In 1937, a young Orson Welles, already a phenomenon in the NYC theater and radio world, together with a few others, founded the Mercury Theater and later the Mercury Theater on the Air on the CBS radio network. In dramatizing the H. G. Wells classic War of the Worlds, his Halloween broadcast in 1938 revealed the power of radio. Millions of people, unable to evaluate what they heard or who tuned in late to what seemed to be real news reports, were moved to extreme behavior in the face of an apparent Martian invasion. The presentation will summarize how this landmark broadcast occurred and what followed; audio clips will be included.
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