Breaking News from 1938!

For my first (long overdue) blog post, I’d like to remind you all of the 69th anniversary of Orson Welles’ infamous adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds.

The War of the Worlds has been adapted a number of times, most recently with the over-stuffed special effects demo reel directed by Steven Spielberg. Welles’ version was told in the disguise of a news broadcast (even going as far as using terminology such as “Ladies and gentlemen, here is the latest bulletin…” for maximum authenticity) , following Marians landing in Grovers’ Mill and systematically destroying us.

The widespread panic famously associated with this radio play has been romanticized and exaggerated over the years into an urban legend, but it never-the-less did cause a small panic back in 1938. Even Adolf Hitler weighed in with his two cents, claiming that the reaction to the broadcast was “evidence of the decadence and corrupt condition of democracy.” The radio play and ensuing panic even warranted its own movie with 1975’s The Night That Panicked America. The film follows several fictionalized families as they listen to, and react to the radio play.

Compared to what’s out today, the original broadcast seems somewhat tame. But imagine you’re back in 1938 (one year before World War 2), listening to the radio (probably how you got all your news) and hearing about fucking aliens coming down and messing with our shit.

It’s an important moment in pop culture and horror history, so tonight I will celebrate by turning off all the lights, take the phone of the hook and listen to the broadcast uninterrupted. If you want to check it out (you should) here’s a link to the entire broadcast: here

“This is Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you that The War of The Worlds has no further significance than as the holiday offering it was intended to be. The Mercury Theatre’s own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying Boo! Starting now, we couldn’t soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night. . . so we did the best next thing. We annihilated the world before your very ears, and utterly destroyed the C. B. S. You will be relieved, I hope, to learn that we didn’t mean it, and that both institutions are still open for business. So goodbye everybody, and remember the terrible lesson you learned tonight. That grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody’s there, that was no Martian. . .it’s Hallowe’en. ”
Orson Welles