Orson Welles panics USA with broadcast of “War of the Worlds” Oct 30, 1938:

On October 30th 1938 one of the most dramatic mass panics caused by the mass media occured in the USA. Orson Wells who was only 23 at the time broadcast “War of the Worlds” – a realistic dramatization of HG Wells classic novel. These days we are used to similar undertakings – The Blair Witch Project for example. But in 1938 it was ground breaking and turned one of the most developed nations in the world into gibbering wrecks.

Welles had not intended the programme to be a hoax but the way it played out was very different. At the start of the show, at 8pm,  an announcement was made.  “The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the air in ‘War of the Worlds’ by H.G. Wells.” Nice and clear you might say. BUT as it happened MOST Americans were listening to another popular station at the time and only tuned into the Columbia 12 minutes into the broadcast.

When they tuned in, listeners would have heard dance music. Suddenly an announcer broke in with a report from an Observatory which had supposedly detected explosions on the planet Mars. Soon after another  reporter related the fact that a large meteor had crashed into a farmer’s in New Jersey. This reporter went on to describe finding a metal cylinder at the site. Next he told of grey tentacles emerging from the cylinder and soon after the creature’s body.

Soon afterwards the programme described the  ‘Martians’ building warmachinces and attacking National Guards. Welles used modern (at the time) sound effects and the ‘reporters’ were of course actors who made a good job of being dramatic, terrified and excited.

It was enough the convince as many as a million listeners that a real  invasion was underway. In New Jersey the highways were gridlocked by locals desperately trying to escape the aliens. Around the country people started praying for survival or calling the police for gas masks.

Eventually Welles went on the air and told listeners that it was all just fiction. Afterwards Welles was worried that the episode would destroy his career.  In fact, the publicity helped land him a contract to make Citizen Kane.

I have to say that to me Welles must be praised. To be able to make a show THAT convincing deserves admiration.