Orson Welles and The War Of The Worlds Radio Play

[charliechaplinfan]

Today I listened to The War of the Worlds, it's a radio programme that has gone down in history as frightening part of the populace and jamming the switchboard of the radio company. One day I'm going to polish off a good biography of Welles, he's such a fascinating man but in the meantime can some of our Welles fans tell me whether the infamy is jusitifed. Did he frighten the nation? Listening to it, I can see how some people might switch on and think the world was ending but at the back of my mind I'm thinking that this was a popular weekly radio show, wouldn't they realised it was Welles? Welles is in it quite a bit and his voice is extremely recogniseable and 40 minutes into it, to settle people down it breaks off to remind everyone that it is a radio play produced by Welles. Having a mother who wolud buy it hook line and sinker, I'm inclined to believe that some people were frightened but the cynical side of me wonders if it's infamy has become overblown over the years.

Until I get to reading about Welles will someone clear this up for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed the play, it made an hour spent ironing, fly by.

[pvitari]

My mother grew up very close to where the aliens of War of the Worlds invaded. She listened to the broadcast as a little girl, and when she heard the aliens were coming down Raymond Boulevard in Newark, New Jersey, the city where she lived, she was absolutely terrified. Fortunately a neighbor who had some common sense explained it was just a radio play.

[ChiO]

"Infamy" is not the word I'd use. Maybe "notoriety."

According to Simon Callow in Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu:

The most popular radio program in that time slot was The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show (A ventriloquist on radio was popular? Talk about suspension of disbelief!). At 8:12pm EST, that show that night featured a so-so singer and 12% ofthe audience turned the dial and happened to catch The War of the Worlds. The usual Mercury Theater audience was now doubled. At that point, the intro that it was a fictionalization was over and the reporting of an invasion was in full swing. When the broadcast ended and Welles reminded the audience that it was Halloween, those who had panicked switched to rage.

That the invasion was in New Jersey, right next to New York, radio capital of the U.S.A. and source of the broadcast, probably accentuated the impact. One of the texts I had to read in my U.S. History class in college was a book comparing the irrational, but somehow still reasonable, panic that that broadcast created to the irrational, but somehow still reasonable, panic that resulted in the Great Depression. Just one more piece to the growing Welles persona -- to become Legend -- and its relation to Magic...or Charlatanry.

[klondike]

Just one more piece to the growing Welles persona -- to become Legend -- and its relation to Magic...or Charlatanry.

And as we remember the way his weary eyes would twinkle when he'd grin . . . still we listen - for the chimes at Midnight . .

[mrsl]

.
In the first place, you have to remember this is the 1930's you're talking about. They didn't have the news media we have today to prepare for this unusual broadcast, and many people tuned in long after the warning. Also, it was not done as a play on radio but as a newscast. Finally, with all the proof that has been given, many people still think global warming is an imaginary thing, and that 911 was joke on the American public. You will always have some people who believe and others who don't. In the case of War of the Worlds however, many people actually did get nto their cars and try to drive as far as they could from New Jersey.
.

[klondike]

How weird is this?
The scribe Welles hired to co-write his "WoTW" broadcast script was none other than Howard Koch, who, three years later, would work on the screenplay for Casablanca.

[Professional Tourist]

Charliechaplinfan, this ten-year-old article from Time magazine may be of some interest to you.

[charliechaplinfan]

That's a great article PT. I'll download some of his other radio shows on the strength of that article and I'll get around to reading Simon Callow's book. Orson Welles has a wonderfully resonant voice, capable of so much emotion. What the article says about it only being the 5th radio broadcast, broadcast in American rather than the mid Atlantic drawl favoured in those days.

It seems the people it trciked were the ones channel surfing (not just today's thing) tuning into a very serious news broaadcast that cut off at some points as the martians interfered with transmission. It is frightening but how foolish you might feel afterward and very cross at Welles for his trickery.

Les Miserables, The Man who Was Tuesday and the Shadow are the programmes I'm going to look up.

[Rita Hayworth]

My mother grew up very close to where the aliens of War of the Worlds invaded. She listened to the broadcast as a little girl, and when she heard the aliens were coming down Raymond Boulevard in Newark, New Jersey, the city where she lived, she was absolutely terrified. Fortunately a neighbor who had some common sense explained it was just a radio play.

Back in 1976, I was traveling with my Parents through Newark, New Jersey and we stopped at a hole in a wall cafe for lunch and their were town folks still talking about the panic situation and many of them even commented that we were invaded from visitors from Outer Space. Every time I travel - I like to keep a diary of some sorts and stopping at this hole in a wall cafe in Newark - I was still amazed that local citizens still talks about the "panic". "the fear", and the "gripping stories of aliens landing here". Some still believe it and Some still don't.

So, when I came back home - I asked my Grandparents and Great Grandparents about Orson Welles's play of the War of the Worlds; and one thing for sure - Wells made it believable. I know that Orson put a lot of effort into this - because he was so creative - a genius - that is why Rita Hayworth - couldn't handle his genius anymore. Back in those days, Radio was the only source of entertainment, communication of the outside world, and information - but the problem is that many people was flipping through the airwaves and when they stumbled on Welles play - some people panicked and the vast majority didn't - but those people panicked - people (In Newark) are still mad at Orson Welles for making sounds to realistic. And, that is back in the 1976 folks ... its amazes me that people still talking about it for all these years
...

[Rita Hayworth]

Charliechaplinfan, this ten-year-old article from Time magazine may be of some interest to you.

I read it too ... Great Stuff in there! Thanks for Sharing it ... I really do.

[charliechaplinfan]

One might think that some of the people mad at Welles have probably been ribbed for years by people who didn't panic. It did sound believeable, it was gripping.

[RedRiver]

Allow me to boost this interesting thread. I was referred by another. This is an absolutely fascinating episode of our cultural history. In fact, last Halloween, we parodied it on the radio station where I worked. As far as I know, no one left town a panic!

My mother also remembered this incident. Her family listened to the broadcast in Kentucky. Couldn't believe people thought it was real. City folk! But when you tune into an "emergency broadcast" and haven't heard the disclaimer...

In the 1980's, there was a TV movie called SPECIAL BULLETIN. Only I didn't know that at the time. Turned it on in the middle. You guessed it! My friends said, "Dude! Orson Welles would have loved you!" It could happen.

There is also a TV movie that beautifully depicts the in studio activity, and some fictional reactions in the area. THE NIGHT THAT PANICKED AMERICA. Very well done. Of course, the radio stuff is good. How could it not be? But the personal side, the lives of the listeners is where the real drama lies. This is one of the best TV shows I've seen.

I love this story!

[Lzcutter]

Red,

I remember the TV Movie. It is one of my favorites from an era when TV Movies were terrific and covered a myriad of topics. The actor who played Welles in the telefilm, Paul Shenar, looked a bit like the young Welles and had a voice that made you think of Welles' voice.

[RedRiver]

Paul Shenar really was good. The show cleverly suggests that, with Nazism on the rise, invasion by monsters was a real threat indeed. But Martians were the least of our worries. I don't know if Welles and his crew considered that angle. But it makes for good drama.

[JackFavell]

I bet a million dollars Welles did consider the threat of war looming on the horizon when he picked War of the Worlds.