OK, not a movie, but still…
WAR OF THE WELLES
When I was young still and open of mind, my parents set me loose in the University of Kentucky bookstore with the understanding that I was allowed to choose for myself from the racks of tapes and books some manner of entertainment. As I perused the offerings with a diligent focus that can be mustered only by a seven-year-old with a serious decision to make, I contemplated my options. I flipped through the racks, past recordings of old radio dramas. The Shadow? Maybe. Lights Out Theater? Even better. And then I found it. With nary a doubt in my mind as to the correctness of my decision, I took from the rack and presented triumphantly to my mother my choice of prize: a recording of Orson Welles’ legendary broadcast of The War of the Worlds on Halloween eve, 1938.
Keith Allison is the chief Bacchanologist at Teleport City.
#1 by Richard on November 5, 2014 - 12:58 pm
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The “panic” in the US may have been overblown, but it certainly wasn’t when Radio Quito (Ecuador) did their own version in 1949. Several people were killed in the rioting when the broadcast ended….
http://pureblather.com/2014/10/26/the-war-of-the-worlds-the-other-broadcasts/
(shamelessly plugging his own blog)
#2 by JASON FARRELL on November 6, 2014 - 10:51 am
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I remember Stephen King in DANSE MACABRE mentioning his great aunt ( or grandmother or something) saying that she sat in the bathtub with razor blades waiting to see any Martians on the horizon…
But then again, I’m sure after the incident and the publicity, I am sure that colored a lot of peoples memories…and led people to over-dramatize their own reactions, after the fact, because they made for better stories. And this whole mythology is really all about stories, not just those Welles and Wells but the press and the public’s too.
#3 by Galaxyjane on November 10, 2014 - 8:26 pm
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I’m glad I wasn’t the only kid hanging out watching “Matinee at the Bijou” on Saturday afternoons (I blame my dad). I actually had to look the darn show up on the internet one day to make sure I hadn’t imagined its existence, since nobody else seemed to remember it. My first exposure to “The Phantom Empire” and the Fleischer shorts came from that show.