Transcript for the Piece Audio version of A HALLOWEEN INVASION FROM MARS

You are about to hear a recording of one of the most famous radio dramatizations of all time: Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater production of “The Invasion from Mars, “ adapted from H.G. Wells’ novel, “The War of the Worlds.”

The broadcast was heard over the CBS radio network by some six million Americans on October 30, 1938 … Halloween eve.

Orson Welles meant the program as a harmless Halloween prank. But, to his amazement, it caused national hysteria.

Academic studies showed that at least one-million listeners became panic stricken by the description of an imaginary in invasion of Martians … a threat to our entire civilization.

Shortly after the broadcast, Dr. Hadley Cantril and a group of his associates at Princeton University undertook an extensive study of the program and its effects. It was a rare opportunity to study mass behavior ands panic.

Dr, Cantril noted that “probably never before had so many people in all walks of life and in all parts of the country become so suddenly and so intensely disturbed.”

Long before the broadcast ended , people all over the United States were praying … crying … fleeing frantically to escape the Martians. Some ran to rescue loved ones. Others telephoned farewells or warnings … hurried to inform neighbors … sought information from newspapers and radio stations … summoned ambulances and police cars.

Highways were jammed …telephone lines jammed. Why?

The radio performance was excellent. So was the script. It was difficult to check the information it conveyed, and it kept listeners tightly focused on what the radio was telling them, certain that death at the hands of Martians was inevitable.

Those with low critical abilities – the lesser educated – felt no urge to turn their radio dials to find out what other radio stations were saying – if anything – about the invasion.

Most of those seeking verification were more highly educated, but even many of the highly educated took the program as factual. Telephone lines from southern colleges to northern homes, for example, were jammed with farewell calls.

There was no word from authorities on how to halt the invaders. They presented no real hope. Even the army gave up.

The result was genuine panic. There was no choice of whether to stay and fight it out or to run and escape. Death was certain.

As you’ll hear, the second half of the broadcast made it fairly obvious to even the least critical that the invasion was merely a figment of a highly imaginative mind.

But by then many had left their radios. They preferred other ways in which to spend their last hours on Earth … streaking down highways … huddling in cellars … or perhaps bravely awaiting the end … pitchfork, shotgun or Bible in hand.

Many people did not pay attention to the opening announcements of radio programs. Thus, though Welles clearly indicated at the beginning that the program was actually a theatrical play, many did not hear him.

Other listeners tuned in late. They had been listening to the more popular Edgar Bergen/Charley McCarthy show presented at the same hour on another network.

The use of news bulletins to build up the incredible tale heightened the panic. Radio listeners of that period were used to – ands expected to hear – such bulletins, announcing a new tragic world development.

It was a period of great anxiety. The effects of the Great Depression were still being felt. Hitler was moving into eastern Europe and the world was moving closer and closer to war. Radio was then enjoying its greatest prestige, having supplanted newspapers as the most widely believed in and most relied on of the mass media.

Despite the nationwide panic he had caused, Orson Welles got off with little more than a slap on the wrist from the Federal Communications Commission.

But those who presented the same program in Quito, Ecuador, 11 years later – changing only language and locations – didn’t fare so well. When listeners learned that they had been duped, they burned down the radio station … killing 15 people.

It could happen again. But not now … please. Remember: what you are about to hear is a hoax … probably the most famous radio prank ever pulled off.