On this date in history in 1938, legendary actor and producer Orson Welles created some anxiety for radio listeners across the country when he broadcast his play of H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds.” The episode aired on the CBS radio drama anthology series, “The Mercury Theater on the Air.” Directed and narrated by Welles, it caused mass panic, although the extent of this panic is debated. The first two thirds of the 62-minute broadcast were presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested to some listeners that an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress. Compounding the issue was the fact that the “Mercury Theatre on the Air” was a sustaining show (it ran without commercial breaks), adding to the programs realism, and that others were primarily listening to Edgar Bergen and only tuned in to the show during a musical interlude, thereby missing the introduction that proved the show was a drama. In the days following the adaptation, there was widespread outrage in the media. The programs news-bulletin format was described as cruelly deceptive by some newspapers (which had lost advertising revenue to radio) and public figures, leading to an outcry against the perpetrators of the broadcast and calls for regulation by the Federal Communications Commission. Despite these complaints—or perhaps in part because of them—the episode secured Welless fame as a dramatist. Welles and Mercury Theatre escaped punishment but not censure; FCC chairman Frank McNinch got not only CBS but all the radio networks to agree that they would not use staged newscasts as an element of fictional dramas again. The notoriety of the broadcast led the Campbell Soup Company to sponsor the show; The Mercury Theatre on the Air was renamed The Campbell Playhouse beginning with the broadcast December 9, 1938. Many listeners sued the network for mental anguish and personal injury. All suits were dismissed except for a claim for a pair of black mens shoes by a Massachusetts man, who spent his shoe money to escape the Martians. Welles insisted the man be paid. CBS received nearly 2,000 letters and telegrams, the majority of which praised the network for the quality of the program. The nearly 1,500 sent to the Mercury Theatre staff were overwhelmingly positive. At the FCC, however, the correspondence was more toward the negative. Below is that infamous broadcast.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:28:59 +0000
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