The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)

"The War of the Worlds"

The Mercury Theatre on the Air episode
Orson Welles explaining to reporters that he had not intended to cause panic (October 31, 1938)
Genre	Radio drama, science fiction
Running time	60 minutes
Home station	CBS Radio
Starring	Orson Welles Frank Readick Kenny Delmar Ray Collins
Announcer	Dan Seymour
Written by	H.G. Wells (novel) Howard Koch (adaptation)
Directed by	Orson Welles
Produced by	John Houseman Orson Welles
Executive producer(s)	Davidson Taylor (for CBS)
Narrated by	Orson Welles
Recording studio	Columbia Broadcasting Building, 485 Madison Avenue, New York
Original release	October 30, 1938 (1938-10-30), 8–9 pm ET
Opening theme	Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

"The War of the Worlds" was a Halloween episode of the radio series The Mercury Theatre on the Air directed and narrated by Orson Welles as an adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds (1898) that was performed and broadcast live at 8 pm ET on October 30, 1938, over the CBS Radio Network. The episode is famous for inciting a panic by convincing some members of the listening audience that a Martian invasion was taking place, though the scale of panic is disputed, as the program had relatively few listeners.^[1]

Welles's "War of the Worlds" broadcast has become famous for convincing some of its listeners that a Martian invasion was actually taking place due to the "breaking news" style of storytelling employed in the first half of the show. The illusion of realism was supported by the Mercury Theatre on the Air's lack of commercial interruptions, which meant that the first break in the drama came after all of the alarming "news" reports had taken place. Popular legend holds that some of the radio audience may have been listening to The Chase and Sanborn Hour with Edgar Bergen on NBC and tuned in to "The War of the Worlds" during a musical interlude, thereby missing the clear introduction indicating that the show was a work of science fiction. Modern research suggests that this happened only in rare instances.^{[2]: 67–69}

In the days after the adaptation, widespread outrage was expressed in the media. The program's news-bulletin format was described as deceptive by some newspapers and public figures, leading to an outcry against the broadcasters and calls for regulation by the FCC. Welles apologized at a hastily-called news conference the next morning, and no punitive action was taken. The broadcast and subsequent publicity brought the 23-year-old Welles to the attention of the general public and gave him the reputation of an innovative storyteller and "trickster".^[1][3]