Seventy Six Years ago, Orson Welles Scared the Nation with a Martian Invasion

[teapartysamurai]

It was October 30, 1938 and a small Radio Company known as the Mercury Theater put on a radio drama directed by then 23 years old, Orson Welles.

They had no sponsor, so there were no commercials to let people know this was a radio play.

Note this radio program was NOT pre-recorded. It was done on LIVE radio, and yet was so expertly directed by a genius that his genius scared panicked people into fleeing in their cars.

Here's to remembering a genius.

 

[HenryBHough]

It couldn't happen today.

We've lived through the ultimate horror - a Marxist Muslim Mulatto.

NOTHING could faze Americans now....nothing at all.

Welles was good....but not good enough to top that. Besides, his radio play never did translate well into visual media as countless movies and TV attempts proved again and again.

 

[teapartysamurai]

 

[teapartysamurai]

It couldn't happen today.

We've lived through the ultimate horror - a Marxist Muslim Mulatto.

NOTHING could faze Americans now....nothing at all.

Welles was good....but not good enough to top that. Besides, his radio play never did translate well into visual media as countless movies and TV attempts proved again and again.

Actually there WAS a tv program that managed to cause some panic in the 70s. Despite the constant announcements it was a tv program, a tv movie attempted to use the same format as Welles AND IT WORKED.

It was about terrorists holding Charlotte NC hostage with an nuclear bomb, but they bungle it and the bomb goes off.

There were people who called panicked to ABC (as I recall that was the network) terrified and wanted reassurance it was just a broadcast, despite all the announcements it was just a broadcast.

I wish i could remember the name of the tv movie. I only saw it that once.

 

[teapartysamurai]

Funny story is. One of the actors was going to imitate President Roosevelt.

Well CBS said they ABSOLUTELY could NOT do Roosevelt. It was just not going to happen.

So, the script was switched to a speech from the "Secretary of the Interior."

But when someone asked Welles (just prior to broadcast), what the secretary of the interior sounded like, Welles replied, "Roosevelt."

And that's exactly what they did. They went ahead with the voice imitator of Roosevelt.

No one listened to the jazz about it being from the "Secretary of the Interior." Audiences of the time knew what Roosevelt sounded like and that's all they needed to know.

 

[norwegen]

Illegal aliens were especially unwelcome back then.

Oh, to return the good ol' days of the Great Depression.

 

[teapartysamurai]

Illegal aliens were especially unwelcome back then.

Oh, to return the good ol' days of the Great Depression.

Yeah, but these illegal aliens were little and green!

 

[JakeStarkey]

Oh, no we don't want any thing of the sort.

But . . . the radio program was monster!

 

[teapartysamurai]

Here's the plaque in Grover's Mill, NJ commemorating the broadcast.

 

[Moonglow]

It couldn't happen today.

We've lived through the ultimate horror - a Marxist Muslim Mulatto.

NOTHING could faze Americans now....nothing at all.

Welles was good....but not good enough to top that. Besides, his radio play never did translate well into visual media as countless movies and TV attempts proved again and again.

Actually there WAS a tv program that managed to cause some panic in the 70s. Despite the constant announcements it was a tv program, a tv movie attempted to use the same format as Welles AND IT WORKED.

It was about terrorists holding Charlotte NC hostage with an nuclear bomb, but they bungle it and the bomb goes off.

There were people who called panicked to ABC (as I recall that was the network) terrified and wanted reassurance it was just a broadcast, despite all the announcements it was just a broadcast.

I wish i could remember the name of the tv movie. I only saw it that once.

24?

 

[Moonglow]

These people were scared after reading Poe...

 

[teapartysamurai]

It couldn't happen today.

We've lived through the ultimate horror - a Marxist Muslim Mulatto.

NOTHING could faze Americans now....nothing at all.

Welles was good....but not good enough to top that. Besides, his radio play never did translate well into visual media as countless movies and TV attempts proved again and again.

Actually there WAS a tv program that managed to cause some panic in the 70s. Despite the constant announcements it was a tv program, a tv movie attempted to use the same format as Welles AND IT WORKED.

It was about terrorists holding Charlotte NC hostage with an nuclear bomb, but they bungle it and the bomb goes off.

There were people who called panicked to ABC (as I recall that was the network) terrified and wanted reassurance it was just a broadcast, despite all the announcements it was just a broadcast.

I wish i could remember the name of the tv movie. I only saw it that once.

24?

No, this movie was made in 1976 (as I recall).

I only saw it once. There was a panic with it, so it was never shown again. Wish I could remember the name, but I was only 14 when I saw it.

 

[teapartysamurai]

These people were scared after reading Poe...

It was the Great Depression. Everybody was Poe back then!

 

[Moonglow]

and ideas about as such were rather limited unlike today, but then again, most didn't have electricity...

 

[teapartysamurai]

and ideas about as such were rather limited unlike today, but then again, most didn't have electricity...

About 75% of homes had radios in them, despite the economy.

 

[teapartysamurai]

And the radios they made in those days!

My late brother got a radio from our grandma that our late grandpa gave her in the 20s. Radio is 90 years old. Still has the original tubes, and still in perfect working order!

They made 'em to last in those days.

 

[Tom Sweetnam]

And 50% of Americans still believe in UFO's.