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Friday, October 28,1988
The Battalion
Page 5
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GROVERS MILL, N.J. (AP) —The
lartians are coming again, 50 years af-
|ter Orson Welles scared the bejabbcrs
out of hundreds of thousands of Ameri
cans who believed a War of the Worlds
|had broken out on Halloween eve.
The hysteria over the radio broadcast
clogged telephone lines and roads as the
gullible thought huge cylinders carrying
Haitians were landing throughout the
country, wiping out military forces with
heat rays and poisonous gas.
Some who sheepishly recounted their
error said they headed for the hills after
hearing the fictional newscast. Others
laid they grabbed their guns and headed
See related story/Page 1
for Grovers Mill to fight the invaders.
Jthers just prayed.
Millions heard the broadcast; one sur
vey gave the listenership at 6 million, an
other at 12 million. Of those who tuned
in, according to the surveys, up to 1 mil
lion believed it was real, despite dis-
plaimers before and after the program.
I After 50 years, many people in Grov
ers Mill and surrounding West Windsor
Township are tired of rehashing the tale
F every autumn.
Douglas Forrester, a state pension di-
ector and former West Windsor mayor
leading up plans for the 50th anniversary
Jelebration, said it’s a good time to think
about why “War of the Worlds’’ caused
Uch consternation.
"It was a worldwide event, and it
^raises intriguing questions about human
|sychology, civil defense, the power of
iroadcasting, media responsibility and
| what kind of relationship we might have
“ith other beings from another world,”
orrester said. “There was a cascade of
alarm that was just unstoppable. ’ ’
Freda Remmers, a Kean College me-
Sia professor, said many believed the
Iroadcast because the popular show Ed
gar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on a
competing network ran long and those
yho tuned in late to the Mercury Theatre
nissed the disclaimer.
With radio’s sophistication growing,
listeners were becoming accustomed to
hearing reports from Europe about the
deepening threat of war, she noted.
A few days after the broadcast ,jVew
York Tribune columnist Dorothy
Thompson said Welles and the Mercury
Theatre deserved a medal.
“They have proved how easy it is to
start a mass delusion,” she wrote. “Mr.
Welles and his theater have made a
greater contribution to an understanding
of Hitlerism, Mussolinism, Stalinism,
anti-Semitism and all the other terror
isms of our times than all the words
about them that have been written by rea
sonable men. ’ ’
Despite the fame that the Martian
scare achieved, similar panics occurred
in Chile in 1944 and in Ecuador in 1949
when the script was translated into Span
ish and broadcast, with the invasion site
moved to those nations, she said.
“War of the Worlds” was the product
of a talented group. Welles later gained
his greatest fame as a film director with
“Citizen Kane.” His partner in the Mer
cury Theatre was the actor John House
man. The script was adapted from H.G.
Wells’ novel by Howard Koch, who won
an Oscar for the screenplay of “Casa
blanca.”
Forrester, 35, said he was reluctant to
get involved in the celebration until his
wife, Andrea, persuaded him it would be
a good way to raise money to preserve
the pond and farmland where the “inva
sion” took place.
Radio broadcast caused
fear, panic for listeners
The following is a sample of the
newspaper stories that followed the
original broadcast of H.G. Wells’
“The War of the Worlds,” narrarated
by Orson Welles, on Oct. 30, 1938.
The articles are reprinted from the
Dallas Morning News from Monday,
Oct. 31, 1938.
Radio drama backfires
on big network
The hundreds of persons who mis
took a radio thriller for a news broad
cast Sunday night and excitedly tele
phoned the News that New York had
been wiped out will be glad to know
the city held up under bombardment
rather well.
At 7 p.m., with routine announce
ment, the program was fiction, the
Columbia Broadcasting System put
“The War of the Worlds” on the air.
A few minutes later, Dallasites
who were listening with half an ear
jumped skyhigh out of chairs, books
and papers, and rushed the tele
phones.
“Have you heard of the great trage
dy,” an excited man yelled over the
telephone. “Bombing planes have de
stroyed New Jersey.”
After that, plugs started popping
all over the switchboard. A cylinder
from Mars had landed in New Jersey,
making a big hole in the ground. A
planet had fallen in New Jersey and
obliterated the entire Eastern sea
board. The Germans were bombing
Trenton and New York. And so on. .
One man was indignant because he
could get no information. “Do you
mean to tell me Associated Press does
not have anything on this?” he asked.
“What kind of service is this any
way?”
Dallas listeners who were fooled,
however, had plenty of company. As
sociated Press reported hundreds of
inquires from all over the country.
Wires came to the Dallas office from
Wichita Falls, Beaumont and Mar
shall wanting to know about the de
struction of New York.
The Associated Press finally sent
out a bulletin that the report of the de
struction of New York was a result of
a radio dramatization.
The panic it caused gripped im
pressionable Harlemites and one man
running into the street declared it was
the President’s voice they heard, ad
vising: “Pack up and go north, the
machines are coming from Mars.”
Police in the vicinity at first re
garded the excitement as a joke but
they were soon hard-pressed to con
trol the swarms in the streets.
A man entered the Wadsworth
Avenue station uptown and said he
heard planes had bombed Jersey and
were headed for Times Square.
A rumor spread over Washington
Heights that a war was on.
hairman predicts MCorp failure
DALLAS (AP) — The chairman of
MCorp said the Dallas-based bank hold
ing company, which has stopped paying
dividends and interest on debt, could be
in bankruptcy court seeking Chapter 11
protection by the end of November.
“I think everybody recognizes that
here is a high probability that we will be
in (Chapter 11) bankruptcy within 30
Jays,” chairman Gene Bishop told the
Dallas Times Herald on Wednesday.
I’lt’s obvious that we can be forced and
that we may not have any choice.
“In the interest of protecting our as
sets and our creditors, it’s really the only
alternative.”
There had been recent industry specu
lation that the bank holding company,
Texas’ second-largest behind NCNB
Texas National Bank, was forcing the re
organization issue to advance its own
plan to recapitalize. Chapter 11 protec
tion would free the corporation from the
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push MCorp into bankruptcy court after
Nov. 21.
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