and the Mercury Players presented their play War of the Worlds on radio. On Halloween, I sometimes like to listen to the recording of the broadcast like people first heard is. Instead of the radio. I'll link my computer to my TV's soundbar and listen to it that way with the lights dimmed low to enhance the experience. Here's the YouTube link for the War of the Worlds broadcast.

[OldBaldy1701E]

1. I have already mentioned this before.

So, my grandmother was attending college in 1938, and had gone out to a dinner with some of her friends for Halloween. They ere not going to attend any parties or anything, just go eat and go back to their dorms. Well, she arrived back at her dorm, and everyone was running around screaming about leaving and getting home to parents and the world was ending. She could not figure out what was going on. She finally got someone to tell her what was happening, and she went into the 'common' room to listen to the radio. It was around this point that the 'reporter' was talking about how the Martians had invaded New York. Well, she was in New York and had not seen anything like the guy was talking about. She stood there for a few moments listening, and then the radio gave the famous announcement:

You are listening to a CBS presentation of Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air, in an original dramatization of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. The performance will continue after a brief intermission. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.

She found it very funny that others had fallen for the broadcast. I suppose that it was not so funny to some, but again, we as a public were not exactly used to mass media at this point.

The argument could be made that we still are not.

[johnp3907]

2. Here's a collection of letters they got about the broadcast.

Kind of fun to read.
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/w/wow/?page=browse