“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 Columbia Broadcasting System. You will be relieved, I hope, to learn that we didn’t mean it, and that both institutions are still open for business.”
~Orson Welles
On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles forever changed the face of radio broadcasting in the U.S.
Delivering a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, Welles spent the first half of the 60 minute broadcast presenting a series of faux news bulletins which suggested to many listeners that an actual Martian invasion of the U.S. was in progress.
Although there are many differing opinions to the extent of the hysteria, there is no disputing the fact that tens of millions of people were shaken by the broadcast.
Unparalleled in its impact, Welle’s production was the most dramatic radio broadcast ever delivered in U.S. history. Because of his production, dozens of communications regulations were put into place that still exist to this day.
From 8:15 to 9:30pm (EST) on October 30th, 1938, tens of millions of Americans–men, women, and children–gathered around the radios in their parlors and living rooms to listen to CBS Mercury Theater’s production of War Of The Worlds. Huddling close with the lights down low, Americans everywhere experienced the most infamous Halloween prank of all time.
(NOTE: The New York Times ran a remarkable front page article describing the almost unbelievable occurrences of that night.)
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