"The War of the Worlds" was a

Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...

episode of the

radio series A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio networ ...

The Mercury Theatre on the Air ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'' is a radio series of live radio dramas created and hosted by Orson Welles. The weekly hour-long show presented classic literary works performed by Welles's celebrated Mercury Theatre repertory company, with mus ...

'' directed and narrated by

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

as an adaptation of

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...

'' (1898). It was performed and broadcast live at 8 pm ET on October 30, 1938 over the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...

. The episode is famous for inciting a panic by convincing some members of the listening audience that a Martian invasion was taking place, though the scale of panic is disputed, as the program had relatively few listeners. The episode begins with an introductory monologue based closely on the opening of the original novel, after which the program takes on the format of an evening of typical radio programming being periodically interrupted by news bulletins. The first few bulletins interrupt a program of live music and are relatively calm reports of unusual explosions on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

followed by a seemingly unrelated report of an unknown object falling on a farm in

Grover's Mill, New Jersey Grovers Mill is an unincorporated community located within West Windsor Township, in Mercer County, New Jersey. History The community was made famous in Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast of ''The War of the Worlds,'' where it was depicted a ...

. The crisis escalates dramatically when a correspondent reporting live from Grover's Mill describes creatures emerging from what is evidently an alien spacecraft. When local officials approach the aliens waving a

flag of truce White flags have had different meanings throughout history and depending on the locale. Contemporary use The white flag is an internationally recognized protective sign of truce or ceasefire, and for negotiation. It is also used to symbolize ...

, the "monsters" respond by incinerating them and others nearby with a heat ray which the on-scene reporter describes in a panic until the audio feed abruptly goes dead. This is followed by a rapid series of news updates detailing the beginning of a devastating alien invasion and the military's futile efforts to stop it. The first portion of the episode climaxes with another live report from the rooftop of a Manhattan radio station. The correspondent describes crowds fleeing clouds of poison smoke released by giant Martian "war machines" and "dropping like flies" as the gas approaches his location. Eventually he coughs and falls silent, and a lone

ham radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

operator asks, "Is there anyone on the air? Isn't there... anyone?" with no response. The program takes its first break thirty minutes after Welles's introduction. The second portion of the show shifts to a conventional

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

format that follows a survivor (played by Welles) dealing with the aftermath of the invasion and the ongoing Martian occupation of Earth. The final segment lasts for about sixteen minutes, and like the original novel, concludes with the revelation that the Martians have been defeated by microbes rather than by humans. The broadcast ends with a brief "out of character" announcement by Welles in which he compares the show to "dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying 'boo!'" Welles's "War of the Worlds" broadcast has become famous for convincing some of its listeners that a Martian invasion was actually taking place due to the "breaking news" style of storytelling employed in the first half of the show. The illusion of realism was supported by the ''Mercury Theatre on the Air'' lack of commercial interruptions, which meant that the first break in the drama came after all of the alarming "news" reports had taken place. Popular legend holds that some of the radio audience may have been listening to ''

The Chase and Sanborn Hour ''The Chase and Sanborn Hour'' is the umbrella title for a series of American comedy and variety radio shows sponsored by Standard Brands' Chase & Sanborn Coffee Company, Chase and Sanborn Coffee, usually airing Sundays on NBC Radio Network, NBC ...

'' with

Edgar Bergen Edgar John Bergen (born Edgar John Berggren; February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American ventriloquist, actor, comedian, vaudevillian and radio performer, best known for his proficiency in ventriloquism and his characters Ch ...

and tuned in to "The War of the Worlds" during a musical interlude, thereby missing the clear introduction indicating that the show was a work of science fiction. Contemporary research suggests that this happened only in rare instances. In the days after the adaptation, widespread outrage was expressed in the media. The program's news-bulletin format was described as deceptive by some newspapers and public figures, leading to an outcry against the broadcasters and calls for regulation by the FCC. Welles apologized at a hastily-called news conference the next morning, and no punitive action was taken. The broadcast and subsequent publicity brought the 23-year-old Welles to the attention of the general public and gave him the reputation of an innovative storyteller and "trickster".

Production

"The War of the Worlds" was the 17th episode of the

CBS Radio CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...

series ''

,'' which was broadcast at 8 pm ET on October 30, 1938. H. G. Wells' original novel tells the story of a Martian invasion of Earth. The novel was adapted for radio by Howard Koch, who changed the primary setting from 19th-century England to the 20th-century United States, with the landing point of the first Martian spacecraft changed to rural Grover's Mill, an unincorporated village in

West Windsor, New Jersey West Windsor is a township in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Located within the Raritan Valley region, the township is an outer-ring suburb of New York City in the New York metropolitan area, as defined by the United States Census B ...

. The program's format is a simulated live newscast of developing events. The first two-thirds of the hour-long play is a contemporary retelling of events of the novel, presented as news bulletins interrupting programs of dance music. "I had conceived the idea of doing a radio broadcast in such a manner that a crisis would actually seem to be happening," said Welles, "and would be broadcast in such a dramatized form as to appear to be a real event taking place at that time, rather than a mere radio play." This approach was similar to

Ronald Knox Ronald Arbuthnott Knox (17 February 1888 – 24 August 1957) was an Catholic Church in England and Wales, English Catholic priest, Catholic theology, theologian, author, and radio broadcaster. Educated at Eton College, Eton and Balliol Colleg ...

's radio hoax ''Broadcasting the Barricades'' that was broadcast by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

in 1926, which Welles later said gave him the idea for "The War of the Worlds". A 1927 drama aired by Adelaide station 5CL depicted an invasion of Australia using the same techniques and inspired reactions similar to those of the Welles broadcast. Welles was also influenced by the ''

Columbia Workshop ''Columbia Workshop'' was a radio series that aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from 1936 to 1943, returning in 1946–47. Irving Reis The series began as the idea of Irving Reis. Reis had begun his radio career as an engineer and devel ...

'' presentations "

The Fall of the City ''The Fall of the City'' by Archibald MacLeish is the first American verse play written for radio.Louis Untermeyer, "New Power for Poetry," ''Saturday Review of Literature'', May 22, 1937, p. 7.Wolfe Kaufman, (untitled article), ''Variety'', Ap ...

", a 1937 radio play in which Welles played the role of an omniscient announcer, and "Air Raid", an as-it-happens drama starring Ray Collins that aired October 27, 1938. Welles had previously used a newscast format for "Julius Caesar" (September 11, 1938), with

H. V. Kaltenborn Hans von Kaltenborn (July 9, 1878June 14, 1965), generally known as H. V. Kaltenborn, was an American radio commentator. He was heard regularly on the radio for over 30 years, beginning with CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened ...

providing historical commentary throughout the story. "The War of the Worlds" broadcast used techniques similar to those of ''

The March of Time ''The March of Time'' is an American newsreel series sponsored by Time Inc. and shown in movie theaters from 1935 to 1951. It was based on a radio news series broadcast from 1931 to 1945. The "voice" of both series was Westbrook Van Voorhis. Pr ...

,'' the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

news documentary and dramatization radio series. Welles was a member of the program's regular cast, having first performed on it in March 1935. ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'' and ''The March of Time'' shared many cast members and sound effects chief Ora D. Nichols. Welles discussed his fake newscast idea with producer

John Houseman John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanian-born British-American actor and producer of theatre, film, and television. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director ...

and associate producer Paul Stewart; together, they decided to adapt a work of science fiction. They considered adapting

M. P. Shiel Matthew Phipps Shiell (21 July 1865 – 17 February 1947), known as M. P. Shiel, was a British writer. His legal surname remained "Shiell" though he adopted the shorter version as a ''de facto'' pen name. He is remembered mainly for supernatura ...

