War Of The Worlds Hoax

HadleyH · Dec 10, 2008

more on the Martian broadcast....

Burgess Meredith, who was a friend of O.Welles at the time, says in his biography "So Far, So Good" :

" He (O.Welles) told me later he knew it was a '******* good theatrical piece of work,' and if you staged it as a live broadcast, it might have a strong theatrical effect; but not to the extent it did. John Houseman was the producer of the event. He knew Orson's feelings about the production and Houseman said Orson thought a few people might take it seriously, might be scared for a few minutes - that would be good theater. But Orson never foresaw it would be volcanic, that it would erupt and spread fear over the world."

Story · Dec 14, 2008

That night saw the birth of Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems.

Where the future begins tomorrow

VintageGirl143 · Jun 2, 2009

Mike in Seattle said:
Well, it does say that they were in Newark...and from what I understand, any chance you can take to get out of there, you should....

Actually, Newark used to be the "it" place to be in its hay day. It's still the mecca of amazing food and resturants & the iron bound is still ok. ( I'm there a couple times a week...Just depends when and where you are & what time of night it is) lol

in/y · Oct 30, 2013

Happy 75th

As I work less that 20 minutes from Grovers Mill, I went there during lunch. Neither scorched earth nor cylinders were observed... there really isn't much to speak of in the area even today.

A park in the area has a monument to the broadcast so I'm sending everyone at the Lounge this postcard.

hatguy1 · Oct 30, 2013

LizzieMaine said:
That's exactly right -- Welles, though, was a master of publicity -- and he was able to take full advantage of the press furor surrounding the incident, riding it into a lucrative sponsor contract with Campbell's Soup, and ultimately a film contract with RKO.

Well...there's no such thing as "bad" publicity, I guess.

V.C. Brunswick · Oct 30, 2013

p51 said:
I once talked with a WW2 vet who'd been in the New Jersey National Guard at the time and was called to duty that evening for riot control. He wasn't listening to the show and had no idea what was going on until he got to the armory. His First SGT told him that there was "some kind of panic" over a radio show. He said later there was a joking attempt to get a "Battle of Grover's Mills" campaign medal issued. It didn't last. I know it has nothing to do with the Golden age but does anyone recall the TV show "Special Bulletin" from 1983? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086350/ Great story, someone stashes a nuke in Charleston harbor. The ending was not what I expected, they set it off and capsized the USS Yorktown anchored on the other side of the bay.

War of the Worlds was once again redone in 1994 as a TV movie called Without Warning.

[video=youtube;f9xMTA7qhZM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9xMTA7qhZM[/video]

hatguy1 · Oct 30, 2013

p51 said:
I know it has nothing to do with the Golden age but does anyone recall the TV show "Special Bulletin" from 1983? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086350/ Great story, someone stashes a nuke in Charleston harbor. The ending was not what I expected, they set it off and capsized the USS Yorktown anchored on the other side of the bay.

I remember that one. If I remember right, when the special ops squad moved down the ladder to where the nuke puke who was threatening to blow his bomb up he shot himself so they couldnt' force him to defuse it? Then when it blew up the anchor desk people were talking to a lady reporter on the ac carrier museum in the harbor who was in shock and saying "Now does the radiation come?" etc. Was a very traumatic/dramatic ending. Is that the one?

Dragon Soldier · Oct 30, 2013

Wow, Some form of synchronicity at work!

Another list I contribute to is talking about this at the moment as well. And it was there, that I learned for the first time, that Americans did not take to the hills in their thousands!

Always took it as read that there was true mass panic.

LizzieMaine · Oct 30, 2013

About a million people "reacted" out of a population over 130 million.

Every year at this time I end up doing an interview with someone about the WOTW phenomenon. Today I was on the English-language service of Radio Poland.

Story · Oct 31, 2013

NPR has a rebroadcast tonight.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...o-war-of-the-worlds-started-a-panic-or-did-it

Stearmen · Oct 31, 2013

LizzieMaine said:
About a million people "reacted" out of a population over 130 million.

Every year at this time I end up doing an interview with someone about the WOTW phenomenon. Today I was on the English-language service of Radio Poland.

Yes, the vast majority of radio listeners were tuned into The Chase and Sanborn Hour! I suspect it is much like Woodstock, millions more claim to have been their, then actually were.

in/y · Oct 31, 2013

Stearmen said:
Yes, the vast majority of radio listeners were tuned into The Chase and Sanborn Hour! I suspect it is much like Woodstock, millions more claim to have been their, then actually were.

Just like me dad's family in Peoria, Illinois (he was 12 at the time). It was a non-event for him. He's told me that he didn't even hear much about the broadcast and the hub-bub in the days that followed.

V.C. Brunswick · Oct 31, 2013

There was also a 1975 TV movie about the War of the Worlds Broadcast called Night That Panicked America. Among the cast was Casey Kasem and Tom Bosley.

[video=youtube;ZJ6Ipwx86oU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ6Ipwx86oU[/video]

LizzieMaine · Oct 31, 2013

V.C. Brunswick said:
There was also a 1975 TV movie about the War of the Worlds Broadcast called Night That Panicked America. Among the cast was Casey Kasem and Tom Bosley.

