"War of the Worlds" 1938: the panic that wasn't

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@astorian

Indeed, Edgar Bergen WAS extremely popular at the time, and he happens to be PART of the evidence for the proposition that Orson Welles’ show didn’t cause any real panic. The “War of the Worlds” broadcast, you see, was airing OPPOSITE Edgar Bergen’s infinitely more popular show!

So, even if Welles’ broadcast HAD been taken seriously by EVERYONE listening (which is unlikely), widespread panic was highly improbable because for every person listening to Welles’ show, there were 10 people listening to Edgar Bergen and 10 more not listening to the radio at all.

If you read any of the accounts, you see that the claim is that many people switched over to Welles right after the opening comedy segment and when a singer started. In that way they would have missed all the early disclaimers and tuned in right at the war.

Your argument is actually an argument for the other side. You need to at least understand what the point of contention is.

[nearwildheaven]

@Sherrerd

That PBS chose to show this “documentary” as part of its American Experience series is a real black eye for both the network and the series.

I tuned in to this show with interest. After a few minutes of the “testimonies” (black and white footage with 30s-era font identifying the “witnesses”) it was clear that these were actors. I did think, while watching, that the footage might be genuinely old, as it’s technically well-done. But the acting (in combination with the writing) was awkward and obvious. The blatant fakery of it all destroyed any credibility the less-staged parts of the show might otherwise have had.

Why PBS is (apparently) eager to be lumped in with the “Alien Autopsy” and “Mermaids: The Body Found” filmmakers, is beyond me.

I watched the whole thing last night. I’m pretty sure those actors were from the time period - it just didn’t look like a re-enactment even though whoever made that had the foresight to include a black interviewee. The whole program has a bit of background about Orson Welles’ career (his daughter is interviewed) and Martian research as it existed at the time.

If it was from the time period, it must have been from a movie about the panic. Does such a thing exist?

[Sherrerd]

@nearwildheaven

… I’m pretty sure those actors were from the time period - it just didn’t look like a re-enactment even though whoever made that had the foresight to include a black interviewee. …If it was from the time period, it must have been from a movie about the panic.

That was my first reaction, too—which is a tribute to the production team (the lighting in particular looks “period”.) But if you watch this little three-minute video (called “Making War of the Worlds,” if the site re-directs to the homepage), you will see the same people being filmed in 2013 (presumably).

Making War of the Worlds | American Experience | PBS

It was clear to me right away that these were actors reading from a script, but I did think that they might have been 1940s actors reading from a 1940s script! Again, the lighting, make-up, and costuming is quite good.
I still find this “documentary” to be something I’d expect to see on one of the schlock channels. Re-enactments are questionable in all contexts, but when not clearly labeled as such, journalistic integrity is absent. The fact that these particular producers present the “widespread panic” scenario as being unquestionably factual is another indication that they are working in the field of entertainment rather than in the documentary field.

(Good documentaries can be entertaining, but not all entertainment rises to the level of being documentary.)