's ''

The Purple Cloud ''The Purple Cloud'' is an apocalyptic "last man" novel by the British writer M. P. Shiel. It was published in 1901. H. G. Wells lauded ''The Purple Cloud'' as "brilliant" and H. P. Lovecraft later praised the novel as exemplary weird fiction ...

'' and

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

's ''

The Lost World The lost world is a subgenre of the fantasy or science fiction genres that involves the discovery of an unknown Earth civilization. It began as a subgenre of the late- Victorian adventure romance and remains popular into the 21st century. The g ...

'' before purchasing the radio rights to ''The War of the Worlds''. Houseman later suspected Welles had never read it. Koch worked on adapting novels and wrote the first drafts for the

Mercury Theatre The Mercury Theatre was an independent repertory theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and producer John Houseman. The company produced theatrical presentations, radio programs and motion pictures. The Mercury also ...

broadcasts "Hell on Ice" (October 9), "Seventeen" (October 16), and "Around the World in 80 Days" (October 23). Wood, Bret, ''Orson Welles: A Bio-Bibliography.'' Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1990 On October 24, he was assigned to adapt ''The War of the Worlds'' for broadcast the following Sunday night. On the night of October 25, 36 hours before rehearsals were to begin, Koch telephoned Houseman in what the producer characterized as "deep distress": Koch said he could not make ''The War of the Worlds'' interesting or credible as a radio play, a conviction echoed by his secretary

Anne Froelick Anne Froelick Taylor (December 8, 1913 – January 26, 2010) was an American screenwriter from 1941 to 1950, and later a playwright and novelist. Her screenwriting career ended when she was identified as a communist by two witnesses at a hearin ...

, a typist and aspiring writer whom Houseman had hired to assist him. With only his own abandoned script for ''

Lorna Doone ''Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor'' is a novel by English author Richard Doddridge Blackmore, published in 1869. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, particularly ar ...

'' to fall back on, Houseman told Koch to continue adapting the Wells fantasy. He joined Koch and Froelick to work on the script through the night. On the night of October 26, the first draft was finished on schedule. On October 27, Stewart held a cast reading of the script, with Koch and Houseman making necessary changes. That afternoon, Stewart made an acetate recording without music or sound effects. Welles, immersed in rehearsing the Mercury stage production of ''

Danton's Death ''Danton's Death'' (''Dantons Tod'') was the first play written by Georg Büchner, set during the French Revolution. History Georg Büchner wrote his works in the period between Romanticism and Realism in the so-called Vormärz era in German hi ...

'' scheduled to open the following week, played the record at an editorial meeting that night in his suite at the

St. Regis Hotel St. Regis Hotels & Resorts is a luxury hotel chain owned and managed by Marriott International. History In 1904, John Jacob Astor built the St. Regis New York as a sister property to his part-owned Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Exhibiting luxury and ...

. After hearing "Air Raid" on the ''Columbia Workshop'' earlier that same evening, Welles thought the script was dull. He stressed the importance of adding news flashes and eyewitness accounts to the script to create a sense of urgency and excitement. Houseman, Koch, and Stewart reworked the script that night, increasing the number of news bulletins and using the names of real places and people whenever possible. On October 28, the script was sent to Davidson Taylor, executive producer for CBS, and the network legal department. Their response was that the script was "too" credible and its realism had to be toned down. As using the names of actual institutions could be

actionable A cause of action or right of action, in law, is a set of facts sufficient to justify suing to obtain money or property, or to justify the enforcement of a legal right against another party. The term also refers to the legal theory upon which a p ...

, CBS insisted on about 28 changes in phrasing. "Under protest and with a deep sense of grievance we changed the Hotel Biltmore to a nonexistent ''Park Plaza'', '' Transamerica Radio News'' to ''Inter-Continental Radio News'', the ''Columbia Broadcasting Building'' to ''Broadcasting Building''," Houseman wrote. "The

United States Weather Bureau The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the p ...

in Washington, D.C." was changed to "The Government Weather Bureau," "

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

Observatory" to "Princeton Observatory," "

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

" in Montreal to "Macmillan University" in Toronto, "

New Jersey National Guard The New Jersey Army National Guard consists of more than 6,000 Citizen-Soldiers. The New Jersey Army National Guard is currently engaged in multiple worldwide and homeland missions. Units have deployed to Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, Germ ...

" to "State Militia," " United States Signal Corps" to "Signal Corps," "

Langley Field Langley may refer to: People * Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name * Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer * Elizabeth Langley (born 1933), Canadian perform ...

" to "Langham Field," and " St. Patrick's Cathedral" to "the cathedral." On October 29, Stewart rehearsed the show with the sound effects team and gave special attention to crowd scenes, the echo of cannon fire, and the sound of boat horns in New York Harbor. In the early afternoon of October 30,

Bernard Herrmann Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in composing for films. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely re ...

and his orchestra arrived in the studio, where Welles had taken over production of that evening's program. To create the role of reporter Carl Phillips,

Frank Readick Frank Marvin Readick Jr. (November 6, 1896 — December 27, 1965) was an American radio and film actor. Born in Seattle, Washington, Readick was well known for his evil laughter that followed the introduction from ''The Shadow'' radio dram ...

went to the record library and repeatedly played the recording of

Herbert Morrison Herbert Stanley Morrison, Baron Morrison of Lambeth, (3 January 1888 – 6 March 1965) was a British politician who held a variety of senior positions in the UK Cabinet as member of the Labour Party. During the inter-war period, he was Mini ...

's dramatic radio report of the ''Hindenburg'' disaster. Stewart worked with Herrmann and the orchestra to sound like a dance band, and became the person Welles later credited as being largely responsible for the quality of "The War of the Worlds" broadcast. McBride, Joseph, ''What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? A Portrait of an Independent Career.'' Lexington, Kentucky:

University Press of Kentucky The University Press of Kentucky (UPK) is the scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and was organized in 1969 as successor to the University of Kentucky Press. The university had sponsored scholarly publication since 1943. In 194 ...

, 2006, Welles wanted the music to play for unbearably long stretches of time.Leaming, Barbara, ''Orson Welles, A Biography.'' New York:

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

, 1985 The studio's emergency fill-in, a solo piano playing

Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

and Chopin, was heard several times. "As it played on and on," Houseman wrote, "its effect became increasingly sinister—a thin band of suspense stretched almost beyond endurance. That piano was the neatest trick of the show." The dress rehearsal was scheduled for 6 pm. "Our actual broadcasting time, from the first mention of the meteorites to the fall of New York City, was less than forty minutes," wrote Houseman. "During that time, men travelled long distances, large bodies of troops were mobilized, cabinet meetings were held, savage battles fought on land and in the air. And millions of people accepted it—emotionally if not logically."

Cast

The cast of "The War of the Worlds" appears in order as first heard in the broadcast. * Announcer –

Dan Seymour Dan Seymour (February 22, 1915 – May 25, 1993) was an American character actor who frequently played villains in Warner Bros. films. He appeared in several Humphrey Bogart films, including ''Casablanca'' (1942), ''To Have and Have Not'' ...

