WAR OF THE WORLDS
Weird World
WAR OF THE WORLDS Do you believe in aliens? According to a recent survey, 40% of Americans think there’s life out there, somewhere. And it’s understandable if you think about it, because we can’t be the only life form, can we? Well, back in 1938, millions of Americans were convinced they were under attack by Martians. Some ran. Some took their guns. And others hid in their homes in fear. What was going on?
Start On 30th October 1938 thousands of Americans were happily listening to a music programme on CBS Radio when a reporter interrupted the music to deliver an important announcement. Apparently, astronomers had just seen enormous blue flames coming off the surface of Mars. The broadcast returned to the music, but soon afterwards it was interrupted again with more news: now a strange meteor had fallen to earth, crashing on a farm near the town of Grover’s Mill in New Jersey. A reporter was soon there to describe the scene.
Alien Attack According to the news report, the meteor was some kind of spaceship. It was inside a crater and the reporter watched as a strange creature with tentacles came out and blasted the onlookers with a heat-ray. Minutes later, the machine went back into the crater, but came out again soon afterwards quickly killing 7,000 soldiers who were surrounding it. Then, it began walking across the land, joined by other machines. The machines killed people with their heat-rays, and released a poisonous black gas. It didn’t take long for people to start panicking.
Reactions Many people rang friends and family to find out what was going on. Others began shouting that the end of the world had begun and soon the panic began to spread. Some people put supplies in their cars and fled the Martian invaders. One mother in New England reportedly packed her babies and lots of bread into a car, figuring that “if everything is burning, you can’t eat money, but you can eat
40
bread”. Other people hid in cellars, hoping that the poisonous gas wouldn’t affect them. One college student drove forty-five miles in an attempt to save his girlfriend.
Panic Mrs Thomas remembers the night very well: “We were petrified. Someone was banging on our front door. It was our neighbour from across the street. She had put her seven kids in their car and she kept yelling, ‘come on. Let’s get out of here!’.” Thirteen-year-old Henry Sears was doing his homework when he heard the news report of the invasion. He took the radio downstairs and listened with a group of friends. Some of them said they were going to get their guns and join in the defence at Grover’s Mill. People even panicked in New York City. One Bronx resident describes the scene: “I lived in an apartment house. Everyone ran out and looked at the sky to see if the Martians were coming. Can you imagine all those people coming out of their apartment houses?” At the police headquarters there was chaos too. “Between 8:30pm and 10pm we received numerous phone calls, with people asking about the meteors, the number of people killed, the gas attack and what the military was doing about it,” said one police officer.
A Radio Play So what was really going on? Well, it turns out that the whole thing was a big joke. The radio programme was a version of a story by the writer HG Wells called the “War of the Worlds”. It was read by the
/ www.learnhotenglish.com / Looking for a quality English-language course abroad? Contact classes@learnhotenglish.com
