On October 1938, newspaper pushed this idea that the nation went into panic mode when they heard the drama on radio. Orson Welles also doubled down on the myth himself over numerous retellings on talk shows for the rest of his life. To this day, it is unclear to what extent actual panic was caused, certain facts remain – broadcast demonstrated the early power and potential of radio.
I had no idea that I had suddenly become some sort of national event – Orson Welles. On the evening of 30 October 1938, just before Halloween, Welles, then the director and star of radio drama series the Mercury Theatre on the Air, was running through last-minute rehearsals for his innovative new broadcast. Welles was only 23 years old at the time, and regarded by many as a prodigy – this was his most ambitious project yet, an update of The War of the Worlds, a science-fiction thriller by HG Wells, published in 1898.
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His plan was to bring Wells's story alive by setting it in the modern day, creating a sense of urgency and fear. He changed the location from England to New Jersey, and had the story rewritten as a series of realistic news bulletins reporting an unstoppable alien invasion from Mars, in what sounded like real time, and so blurring the lines between reality and fiction.
"We did that all very carefully and exactly reproduced what would have happened. Thinking to make the whole thing more effective. But we had no idea how effective it would be."
Radio in 1930s was replacing newspapers as the place where most Americans found out about the daily news. There was also a general feeling of anxiety about another conflict in Europe, and as the events that drove the world towards World War Two increased. US audiences were becoming increasingly familiar with major news events interrupting scheduled radio programs.
The broadcast began with Welles himself introducing the drama at 8pm Eastern standard time. Wells clarified that the program was a work of fiction. But listeners who tuned in late missed his early disclaimer, while some who heard it didn’t really register what he was saying, or simply forgot it as the drama progressed.
What then followed was a regular music program familiar to listeners, interrupted by a series of frantic simulated breaking-news bulletins. The actors portraying reporters and government officials described the arrival of the alien invaders, and these descriptions were combined with chillingly realistic sound effects of the aliens' deadly heat rays – and the destruction of entire cities. The effect was compelling, and terrified listeners.
The drama's documentary style and realistic dialogue mislead listeners to think it was a real news broadcast. Newspapers later reported that anxious listeners, believing that the end of the world was here, tried to flee their homes, while others gathered weapons and prepared to defend themselves against the aliens. Phone lines became jammed as listeners tried to call police and newspapers to find out information or to get reassurance. Numerous calls may have convinced many journalists that the show was causing a nationwide panic.
The police eventually turned up at the CBS studio where the drama was being performed, and a struggle broke out between the cops and radio executives, who were trying to prevent them bursting in and stopping the show. Welles, who was in the midst of the play, only realized the effect it was having “because about halfway through the show as we were continuing with the script in front of us, we saw that in the control room there were several policemen.
After the show went off the air, Walter Winchell, a rival network, went on his program of news commentary, and said, 'Mr And Mrs America, there is no cause for alarm. America has not fallen. I repeat, America has not fallen'."
Afterward, Welles and his team faced an intense backlash from the media and the government. The broadcast dominated the next day's newspaper headlines. This helped solidify the impression that Welles's show had created hysteria.
There were threats of lawsuits, and calls for censorship and regulation of radio content. Welles denied repeatedly that he had did it on purpose. Ultimately the Federal Communications Commission investigated the incident and found no law had been broken.
The scandal did boost Welles's reputation as a creative genius with a mastery of storytelling. It would go on to propel him to Hollywood, where he would direct and star in 1941's Citizen Kane, often cited as the greatest film of all time.
Welles' broadcast incident would later have lasting impact when it comes to shaping public opinion. Welles recounted how, a few years later, news broke that Japan had launched a surprise attack on the US base in Pearl Harbor during a patriotic performance he was giving on radio.
"I was in the midst of some hymn of praise to the American cornfields or something of the kind," he said, "when suddenly, a gentleman darted into the radio studio, held up his hand, and said:
'We interrupt this broadcast to bring you an announcement: Pearl Harbor has just been attacked.' And of course this very serious and terrible news was never believed. Not for hours, by anybody in America, because they all said, 'Well there he goes again, really, rather bad taste, it was funny once, but not a second time'.
Source: BBC.com