* Narrator –

* First studio announcer – Paul Stewart * Meridian Room announcer –

William Alland William Alland (March 4, 1916 – November 11, 1997) was an American actor, film producer and writer, mainly of Western and science-fiction/monster films, including ''This Island Earth'', ''It Came From Outer Space'', ''Tarantula!'', ''The Dead ...

* Reporter Carl Phillips –

* Professor Richard Pierson – Orson Welles * Second studio announcer – Carl Frank * Mr. Wilmuth – Ray Collins * Policeman at Wilmuth farm –

Kenny Delmar Kenneth Howard Delmar (born Kenneth Frederick Fay Howard,
''

* Brigadier General Montgomery Smith – Richard Wilson * Mr. Harry McDonald, vice president in charge of radio operations – Ray Collins * Captain Lansing of the Signal Corps – Kenny Delmar * Third studio announcer – Paul Stewart * Secretary of the Interior – Kenny Delmar * 22nd Field Artillery Officer – Richard Wilson * Field artillery gunner – William Alland * Field artillery observer –

Stefan Schnabel Stefan Artur Schnabel (February 2, 1912 – March 11, 1999) was a German-born American actor who worked in theatre, radio, films and television. After moving to the United States in 1937 he became one of the original members of Orson Welles's M ...

* Lieutenant Voght, bombing commander – Howard Smith * Bayonne radio operator – Kenny Delmar * Langham Field radio operator – Richard Wilson * Newark radio operator – William Herz * 2X2L radio operator – Frank Readick * 8X3R radio operator – William Herz * Fourth studio announcer, from roof of Broadcasting Building – Ray Collins * Fascist stranger – Carl Frank * Himself – Orson Welles

Broadcast

Plot summary

"The War of the Worlds" begins with a paraphrase of the beginning of the novel, updated to contemporary times. The announcer introduces Orson Welles:

We know now that in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own. We know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns, they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacence, people went to and fro over the earth about their little affairs, serene in the assurance of their dominion over this small spinning fragment of solar driftwood which by chance or design man has inherited out of the dark mystery of Time and Space. Yet across an immense ethereal gulf, minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle, intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. In the 39th year of the 20th century came the great disillusionment. It was near the end of October. Business was better. The
war scare War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
was over. More men were back at work. Sales were picking up. On this particular evening, October 30th, the Crossley service estimated that 32 million people were listening in on radios…

The radio program begins as a simulation of a normal evening radio broadcast featuring a weather report and music by "Ramon Raquello and His Orchestra" live from a local hotel ballroom. After a few minutes, the music is interrupted by several news flashes about strange gas explosions on

. An interview is arranged with reporter Carl Phillips and

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

-based astronomy professor Richard Pierson, who dismisses speculation about life on Mars. The musical program returns temporarily but is interrupted again by news of a strange meteorite landing in

. Phillips and Pierson are dispatched to the site, where a large crowd has gathered. Philips describes the chaotic atmosphere around the strange cylindrical object, and Pierson admits that he does not know exactly what it is, but that it seems to be made of an extraterrestrial metal. The cylinder unscrews, and Phillips describes the tentacled, horrific "monster" that emerges from inside. Police officers approach the

Martian Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. It became the most popular celestial object in fiction in the late 1800s as the Moon was evidently lifeless. At the time, the pred ...

waving a

, but it and its companions respond by firing a

heat ray The Martians, also known as the Invaders, are the fictional race of extraterrestrials from the H.G. Wells 1898 novel ''The War of the Worlds''. They are the main antagonists of the novel, and their efforts to exterminate the populace of the Ear ...

, which incinerates the delegation and ignites the nearby woods and cars as the crowd screams. Phillips's shouts about incoming flames are cut off mid-sentence, and after a moment of

dead air Dead air is an unintended period of silence that interrupts a broadcast during which no audio or video program material is transmitted. Radio and television Dead air occurs in radio broadcasting when no audio program is transmitted for an extend ...

, an announcer explains that the remote broadcast was interrupted due to "some difficulty with

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...

field transmission". After a brief "piano interlude", regular programming breaks down as the studio struggles with casualty and fire-fighting updates. A shaken Pierson speculates about Martian technology. The New Jersey

state militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

declares

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

and attacks the cylinder; a captain from their field headquarters lectures about the overwhelming force of properly-equipped infantry and the helplessness of the Martians until a tripod rises from the pit, which obliterates the militia. The studio returns and describes the Martians as an invading army. Emergency response bulletins give way to damage and evacuation reports as thousands of refugees clog the highways. Three Martian tripods from the cylinder destroy power stations and uproot bridges and railroads, reinforced by three others from a second cylinder that landed in the Great Swamp near Morristown. The

Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to: * Secretary of the Interior (Mexico) * Interior Secretary of Pakistan * Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines) * United States Secretary of the Interior See also

*Interior ministry ...

reads a brief statement trying to reassure a panicked nation, after which it is reported that more explosions have been observed on Mars, indicating that more war machines are on the way. A live connection is established to a

field artillery Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, short range, long range, and extremely long range target engagement. Until the early 20t ...

battery in the

Watchung Mountains The Watchung Mountains (once called the Blue Hills) are a group of three long low ridges of volcanic origin, between high, lying parallel to each other in northern New Jersey in the United States. The name is derived from the American Native Lena ...

. Its gun crew damages a machine, resulting in a release of poisonous black smoke, before fading into the sound of coughing. The lead plane of a wing of bombers from Langham Field broadcasts its approach and remains on the air as their engines are burned by the heat ray and the plane dives on the invaders in a last-ditch

suicide attack A suicide attack is any violent Strike (attack), attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has suicide, accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have oc ...

. Radio operators go active and fall silent: although the bombers manage to destroy one machine, the remaining five spread black smoke across the Jersey Marshes into

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

. Eventually, a news reporter broadcasting from atop the Broadcasting Building describes the Martian invasion of New York City – "five great machines" wading the

Hudson Hudson may refer to: People * Hudson (given name) * Hudson (surname) * Henry Hudson, English explorer * Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back * Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudso ...

"like enwading through a brook", black smoke drifting over the city, people diving into the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...

"like rats", others in

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

"falling like flies". He reads a final bulletin stating that Martian cylinders have fallen all over the country, then describes the smoke approaching his location until he suffocates and collapses, leaving only the sounds of the city under attack in the background. A

operator is heard calling, "2X2L calling CQ, New York. Isn't there anyone on the air? Isn't there anyone on the air? Isn't there... anyone?" After a period of silence announcer Dan Seymour says:

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.

The last third of the program is performed in a standard radio drama format consisting of dialogue and monologue. It focuses on Professor Pierson, who survives the attack on Grover's Mill and is attempting to make contact with other humans. In Newark, he encounters an opportunistic militiaman who holds fascist ideals and declares his intent to use Martian weaponry to take control of both species; saying that he wants no part of "his world", Pierson leaves the stranger with his delusions. His journey ends in the ruins of New York City, where he discovers that the Martians have died – as with the novel, they fell victim to earthly

pathogenic In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...

germs, to which they had no

immunity Immunity may refer to: Medicine * Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease * ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press Biology * Immune system Engineering * Radiofrequence immunity desc ...

. Life returns to normal, and Pierson finishes writing his recollections of the invasion and its aftermath.

