I just heard a remarkable radio interview – Orson Welles and H.G. Welles together on the air in San Antonio, Texas, almost precisely two years after the infamous “War of the Worlds” broadcast(!!) I didn’t even know such a thing existed. Fascinating bit of cultural history. They discuss the event, inevitably comparing it to tthe war against Hitler that the U.S. was not yet directly involved in. I was not aware that Hitler brought up the panic in the U.S. that followed in his Munich address, or that parade floats featuring the event appeared in Nazi parades. H.G. Wells asks Orson about his upcoming production, which Orson Welles hopes will “make a big noise” because of its innovative techniques. It’s called “Citizen Kane”.
The IMDB site claims that:
This is contradicted by the broadcast itself, which says that they first met at the studio.
I can’t get any links to the recording, but you can search for it if you include “San Antonio” in your search line to distinguish it from all the other “War of the World” chaff. Apparently it was station KTSA on Oct. 29, 1940. I have it on a CD/DVD set from Millcreek Entertainment.
That’s really interesting! The things you learn, eh?
The truly sad thing, though, is that whenever I think of Orson Welles, the first thing that comes to mind is not Citizen Kane, but his appearances (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) in The Critic- more specifically, the line “Rosebud… Yes, Rosebud Frozen Peas! They’re full of country goodness and green peaness. Wait, that’s terrible. I Quit!”
Nope, it’s The Critic. They did that a couple of times. What you might be thinking of is something from Pinky and the Brain. They parodied of a famous incident where Welles was reading for a fish sticks commercial and complaining that the ad copy sucked. The audio is on the Web.
It supposedly showed the degeneracy and disorganization of the Allies.
Actually, there had been a similar radio panic in Britain a couple of years earlier , although in that case the fictional incidents were more prosaic and believable – riots in the streets of London, buildings getting blown up. Kinda like what’s depicted in V for Vendetta. And, IIRC, it went out on the BBC. Despite the use of what ought to be obvious joke names and departments, people didn’t catch on, and took it seriously. But nobody seems to remember that one so well. Not even the Nazis.
Many years later there was yet another radio panic in South America. I think it may have been a War of the Worlds broadcast, too. Obviously, the lessons learned weren’t being disseminated far and wide.
Good look to anyone looking for this “Munich speech” by Hitler in which he brings up the War of the Worlds panic. I couldn’t find it, just a few secondary references to such a speech.
