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From WinkyPedia, the free encyclopedia that tells you what you already knew
The War of the Worlds broadcast was a radio drama aired in the United States on the evening of 30 October 1938, the night before Halloween. Adapted from H. G. Wells's 1898 novel and directed and narrated by Orson Welles, it told the story of a Martian invasion in the form of realistic news bulletins interrupting a music programme. It is famous for causing mass panic across America.[1] Historians now believe the mass panic largely did not happen. The broadcast is therefore best known for something it did not do, which makes it the most successful piece of fiction about itself.
The next morning, newspapers across the country ran dramatic stories of terrified listeners fleeing their homes. But researchers studying the event have found that relatively few people were listening, since a popular comedy show was on another station at the same time, and that most of those who were listening understood it was a play. The broadcast said so at the start and at intervals.[2]
Newspapers at the time were losing advertising to radio, and some historians suggest they had good reasons to describe radio as dangerous and irresponsible. The panic was, in effect, reported into existence, and then repeated for more than eighty years, which is far more than the Martians ever managed.
In the drama, the Martians land at Grover's Mill, a small community in New Jersey chosen, reportedly, by pointing at a map. Grover's Mill has since put up a monument to the landing that never happened, and holds occasional celebrations of it. It is the only place on Earth with a memorial to an invasion it was never invaded by.