Closing statement

After the conclusion of the play, Welles reassumed his role as host and told listeners that the broadcast was intended to be merely a "holiday offering", the equivalent of the Mercury Theater "dressing up in a sheet, jumping out of a bush and saying, 'Boo!'" and stated that while they had "annihilated the world and utterly destroyed CBS before your very ears... you will be relieved I hope to hear that both institutions are still open for business." He ended the program by assuring listeners that, "If your doorbell rings and there's nobody there, that was no Martian; it's Halloween." Popular mythology holds that the disclaimer was hastily added to the broadcast at the insistence of CBS executives to quell the supposed panic inspired by the program, but it was actually added by Welles at the last minute, and he delivered it over Taylor's objections, who feared that reading it on the air would expose the network to legal liability.

Announcements

Radio programming charts in Sunday newspapers listed "The War of the Worlds". On October 30, 1938, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' included the show in its "Leading Events of the Week" ("Tonight – Play: H. G. Wells' 'War of the Worlds'") and published a photograph of Welles with some of the Mercury players, captioned, "Tonight's show is H. G. Wells' 'War of the Worlds'". Announcements that "The War of the Worlds" is a dramatization of a work of fiction were made on the full CBS network at four points during the broadcast: at the beginning, before the middle break, after the middle break, and at the end. The middle break was delayed 10 minutes to accommodate the dramatic content. Another announcement was repeated on the full CBS network that same evening at 10:30 pm, 11:30 pm, and midnight: "For those listeners who tuned in to Orson Welles's ''Mercury Theatre on the Air'' broadcast from 8 to 9 pm Eastern Standard Time tonight and did not realize that the program was merely a modernized adaptation of H. G. Wells' famous novel ''War of the Worlds'', we are repeating the fact which was made clear four times on the program, that, while the names of some American cities were used, as in all novels and dramatizations, the entire story and all of its incidents were fictitious." Cantril, Hadley, Hazel Gaudet, and

Herta Herzog Herta Herzog-Massing (August 14, 1910 – February 25, 2010) was an Austrian-United States of America, American social scientist specializing in communication studies. Her most prominent contribution to the field, an article entitled "What Do We R ...

, ''The Invasion from Mars: A Study in the Psychology of Panic: with the Complete Script of the Famous Orson Welles Broadcast''. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1940.

Public reaction

The show went on the air shortly after 8:00 pm ET. At 8:32, Houseman noticed Taylor step out of the studio to take a telephone call in the control room, who returned four minutes later looking "pale as death", as he had been ordered to immediately interrupt "The War of the Worlds" broadcast with an announcement of the program's fictional content. By the time the order was given, the fictional news reporter played by Ray Collins was choking on poison gas as the Martians overwhelmed New York and the program was less than a minute away from its first scheduled break, which proceeded as previously planned. Actor

recalled sitting in the anteroom after finishing his on-air performance. "A few policemen trickled in, then a few more. Soon, the room was full of policemen and a massive struggle was going on between the police, page boys, and CBS executives, who were trying to prevent the cops from busting in and stopping the show. It was a show to witness." During the sign-off theme, the phone began ringing. Houseman picked it up and the furious caller announced he was mayor of a Midwestern town, where mobs were in the streets. Houseman hung up quickly, " r we were off the air now and the studio door had burst open."

The following hours were a nightmare. The building was suddenly full of people and dark-blue uniforms. Hustled out of the studio, we were locked into a small back office on another floor. Here we sat incommunicado while network employees were busily collecting, destroying, or locking up all scripts and records of the broadcast. Finally, the Press was let loose upon us, ravening for horror. How many deaths had ''we'' heard of? (Implying they knew of thousands.) What did ''we'' know of the fatal stampede in a Jersey hall? (Implying it was one of many.) What traffic deaths? (The ditches must be choked with corpses.) The suicides? (Haven't you heard about the one on Riverside Drive?) It is all quite vague in my memory and quite terrible.

Paul White, head of

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

, was quickly summoned to the office, "and there bedlam reigned", he wrote:

The telephone switchboard, a vast sea of light, could handle only a fraction of incoming calls. The haggard Welles sat alone and despondent. "I'm through," he lamented, "washed up." I didn't bother to reply to this highly inaccurate self-appraisal. I was too busy writing explanations to put on the air, reassuring the audience that it was safe. I also answered my share of incessant telephone calls, many of them from as far away as the Pacific Coast.White, Paul W., ''News on the Air''. New York:
Harcourt, Brace and Company Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City an ...
, 1947

Orson-Welles-Danton's-Death-Rehearsal-1938

Because of the crowd of newspaper reporters, photographers, and police, the cast left the CBS building by the rear entrance. Aware of the sensation the broadcast had made, but not its extent, Welles went to the Mercury Theatre where an all-night rehearsal of ''Danton's Death'' was in progress. Shortly after midnight, one of the cast, a late arrival, told Welles that news about "The War of the Worlds" was being flashed in

. They immediately left the theatre, and standing on the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street, they read the lighted bulletin that circled the ''New York Times'' building: ORSON WELLES CAUSES PANIC. Some listeners heard only a portion of the broadcast and, in the tension and anxiety prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, mistook it for a genuine news broadcast. Thousands of them shared the false reports with others or called CBS, newspapers, or the police to ask if the broadcast was real. Many newspapers assumed that the large number of phone calls and the scattered reports of listeners rushing about or fleeing their homes proved the existence of a mass panic, but such behavior was never widespread. Future ''

Tonight Show ''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 2010� ...

'' host

Jack Paar Jack Harold Paar (May 1, 1918 – January 27, 2004) was an American talk show host, author, radio and television comedian, and film actor. He was the second host of ''The Tonight Show'' from 1957 to 1962. ''Time'' magazine's obituary of Paar repo ...

had announcing duties that night for

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

CBS affiliate WGAR. As panicked listeners called the studio, he attempted to calm them on the phone and on air by saying: "The world is not coming to an end. Trust me. When have I ever lied to you?" When the listeners started to accuse Paar with "covering up the truth", he called WGAR's station manager for help. Oblivious to the situation, the manager advised Paar to calm down and said that it was "all a

tempest in a teapot Tempest in a teapot (American English), or storm in a teacup (British English), is an idiom meaning a small event that has been exaggerated out of proportion. There are also lesser known or earlier variants, such as ''tempest in a teacup'', ''sto ...

". In a 1975 interview with radio historian

Chuck Schaden Charles Leroy "Chuck" Schaden, born June 29, 1934, is a Chicago-area broadcaster and historian who hosted the program ''Those Were the Days'' on local radio from 1970 to 2009. Schaden played recordings of classic old-time radio shows and reminisc ...

, radio actor

Alan Reed Alan Reed (born Herbert Theodore Bergman; August 20, 1907 – June 14, 1977) was an American actor, best known as the original voice of Fred Flintstone on ''The Flintstones'' and various spinoff series. He also appeared in many films, includin ...

recalled being one of several actors recruited to answer phone calls at CBS's New York headquarters. In

Concrete, Washington Concrete is a town in north-central Skagit County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Mount Vernon- Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, and had a population of 705 at the 2010 census. Early history The town of Concret ...

, phone lines and electricity suffered a short circuit at the Superior Portland Cement Company's substation. Residents were unable to call neighbors, family, or friends to calm their fears. Reporters who heard of the coincidental blackout sent the story over the

newswire A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire, ...

