The RUSC Guide to The War of the Worlds: When Radio Drama Changed America: A Comprehensive Guide to the 1938 Radio Broadcast and Its Enduring Legacy

Radio has no boundaries, no walls. It is a medium that can stir the imagination and bring people together across great distances." —

Bob Edwards

Copyright © 2024 by Ned Norris

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

The RUSC Guide to The War of the Worlds

Ned Norris

RUSC.COM

Acknowledgements

To all those who contributed tirelessly to the golden age of radio, creating an unparalleled audio legacy, your dedication and creativity have left an indelible mark on the world. Your efforts have been nothing short of remarkable.

I am immensely grateful to my parents, who instilled in me a profound love and passion for radio. Their influence has been a guiding light throughout my journey.

To my beloved wife, whose enthusiasm for the radio shows of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s rivals my own, your support and shared love for this era have been invaluable.

Lastly, I extend my heartfelt thanks to the wonderful members of RUSC.COM. Your unwavering support and encouragement since the site first appeared on the Internet wayback in 1999 have been instrumental in helping to keep the wonderful world of old-time radio alive.

Contents

Introduction

1.The Rise of Radio

2.Birth of a Prodigy

3.Origins of The War of the Worlds

4.Production Process

5.Art of Auditory Illusion

6.Final Countdown

7.Listener's Guide

8.Aftermath and Cultural Significance

9.Artistic and Technical Achievements

10.Social and Psychological Perspectives

11.Legacy and Continued Relevance

12.Enduring Echo of an Alien Invasion

A Love Letter to Old-Time Radio, from One Enthusiast to Another

Appendix 1: The People

Appendix 2: Sources

Introduction

It's a chilly Sunday evening, October 30, 1938. Families across America are gathered in their living rooms, the warm glow of their radios illuminating faces eager for entertainment. Many are tuning in to their weekly favorite, The Chase and Sanborn Hour, featuring ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy. The nation is on edge - the Great Depression still lingers, and war clouds are gathering in Europe. But tonight, for a brief hour, Americans seek solace in their favorite pastime: radio.

Little do they know that this ordinary evening is about to become extraordinary. In New York City, a 23-year-old theatrical wunderkind named Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre on the Air are about to take to the airwaves with a Halloween treat - an adaptation of H.G. Wells' book The War of the Worlds.

As Bergen's show breaks for a musical interlude, many listeners idly twist their radio dials, stumbling upon Welles' broadcast, which is already in progress. They've missed the crucial opening disclaimer announcing the show as fiction, and a percentage of them believe it to be real news broadcast.

What follows will become one of the most famous—and possibly infamous—broadcasts in radio history, a testament to the medium's power and a fascinating chapter in America's cultural story.

The actual impact of this broadcast has been a point of debate in the decades since it first aired. While the popular narrative has long suggested widespread panic, more recent research paints a more nuanced picture. A ratings survey conducted on the night of the broadcast found that only 2% of respondents were listening to the program, suggesting a much smaller audience than is often assumed. However, many agree that this estimate seems unrealistically low, which could be due to several factors including survey methodology, sample size and timing, and listener behaviour. A more realistic estimate was likely to be in the region of 20% of the total listening audience that night, possibly 30 million.

However, it's undeniable that the broadcast had a dramatic impact on a significant percentage of those who stumbled upon it mid-flow. Contemporary reports, including a front-page story in the New York Times titled Radio Listeners in Panic: Taking War Drama as Fact, describe incidents of people fleeing their homes and calling authorities. While these may have been isolated cases rather than a nationwide phenomenon, they speak to the broadcast's power to convince and alarm.

A 1940 study by Princeton professor Hadley Cantril estimated that out of 6 million listeners, 1.7 million believed it was news, and 1.2 million were frightened or disturbed. While these numbers have been contested, they suggest that even if the panic wasn't as widespread as initially reported, a substantial number of listeners were affected.

What's perhaps most intriguing is not just the immediate impact of the broadcast, but why the myth of widespread panic has endured. It reveals much about our relationship with media and our ongoing fascination with the power of storytelling. As we explore the events of that night, we'll consider not just what happened, but what it means for our understanding of media influence, both then and now.

As we embark on this exploration of Welles' paradigm-shifting broadcast, we'll journey back to a time when radio reigned supreme. We'll discover how a single hour of drama managed to blur the lines between fiction and reality, unleashing a wave of panic amongst a large percentage of its listening audience. But more than that, we'll uncover the artistry, innovation, and sheer audacity that made this broadcast a defining moment in media history.

The scene unfolds: families huddled around their radios, listening intently as reports of strange explosions on Mars give way to eyewitness accounts of alien cylinders crashing to Earth. The broadcast's authenticity was so convincing that, as producer John Houseman