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Orson Welles's "War of the Worlds" radio play is broadcast

davideduardo

davideduardo

Moderator/Administrator
Staff member
This is easy to find on You Tube and I listen to it every year at this time:

Also here's a broadcast from a few years later where Orson Welles met HG Wells:
 
One of the funny side-aspects of the CBS version of the script was that Grover's Mill NJ is actually the location of RCA Labs, now known as the Sarnoff Center. So the subtext of the radio play was that Martians were invading RCA Labs. RCA at the time owned NBC. The Sarnoff Center tries to say they're in Princeton, but they're actually just outside of Princeton in Grover's Mill. It's also the location of the Princeton Junction stop in the NJTransit train line.
 
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TheBigA said:
One of the funny side-aspects of the CBS version of the script was that Grover's Mill NJ is actually the location of RCA Labs, now known as the Sarnoff Center. So the subtext of the radio play was that Martians were invading RCA Labs. The Sarnoff Center tries to say they're in Princeton, but they're actually just outside of Princeton in Grover's Mill. It's also the location of the Princeton Junction stop in the NJTransit train line.
Click to expand...
Except that the RCA Labs facility didn't get its start until 1941-42, long after WotW was broadcast...

Evolution of Radio Signal: From Early Receivers to Smart Devices

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As the story of the broadcast is told today, I think it illustrates the power of mass media (now the Internet) , and brings to mind questions:

What was the motivation and goal of the content creator?
Why did the audience respond as they did? No common sense? Lack of critical thinking skill? Failure to cross-check information with multiple sources? I hope no listener did anything dumb and life changing.
Has the story of the broadcast been embellished over the years?
What was the geographic reach of the broadcast?
How do they actually know the number of people who reacted as popularized?
Was radio audience a higher income demographic at that time?
What actually happened, vs today's narrative? For example, it is said.... the Hindenburg radio narrative was speeded up when the recording was broadcast. Original lyrics of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" are reportedly racy and snarky compared to later recordings of the song.
 
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Greg Strickland said:
a. What was the motivation and goal of the content creator?
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As it always is: Ratings. The Mercury Theater was competing against the more popular Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy on NBC. Almost nobody listened to radio drama. The only reason they did that night was Bergen had an unknown singer, and some people decided to check out what was on CBS. They likely had no idea what was on at that time. And they tune in to hear a fairly realistic portrayal of an invasion from Mars. CBS had required the Mercury Theater interrupt with disclaimers to inform the audience it was a dramatization, but apparently some people missed it. This kind of dramatization was new to people at the time. The radio networks employed sound people who had worked in movies, so it sounded pretty good.

Greg Strickland said:
b. Why did the audience respond as they did? No common sense? Lack of critical thinking skill? Failure to cross-check information with multiple sources?
Click to expand...

How would they cross-check? The internet? It didn't exist. TV wasn't available yet. People in the area traveled to Grover's Mill to see what was happening, and of course nothing was there. Even telephones were primitive, and not everyone had them. So they heard what they heard and jumped to conclusions. That kind of thing still happens today, even with all the resources people have.

Greg Strickland said:
a. What was the reach of the broadcast?
b. How do they actually know the number of people who reacted as popularized?
Click to expand...

They had radio ratings at the time, and CBS was very active in measuring its audience, so that information was known.

But the actual listenership was exceeded by the people who read newspaper accounts the next day. Newspapers of course sought to discredit radio as a source for news, and this played into their narrative.

Keep in mind we were also on the eve of World War 2, and Europe was under siege.

Of course this led to the FCC instituting rules on news coverage and the use of the words "bulletin"

Lots of books on the subject. Here's one: Google
 
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