War Of The Worlds Hoax

How much hysteria was there on 9/11? Or for that matter, December 7th, 1941?

There was a similar radio panic for a little while several years ago, January 13th, 1982, when an airliner crashed into a bridge across the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., and flipped over and landed in the river. I was working about a mile or some from the airport at the time. It had started snowing mid-morning and eventually the plant closed and everyone started for home. I don't remember what time I left, probably no later than 11:00 AM, but I didn't get home until after five, the traffic and road conditions were so bad. Early in the afternoon there was news on the radio about the airplane crash. There was also a crash in the subway that afternoon and naturally the news sounded confusing. I imagine the radio people are under a lot of pressure to say something even if they have no idea what was happening. I likewise imagine the real cause of the airplane crash, which was caused by improper de-icing, was the pilot feeling the pressure from the passengers to take off and fly South.

Pearl Harbor was covered rather lackadasically compared to how coverage shaped up later in the war. Neither NBC nor CBS interrupted regular programming for the first flash over the wires at 2:19pm Eastern. NBC waited till the regular station break at 2:29:40 to add a bulletin, and CBS had a regularly-scheduled newscast at 2:30 anyway, so they waited until then for their first mention of the story. The story that CBS interrupted the New York Philharmonic broadcast for the first bulletin is not true, although recordings have been doctored to make it appear to be true. CBS did interrupt the Philharmonic broadcast for later bulletins, but these followed the full half-hour newscast at 2:30.

Mutual was broadcasting a football game from the Polo Grounds when the first flash came over the wire, and they did interrupt -- only to take a barrage of complaints from listeners who wanted to know what was going on on the field.

No network went to continuous coverage for Pearl Harbor, as astonishing as that might sound. Regular programming -- and commercials -- went on as scheduled thruout the afternoon, evening, and into the following day. Some programs were interrupted for breaking news, and a few programs were cut almost entirely when conditions warranted, but listeners -- and sponsors -- who wanted to hear the Great Gildersleeve, Jack Benny, the Manhattan-Merry-Go-Round, and the rest of the Sunday schedule got them despite interruptions. A few sponsors allowed their commercials to be suspended, but the fact that the story broke on a Sunday afternoon, when the ad agencies were closed for business, made it impossible to contact all the necessary reps for permission to drop the advertising. Keep in mind that in 1941, advertising agencies and not the networks themselves controlled most program scheduling.

Mutual had the most interesting programming of the night. WOR sent its local special-events reporter Dave Driscoll out into Times Square to report "man in the street" opinion and got a mouthful from various New York characters, one of whom was abruptly cut off when he launched into an anti-Roosevelt spiel.

"New York" characters reminds me of an old science fiction movie, "War of the Satellites" 1958). It is about earth scientists trying to launch a satellite, only to have them destroyed in outer space. There is a scene near the beginning of a teenage couple out on lover's lane when something flies through the air and crashes on the other side of the hill. Their exchanges both before and after the UFO appearance is so hilariously typical New York speech from the old days. I doubt anyone talks that way anymore, except perhaps when no one is listening.

Also concerning radio, when going to school in Morgantown, West Virginia, I used to pick up radio broadcasts in some Slavish language presumably emanating from Pittsburgh. I wonder if that still happens. I do know, however, that the young girl pop group from Slovenia, Navihanke, made an American tour last year and started in Pittsburgh. If I had only known!

That should probably be "Slavic."

It used to be a pretty common thing for small independent radio stations to meet their payroll by selling time in blocks to "time brokers" who would then resell it to various ethnic broadcasters for foreign-language programming. I have about twenty hours' worth of recordings of a dinky little station in Williamsburg, Brooklyn from the fall of 1936, and these broadcast are dominated by this type of program. Broadcasts are heard in Yiddish, German, Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, and Hungarian, which gives you a pretty good idea of the ethnic composition of that neighborhood at that time. "The Polish-American Hour," featuring the music of Anthony Witkowski and his Polish Knights, alternates between Polish and English, and is sponsored by a neighborhood employment agency which reminds its clients "you may speak Polish if you like!" Today's "English Only" types generally have no idea that the city neighborhoods of the Era were a real polyglot.

An interesting side note on these broadcasts is that the material heard on the German language programming was supplied by a German broadcasting agency which had ties to the Reich Propaganda Office. The programs themselves are merely lessons on speaking German, and don't seem to contain any political or propaganda content -- but it wouldn't be long before such arrangements would get a long, hard look from the FCC, and all foreign broadcasters would be required to submit a full English translation of any material broadcast over US stations.

There was a similar arrangement in Hollywood after talkies came in (silents were international, you just used different dialogue cards). Foreign-language productions would use the facilities at night, after the studio had stopped filming. Sometimes they would film the same movie the studio was recording so you can sometimes see classic Hollywood films shot-for-shot, with the same sets and props for each scene, but with Hungarian or Peruvian or Bulgarian actors in the roles. This ceased once those nations had set up their own national film studios.

