>> War of the Worlds
Orson Welles' infamous radio broadcast brought the alien invasions to life with haunting realism. Ben Gavan looks back at the real War of the Worlds.
On October 30th 1938, Americans were stunned as they listened to their radios. A broadcast suddenly broke to a news flash. It told of aliens from Mars landing on earth, meteors falling from the sky and menacing aliens intent on world domination. Live reports carried out descriptions of the otherworldly visitors, causing outright panic in New York and New Jersey as up to two million listeners coast to coast heard the horrific news.
The radio broadcast suddenly reported meteors landing and wiping out thousands of people. The location of one of the invasions, Grover's Mill, New Jersey, had people in the vicinity fleeing for their lives, as worshippers in a nearby church kneeled with rosary beads and prayed for their safety.
As mass hysteria grew, a reporter announced he was near one of the crashed UFOs. His description of what he was witnessing, even 60 years on, is remarkable: "Good heavens, something's wriggling out of the shadow like a grey snake. Now it's another one, and another one, and another one! They look like tentacles to me. I can see the thing's body now. It's large, large as a bear and it glistens like wet leather. But that face, it...Ladies and gentlemen, it's indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it, so awful. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate".
America was hardly prepared to wait for more. In New York, panic had set in with a momentum that truly was out of this world. Families began fleeing their towns, while police phone lines were jammed with terrified callers asking where best to hide.
The broadcast carried on with occasional breaks for music, which only fuelled the fevered anticipation of whatever lay ahead. Reports of fields being set on fire and thousands of people being killed had such realism that many residents near the village of Grover's Mill picked up guns and marched towards the site, intent on defending themselves against the alien invaders.
Further reports fanned the flames of fear as the radio host stated, "At least forty people, including six state troopers lie dead in a field east of the village of Grover's Mill, their bodies burned and distorted beyond all possible recognition!" The aliens were said to have death rays and the landing of a meteor near Princeton N.J. was said to have killed 1500 people. Further announcements came from the roof of the broadcasting building in New York City telling listeners, "The bells you hear are ringing to warn the people to evacuate the city as Martians approach!" Later the announcer gravely said, "No more defences. Our army is... wiped out... artillery, air force, everything wiped out". As listeners ran for their lives, one woman tried to poison herself, telling her husband, "I'd rather die this way!"
But there was no invasion, no aliens, and no destruction of Grover's Mill and New York City. The radio broadcast had simply been a dramatisation of HG Wells' War of the Worlds, and actor Orson Welles had been acting out the most remarkable radio broadcast ever heard. While so many people panicked at what they were hearing, police officers pounded at the radio centre's windows, shouting for Welles to finish his broadcast. Welles simply carried on, frantically cueing his actors and sound effects people from his podium. CBS executive Taylor Davidson then demanded that Welles assure the scared listeners that this was simply an act of fiction. "They're scared?" Welles shouted at him. "Good! They're supposed to be scared!"
The broadcast, one that scared so many, was simply part of the Mercury Theatre, a radio programme that broadcasted plays such as Dracula and The Count of Monte Cristo. Something had to be done to halt their slide in ratings, and Orson Welles, the young hot new radio talent who had previously voiced The Shadow, was brought on to recreate HG Wells' classic War of the Worlds, turning it into no more than a Halloween spoof.
The book was based in Victorian England but Welles wanted a location familiar to his audience. The village of Grover's Mill is now forever associated with its fictitious alien landing, yet it was chosen by random when a pencil was dropped onto a roadmap of New Jersey.
Despite the programme beginning with a disclaimer of sorts, most listeners did not hear it. Indeed, the mass hysteria managed to ignore over three additional announcements made during the broadcast that this was an act of fiction. Over half the listeners are thought to have tuned in an hour into the show and so took everything for real. Welles later apologised for the scare he caused, insisting that they had no idea the programme would create such fear.
Today, the broadcast has become one of legend and a stunning example of the power of radio. The new War of the Worlds movie will no doubt entertain; however, no adaptation of this classic story will ever stir an audience quite like Orson Welles did, simply with the use of words.
Ben Gavan