Weird World - 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.

Panic

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 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.

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

actor Orson Wells, who worked for a radio station called Mercury Theatre. The broadcast reached a huge audience, and experts believe that approximately six million people heard it; and out of this number almost one million people panicked. So why did so many people fall for the trick?

Radio:

The first thing is that at the time, the radio was the number one form of communication. These days when we want to find out about something we have television, the internet and our mobile phones. But back in the 1930s there was only the radio.

War

Another reason why so many people panicked was because of the global situation at the time. There was a lot of tension in Europe, and it had been very common during the previous three months for radio broadcasts to be interrupted by reporters with ominous news from Europe. Many who panicked later said that they had thought that the Martian invasion was actually an attack by German soldiers.

Authentic

And finally, the way in which the play was read gave it all an air of reality. There were a series of news flashes with real place names and institutions such as the “Secretary Of The Interior” and the “State Militia”. Apparently, there was an announcement at the beginning of the broadcast saying that the “news” was just a story. But most people had tuned in when the “play” had already started, so they didn’t hear the warning.

After Effects

The next day, Orson Welles appeared before the press to apologise for what he had done. He claimed that he had no idea that everyone was going to really think it was true. However, many say that Welles knew exactly what he was doing. At the time, the Mercury theatre (created by Welles and John Houseman) was in financial trouble. Both Welles and Houseman needed a sensation and some really good publicity to save the business... and the “War of the Worlds” really helped. The morning after the broadcast the name of Orson Welles was headline news all over America… and the Mercury theatre was saved. In 1955 during a BBC television radio interview, Welles actually took credit for the trick.

GLOSSARY FOR CARTOON

a kid n a child to settle down phr vb to calm down - to stop being excited a broadcast n a programme on the radio or television to land vb if a plane “lands”, it comes to the ground in a controlled way mum/mom n inform mother on second thoughts exp an expression you say when you decide to do something different to the thing you planned to do a cellar n a room under a house ain’t abbr inform is not to tan a backside exp to hit a person on their “backside” (the part of your body that you sit on). This expression comes from the process of turning animal skin into leather - otherwise known as “tanning” I told you so exp an expression people say when it becomes clear that what they said before was correct INFORMATION BOX - ORSON WELLES

Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin on 6th May 1915. At the age of 13, he travelled alone to France, Italy, England and Germany; and a year later he went to Shanghai. Back in the US he went to the Chicago Art Institute, and tried to get work as an actor. Then, at the age of 16 he went to Ireland, where he worked at the Gate Theatre; and a year later he went to Spain to write. He eventually returned to Illinois and started recording plays for the radio. Soon he was earning $1000 a week, and he was only 20-years-old! In 1937, Welles and Houseman founded the Mercury Theater, a production company that staged radio plays, including, of course, The War Of The Worlds. In 1939 Welles went to Hollywood, where he made the classic film, Citizen Kane. After this, he went to Europe where he worked in theatre. He died on 10th October 1985 in Los Angeles. His ashes are buried in Malaga, Spain, where he spent his summer at the age of 18.

In November 1944 the “War of the Worlds” was broadcast in Santiago, Chile; and in February 1949 it was performed by a radio station in Quito, Ecuador. An angry group of people surrounded the radio station and burned it when they found out it was all just a joke.

WAR OF THE WORLDS - THE INTERNATIONAL VERSIONS

G L O S S A R Y

under attack exp if you are “under attack”, an enemy is fighting you a Martian n a “person” from the planet Mars a flame n long bits of orange and blue fire that come off a fire a broadcast n a programme on the radio or television a spaceship n a rocket that you use to travel through space to blast vb to shoot a gun and kill people or destroy buildings on-lookers n people who are watching something a heat-ray n a very hot line of fire that can kill or destroy to release vb if a gas is “released”, the gas comes out to spread vb if panic starts to “spread”, more and more people start to panic supplies n food that you keep so you can use it in the future to flee vb (past: fled) to run away from a place; to escape from a place to hide vb (past: hid) to go to a secret place where no one can find you a cellar n the room in a house that is under the ground to bang vb if you “bang” on a door, you hit the door to yell vb to shout to turn out phr vb if something “turns out” a particular way, it happens in that way in the end huge adj very big to fall for a trick exp to believe something that was just a trick ominous news n bad news about disastrous things a news flash n a piece of important news that interrupts a radio or television programme to tune in phr vb if you “tune in” to a radio programme, you start to listen to it headline news n very important news that is on the front page of a newspaper