Inkstainedwretch said:

There was a similar arrangement in Hollywood after talkies came in (silents were international, you just used different dialogue cards). Foreign-language productions would use the facilities at night, after the studio had stopped filming. Sometimes they would film the same movie the studio was recording so you can sometimes see classic Hollywood films shot-for-shot, with the same sets and props for each scene, but with Hungarian or Peruvian or Bulgarian actors in the roles. This ceased once those nations had set up their own national film studios.

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This is very neat info. I think I might have heard / read something about this before, but did not know all that you posted.

I have heard that was done for the film "Dracula," for the Latin American market but I have no idea how much that done. It might have been widely done, considering that half of the America's speaks something beside English and most of that is Spanish. But chances are, dubbing was probably more common and is still done. For instance, Chinese action movies are in a class by themselves and I can't imagine them being produced anywhere else. Although English speaking Chinese actors are probably available, I just can't see them going to the trouble of making two movies like that just for the American market now. They were quite popular about 40 years ago but I think most of them were dubbed, if not all.

A few examples exist of foreign-language "Our Gang" shorts made this way in 1930-31. It's pretty remarkable to think of children barely able to speak English reciting their lines in phonetically-learned French, Spanish, and German. One of these shorts featured special guest star Stepin Fetchit, who performed his role for French and German versions. That's an image to ponder.

Verrückt!

BlueTrain said:

Verrückt!

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One of the more interesting experiences I have had while traveling in Europe was watching Our Gang shorts dubbed into Italian. Very bizarre to see the kids speaking in rapid fire Italian, unintelligible to me except for the occaisional "Spanky" or "Buckwheat"!

BlueTrain said:

I have heard that was done for the film "Dracula," for the Latin American market but I have no idea how much that done. It might have been widely done, considering that half of the America's speaks something beside English and most of that is Spanish. But chances are, dubbing was probably more common and is still done. For instance, Chinese action movies are in a class by themselves and I can't imagine them being produced anywhere else. Although English speaking Chinese actors are probably available, I just can't see them going to the trouble of making two movies like that just for the American market now. They were quite popular about 40 years ago but I think most of them were dubbed, if not all.

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The Spanish language Dracula ("Drácula") was in fact shot on the same set as the Universal picture. Funnily enough, among die-hard horror fans with an interest in films of the era, the Spanish language version is often considered superior to the Lugosi version. The night crew had the advantage of reviewing dailies of the Lugosi version and decided what artistic choices they liked and which they didn't, and adjusted their film accordingly. Drácula also carries much more of the sexual subtext of Stoker's novel, including some skimpier lingerie for the female leads and a fairly blunt transformation scene for Renfield in which Dracula is replaced by his brides. The general consensus is that while the film itself is stylistically similar and a bit closer to the source material (despite being based on the same stage play as Browning's version), Carlos Villarias is far inferior to Bela Lugosi in his portrayal of Dracula. This is largely because, upon seeing dailies, the makers of Drácula accurately predicted Lugosi's star power and encouraged Villarias to ape him as much as possible, under the belief that Lugosi's charisma was simply a matter of acting style.

It would certainly be interesting to see a Romanian version.

Interesting this should come up -- Lupita Tovar, who played the female lead in the Spanish-language "Dracula" just died over the weekend at the age of 106.

BlueTrain said:

How much hysteria was there on 9/11? Or for that matter, December 7th, 1941?

There was a similar radio panic for a little while several years ago, January 13th, 1982, when an airliner crashed into a bridge across the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., and flipped over and landed in the river. I was working about a mile or some from the airport at the time. It had started snowing mid-morning and eventually the plant closed and everyone started for home. I don't remember what time I left, probably no later than 11:00 AM, but I didn't get home until after five, the traffic and road conditions were so bad. Early in the afternoon there was news on the radio about the airplane crash. There was also a crash in the subway that afternoon and naturally the news sounded confusing. I imagine the radio people are under a lot of pressure to say something even if they have no idea what was happening. I likewise imagine the real cause of the airplane crash, which was caused by improper de-icing, was the pilot feeling the pressure from the passengers to take off and fly South.

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That was a pretty dicey day on the east coast. I had arrived back from the UK the day before to be discharged from the USAF at McGuire AFB. On the 13th our filled to capacity bus down to the airport in Philly was a white knuckle thrill-ride. A couple times we lost traction on the icy road. I feared we'd end up in a ditch. At the airport there was conflicting info whether my flight would be able to leave or not. Sitting on the plane I watched the wings ice up and hoped they'd be de-iced before we took off. They were, but we sat there so long they started icing up again! We finally took off. I don't know for sure but I suspect we were the last flight out before the airport was shut down due to bad weather. Instead of connecting in Chicago we were diverted to St Louis where wandering around the empty airport at 3am, waiting for the 6 am flight to the west coast, I saw the newspaper stories about the plane crash in Washington D.C. Yikes. By the grace of God.