.
Everyone is aware, or by now should be aware, of the famous radio broadcast of War of the Worlds that sent a great many American radio listeners into a panic. It is considered to be one of the great landmark events of twentieth century media. The show was presented in the style of an actual news broadcast reporting on an invasion by creatures from another planet. In the modern age it seems hard to believe that anyone could have taken such a thing seriously. When I first heard about it in grade school, my teacher told us that such a thing could not likely happen again as people were better educated and more sophisticated now. But how true is that? Why did so many panic at hearing a simple radio play? And could it happen again? Let’s investigate shall we?
The whole thing began with a nationally broadcast, buy a relatively obscure, hour long weekly live radio series called “The Mercury Theatre on the Air” show and its creator, a 23 year old actor by the name of Orson Welles. Each week the Mercury Theater Company would present dramatic versions of classic works of literature. Treasure Island, The count of Monte Cristo, Jane Eyre, and Dracula were just a few of the better known works to be performed on air. In October of 1938 the company decided to do a special Halloween show by presenting an updated narrative version of HG Welles’ classic science fiction novel War of the Worlds.
Despite often being called one of the world’s greatest media hoaxes, the War of the Worlds broadcast was never intended to scare anyone or to deceive its audience into believing that it was a genuine news event. This was merely a style of presentation. Welles and his crew only meant it to be an exciting dramatic performance of a well known book. And they made this clear at the very beginning. The show began with the same basic introduction that each episode customarily did. At 8 p.m. on Sunday, October 30, the announcer opened the performance with:
"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."
Pretty clear right? It’s a radio play based on a book, nothing to get too excited about. So what went wrong? Why did so many listeners freak out? Ironically it had to do with the fact that Mercury Theater On The Air didn’t have very many listeners at the time. Allow me to explain. It was a Sunday evening on October 30th in 1938. And Sunday evening was prime-time in the golden age of radio. Competition was high on Sunday night. The Mercury Theater show had a relatively small slice of the ratings for their time slot. At 8 o’clock, when War of the Worlds began, most of the radio listening audience was tuned in to the very popular “Chase and Sanborn Hour” on Radio NBC. It was featuring the well known act of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy "Charlie McCarthy." At about 8:12 p.m. Bergen’s act was done and a little-known, not very popular singer went on. At this time radio listeners did the same thing that television viewers today do when a show gets boring, they channel surfed. Many then came across the War of the Worlds presentation. But by this time they had missed the opening announcement, and the show was well underway.
Many who tuned in to War of the Worlds first heard what seemed to be a music show. This was part of the format. It was presented as a performance of “Ramon Raquello and his orchestra." In fact it was a record being played in the studio, but it sounded convincing. But the music did not play long before being interrupted by a “news bulletin.” The announcer cut in to report that a Professor from the Mount Jenning Observatory had detected huge explosions on the surface of Mars. The music came back on for a few minutes only to be interrupted again by more bulletins following up on the Mars story. They featured a long list of scientific and military experts being interviewed for their opinions on the phenomena.
These “news interruptions” are what really got the attention of listeners. But why? News bulletin interruption was a relatively new thing. Only one month prior to this broadcast, news interruptions had begun to happen to inform American listeners about the unfolding events in Europe surrounding Hitler, and impending war. By October of 1938, cutting in to radio shows to give disturbing news reports was happening rapidly. The words “special news bulletin” were all it would take to make a radio listeners heart begin to race.
Eventually The War of the Worlds’ “bulletins” progressed to “live and on the scene” news from a field reporter. The reporter described the crash of a large meteor in a farmer's field in Grovers Mills, New Jersey. But, as it turned out, this was no meteor. It was a smooth metallic cylinder, and something was coming out!
“Good heavens, something's wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now here's another and another one and another one. They look like tentacles to me ... I can see the thing's body now. It's large, large as a bear. It glistens like wet leather. But that face, it... it ... ladies and gentlemen, it's indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it, it's so awful. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is kind of V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate."
The part of the reporter was played by actor Frank Redick. In preparation for his part in the show, Redick had spent the previous night listening to recordings of the frantic news coverage of the crash of the airship Hindenburg. Anyone who has seen the dramatic footage of this crash (which had happened only one year previous to the War of the Worlds broadcast) knows how emotional the speaker became while trying to describe the events he was seeing. Redick listened to that tape over and over again so that he could re-create that same sense of panic in his own performance. And he pulled it off with startling realism.
As the man in the field continues to report on the unfolding events, the Martians fire heat ray weapons at everyone and everything around the crash site…
“Now the whole field's caught fire. (Explosions sound in the background) The woods . . . the barns . . . the gas tanks of automobiles . . . it's spreading everywhere. It's coming this way. About twenty yards to my right……”
And then it goes dead. Nothing but silence comes out of the radio. Try to imagine the feeling listeners had when the reporter (apparently killed in the attack) went silent. Up to that point they had been glued to their radios desperately clinging to every word. In a way, the experience was like how many of us felt during the 9/11 attack on the world trade center. On that day I was about to leave for class when I turned on the TV and saw the smoking towers. I forgot my classes, sat on the couch and did not move all day. I clung to the television hoping for it to eventually tell me that somehow it was all going to be alright and that I would have permission to feel safe again. It was as if I were a deep sea diver with an old fashioned diving suit, and the television was my lifeline bringing me air. Many of us felt that way on that day. For those listening to the War of the Worlds broadcast the experience was similar. And when the transmission seemed to be cut off, their lifeline was severed. And they FREAKED!