, and Concrete was known worldwide. Orson Welles 1938 War of the Worlds

Welles continued with the rehearsal of ''Danton's Death'', leaving shortly after the dawn of October 31. He was operating on three hours of sleep when CBS called him to a press conference. He read a statement that was later printed in newspapers nationwide and took questions from reporters: :Question: Were you aware of the terror such a broadcast would stir up?
Welles: Definitely not. The technique I used was not original with me. It was not even new. I anticipated nothing unusual. :Question: Should you have toned down the language of the drama?
Welles: No, you don't play murder in soft words. :Question: Why was the story changed to put in names of American cities and government officers?
Welles: H. G. Wells used real cities in Europe, and to make the play more acceptable to American listeners we used real cities in America. Of course, I'm terribly sorry now. In its October 31, 1938, edition, the ''

Tucson Citizen The ''Tucson Citizen'' was a daily newspaper in Tucson, Arizona. It was founded by Richard C. McCormick with John Wasson as publisher and editor on October 15, 1870, as the ''Arizona Citizen''. When it ceased printing on May 16, 2009, the daily ...

'' reported that three Arizona affiliates of CBS (

KOY KOY (1230 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Phoenix, Arizona, and is owned and operated by iHeartMedia, Inc. The station broadcasts a Regional Mexican radio format and is branded as "93.7 El Patrón". The studios are located in Phoe ...

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

KTUC KTUC (1400 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Tucson, Arizona. The station is owned by Cumulus Media and airs an adult standards radio format, known as "Tucson's All Time Favorites." On Sunday mornings, it plays three hours of big band ...

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

and KSUN in Bisbee) had originally scheduled a delayed broadcast of "The War of the Worlds" that night; CBS had shifted ''The Mercury Theater on the Air'' from Monday nights to Sunday nights on September 11, but the three affiliates preferred to keep the series in its original Monday slot so that it would not compete with NBC's top-rated ''

Chase and Sanborn Hour ''The Chase and Sanborn Hour'' is the umbrella title for a series of American comedy and variety radio shows sponsored by Standard Brands' Chase and Sanborn Coffee, usually airing Sundays on NBC from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. during the years 1929 to ...

''. However, late that night, CBS contacted KOY and KTUC owner Burridge Butler and instructed him not to air the program the following night. Within three weeks, newspapers had published at least 12,500 articles about the broadcast and its impact, but the story dropped from the front pages after a few days.

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

referenced the broadcast in a speech in Munich on November 8, 1938. Welles later remarked that Hitler cited the effect of the broadcast on the American public as evidence of "the corrupt condition and decadent state of affairs in democracy". Bob Sanders recalled looking outside the window and seeing a traffic jam in the normally quiet Grover's Mill, New Jersey, at the intersection of Cranbury and Clarksville Roads.

Causes

Later studies indicate that many people missed the repeated notices about the broadcast being fictional, partly because ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'', an unsponsored CBS cultural program with a relatively small audience, ran at the same time as the NBC

Red Network Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

's popular ''

'' featuring ventriloquist

. At the time, many Americans assumed that a significant number of ''Chase and Sanborn'' listeners changed stations when the first comic sketch ended and a musical number by

Nelson Eddy Nelson Ackerman Eddy (June 29, 1901 – March 6, 1967) was an American actor and baritone singer who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclub ...

began, tuning in to "The War of the Worlds" after the opening announcements. Historian A. Brad Schwartz, after studying hundreds of letters from people who heard "The War of the Worlds" as well as contemporary audience surveys, concluded that very few people frightened by Welles's broadcast had tuned out Bergen's program. "All the hard evidence suggests that ''The Chase & Sanborn Hour'' was only a minor contributing factor to the Martian hysteria," he wrote. "...in truth, there was no mass exodus from

Charlie McCarthy Charlie McCarthy is Edgar Bergen's famed ventriloquist dummy partner. Charlie was part of Bergen's act as early as high school, and by 1930, was attired in his famous top hat, tuxedo, and monocle. The character was so well-known that his populari ...

to Orson Welles that night." Because the broadcast was unsponsored, Welles and company could arbitrarily schedule breaks instead of arranging them around advertisements; as a result, the only notices that the broadcast was fictional came at the start of the broadcast and about 40 and 55 minutes into it. A study by the

Radio Project The Radio Research Project was a social research project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation to look into the effects of mass media on society. In 1937, the Rockefeller Foundation started funding research to find the effects of new forms of mass ...

discovered that less than one third of frightened listeners understood the invaders to be aliens; most thought that they were listening to reports of a German invasion or of a natural catastrophe. "People were on edge", wrote Welles biographer Frank Brady. "For the entire month prior to 'The War of the Worlds', radio had kept the American public alert to the ominous happenings throughout the world. The

Munich crisis The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...

was at its height.... For the first time in history, the public could tune into their radios every night and hear, boot by boot, accusation by accusation, threat by threat, the rumblings that seemed inevitably leading to a world war." Brady, Frank, ''Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989 CBS News chief Paul White wrote that he was convinced that the panic induced by the broadcast was a result of the public suspense generated before the Munich Pact. "Radio listeners had had their emotions played upon for days.... Thus they believed the Welles production even though it was specifically stated that the whole thing was fiction".

"The supposed panic was so tiny as to be practically immeasurable on the night of the broadcast. ... Radio had siphoned off advertising revenue from print during the Depression, badly damaging the newspaper industry. So the papers seized the opportunity presented by Welles’ program to discredit radio as a source of news. The newspaper industry sensationalized the panic to prove to advertisers, and regulators, that radio management was irresponsible and not to be trusted."

Extent

Historical research suggests the panic was significantly less widespread than newspapers had indicated at the time. " e panic and mass hysteria so readily associated with 'The War of the Worlds' did not occur on anything approaching a nationwide dimension",

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

media historian W. Joseph Campbell wrote in 2003. He quoted Robert E. Bartholomew, an authority on mass panic outbreaks, as having said that "there is a growing consensus among sociologists that the extent of the panic... was greatly exaggerated". That position is supported by contemporary accounts. "In the first place, most people didn't hear

he show He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

" said Frank Stanton, later president of CBS. Of the nearly 2,000 letters mailed to Welles and the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

after "The War of the Worlds", currently held by the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and the

National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...

, roughly 27% came from frightened listeners or people who witnessed any panic. After analyzing those letters, Schwartz concluded that although the broadcast briefly misled a significant portion of its audience, not many of them fled their homes or otherwise panicked. The total number of protest letters sent to Welles and the FCC was also low in comparison with other controversial radio broadcasts of the period, suggesting that the audience was small and the fright severely limited. 5,000 households were telephoned that night in a survey conducted by the

C. E. Hooper The C. E. Hooper Company was an American company which measured radio and television ratings during the Golden Age of Radio. Founded in 1934 by Claude E. Hooper (1898–1954), the company provided information on the most popular radio shows of the ...

company, the main radio ratings service at the time. Two percent of the respondents said they were listening to the radio play, and no one stated they were listening to a news broadcast. About 98% of respondents said they were listening to other radio programming (''The Chase and Sanborn Hour'' was by far the most popular program in that timeslot) or not listening to the radio at all. Further shrinking the potential audience, some CBS network affiliates, including some in large markets such as

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

's WEEI, had pre-empted ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'', in favor of local commercial programming. Ben Gross, radio editor for the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'', wrote in his 1954 memoir that the streets were nearly deserted as he made his way to the studio for the end of the program. Houseman reported that the Mercury Theatre staff was surprised when they were finally released from the CBS studios to find life going on as usual in the streets of New York. The writer of a letter that ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' published later likewise recalled no panicked mobs in the capital's downtown streets at the time. "The supposed panic was so tiny as to be practically immeasurable on the night of the broadcast", media historians Jefferson Pooley and

Michael J. Socolow Michael J. Socolow (born December 19, 1968) is an American media historian and former broadcast journalist who teaches in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine. Background and education He was raised in Washing ...

wrote in ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

'' on its 75th anniversary in 2013; "Almost nobody was fooled". According to Campbell, the most common response said to indicate a panic was calling the local newspaper or police to confirm the story or seek additional information. That, he writes, is an indicator that people were not generally panicking or hysterical. "The call volume perhaps is best understood as an altogether ''rational'' response..." Some New Jersey media and law enforcement agencies received up to 40% more telephone calls than normal during the broadcast.

