Tonight is the eightieth anniversary of the infamous Mercury Theatre adaptation of H.G. Well's "The War of the Worlds". Orson Welles and the staff thought a potent layer of reality would be created by making the story contemporary and relocating it to the Eastern seaboard. Many consider it a "hoax", though that is an unlikely goal as the producers announced the broadcast as a play right at the beginning.
The owners of Old Time Radio Catalog claim that researchers have never uncovered any spike in emergency room visits (or any visitors mentioning being panic by an invasion) in New Jersey during and immediately after the broadcast. However, San Diego University says that at 8:48pm Eastern the Associated Press issued a bulletin stating there was no invasion from Mars...
http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/filmnot ... s1938.html
According to Feliks Banel, a small town in Washington saw a large level of panic as many transformers during a thunderstorm blew just as the aliens in the production were attacking...
http://mynorthwest.com/1158440/concrete ... he-worlds/
1938 "War of the Worlds" Broadcast
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Christopher K.
- Posts: 6440
- Joined: October 12th, 2009, 3:28 pm
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
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Christopher K.
- Posts: 6440
- Joined: October 12th, 2009, 3:28 pm
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Re: 1938 "War of the Worlds" Broadcast
The door between the real and the unreal, between reality and imagination is opening wider as we approach 31 October...according to tradition anyway. Having heard the 1938 broadcast several times, I'm never unimpressed at its seeming veracity.
More information:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ ... 180955180/
https://umaine.edu/news/blog/2020/10/19 ... historian/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperi ... ms/worlds/
More information:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ ... 180955180/
https://umaine.edu/news/blog/2020/10/19 ... historian/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperi ... ms/worlds/