H.G. Wells

[Dayna]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of ... lds_(radio)

I can remember hearing about this 1930s radio broadcast that seemed so real, it had people beleiving we were invaded by Martians.

Was it very popular there?

[Adam Blake]

Very popular where? Mars? Or here? :)
I don't think it was broadcast in either place but it did get Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre a Hollywood contract which gave us "Citizen Kane" and at least the first half of "The Magnificent Ambersons" so we all (even the Martians) have much to be grateful to it for. I've heard the original broadcast on tape and it's great! It's bound to be on the internet somewhere. I love the way Orson acts all innocent in the interviews following the general hysteria that it caused - like it hadn't been his plan all along!

[NormanD]

I do have a copy, somewhere, on a C90 tape. I'll try to find and MP3 it. As Adam says, it was not broadcast in the UK. All programmes were home-made, with no imports. It's most unlikely the BBC would have put it out, especially after all the hoo-hah it caused.

There was a later upshot, I read or heard in an Orson Welles interview. As Adam said, Welles's repertory company, Mercury Theatre, did regular radio broadcasts, high-quality theatre pieces. The programmes were all broadcast live. He was putting out one show on December 7th (?) 1941 when news came in of the Japanese air attacks on the US Pearl Harbour military base. He was told by the station manager to interrupt his programme with this piece of dramatic, breaking news. His reaction was: "Oh, no. Not again. They'll think it's another hoax. No one will believe me a second time round"

[Dayna]

Very popular where? Mars? Or here? :)

Actually, I've never heard it before. I am curious about what he said that convinced everyone so well.

[john poole]

Legend has it that a lot of people had been listening to a programme on another station which over-ran. Consequently, they joined the broadcast of War of The Worlds late and having missed the introduction assumed that it was a genuine event....

[kas]

It's bound to be on the internet somewhere. I love the way Orson acts all innocent in the interviews following the general hysteria that it caused - like it hadn't been his plan all along!

Here it is:

http://www.archive.org/details/OrsonWellesMrBruns

archive.org is, by the way, a near bottomless trove of all sorts of famous art films, avantgarde music, poetry and such stuff. I've spent way too much time there...