On October 30, 1938, America was listening to the radio. That was the collective entertainment of the day. October 30th was a bit different.
The Martians landed.
Estimates are around 6 million people listened to the Martians landing.
At least that’s what they were hearing on their radio that evening.
Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air were performing The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells [affiliate link, we get a small cut]. But their twist was not doing it like the conventional radio shows of 1938. Instead they presented it as a series of increasingly panicky news bulletins.
Something had landed in New Jersey.
Machines of some sort were moving through New Jersey.
The Army was on the scene fighting the machines.
More than a few listeners thought this broadcast was an actual news story.
And the next day, that “reality” picked up a hell of a lot of steam!
Because the morning newspapers took this invasion story and ran with it. Headlines told of terrified Americans fleeing their houses. People called the police. Anything to escape the Martians. The newspapers told the stories.
One interesting fact in the odd little bit of history?
The panic was largely manufactured (call us surprised!)
5,000 households were surveyed via telephone. Only 2 percent were listening to the program live. Of those 2 percent most knew it was fiction – radio entertainment.
So yes, some people were genuinely scared and took the broadcast as real. And the newspapers of the day amplified those people.
But most of the listeners enjoyed the show as fiction.
So you can basically say that the newspapers create the legend we remember today.
A fictional Martian invasion radio broadcast became a legendary piece of history. The legend was created because of the stories told after the broadcast.
Original broadcast:
Radio Free Weird indeed…
