What comes to your mind when you hear the word Halloween? For me, I imagine toddlers clad in their costumes, lining up in the ever popular Trick or Treat; street/house parties decorated with lots of cobwebs and gooey sticky stuff, posters and masks of monsters worn by people who try to scare others. This is the typical Halloween setting—dark, eerie, vague—but fun.
On October 30, 1938, an episode of the American radio drama anthology series Mercury Theater in the Air aired War of the Worlds, an adaptation of HG Wells’ novel of the same title. I listened to the broadcast and found its script for back-up. It was so long, it would have bored me had I not found the script and then figured that it was so action-packed!
During those times, the radio was the most convenient form of mass communication. It’s like everyone can hear what radio commentators say, and many believed it to be true. Well, the story was about Martians attacking the earth, and studies made by unnamed historians conclude that six million people heard the Columbia Broadcasting Systems (CBS) broadcast; 1.7 million believed tit to be true, and 1.2 million were extremely frightened of what they thought of as breaking news. People were astounded; they panicked and thought that might be the end. In the garden of a certain Mr. Wilmuth in Grover’s Mill in New Jersey was where the cylindrical metal disk landed. It contained Martians—green with tentacles, ready to attack and conquer the earth. It was also said that many “were killed by putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared,” and that martial law was even declared throughout New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. Police and authority tried to shoot the Martians, but they failed. In the end, men were defeated. The Martians prevailed and inhabited our planet. Only Prof. Richard Pierson remained alive. He was an astronomer, and he was also the one who documented the Martian invasion.
At the end of the broadcast, I could say that Carl Phillips was an effective commentator. Not only did he spoke well, he also helped the other characters give justice to their roles. Plus points for delivering the lines meticulously that they seemed almost real. Maybe this was why the people listening got totally hooked—that they forgot they were supposed to hear a drama. If I were part of the audience that time, I swear I would have also believed. Of course, that topic is something new to my ears, something I would be fascinated about, and at the same time will make me wonder if there was really extraterrestrial life. I would have been in hiding to save my precious life for fear to be killed! No kidding! Probably, the serious tone of the actors is what made the broadcast convincing enough. Also, a bit of exaggeration like many civilians who died because of the metal disk that landed and was first thought of as a meteorite, for example, greatly stole the audience’s attention. Greatly affected were the people that they forgot its Halloween. Actually, War of the Worlds was a Halloween presentation. I give director Orson Welles two thumbs up for a job well done. It’s like April Fools’ Day set in Halloween. A good scare, isn’t it? ;-)
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