One of the most celebrated Halloween japes in radio history celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. Orson Welles presentation of H G Wells’ ’War of the Worlds’ is a broadcast steeped in legend and notoriety, aired one fateful All Hallows night 1938, over the years it has acquired a myth induced cult status. Birthed in an age of paranoia and in the shadow of the very real threat posed by the Nazis across Europe, Welles’ real time transmission interspersed with news flashes and broadcast drop outs was a media trick or treat never since surpassed, a tale of enemies from the skies intent on submitting the mankind to slavery and destruction. What made the broadcast seem so real was the absence of advertising breaks for the first 2/3rds of the show which added to the authenticity. History would have it that the broadcast sent the radio listening Americans into panicked hysteria, reports in the intervening years record how people committed suicide fearing the end of the world, of gun wielding mobs gathered together in drinking halls marching upon grover’s mill prepared to use whatever force was needed to rid these hostiles, that emergency services where stretched to breaking point by reports of death ray attacking invaders from the stars, Welles was even cute enough to set the play around actual places all too familiar to listeners relocating Welles’ original script from London to New Jersey. Research since has looked upon the causes of why this particular transmission holds such notoriety and why the public at large where fooled, a common theory being that it was pitted against the popular ’chase and sanborn hour’ show from a rival network which 15 minutes in ran its first musical interlude, a time according to popular consensus whereby listeners would retire for a brew or else twiddle the dial momentarily to see what else was being broadcast at that moment - hence coming upon these strange news broadcasts from the CBS networks. As to the aftermath the printed press had a field day, both radio and the press had been in a bitter feud for years, the former threatening the hegemony of the latter who in retaliation where swift to seize upon the moment to exact their own trick or treat dishing. If you scour the BBC I-Player there are two related broadcasts aired last weekend - the first via radio 4 xtra being the original broadcast in its entirety while the second originally broadcast Saturday just gone in their archive on 4 slot discusses the myth surrounding the broadcast pouring fresh conjecture on its cult like status - the programme incidentally is titled ‘Orson Welles and the war of the worlds’.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 10:29:32 +0000
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