A. Brad Schwartz, who entertained us with Eliot Ness stories in back-to-back episodes earlier this year, returns to talk about the notorious October 30, 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, directed by Orson Wells.
The young and up-and-coming Orson Wells shocked and frightened listeners who tuned in late to his radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel, which tells the story of an invasion of Earth by tentacled aliens. The broadcast was delivered in a news story style so realistic that those who weren’t aware it was a Mercury Theater production panicked. The extent and nature of the panic, however, is disputed, and my guest sets the record straight (as best as primary sources allow) about what really happened.
His book is called “Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News”, and more information about his work can be found here: https://abradschwartz.com/
