On October 31, 1938, news began to spread globally of a mass panic that had erupted in the United States the night before, following a broadcast many Americans mistook for an actual alien invasion.
While Orson Welles is widely celebrated for his revolutionary work in film and television, fewer people realise that at only 23 years old, he hosted a radio broadcast that would ignite one of the most famous public frenzies in modern history and leave a lasting impact on media worldwide.
Welles hosted a popular CBS radio drama programme, Mercury Theatre on the Air, where he and a team of actors brought classic stories to life on air. Initially, the show was set to debut with an adaptation of Treasure Island, but a last-minute change introduced Dracula instead—a decision that proved immediately popular and helped catapult Welles' name to greater renown.
For the show’s autumn season, Welles decided to adapt H.G. Wells' famous novel The War of the Worlds, devising a clever plan to make it sound like a genuine news broadcast. His intention was to heighten the realism of the story—and he succeeded beyond imagination.
After a brief opening monologue from Welles, the programme transitioned seamlessly into orchestra music, which was then interrupted by “breaking news” bulletins describing a Martian invasion in Grover’s Mill, New Jersey.
Thirty minutes into the broadcast, a crew member rushed onto the set, visibly shaken, to report that listeners across the country were panicking, believing the fictional invasion was real.
The next day, journalists from across America flocked to New York to interview Welles. Meanwhile, 3,260 miles away in Dundee, Scotland, the panic in America was headline news in local papers, including The Courier and Evening Telegraph. These papers offered readers in Dundee a captivating glimpse into an unfolding drama across the Atlantic.
The Evening Telegraph ran the headline “THE END OF THE WORLD: TERROR STRICKEN AMERICA” detailing how many Americans were left "suffering from nervous prostration." The article also reported that Harlem, New York, experienced the most intense panic, with people barricading their homes to guard against the imaginary Martian threat.
The Courier echoed this drama with the headline “THE AMERICAN PANIC” and marvelled at the widespread reaction, remarking that “it is doubtful if anything parallel to it has happened since the Middle Ages. That it should happen in so highly sophisticated a country makes the phenomenon all the more strange.”
Eighty-six years later, the War of the Worlds broadcast endures as a remarkable chapter in media history. It not only highlights the power of storytelling but also serves as a reminder of the profound impact the media can have on its audience, even across vast distances and generations.
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