AT&T Corporation AT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is the subsidiary of AT&T Inc. that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agen ...

telephone operators in New York City recalled in 1988 that "every light" on the "half block long" switchboard lit up after the broadcast stated that the Martians were crossing the

George Washington Bridge The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting Fort Lee, New Jersey, with Manhattan in New York City. The bridge is named after George Washington, the first president of the United St ...

, while operators in Princeton and

Missoula, Montana Missoula ( ; fla, label=Salish language, Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula Cou ...

were asked what the invaders looked like. They described callers "crying and screaming", asking whether dead bodies were near the operators, "begging us to get connections to their families ... before the world came to an end". "The people believed it. They really believed it that night", one concluded.

Newspaper coverage and response

As it was late on a Sunday night in the Eastern Time Zone, where the broadcast originated, few reporters and other staff were present in newsrooms. Most newspaper coverage thus took the form of

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

stories, which were largely anecdotal aggregates of reporting from its various bureaus, giving the impression that panic had indeed been widespread. Many newspapers led with the Associated Press's story the next day. The ''

Twin City Sentinel The ''Twin-City Sentinel'' was the name of the afternoon newspaper published in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The ''Sentinel''s masthead was dropped in 1985 when operations were absorbed into its sister paper, the morning ''Winston-Salem Journal ...

'' of

Winston-Salem, North Carolina Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...

, pointed out that the situation could have been even worse if most people had not been listening to Bergen's show: "Charlie McCarthy last night saved the United States from a sudden and panicky death by hysteria." On November 2, 1938, the Australian newspaper ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' characterized the incident as "mass hysteria" and stated that "never in the history of the United States had such a wave of terror and panic swept the continent". Unnamed observers quoted by ''The Age'' commented that "the panic could have only happened in America." Editorialists chastised the radio industry for allowing that to happen. The response may have reflected newspaper publishers' fears that radio, to which they had lost some of the advertising revenue that was scarce enough during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, would render them obsolete. In "The War of the Worlds", they saw an opportunity to cast aspersions on the newer medium: "The nation as a whole continues to face the danger of incomplete, misunderstood news over a medium which has yet to prove that it is competent to perform the news job," wrote ''

Editor & Publisher ''Editor & Publisher'' (''E&P'') is an American monthly trade news magazine covering the newspaper industry. Published since 1901, ''Editor & Publisher'' is the self-described "bible of the newspaper industry." Originally based in New York City, ...

'', the newspaper industry's trade journal.

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

's papers called on broadcasters to police themselves, lest the government step in, as Iowa senator

Clyde L. Herring Clyde LaVerne Herring (May 3, 1879September 15, 1945), an American Democratic politician who served as the 26th governor of Iowa, and then one of its U.S. senators, during the last part of the Great Depression and the first part of World War ...

proposed a bill that would have required all programming to be reviewed by the FCC prior to broadcast – it was never introduced. Others blamed the radio audience for its gullibility. Noting that any intelligent listener would have realized the broadcast was fictional, the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' opined, "it would be more tactful to say that some members of the radio audience are a trifle retarded mentally, and that many a program is prepared for their consumption." Other newspapers noted that anxious listeners had called their offices to learn if Martians were really attacking. Few contemporary accounts exist outside newspaper coverage of the mass panic and hysteria supposedly induced by the broadcast. Justin Levine, a producer at

KFI KFI (640 AM) is a radio station in Los Angeles, California, owned and operated by iHeartMedia, Inc. It began operations in 1922 and became one of the first high-powered, clear-channel Class A stations. It was the first U.S. station west of Chi ...

in Los Angeles, wrote that "the anecdotal nature of such reporting makes it difficult to objectively assess the true extent and intensity of the panic".Levine, Justin
"A History and Analysis of the Federal Communication Commission's Response to Radio Broadcast Hoaxes"
52 Fed Comm L J 2, 273–320, 278n28; March 1, 2000; retrieved November 5, 2013. Bartholomew saw it as more evidence that the panic was predominantly a creation of the newspaper industry.

Research

In a study, published as ''The Invasion from Mars'' (1940), Princeton professor

Hadley Cantril Albert Hadley Cantril, Jr. (16 June 1906 – 28 May 1969) was an American psychologist from the Princeton University, who expanded the scope of the field. Cantril made "major contributions in psychology of propaganda; public opinion research; appl ...

calculated around six million people heard "The War of the Worlds" broadcast. He estimated that 1.7 million listeners believed the broadcast was an actual news bulletin and, of those, 1.2 million people were frightened or disturbed. However, Pooley and Socolow have concluded that Cantril's study had serious flaws. Its estimate of the program's audience is more than twice as high as any other at the time. Cantril himself conceded that, but argued that unlike Hooper, his estimate had attempted to capture the significant portion of the audience that did not have home telephones at that time. Since those respondents were contacted only after the media frenzy, Cantril admitted that their recollections could have been influenced by what they read in the newspapers. Claims that ''Chase and Sanborn'' listeners, who missed the disclaimer at the beginning when they turned to CBS during a commercial break or musical performance on that show and thus mistook "The War of the Worlds" for a real broadcast inflated the show's audience and the ensuing panic, are impossible to substantiate. Apart from his imperfect methods of estimating the audience and assessing the authenticity of their response, Pooley and Socolow found Cantril made another error in typing audience reaction. Respondents had indicated a variety of reactions to the program, among them "excited", "disturbed", and "frightened". However, he included all of them with "panicked", failing to account for the possibility that despite their reaction, they were still aware the broadcast was staged. " ose who did hear it, looked at it as a prank and accepted it that way", recalled researcher Frank Stanton. Bartholomew admitted that hundreds of thousands were frightened, but called evidence of people taking action based on their fear "scant" and "anecdotal". Contemporary news articles indicated that police received hundreds of calls in numerous locations, but stories of people doing anything more than calling authorities involved mostly only small groups; such stories were often reported by people who were panicking themselves. Later investigations found many of the panicked responses to have been exaggerated or mistaken. Cantril's researchers found that contrary to what had been claimed, no admissions for shock were made at a Newark hospital during the broadcast; hospitals in New York City similarly reported no spike in admissions that night. A few suicide attempts seem to have been prevented when friends or family intervened, but no record of a successful one exists. A ''Washington Post'' claim that a man died of a heart attack brought on by listening to the program could not be verified. One woman filed a lawsuit against CBS, but it was soon dismissed. The FCC also received letters from the public that advised against taking reprisals. Singer

Eddie Cantor Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences, ...

urged the commission not to overreact, as "censorship would retard radio immeasurably". The FCC decided to not punish Welles or CBS, and also barred complaints about "The War of the Worlds" from being brought up during license renewals. "

Janet Jackson Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. She is noted for her innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows. Her sound and choreog ...

