On the morning of Oct. 31, 1938, American newspapers coast-to-coast ran headlines describing the mass panic resulting from a CBS radio broadcast the previous night. Terrified listen ers, believing the dramatized play to be real, thought they were witnessing an alien invasion and subsequent attack on the small town of Grover’s Mill, New Jersey. Phone calls to radio stations, newspaper offices, and the police convinced many that the broadcast caused a national hysteria. A story too silly to be taken seriously was, and the resulting panic became national news. In all of pop culture history, this is one of the most fascinating and bizarre stories you will ever hear.
In 1938, Mercury Theatre on the Air was a low-budget radio program that featured adaptations of literary classics. The show had been on the air for 17 weeks. The program was hosted by Orson Welles, the now wellknown actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and pioneer of radio and film. He was then just a young and upcoming radio personality.
Halloween week found Welles wanting to do something different with the program. He had the idea of presenting a radio broadcast in dramatized form so that it appeared to be a real event taking place. Welles presented this idea to his producer and director and they decided to base their radio drama on the science fiction nov el The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells.
The original story recounts invaders from Mars attacking our planet. These Martians easily defeat the people of Earth with their advanced weapons (heat rays and poison smoke) to be later defeated by diseases against which they have no immunity.
After struggling through several revisions of the program script, the writers unintentionally included several key elements that made the final show espe cially terrifying. The draft was divided into two acts of equal length. The first act featured fake news bulletins that periodically interrupted a musical presentation. The second act was made up of dramatic scenes recounting the experience of a lone survivor, played by Welles.
As a result of continuing re- writes, the first act grew longer and the second act grew shorter. This resulted in the traditional station break coming later than normal. No one realized that listeners who tuned in late, missing the opening introduction, would wait nearly 40 minutes for the break explaining that the show was fiction. Fictional programs included breaks every 30 min- utes for station identification.
Breaking news stories were not restricted to normal breaks. This small detail made the broadcast appear to be real, breaking news.
Other revisions in the script made the story seem authentic. The original script mentioned the passage of time in several places, clearly establishing the fact that the invasion had taken place over several days. Revisions had the broadcast proceed in real time in order to draw listeners into the story. This added to the show’s believability.
Further changes were made by the cast and crew. For the Mar tian war machines, the sound effects department created chillingly effective noises. The actor cast as the reporter observing the Martian invasion listened repeatedly to a recording of the Hindenburg disaster in an effort to duplicate the horror and alarm expressed over the air in that tragedy, with reporters crying out over the screaming victims. The production crew worked diligently to make the show sound as realistic as possible. They had no idea they would succeed so well.
During the broadcast, many residents of Grover’s Mill armed themselves and prepared to defend their lives. People all over the Tri-State-Area and beyond prepared for the worst. It was quite a night. At the end of the broadcast, Welles spoke to the audience “out-of-character.” He compared his show to “dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying ‘boo!”
Instead of damaging his career, this episode propelled Orson Welles to Hollywood where he would later make Citizen Kane, considered by many to be the greatest movie ever made. Happy Halloween!
© 2023 Jody Dyer
