The Story Behind War of the Worlds

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In 1938, aliens attacked. Well, that's at least what Americans heard over the radio. Orson Welles and a group of actors interrupted a radio broadcast to warn the public that the planet had been invaded by aliens - really, they were just reading a script based off the novel, The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells. Unlike successful real-life alien hoaxes, this '38 fake news story spiraled the entire country into mass hysteria... Or did it?

#OrsonWelles #waroftheworlds #weirdhistory

[WeirdHistory]

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[lp-xlld]

My father was 16 when this happened. When I heard about this story, I asked him if he remembered it...he told me he'd gone to a movie that night and his mother either wasn't a big radio listener or was listening to Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy...so he heard nothing about it until the next morning. And he couldn't understand what the big fuss was about.

[lerneanlion]

Fun Fact: Orson Welles was one of the many candidates for Darth Vader's voice. But since he was being too famous, the peoples may recognize him. So the filming crew decided to go for James Earl Jones instead.

[foxmccloud]

H.G. Wells initially denounced Orsen for the radio broadcast, but when he realized that the radio broadcast (like his book) was never intended to cause riots but to entertain. Orsen was forgiven and they got to be good friends. Those who jammed the streets and ran for the hills to escape the martians have forgiven Orsen is another matter.

[bruhdon]

The original broadcast is on YouTube to listen to, I’ve got to say it’s incredibly well done & I’m not surprised it scared some people, very realistic.

[evanlewis]

My grandfather and his brothers (who lived in ND) heard this broadcast. He recalled it creeped them out but they assumed it was fake - plus there were obvious signs it was a dramatic story. But he said his brother did load all the guns after and he said “What. Better to be safe right?”

[v.emiltheii-nd.]

Love how this was the most ingenious and unintentional prank ever made by a famous writer.

[Big_E_Soul_Fragment]

Martians are all gangsta until one of them starts coughing

[blackismyfavoritecolor]

I like the 1953 version of War of the Worlds and it's still a very good watch to this day. I like Steven Spielberg's version also. I like the scene when the Apache helicopter gun ships fly over in formation and unleash a salvo of Hellfire missiles.

[LyleFrancisDelp]

A very well reasoned and well presented video. I remember the TV movie "The Night That Panicked America" when I was in junior high school.

[valerieschoen]

I learned about this when I was about 10 and it surprised me how so many people could believe it. So I asked my grandmother who would have been in her 20s at the time. She told me it wasn’t that big a deal, and the people who believed it was real were not very bright.

[celticlass]

The original book is surprisingly suspenseful.

[sifublackirishdiamondjedi]

In Buffalo NY, the local station WKBW did two versions of this story. The first one causes some uproar, so when they did it a few years later, they constantly advertised every half hour that a fictional broadcast was coming. There was still uproar during and afterwards.

[LauraTeKiwiBirb]

If anyone hasn't listened to the original broadcast, I highly recommend it. You can listen to it here on YouTube. Its a fantastic adaptation of the original book that has aged like fine wine.

[DanyTV]

For those who might say that the Quito, Ecuador recording exists and it's on YouTube, it's not: what you had listen is a reconstruction made in the 2000s in the anniversary of Radio Quito. If there were wax disc recordings they were destroyed in the fire because nothing was saved from that building but the walls.
Also, I must say that in the same building was one of the most important newspapers of the city at the time, Diario El Comercio, which also did his part into making this a nightmare scenario for themselves at the end.

[kennethwallace]

Orson Welles and H G Wells had a chance meeting in Texas in 1940, and it was broadcast on radio, both found a lot of both political views and much of their ideology was very similar, despite of the age difference, it is on YouTube and quite interesting to listen to these two giant figures, meeting at a moment in time

[amyfisher]

I bought a vinyl recording of the broadcast at Pic and Save back in the late 1980’s. I also have a book with the script in it. There were disclaimers all throughout the broadcast. I also think a lot of people weren’t even listening. Someone was recorded at the time as saying, “All the intelligent people were listening to Charlie McCarthy”, meaning that ventriloquist Edgar Bergen’s popular radio show was airing at the same time on a different network, drawing away listeners.

[kidnplay]

Having a severe case of deja vu. I could've sworn Weird History already did an episode about this a while back. I'm trying to think what channel that was and I just keep coming back to Weird History 🤷🏽‍♂️ I'm buggin. Anyway, great vid as always, Weird History.

[Thoralmir]

You thought that caused a panic, you should've seen the BBC's "Ghostwatch" back in the 1990s! Still not allowed to be rebroadcast in Britain to this day!

[andrewweaver]

Personally, I am loving the shows about Widespread Panic. Thank you for listening. Me, my girl, and our dogs love Weird History!