A young Orson Welles talks to the press about the nationwide panic caused by his “War of the Worlds” CBS radio play the night before. New York City, NY. October 31, 1938. [1010×760]
This is one of the first “5 people called about it and 500 newspapers reported it” nothingburgers.
TJ_Fox on
Reminiscing about this news conference/publicity stunt much later in his life, Welles recalled that he had attempted to come across “very much like a young Christian saint”, treating the whole situation with great gravity, as if he was shocked by the outcome. If you watch the old newsreel of the event with that in mind, it’s actually very funny.
There’s also a fascinating piece of early 1940s radio history in which Orson Welles and H.G. Wells – the author of the War of the Worlds – refer to the supposed “mass panic” incident, carefully making the point that the “panic” didn’t actually happen the way it was reported at the time. Apparently Nazi propagandists were using the “Martian panic” as an example of American gullibility, and Welles and Wells teamed up to counter that bit of propaganda.
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This is one of the first “5 people called about it and 500 newspapers reported it” nothingburgers.
Reminiscing about this news conference/publicity stunt much later in his life, Welles recalled that he had attempted to come across “very much like a young Christian saint”, treating the whole situation with great gravity, as if he was shocked by the outcome. If you watch the old newsreel of the event with that in mind, it’s actually very funny.
There’s also a fascinating piece of early 1940s radio history in which Orson Welles and H.G. Wells – the author of the War of the Worlds – refer to the supposed “mass panic” incident, carefully making the point that the “panic” didn’t actually happen the way it was reported at the time. Apparently Nazi propagandists were using the “Martian panic” as an example of American gullibility, and Welles and Wells teamed up to counter that bit of propaganda.