War of the Worlds is a novel written by H G Wells. It first appeared as a serialisation in 1897 and tells the story of a Martian invasion of Earth.
In 1938 CBS Radio asked Orson Welles to take part in a radio drama of the book. The first instalment of the drama was broadcast on 30th October 1938 at 8pm. The show took the form of a live broadcast by an on-the-scene reporter. The reporter, reporting from a dance hall, told listeners how astronomers had detected unusual activity on the planet Mars. After a short while the reporter told listeners that a large object had crashed into the Earth.
The next ‘broadcast’ was from the crash site where the reporter described the scene and reported that Martians were climbing out of the craft. The reporter went on to describe how the Martians climbed into metal fighting machines and used a heat ray to eliminate anyone in their way.
Due to the nature of the show, and the fact that when the show began many listeners were listening to another popular show on a different radio station and only tuned in to CBS after the broadcast began, some people were convinced that Martians had actually landed on Earth and began telephoning the authorities. Roads became jammed as people attempted to flee the invasion and find somewhere to hide. The situation was worsened by genuine news reports describing the panic failing to emphasise the fact that it was a radio show not a real life event.
More recently it has been argued that the panic was on a very small scale but was blown out of all proportion by newspapers sensationalising the event with headlines such as “Panic Grips the Nation”. It has even been suggested that the newspapers deliberately sought to discredit radio as a viable source of news because the newspapers had seen a fall in advertising revenue due to a fall in sales caused by people tuning into the radio to listen to the news.
Whether or not the extent of the panic was exaggerated by newspapers it is without doubt that the event gave ‘War of the Worlds’ a place in popular culture. The book is now considered a classic and two feature films, one in 1957 and one in 2007 have been made about the story. Jeff Wayne produced a musical version of War of the Worlds in 1978 (the cover is depicted above) which is an all-time best selling album.
