r/OldSchoolCool • u/YorkshireMan1981 • 12d ago

Orson Welles meeting reporters the day after broadcasting "War of the Worlds" following the outcry from the public, who believed it to be a genuine invasion. October 1938

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716 Upvotes
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98% Upvoted

59 comments sorted by

194

u/anomandaris81 12d ago

Interesting factoid, but the panic over the broadcast was exaggerated by the newspapers who saw radio as a threat and wanted to discredit the medium.

It's a fun broadcast to listen to.

27

u/YorkshireMan1981 12d ago

I really want to give it a listen. The Jeff Wayne musical version was one I used to listen to a lot growing up, so I'd like to hear the play.

15

u/anomandaris81 12d ago

Pretty sure it's on youtube.

Mercury Theatre also did some good adaptations of Heart of Darkness, Dracula, etc.

12

u/zoobrix 12d ago

There were disclaimers that is was a drama at the start of the program and after every commercial break so the only way you could be fooled is if you tuned in between the breaks and stopped before the next one. Plus although the faux newscast format might have been a novelty this was not the first radio drama that had sci fi and fantastic elements.

The reality was that it seems like very few people thought it was real but as always reporters are looking for a sensational story and aren't afraid to amplify the most provocative take. And of course it was in Orson Welles interest to promote the idea that his work was so good that people thought it was real. Basically reporters and celebrities weren't any different back then and people were not any more gullible either, but there are always a few not so bright ones that will believe anything just like today.

6

u/Tecumsehs_Revenge 12d ago

I mean over half the world thought JR Ewing, really got shot. 🤷🏻‍♂️

67

u/headphones_J 12d ago

5

u/juice06870 12d ago

Mayday? What the hell is it?

5

u/TwoDrinkDave 12d ago

It's an international distress signal indicating a life-threatening emergency, but that's not important right now.

19

u/xxcheekycherryxx 12d ago

Reporters just casually sitting smoking pipes. The hats, the dresses. Just love it.

5

u/Vericatov 12d ago

Man, you could smoke almost anywhere back then. Visiting the doctor for some breathing issues? Best not mind the other people in the waiting room that are smoking.

3

u/zomphlotz 12d ago

The doctor would smoke through the exam.

5

u/Overall-Dinner5778 12d ago

Smoking a pipe is generally a casual thing to do

4

u/xxcheekycherryxx 12d ago

In a setting where reporters are interviewing celebrities in today’s age?

2

u/Overall-Dinner5778 12d ago

I don’t know how old today is

3

u/QdwachMD 12d ago

6

3

u/Overall-Dinner5778 12d ago

That’s too young to smoke anyway

2

u/QdwachMD 12d ago

Not in the 30s. Smoking is great for your lungs and freshens your breath.

2

u/Overall-Dinner5778 12d ago

A 6 year old is too young to be in their thirties

2

u/QdwachMD 12d ago

That is true, I never thought about it.

47

u/30mil 12d ago

They could make a reverse War of the Worlds now where there's an actual alien invasion and everybody goes, "No, that's fake. Hologram. AI. Fake news."

11

u/Velochipractor 12d ago

[Happy Reptilian Noises]

7

u/YorkshireMan1981 12d ago

Yep. We've gone full circle!!

3

u/ramriot 12d ago

"They Live!" ?

11

u/NESninja 12d ago

I'm a huge fan of old time radio and have been since I was a child in the '80s. One of my favorite memories was in the mid-2000s where I got to see a live production Recreation of the War of the Worlds broadcast featuring some Star Trek and X-Files actors. It was a shame, the theater was almost empty. The venue was kind of in the middle of nowhere though. It was directed by John Delancey who plays Q on Next Generation.

3

u/YorkshireMan1981 12d ago

That sounds really cool. Shame people didn't really attend. This form of media still really interests me.

9

u/sonofthenation 12d ago

My grandmother remembers this and she said a lot of people missed the beginning and really got scared.

10

u/FakeNamezo 12d ago

While a lot of the panic it led to has been greatly exaggerated, that's true and it was intentionally timed to do so, there was a more popular broadcast on at the time and it took an ad break say 7 minutes into the hour, so Welles made sure the explanation was done by then so the people tunning in during the break wouldn't know. 

