{"id":858,"date":"2013-11-13T02:11:42","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T00:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=858"},"modified":"2015-04-28T02:27:03","modified_gmt":"2015-04-28T00:27:03","slug":"panic-in-new-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/panic-in-new-jersey\/","title":{"rendered":"Panic in New Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent news events<\/a> have made clear just how easy it is for America \u2014 or shadowy, undemocratic entities<\/span> that claim to act in its interest \u2014 to panic. This emotion isn’t just the product of 9\/11<\/a>, however. It was always there: fear that the Native Americans would attack; fear that the slaves would revolt; fear of crop failures<\/span> and bank failures; fear that the country could be invaded or the government infiltrated.<\/p>\n

Seventy-five years ago, in the autumn of 1938, Americans had a lot to be afraid of. The Great Depression<\/span> and Dust Bowl<\/a> had existed for nearly a decade. Europe had been taken over by political extremists and those who sought to appease them<\/a>. The world was a harsh and brutal place. To escape from it, Americans went to the cinema or gathered in their living room to enjoy a radio drama.<\/p>\n

Mars attacks!<\/h2>\n

On the evening of October 30, 1938, the CBS network promised them a broadcast<\/span> of dance music from a big-city ballroom. But the broadcast was interrupted by reports in which an astronomer spoke of strange explosions on the planet Mars. A short time later, the music was again interrupted, this time by a report that a metal cylinder had landed on a farm in Grover’s Mill, New Jersey. A reporter arrived in time to see the cylinder open and a machine emerge<\/span>. He then witnessed<\/span> destruction and killing as the machine turned its “heat ray<\/span>” on everyone who was there. His transmission<\/span> ended suddenly.<\/p>\n

As the presenter in New York tried to understand what was happening, reports arrived of such cylinders landing all over the United States. America was under attack!<\/p>\n

At least that’s what it sounded like. The dance music had been preceded at the top of the hour<\/span> by an announcement that Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre would be performing a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’s 1898 novel The War of the Worlds<\/i>. But not everyone had heard the announcement. Many had been listening to a more popular comedy program on another network and had changed the station after a quarter of an hour.<\/p>\n

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\u2022 Download and listen to the original program<\/a>
\n\u2022 Listen to a 75th anniversary documentary about it<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It was because of the comedy program’s success that The Mercury Theatre on the Air<\/i> had been unable to find a sponsor, allowing The War of the Worlds<\/i> to run for an hour without commercial interruption<\/span>. To someone not listening closely, most of the program sounded like actual<\/span> news reports, even if the events they described seemed to be happening very quickly.<\/p>\n

Frantic<\/span> calls reached the station and even the president of CBS at his home, where he hadn’t been listening to the broadcast. Police showed up at the studio while the play was still being performed.<\/p>\n

Orson Welles, the 23-year-old actor who was directing the play, could not believe the attention it was getting. Newspapers reported in the coming days that thousands of listeners had panicked, some leaving their homes, others putting on gas masks and preparing to fight the Martians<\/span>.<\/p>\n