Before long the show continued, and its content fueled the fire of panic. More Martian cylinders were landing in other major cities. They were releasing poisonous gas into the air. People in the invaded cities were fleeing in desperation. The radio play was very realistic, employing sophisticated sound effects and excellent actors playing terrified survivors of the alien holocaust. It is not known how many people believed that the invasion was real, but estimates put it at about one million listeners nationwide. In New Jersey, terrified people jammed highways trying to escape the alien forces. The Trenton police department got 2,000 phone-calls in a span of two hours from people who were desperate for information. One woman in Indianapolis reportedly ran into a church where evening services were being held and yelled, "New York has been destroyed! It's the end of the world!" The psychological effects were so acute that some people claimed to see smoke in the distance from the battles. Some were sure they saw alien machines. Many believed that the reports had it wrong and that it was actually the Germans who were invading.
When Orson Welles realized the effect his radio play had produced he was horrified. He got on the air and reminded listeners that it had only been a work of fiction and was never intended as anything else. The Federal Communications Commission investigated but concluded that no law had been broken nor was there any intent to incite panic. Welles was sure that the whole affair would ruin his career. In fact the publicity generated by the incident enhanced his reputation as a showman greatly. He soon got a contract with a Hollywood studio. This lead to his chance to write, direct and star in the movie that would crown his career, Citizen Kane. An impressive story to be sure. But if my grade school teacher is right, it was just a fluke. Panicky citizens, frightened by the shadow of war in Europe, got a little carried away. It couldn’t happen again…could it? Well my teacher, it seems, was not aware that, in fact it did happen again, not just once but twice!
So now, Fast forward eleven years to 1949. The place is the city of Quito, Ecuador. At the time it was a quiet town of about 250,000. The primary radio station was Radio Quito, directed by a man named Leonardo Páez. Paez got ahold of a copy of the script written by Orson Welles and thought it was brilliant. He decided to use it himself. But he would do one better than Welles. As stated previously, Welles never intended to actually deceive anyone into thinking that the Martian invasion was real. But that is exactly what Paez meant to do. He had been charged with the task of bringing radio drama to life at the station and this was how he was going to do that. To add to the illusion he planted phony news stories in the city’s major newspaper (located in the same building) about UFO sightings in and around the Quito area. These stories were read by the citizens of Quito in the days leading up to the broadcast. This served to heighten public tensions.
When the day of the broadcast came, the Welles script was followed faithfully. But whereas the experts and officials featured in Welles’ version were fictional, Paez hired actors to impersonate the voices of actual government officials. Even the mayor of the city was convincingly imitated by an actor who urged the public to “defend our city. Our women and children must go out into the surrounding heights to leave the men free for action and combat." Did it work? Hell yeah it worked! It worked a little to well. The initial reaction from the public was very much the same as that of the first broadcast. The people of Quito poured into the streets in panic. Ecuador is a largely Catholic country. So many of the frightened people did what any good Catholic would do, they ran to church. There were reports of mass absolutions by overwhelmed priests. Military forces were deployed to the north of the city where the aliens were supposed to have landed. The site of mobilized military vehicles fueled the public’s belief that the invasion was real. In an uncanny parallel to the original broadcast some listeners believed the invaders were actually Germans. Others thought that it was Peru who was attacking.
When the radio station staff realized what was happening in the streets. They made a plea for calm and admitted that it was a work of fiction. Word that they had been deliberately fooled spread quickly. As this realization sank in something happened that had not happened eleven years ago in the United States. The fear the people had felt flash-boiled into rage. Up until that moment, there had been no serious injuries. That was about to change. In a scene right out of a Frankenstein movie, a torch wielding crowd attacked the radio station and set it on fire. The mob attacked policemen who arrived on the scene and destroyed nearby fire hydrants to prevent fire fighters efforts to extinguish the blaze. They blocked the main entrance so the building staff had to escape via the rough top. Others leapt from windows while on fire. Most got out of the building but six people died that night. Paez escaped and fled the country, but he paid a price. His girlfriend and nephew were two of those who died in the fire. I guess he didn’t do as well as Orson Welles.
Well 1949 was still a long time ago. And the people of Quito could at least be excused for not knowing about the original broadcast at that time. But that was still not the last time this curious phenomenon managed to happen. In 1968 a radio station in Buffalo New York got in on the act with their own version of War of the Worlds. Their broadcast also followed the same basic structure as the original Orson Welles version. It described battles between military forces and aliens in nearby areas. And once again…people bought it. There were no reports of serious injuries, but the Buffalo police department received 4,000 calls for information on what was happening and where they could go that would be safest. Canadian forces were deployed to the boarder to engage the invading aliens.
So what have we learned from this? For one thing we have learned that one of the greatest show-business careers in history, that of Orson Welles, and one of the best American films ever made, may never have gotten off the ground if the Chase and Sanborn Hour had booked a more interesting singer on October 30th 1938. And maybe we’ve also learned that the old adage that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it, over…and over…again. Does this mean it could happen again? Of course not! After all this is the 21st century. People are more sophisticated and better educated now…right? I hope this helped to darken your day. Morbid Monday to ya!
No comments:
Post a Comment