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Mars Attacked, 65 Years Ago Today
Jodrell writes "Forget solar flares, and the upcoming Halloween festivities - tonight marks the 65th anniversary of the broadcast of Orson Welles' radioplay version on The War Of The Worlds."
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That's because they only issued a warning saying it was fictional at the beginning and the end of it. There were no warnings while it was playing, so of course people thought it was real.
You can get the audio for the show here. Not the best fidelity, but still...
Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble... can't we just go to Starbuck's for coffee?
Something that contributed to this was the fact that most of the people who missed the beginning did so for the same reason that advertisers try (at times) to make their comercials entertaining.
This night of the week was popular on the radio for a couple of shows on competing networks. People would listen to the begining of the program, which was nearly always entertaining, decide the next part was dull, and retune to another station.
If you have not listened to the radio drama, there are a few segments where there is some so-so ballroom dance music being played, that apparently was just good enough that people decided to listen. This got interupted with what sounded at the time like a very reasonable public service anouncement that got them.
Personally I think this would be the equivalent of tuning in to the latest episode on Survivor, deciding watching the first segment, deciding to see what else is on, see that a couple of well known stars are being interviewed, and seeing the interview be pre-empted by what appears to be a news story about the Golden Gate Bridge, Hoover Dam, and the George Washington Bridge's all being hit by simultaneous terrorist strikes. If your first move isn't to check CNN, or HNN to see if they are covering these stories, you might be forgiven for believing that you were seeing real events.
-Rusty
You never know...