THE RADIO BROADCAST THAT SHOCKED AMERICA

Practical jokes are centuries old. Edgar Allan Poe pulled one off in a newspaper article about a daredevil balloonist who got blown off course in South Carolina and ended up in England three days later. Speaking of England, the folks across the pond have endured a good many as well, such as the story that claimed that Communists had taken over London. These and other examples of the "fake news" from yesteryear are discussed in the editorial for the November 19, 1938 issue of RADIO GUIDE. However, the main feature is concerned with one of the most infamous hoaxes in history: Orson Welles' live broadcast of martians invading Earth. Not only was it convincing, but it sent America into a countrywide panic.

The show was adapted from the science-fiction novel, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS by H. G. Wells first published in 1898. Like the book, it was also written as a first-person account, and scriptwriter Howard Koch imitated the first-person point of view to give what would be a live broadcast the element of verisimilitude.

Along with a few other actors, the 23-year-old Welles read his script over the airwaves of CBS Radio's "The Mercury Theatre on the Air" program on the evening of October 30, 1938. Before the show was over, panic had already spread and it took an apology from Wells the next morning to calm down a frightened populace. Moreover, in a likely move to avoid personal criticism and distance himself from the event, H. G. Wells himself was reported as saying he did not give his permission for his story to be used in a "news bulletin" format that would incite fear and panic.

Welles the morning after with the press.

So, just how convincing was this mother of all hoaxes? Read on, as the article discusses the incident, as well as Wells describing his thoughts on the hoodwinking of not only a radio audience, but an entire country. Also included is the complete script of the show.

[Thanks to Mr. Steve Green, our man in the U.K. for supplying WoM with this fantastic historical artifact.]