's 2004 '

wardrobe malfunction A wardrobe malfunction is a clothing failure that accidentally or intentionally exposes a person's intimate parts. It is different from deliberate incidents of indecent exposure or public flashing. Justin Timberlake first used the term when apolo ...

' remains far more significant in the history of broadcast regulation than Orson Welles' trickery," wrote Pooley and Socolow.

Meeting of Welles and Wells

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

, Texas. On October 28, 1940, the two men visited the

KTSA KTSA (550 AM "107.1 and 550 KTSA") is a commercial radio station in San Antonio, Texas. KTSA is owned by Alpha Media and airs a talk radio format. The studios, offices and three-tower transmitter are on Eisenhauer Road in San Antonio. Most ho ...

studio for an interview by Charles C. Shaw, who introduced them by characterizing the panic generated by "The War of the Worlds".Archived a
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and th
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Wells was skeptic about the actual extent of the panic caused by "this sensational Halloween spree", saying: "Are you sure there was such a panic in America or wasn't it your Halloween fun?" Welles replied that " 's supposed to show the corrupt condition and decadent state of affairs in democracy, that 'The War of the Worlds' went over as well as it did." When Shaw mentioned that there was "some excitement" that he did not wish to belittle, Welles replied, "What kind of excitement? Mr. H. G. Wells wants to know if the excitement wasn't the same kind of excitement that we extract from a practical joke in which somebody puts a sheet over his head and says 'Boo!' I don't think anybody believes that that individual is a ghost, but we do scream and yell and rush down the hall. And that's just about what happened."

Authorship

As the Mercury Theatre's second season began in 1938, Welles and Houseman were unable to write the ''Mercury Theatre on the Air'' broadcasts by themselves. They hired Koch, whose experience in having a play performed by the

Federal Theatre Project The Federal Theatre Project (FTP; 1935–1939) was a theatre program established during the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depression as part of the New Deal to fund live artistic performances and entertainment programs in the United ...

in Chicago led him to leave his law practice and move to New York to become a writer. Koch was put to work at $50 a week, raised to $60 after he proved himself. ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'' was a sustaining show, so in lieu of a more substantial salary, Houseman gave Koch the rights to any script he worked on. France, Richard, ''The Theatre of Orson Welles''. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 1977. A condensed version of the script for "The War of the Worlds" appeared in the debut issue of ''Radio Digest'' magazine (February 1939), in an article on the broadcast that credited "Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre players". The complete script appeared in ''The Invasion from Mars: A Study in the Psychology of Panic'' (1940), the book publication of a Princeton University study directed by Cantril. Welles strongly protested Koch being listed as sole author since many others contributed to the script, but by the time the book was published, he had decided to end the dispute. Welles sought legal redress after the CBS TV series '' Studio One'' presented its top-rated broadcast, " The Night America Trembled", on September 9, 1957. The live presentation of

Nelson S. Bond Nelson Slade Bond (November 23, 1908 – November 4, 2006) was an American writer. His works included books, magazine articles, and scripts used in radio, for television and on the stage. The 1998 recipient of the Nebula Author Emeritus award ...

's documentary play recreated the 1938 performance of "The War of the Worlds" in the CBS studio, using the script as a framework for a series of factual narratives about a cross-section of radio listeners. No member of the ''Mercury Theatre'' was named. The courts ruled against Welles, who was found to have abandoned any rights to the script after it was published in Cantril's book. Koch had granted CBS the right to use the script in its program. "As it developed over the years, Koch took some cash and some credit," wrote biographer Frank Brady. "He wrote the story of how he created the adaptation, with a copy of his script being made into a paperback book enjoying large printings and an album of the broadcast selling over 500,000 copies, part of the income also going to him as copyright owner." Since his death in 1995, Koch's family has received

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

from adaptations or broadcasts. The book, ''The Panic Broadcast'', was first published in 1970. The best-selling album was a sound recording of the broadcast titled ''Orson Welles' War of the Worlds'', "released by arrangement with Manheim Fox Enterprises, Inc." The source discs for the recording are unknown. Welles told Peter Bogdanovich that it was a poor-quality recording taken off the air at the time of broadcast – "a pirated record which people have made fortunes of money and have no right to play". Welles did not receive any compensation.

Legacy

Initially apologetic about the supposed panic his broadcast had caused, and privately fuming that newspaper reports of lawsuits were either greatly exaggerated or totally fabricated, Welles later embraced the story as part of his personal myth: "Houses were emptying, churches were filling up; from

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

there was wailing in the streets and the rending of garments," he told Bogdanovich. CBS also found reports ultimately useful in promoting the strength of its influence. It presented a fictionalized account of the panic in "The Night America Trembled", and included it prominently in its 2003 celebrations of CBS's 75th anniversary as a television broadcaster. "The legend of the panic," according to Jefferson and Socolow, "grew exponentially over the following years ... tpersists because it so perfectly captures our unease with the media's power over our lives." In 1975,

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

aired the television movie ''

The Night That Panicked America '' The Night That Panicked America'' is an American television film, made-for-television drama (film and television), drama film that was originally broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC network on October 31, 1975. The telefilm dram ...

'', depicting the effect the radio drama had on the public using fictional, but typical American families of the time.

, where Grover's Mill is located, commemorated the 50th anniversary of the broadcast in 1988 with four days of festivities including art and planetarium shows, a panel discussion, a parade, burial of a time capsule, a dinner dance, film festivals devoted to H. G. Wells and Orson Welles, and the dedication of a bronze monument to the fictional Martian landings. Koch attended the 49th anniversary celebration as an honored guest. The 75th anniversary of "The War of the Worlds" was marked by an episode of the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

documentary series ''

American Experience ''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...

''.

Awards

Welles and ''Mercury Theatre on the Air'' were inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988. On January 27, 2003, "The War of the Worlds" was selected as one of the first 50 recordings to be added to the

National Recording Registry The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservati ...

of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

. At the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention in August 2014, a Retrospective Hugo Award for "Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form – 1938" was bestowed upon the broadcast.

Notable re-airings and adaptations

Since the original ''Mercury Theatre on the Air'' broadcast of "The War of the Worlds", many re-airings, remakes, re-enactments, parodies, and new dramatizations have occurred. Many American radio stations, particularly those that regularly air

old-time radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the early ...

programs, re-air the original program as a Halloween tradition. The first Spanish language version was produced and aired on November 12, 1944, by William Steele, and Raúl Zenteno in Radio Cooperativa Vitalicia, a radio station in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. Even though the fictional nature of the drama was reported twice during the broadcast and once again in the end, ''Newsweek'' reported that an electrician named José Villaroel was so frightened that he died of a heart attack. A second

Spanish-language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

version produced in February 1949 by Leonardo Páez and Eduardo Alcaraz for Radio Quito in

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

, reportedly set off panic in the city. Police and fire brigades rushed out of town to engage the supposed alien invasion force. After it was revealed that the broadcast was fiction, the panic transformed into a

riot A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targete ...

