War Of The Worlds Broadcast

[Kurt Toy]

Who owns the rights to the famous 1938 broadcast of "The War Of The Worlds"?

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

October 30, 1938 on "Mercury Theatre". Since it was aired 69 years ago, it is probably in the public domain. That was aired on CBS Radio, but I don't think they still have some hold on it. The program was put onto an LP record many years ago and even available through borrowing from the public library. In addition, various radio stations have aired that program around this time of year for some time. I first heard it on radio as long ago as 1963.

Earlier today, I heard another version on a local FM station that plays old radio programs. It starred Dana Andrews and was using the characters and story line from the 1953 motion picture where the Martians came down in California.

 

[AMandFM]

I have a great book on War Of The Worlds...called "The War Of The Worlds" (Sourcebooks, 2001). It has the original radio script, the original Wells book AND the original broadcast on CD. On the CD, it says that Princeton University owned the copyright for the recording in 1940, then renewed it in 1967. Howard Koch, the writer of the radio script, was assigned the copyright in 1969, and it has belonged to his family ever since.

 

[OldNumber7]

Sort of on topic...For a real Halloween treat, check out the WKBW 1971 version of War of the Worlds. The station used its own air personalities and format for a very realistic update of the original. It includes the talents of (then young) legend Jackson Armstrong, Jefferson Kaye (recently the voice over guy with NFL Films) and a whole pile of Buffalo broadcasting talents doing breaking news coverage of the invasion. The work that went into the script, including localities and police interviews is really excellent. It's on www.reelradio.com

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

I bought a book on the 1938 broadcast back in 1967. It broke down exactly which parts of the country believed the radio show was a real news broadcast. It noted, for example, that Boston's CBS affiliate did not pick up the program which resulted in residents of that city and parts of New England not hearing it. As I recall, people from the southern part of the U.S.A. believed the events were real more than other sections of the country. There were reports that some who thought the reports were real jumped into cars and reached high speeds (for 1938) feeling risking an accident was better than facing death from the Martian "death ray.

It might be remembered that in 1938, people in this country were already on edge due to events taking place in other parts of the world; like the Nazis expanding its borders and Japan on the move into neighboring countires. In just over three years, radio reports of an attack on Pearl Harbor were true.

 

[Ultimajock]

...at http://www.radio4all.net/pub/archive/09.01.05/[email protected]/1610-1-20050708-echoesmars.mp3 you can download an mp3 of a special program that I did in my "Echoes of a Century" series for Wisconsin Public Radio a couple of years ago. In it, I combined the first fifteen minutes or so of the "Chase & Sanborn Hour" running on the Red Network of NBC directly opposite the Mercury Theater on CBS that night. Then, at the point a Princeton University study found was that when most listeners who panicked tuned away from "Chase & Sanborn," I "tune over" to the Mercury Theater broadcast and stay with it until the station break...

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

The "Chase & Sanborn Hour" starred Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and, according to the ratings at that timr, was the most-listened show in that time slot. (It might be noted that NBC had the Red & Blue Networks. Following World War II, NBC kept the Red Network and it became just NBC. They sold the Blue Network and it became ABC). My guess is that people listening to "Mercury Theatre" starting telephoning relatives and friends to tell them about the "Martain landing" and they stopped listening to whatever else they may have had on and tuned in the CBS program.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

I seem to remember that NPR did a modern version of War of the Wars a number of years ago.

 

[anotherguyTN]

This was brought up in the Memphis forum in another thread, but here is a link to the War of the Worlds broadcast that also includes a recording of a conversation between Orson Welles and H. G. Wells in 1940: http://www.thomasamckean.com/otr/otr.htm

 

[Ultimajock]

The "Chase & Sanborn Hour" starred Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and, according to the ratings at that timr, was the most-listened show in that time slot. (It might be noted that NBC had the Red & Blue Networks. Following World War II, NBC kept the Red Network and it became just NBC. They sold the Blue Network and it became ABC).

...Bergen/McCarthy were indeed the comedy stars of "Chase & Sanborn," but officially Don Ameche was billed as the "host" and appeared throughout each program while Bergen/McCarthy only showed up in certain segments. The night of 30 October 1938, "Chase & Sanborn" added an additional "star," the popular baritone Nelson Eddy, who only occasionally appeared on the series...

...and, as I understand it, the actual split between the Blue and Red Networks was scheduled to happen on December 7, 1941, but Pearl Harbor caused a slight delay in those plans, and RCA didn't get a buyer for Blue until July 1943. In most major cities, NBC and Blue/ABC shared studio facilities for several years after the official split; it wasn't until 1952, for example, that ABC moved WENR Radio and TV in Chicago out of the NBC Merchandise Mart studio site to the State & Lake location where WLS-TV and Radio now reside...