War of the World Radio Broadcast From The New York Times on October 31, 1938 "A wave of mass hysteria seized thousand of radio listeners between 8:15 and 9:30 o’clock last night when a broadcast of a dramatization of H.G. Wells’s fantasy, The war of the Worlds, led thousands to believe that an interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and New York.
The broadcast, which disrupted households, interrupted religios services, created traffic jams and clogged communications systems, was made by Orson Welles, who as the radio character, The Shadow, used to give "the creeps" to countless child listeners. This time at least a score of adults required medical treatment for shock and Hysteria"
1940 Radio Interview with H.G. Wells and Orson Welles Hear directly from the brilliant author and the Actor who brought his work to life with frightening realism.
DVD: The Night America Trembled Another classic dramatic presentation brought to you by Studio One, originally a radio program brought out as an Emmy winning weekly television program shown on the CBS television network from 1948 to 1958, This episode centers on the tale of the 1039 Halloween night radio broadcast of the Mercury Theater’s The War of The Worlds. Narrated by Edward R. Murrow, this program presented a dramatization of the studio end of the broadcast as well as audience reactions through vignettes. Guest stars abound in this episode, which opened the tenth season of this program, including Ed Asner, Vincent Gardenia, James Coburn, Warren Oates and a youthful Warren Beatty.
