October 30: Invasion from Mars

On 30 October 1938, the Mercury Theatre, under the leadership of Orson Welles, performed The War of the Worlds which they had adapted from H. G. Wells’ book of the same title. The following day, the New York Times had a lead story titled, “Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact.”

Because the performance was done as a series of news reports and without commercial break, many listeners thought that they were hearing a real new broadcast; not a fictional account in the spirit of Halloween. The 1938 performance of The War of the Worlds is available on-line.

The War of the Worlds tells the story of a Martian invasion. Originally set in London, the Mercury Theater sets the scene in New England where a cylinder lands in Grover Mills, New Jersey; a real unincorporated town. A Martian emerges from the cylindrical rocket and uses a heat-ray to incinerate the humans whom have come to view the rocket.

Prior to his work with the Mercury Theatre, Orson Welles had already established himself as The Shadow in such episodes as “Death House Rescue” which aired on 26 September 1937. He and Marc Blitzstein had successfully co-produced the labor musical The Cradle Will Rock in 1937. When the Mercury Theatre was formed in August 1937, their first theatrical production was an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar—set in Fascist Italy.

When the Mercury Theatre began airing on the radio, their first production was Dracula. The radio show was known for quality, but was not a big hit. However, after the controversy created by The War of the Worlds, Campbell’s soup began to sponsor the radio show. Therefore, on 9 December 1938, the Mercury Theatre became the Campbell Playhouse.
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Two years later, on 28 October 1940, H.G. Wells and Orson Welles met and had a joint radio broadcast on Radio KTSA in San Antonio, Texas. At the end of the broadcast, Welles gives a plug for his latest film, Citizen Kane which came out in 1941.

–Steven L. Berg, PhD

Photo Caption: Orson Welles directs the Mercury Theatre.


Although Today in History is primarily student written, there are some days when we do not have a student author. You will enjoy another student entry on November 1.

Posted on by stevenlberg
Categories: American History: Modern
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5 Responses

  1. Corey Kelly says:
    5 December 2012 at 12:28 pm

    I have had the pleasure of listening to The War of the Worlds radio broadcast. I tried to imagine how I would feel if I had been listening to the radio the first time it was aired. Knowing what I know now made it slightly difficult. At first the broadcast seemed very realistic. After more things started happening I might have gotten a bit scared. Around the time they said that cities were being evacuated, I’m sure I would have checked other stations to see if they were saying the same thing. After finding out that no one else was panicking about the attack, I would have realized that it was fake.
    Citizen Kane came out in 1941, and it is considered to be the greatest film of all time. It was Orson Welles’ first feature film. Citizen Kane was nominated for nine Academy awards. Its music and cinematography was supposed to have really set the bar for the music and cinematography in all other films that followed it. I have not yet had the pleasure of seeing this film, but I hope that when I finally do see it, it exceeds my expectations.

    -Corey Kelly

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  2. josh wisniewski says:
    8 December 2012 at 2:46 am

    Orson Wells 1941 film Citizen Kane would go on to be nominated for nine Oscars. Although it only was awarded for one Oscar for best writing (original screenplay). Citizen Kane starred Orson wells as Charles Foster Kane. Charles Foster Kane is a millionaire newspaper tycoon. On his deathbed Kane spoke his last word “rosebud”. The rest of the film follows a group of reporters who are trying to decipher what rosebud means. In 2008 the American film institute (AFI) named citizen Kane the number one film in there one hundred years… one hundred movies list. The list rated the one hundred greatest films ever made.

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  3. Adam Zimmer says:
    9 December 2012 at 2:48 pm

    Much of the confusion around the War of the Worlds broadcast was due in part to the fact that the station, The Mercury Theater on Air, was unsponsored and had a very small audience. The station aired advertisements for the show, and told them it was a fictional piece ahead of the broadcast. The station also ran at the same time as a much more popular show Chase and Sanborn Hour, as the show ended many listeners turned their dials looking for something else can came across the War of the Worlds right as the aliens were exiting their space capsules. They were thrown into the middle of the broadcast without any prior knowledge that it was fictional.

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  4. Benjamin Puninske says:
    9 December 2012 at 6:34 pm

    On 12 February 1949, an Orson Welles inspired radio broadcast was aired in Quito, Ecuador. Two men named Leonardo Páez, the dramatic director at Radio Quito, and Eduardo Alcaraz, a member of the staff, obtained a copy of the original The War of Worlds broadcast. They wished to recreate the drama caused by the initial airing; Páez went to great lengths to insure the public’s astonishment, going as far as planting stories about fake UFO landings prior to the broadcast.

    Listeners were drawn in by a special performance by the popular Luis Alberto ‘Potolo’ Valencia and Gonzalo Benítez. During the show, an emergency report was given, stating that Martians had landed 20 miles away from Quito. Soon hordes of people formed in the streets, frightened and confused.

    Radio Quito realized the extent of their folly, and implored the public to cease. Infuriated, the crowds began advancing on the radio station’s headquarters. The scene turned violent as protestors set fire to the building. Although many of those inside escaped, it is said that at least six staff members were killed.

    -Benjamin Puninske

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  5. Justin Ghannam says:
    9 December 2012 at 10:21 pm

    I actually happen to know a fair amount about the mentioned topic. Back then means of communication were very unreliable and it was safe to say, that proving it more than anything, that if somebody on radio or any form of an authoritative seat that they would of been believed more a large chunk of the public. It resulted in two murders that same night out of fright.
    That makes me think of today where we have this laughable end of the world Mayan calender period almost ending that’s suppose to happen in 12 days now. The difference between back then and now is that we have enough technology to know the stupidity of public claims.

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