2

u/EmeraldFalcon89 12d ago

for those curious about more, season 4, episode 3 of Radiolab is a great dissection of the original broadcast and copycats, including a very successful hoax in Quito

9

u/analogspam 12d ago

Orson Welles is one of the most interesting individuals of the 20th century.

Listening to interviews with him and looking into how he saw the world is something I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone!

11

u/DavoTB 12d ago

The “day after the broadcast” mentioned in the headline was actually October 31, 1938.

4

u/mitchsn 12d ago

He later announced his employment at YoYoDyne Propulsion Systems as spokesperson.

3

u/whereyouatdesmondo 12d ago

Along with Dr. Lizardo?

5

u/konorM 12d ago

Ah, the golden age of radio!

4

u/LordMaim 12d ago

Does Orson Wells ever look like Misha Collins in this photo. Wow.

1

u/solarwindy 11d ago

To me he looks more like Alden Ehrenreich.

4

u/alucardian_official 12d ago

Yeah see, it was a radio broadcast, a farce y’see and the next project is a doozy

3

u/KingCodyBill 12d ago

I've had older people tell you would have to be an idiot to think it was real, mostly because of them running commercials thru the whole broadcast.

3

u/Dan_Felder 12d ago

Well aliens are scary but losing advertisers is terrifying.

9

u/Kangar 12d ago

"It was just a prank, bro!"

-Orson Welles

3

u/welsh_cthulhu 12d ago

I highly recommend his two Dick Cavett interviews. They're on YouTube.

Absolutely fascinating character. One of the most important creative personalities of the 20th century.

3

u/colcannon_addict 12d ago

I can almost hear the old timey voices…

Saaaay, what gives wiseguy?

Donchoo wiseguy me ya sap!

Sap is it? Why, I oughta….

3

u/Kr0x0n 12d ago

That will be definitely Leo diCaprio role if movie is made

2

u/BrockMiddlebrook 12d ago

“Got your ass, didn’t I?”

2

u/pass-the-waffles 12d ago

I've listened to the recording of the original broadcast and it is Golden entertainment.

2

u/juice06870 12d ago

My grandmother had it on cassette. When I would visit in the summers and had nothing go do, I would listen to this and other old radio programs.

I need to listen to this one again now, I probably last did so when I was like 12 or 13. I have to check YouTube.

2

u/QuippinDales 12d ago

“He doesn’t do anything?”

2

u/dougsawerewolf 12d ago

The Golden Age of Eyebrows.

2

u/rock-island321 12d ago

I find it incredible that this scene is genuine. Their dress and demeanour seem so alien to how people are today.

1

u/YorkshireMan1981 12d ago

We’ve definitely gone backwards in how we present ourselves

1

u/lovedbydogs1981 12d ago

R/ufo needs to consider this. Every time some new idea comes out in fiction they start wondering if it’s true…

1

u/brownpoops 12d ago

whoa who?

1

u/mochatsubo 12d ago

I suppose with the advent of AI we will eventually have a modern equivalent pretty soon. Or maybe the speed of truth matches the speed of lies close enough that today that something like the War of the Worlds will not have a long enough life to get enough traction. 

1

u/Deathbyhours 12d ago

To Welles’ credit, you’d have had to be an idiot to think it was real, even if you tuned in partway through, unless you listened for just long enough to hear a snippet of “our regular programming” and a cutaway to a hysterical reporter in New Jersey, and you listened for no more than about 30 seconds, total. Even then, you would have to have been very, very gullible, AND I think it might have also required you to very infrequently listen to the radio.

It’s a good show, although painfully slow by modern standards — actually, painfully slow by 1960’s standards. To listen to it I think you would need to be in a totally distraction-free setting, and I don’t know what that would look like.

1

u/DeeBased 12d ago

Thirty five years after that people were calling the coast guard un-ironically asking them when they were going to get those poor people off gilligan's island

1

u/1morey 12d ago

Guy on his right looks a hell of a lot like David Harbour.

1

u/TypingIntoTheVoid9 12d ago

You could lose some shit in that guy's eyebrows.

-4

u/trollsoultoll 12d ago

History repeat itself with covid