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CBS/The New York Daily News
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Don't touch that dial - it's the 76th anniversary of the Martian invasion concocted by Orson Welles!
When Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre presented their adaptation of HG Wells War of the Worlds, Halloween Eve, October 30, 1938, listeners who came in late missed the opening and thought the early radio shockumentary was the real thing.
For a nation beset by overseas war news, economic depression and rampant fear of the future, this invasion from Mars seemed all too real to listeners who already faced fear itself.
In the aftermath Orson played "innocent" mindful of potential lawsuits but years later admitted he knew what might happen. Despite reports of mass hysteria, newspapers of the day played up the story to make it a much larger event than it actually was.
Issue ID:
209611