Believing a reading of the H.G. Well's story would be too boring, the 23 year-old Orson Welles found a creative way to engage the radio listeners. The show began like an ordinary newscast, then was interrupted with a panicked "breaking news" report of invading tripods. Fake interviewees and updates of military actions filled the hour-long broadcast, the end of which had Welles break character to announce that the broadcast was a Halloween prank. However, many listeners of the broadcast stopped listening before the end, and were sent into a panic. Newspapers from across the country contained conflicted reports over the event, resulting in "the most famous media event in history" (PBS American Experience - "War of the Worlds")
You can listen to the entire radio broadcast here:
Interested in seeing some of the newspapers from the day after like this one?
Check out our Historical Newspapers Online Resource
~jh
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment