For the record, Bergan & McCarthy didn’t go into a singer…they went into a Chase & Sanborn coffee commercial. That would put the clock at 11 minutes into the program and just before the first martian crept out of it’s saucer in Grover’s Mill.
The Mercury Theater didn’t have a sponsor and was sure to get cancelled if they couldn’t pick one up. Not that OW would ever resort to grandstanding…
Welles’ script girl at that broadcast was a young lady named Gloria Gibson. I had the fun of working with her many, many years later.
Wow, Doug…a BRUSH WITH FAME.
Don’t forget Without Warning, a fake-news TV movie from 1994 about three meteorites landing on earth which presages an invasion (mostly of more meteorites). After every commercial break, they ran a disclaimer saying “This is a movie and it’s not really happening.”
National Public Radio did a new version of 'The War of the Worlds" on the 50th anniversary of the original broadcast, October 30, 1988.
I taped it off the radio, and the scene in which “Carl Phillips” describes the aliens emerging from their craft, with the sounds of the crowd screaming, helicopters overhead, police shouting “Keep back!” still gives me goosebumps. Maybe an official CD version exists somewhere? It’s worth a listen. Besides featuring actual NPR reporters, the cast includes Jason Robards, Edward James Olmos and Steve Allen.
It was indeed a less litigious time. For example, toy stores sold tin ‘pop pop’ boats. These involved a very simple steam engine (the sound gave the toy its name). These boats were re-released in the lat nineties. They bore huge orange warning labels ‘DANGER! This toy becomes extremely hot during operation. May cuase burns if used improperly. NOT FOR CHILDREN!’. Of course, during the thirties the toy was just as dangerous but was sold as fun for any eight-year old. Chemistry sets included chemicals that either were poisonous, or could easily be combined into something that was. The book of experiments included experiments that gave off clouds of toxic fumes when done correctly. Again, these were sold as a fun and educational gift for elementary school boys.
Wow, the resurrection of a 6-year old thread. Surely this is some kind of omen?
we’ve discussed this recently on the Bioard. There was a BBC radio hoax only a couple of years before the Orson Welles broadcast. And a few yeatrs later a War of the Worlds broadcast in South America caused a similar (and, from reports, a greater) riot.
Incidentally, I heard William Tenn/Philip Klass this past summer and bought a book of his essays. He heard the 1938 broadcast and says that, contrary to claims, there was no initial announcement that this was a fiction, or warnings about it. I suspect that in some markets the intro may have been cut out, by commercials running overtime or something. Not surprising, then, if a lot of people weren’t aware that it was a fictional radio show. And it doesn’t require everyone to be switched from Charlie McCarthy at the same time.
– CalMeacham, whose wife grew up in Grover’s Mill.
Post #9 has no user name above the word “Guest”.
That tends to happen on very old threads, for some reason. Some lost database data, I suppose.
Yeah, that…OR, an ALIEN INVASION!!!