The alien radio hoax

[Freeburger]

    It happened on October 30th, 1938. The war of the worlds radio hoax was brodcasted. The program consisded of Orson Welles telling everybody in New York and New Jersey that aliens had invaded the area. hundreds of people freaked and ran for there lives. Not knowing that the whole thing was a joke. Some people even attempted suicide. At this time, people still talk about this broadcast.

    I just thought this would make a good b-movie scetch. And I was bored. Just give me a reply

[JohnL]

The War of the Worlds radio broadcast and its effect on the country was dramatized in the 1975 TV movie The Night that Panicked America. Also, a re-enactment of the broadcast played a part in the movie Spaced Invaders where real martians hear the broadcast, believe it's real and come to Earth to help in the attack.

[Dunners]

Ha, someone ought to do a movie just on peoples reactions. This would be a brilliant black comedy.

[Vermin Boy]

It also serves as part of the premise of Buckaroo Banzai: It's revealed that the broadcast was real, and the aliens brainwashed Welles into covering it up. In any other movie, that'd be the entire movie right there; You have to admire a film so thoroughly insane that that's a basically inconsequential detail.

[dean]

I actually downloaded the radio broadcast a while back, I've never had time to listen to it all, but what I've heard so far is fantastic.  Very cool stuff [I love the War of the Worlds]

I can just imagine people tuning in and freaking out about it all.

Just imagine if somebody did something like that in today's society: it would be nuts!!

I'd love to see that happen, it would show how media reliant we all are.

[Fearless Freep]

I'd love to see that happen, it would show how media reliant we all are.

Yes and no.  Because of how many different stations there are that people tune into, you would be hardpressed to get enough saturation for anyone to buy it.  If someone saw it on ABC, they would turn to CNN and CBS and Fox and... to get more information.  If it only showed up on one station, I don't think it would be believable.

IIRC, there was something done like that a few years ago, but it was wel known to be a spoof ahead of time and was done for entertainment more than an attempt to fool people.

The only way you could really get it to work would be if you put it on one station and the other stations blindly picked it up, but I don't think they are quite that easy.

And then there's the internet..

[Gerry]

The book "The Panic Broadcast" is an excellent read that includes both the original script for the radio play supplemented by newspaper articles and commentary on the reaction towards the broadcast.  I can't remember the name of the author, but it was the same guy who wrote the radio play for Orson Welles, so he was right in the middle of it when it all happened.

[Vermin Boy]

True, it'd be tough to orchestrate something like that from the inside, but it's relatively easy to pull one over on the media by sending out a phony press release. There's a guy called Joey Skaggs who's been doing that sort of thing for years, with the networks biting every time, as well as some other pranksters (anyone remember that "Project Bambi" thing a couple years back, where you could supposedly pay to hunt naked women with paintball guns?)

[peter johnson]

Howard Koch wrote the original adaptation for the '38 broadcast.
NPR financed a remake production of it in 1988, with Jason Robards as the protagonist & a bunch of cool old radio guys in supporting roles.  Parts of it were recorded at Skywalker Ranch.
The remake is by OtherWorld Media, and can be obtained from the Lodestone website.
David Ossman, of The Firesign Theatre, and Judith Walcutt, his wife, run OtherWorld Media, and David directed the remake.
I got to work with David and Judith for the radio (PRI) version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, released in '01, with John Goodman, Mark Hamil, Rene (Odo/Deep Space 9) Auberjonois, and a bunch o' other folk.  Huge Wells fans -- both Orson & H.G. -- all --
peter johnson

[Fearless Freep]

Rene (Odo/Deep Space 9) Auberjonois

To me, he's still that dude from "Benson" :)

[Susan]

One thing i always wondered is how much we've changed. In today's society would we react the same? Would we believe it? Well naturally not because it would have to be on fox, msnbc, cnn..etc. I guess it goes to show how powerful radio was and how little power it holds now with the television having taken over our source of information.

While speculation can be done forever i always imagined that if someone like an alien invasion happened it would not be independence day. Societies would break down, some countries might think it's a western plot to create turmoil, some might sit outside waiting for the ships to take them to venus, but i bet a whole lotta people would loot. People are always looking for a good reason to loot.

[Gerry]

peter johnson wrote:

> Howard Koch wrote the original adaptation for the '38
> broadcast.

That's the guy I was trying to remember.  He wrote "The Panic Broadcast" on the radio play and the aftermath.  A good read.

[JohnL]

>Just imagine if somebody did something like that in today's society: it would be
>nuts!!
>
>I'd love to see that happen, it would show how media reliant we all are.

They didn't cause mass panic, but in the past few years, there have been two or three TV movies that were done as a series of news reports. One was about an expedition to Mars and another was about a meteor striking the Earth and discovering that it's a plot by aliens. I seem to recall reading that at the time they aired, at least a few people called the network wanting to know if the reports were true. Of course it should have been a tipoff that there were no well-known reporters in any of the news broadcasts.