"Westinghouse Studio One" did a similar production in 1957 -- but because of legal restrictions they weren't allowed to mention the name of Orson Welles, which made for a rather bizarre script.

mungojerry · Nov 10, 2013

Just a back story: A short series on famous stars was shown on TV recently (a repeat of course), Orson Welles was being interviewed on British TV and was asked to recall his experience with the panic of the War of the Worlds phenomena, he recounted most of the above then added 'In 1941 in the same radio studio whilst on air I was handed a piece of paper to announce immediately the attack on Pearl Harbour, I screwed it up into a ball and dumped it in the waste paper basket'.

mungojerry · Nov 10, 2013

One of John O'Hara's great short stories, 'You can always tell Newark'.

VintageEveryday · Oct 23, 2016

Story said:
The New Jersey National Guard armory at Lawrenceville (about 15 miles from Grover's Mill) was used by a horse-drawn 75mm battery at the time of Wells' hoax. Today, it houses the artillery park for the NJ Militia Museum and has a couple of those pieces in it's collection.

Being the Devil's Advocate, I suggested the curators' (retired artillerymen themselves) tell the more gullible visitors that "this was one of the guns that fire d on the Martian tripods in 1938". lol

Of course, there are some that claim that it was a cover-up of a real invasion... lol
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread136275/pg1

Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact
Many Flee Homes to Escape 'Gas Raid From Mars'--Phone Calls Swamp Police at Broadcast of Wells Fantasy
This article appeared in the New York Times on Oct. 31, 1938.

A wave of mass hysteria seized thousands of radio listeners between 8:15 and 9:30 o'clock last night when a broadcast of a dramatization of H. G. Wells's fantasy, "The War of the Worlds," led thousands to believe that an interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and New York.

The broadcast, which disrupted households, interrupted religious services, created traffic jams and clogged communications systems, was made by Orson Welles, who as the radio character, "The Shadow," used to give "the creeps" to countless child listeners. This time at least a score of adults required medical treatment for shock and hysteria.

In Newark, in a single block at Heddon Terrace and Hawthorne Avenue, more than twenty families rushed out of their houses with wet handkerchiefs and towels over their faces to flee from what they believed was to be a gas raid. Some began moving household furniture.

Throughout New York families left their homes, some to flee to near-by parks. Thousands of persons called the police, newspapers and radio stations here and in other cities of the United States and Canada seeking advice on protective measures against the raids.

The program was produced by Mr. Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air over station WABC and the Columbia Broadcasting System's coast-to-coast network, from 8 to 9 o'clock.

The radio play, as presented, was to simulate a regular radio program with a "break-in" for the material of the play. The radio listeners, apparently, missed or did not listen to the introduction, which was: "The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air in 'The War of the Worlds' by H. G. Wells."

See also
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showpost.php?p=196009&postcount=5

so this is true? I always thought the hysteria was a hoax in of itself!

VintageEveryday · Oct 23, 2016

mungojerry said:
Just a back story: A short series on famous stars was shown on TV recently (a repeat of course), Orson Welles was being interviewed on British TV and was asked to recall his experience with the panic of the War of the Worlds phenomena, he recounted most of the above then added 'In 1941 in the same radio studio whilst on air I was handed a piece of paper to announce immediately the attack on Pearl Harbour, I screwed it up into a ball and dumped it in the waste paper basket'.

wow. I can't believe that happened! XD

LizzieMaine · Oct 23, 2016

It didn't. Welles was nowhere near Studio One at CBS-New York on December 7th 1941. He was in Hollywood, working on "The Magnificent Ambersons." He did have a radio show on CBS that season, doing half-hour Mercury Theatre plays under the auspices of Lady Esther cosmetics, but it aired Monday night at 10 Eastern, 7 Pacific, not Sundays.

It's possible he was rehearsing for the next day's broadcast -- a series of readings from Whitman's "Leaves of Grass," and a short-story adaptation of "Symptoms of Being 35" by Ring Lardner -- but he would have been at the Columbia Square studios in Hollywood, and he wouldn't have actually been on the air. And it would have been 10:20 in the morning Pacific time, which would have been very, very early for Mr. Welles to be out of bed....

One more bit of trivia -- the building that housed the CBS-New York studios in 1938, 485 Madison Avenue, later served as home for the editorial staff of Mad Magazine. I suspect Mr. Welles would have appreciated that.

LizzieMaine · Oct 24, 2016

VintageEveryday said:
so this is true? I always thought the hysteria was a hoax in of itself!

Most of it was blown way out of proportion by the press, and this was known as far back as Hadley Cantril's Princeton University study of the incident which began shortly after it happened. The recent book "Broadcast Hysteria," by A. Brad Schwartz is the best latter-day summary of the affair and its aftermath.

Short answer -- don't believe everything you read in the papers. The press of 1938 was as full of nonsense and puffed-up foolishness as the Internet of 2016. It just didn't have as many pictures.

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