. Hundreds of people attacked Radio Quito and '' El Comercio'', a local newspaper owner of the radio station that had participated in the hoax by publishing false reports of unidentified objects in the skies above Ecuador in the days preceding the broadcast. The riot resulted in at least seven deaths, including those of Paez's girlfriend and nephew. Radio Quito was off the air for two years until 1951. After the incident, Paez self-exiled to

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

, where he lived in Mérida until his death in 1991. An updated version of the radio drama aired several times between 1968 and 1975 on WKBW radio in Buffalo, New York. A Brazilian Portuguese version was aired in October 1971, by Rádio Difusora, from the Northeast state of

Maranhão Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of . Clockwise from north, it borders on the Atlantic Ocean for 2,243 km and the states of Piauí, Tocantins and ...

. This version remained faithful to Welles' adaptation, changing several American cities names to Brazilian state capitals. Also, foreign cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago were reported as engulfed by a poisonous smoke after several cylinders have fallen and tripods were defeating all human resistance. During the transmission, the director of the radio station (also performing) proceeded to explain that many of the station employees were allowed to go home and join their families, but his speech is frequently interrupted by strange noises, which he explains as being result of a worldwide radio interference that was disturbing all transmissions on Earth (presumably caused by Martian machines). Finally, a street reporter announces that gigantic machines were crossing

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, before the city is algo attacked by the poison fog. Like in 1938, some listeners took the broadcast for a real news bulletin and shortly after, the Brazilian Army (the event took place during

Brazilian military dictatorship The military dictatorship in Brazil ( pt, ditadura militar) was established on 1 April 1964, after a coup d'état by the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the United States government, against President João Goulart. The Brazilian dict ...

) shut down the radio station, only allowing it back on the air a few days later. On the 50th anniversary of the radio play, on October 30, 1988, a remake was aired by

WGBH WGBH may refer to: * WGBH Educational Foundation, based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States ** WGBH (FM), a public radio station at Boston, Massachusetts on 89.7 MHz owned by the WGBH Educational Foundation ** WGBH-TV WGBH-TV (channel 2), ...

and picked up by 150

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

stations. It was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

for Best Spoken Word or Nonmusical Recording. In 1994,

L.A. Theatre Works L.A. Theatre Works (LATW) is a not-for-profit American media arts organization based in Los Angeles founded in 1984. The intent of the organization is to produce, preserve, and distribute classic and contemporary plays of significance. Along with i ...

and

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

public radio Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

station KPCC broadcast the original play before a live audience. Most of the cast for this production had appeared in one or more incarnations of ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

'', including

Leonard Nimoy Leonard Simon Nimoy (; March 26, 1931 – February 27, 2015) was an American actor, famed for playing Spock in the ''Star Trek'' franchise for almost 50 years. This includes originating Spock in the original ''Star Trek'' series in 1966, then ...

John de Lancie John Sherwood de Lancie, Jr. (born March 20, 1948) is an American actor, television director, director, film producer, producer, writer, and comedian, best known for his role as Q (Star Trek), Q in various ''Star Trek'' series (1987–present); ...

Dwight Schultz William Dwight Schultz (born November 24, 1947) is an American television, film and voice actor. He is known for his roles as Captain "Howling Mad" Murdock on the 1980s action series ''The A-Team'' and as Reginald Barclay in the ''Star Trek'' ...

Wil Wheaton Richard William Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'', Gordie Lachance in the film ''Stand by Me (film), Stand by Me'', Joey Trotta in '' ...

Gates McFadden Cheryl Gates McFadden (born March 2, 1949) is an American actress and choreographer. She is usually credited as Cheryl McFadden when working as a choreographer and Gates McFadden for acting work. She is best known for playing Dr. Beverly Crusher ...

Brent Spiner Brent Jay Spiner (; born February 2, 1949) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the android Data on the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', as well as four subsequent films. In 2019, he reprised the role for ...

Armin Shimerman Armin Shimerman (born November 5, 1949) is an American actor and author. Early life Shimerman was born into a Jewish family in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, Lakewood, New Jersey, on November 5, 1949, the son of accountant Susan and house painte ...

Jerry Hardin Jerry Hardin (born November 20, 1929) is an American actor. Hardin has appeared in film and television roles, including the character nicknamed Deep Throat in ''The X-Files''. Hardin was born in Texas and studied acting at London's Royal Academ ...

, and

Tom Virtue Tom Virture (born November 19, 1957) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the television series ''Even Stevens'' (2000–2003) and ''The Secret Life of the American Teenager ''The Secret Life of the American Teenager'' (often ...

. It was accompanied by an original sequel called "When Welles Collide", co-written by de Lancie and Nat Segaloff featuring the same cast as themselves. On October 30, 2002,

XM Satellite Radio XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its s ...

collaborated with conservative talk-show host

Glenn Beck Glenn Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative political commentator, radio host, entrepreneur, and television producer. He is the CEO, founder, and owner of Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company of his television and rad ...

for a live recreation of the broadcast, using Koch's original script and airing on the Buzz XM channel, as well as on Beck's 100 AM/FM affiliates. In 2003, the parties were sued for

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...

by Koch's widow, but settled under undisclosed terms. On October 30, 2013, KPCC re-aired the show, introduced by

George Takei George Takei (; ja, ジョージ・タケイ; born Hosato Takei (武井穂郷), April 20, 1937) is an American actor, author and activist known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the fictional starship USS ''Enterprise'' in the televi ...

with a documentary on the 1938 radio show's production. On November 12, 2017, a new opera based on "War of the Worlds" premiered at

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Ave ...

and outdoors in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. The music was composed by

Annie Gosfield Annie Gosfield (born September 11, 1960 in Philadelphia) is a New-York-based composer who works on the boundaries between notated and improvised music, electronic and acoustic sounds, refined timbres and noise. She composes for others and per ...

, commissioned by the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

, directed by

Yuval Sharon Yuval Sharon is an American opera and theater director from Naperville, Illinois, based in Los Angeles. In 2017, he won the MacArthur Genius Grant. Early life and education Sharon was born in 1979 in Chicago to two Israeli parents. He earned a B ...

, and narrated by

Sigourney Weaver Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (; born October 8, 1949) is an American actress. A figure in science fiction and popular culture, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Gram ...

Notes

References

External links

"The War of the Worlds"
(October 30, 1938) on ''

'' (

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...

)
Remastered MP3 & FLAC download
from the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

The NPR broadcast of "The War of the Worlds 50th Anniversary Production"
(October 30, 1988) from the

War of the Worlds Invasion: The Complete ''War of the Worlds'' Website
(John Gosling)
mp3 of King Daevid MacKenzie's ''Echoes of a Century''
2005 program which contains sections of the ''Chase & Sanborn'' and ''Mercury Theatre'' broadcasts of October 30, 1938, edited together in a manner approximating the sequence believed to have generated the reported panic

* ttps://archive.org/details/gov.archives.arc.649442 ''Who's Out There?''NASA film with commentary on the 1938 broadcast and extraterrestrial life (1975) {{DEFAULTSORT:War Of The Worlds (Radio), The Works by Orson Welles Mass psychogenic illness in the United States Scares Hoaxes in the United States American radio dramas CBS Radio programs 1930s American radio programs 1938 radio dramas American science fiction radio programs

Radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

1938 in the United States United States National Recording Registry recordings Halloween fiction Radio programmes based on novels West Windsor, New Jersey October 1938 events Articles containing video clips Radio controversies New Jersey in fiction