{"id":249417,"date":"2025-10-29T20:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T20:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/249417\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T20:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T20:36:11","slug":"today-in-history-october-30-the-radio-broadcast-mass-panic-that-never-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/249417\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History – October 30: The radio broadcast mass panic that never happened"},"content":{"rendered":"

A particularly realistic radio play adaptation of HG Wells’ sci-fi novel The War of the Worlds caused mass panic when it was broadcast on October 30, 1938<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Or at least, that’s how the story goes.<\/p>\n

The broadcast by young auteur Orson Welles was reported to have triggered hysteria among the millions of listeners who believed what was happening was real.<\/p>\n

\"OctoberOrson Welles speaks to reporters about the War of the Worlds broadcast. (Public Domain)<\/p>\n

The radio drama was presented as a breaking news report, talking of a Martian invasion of planet Earth.<\/p>\n

And as newspapers reported the following day, listeners were terrified at what they believed was a real news broadcast.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post reported a man died of a heart attack during the show.<\/p>\n

Other newspapers wrote of riots, panicked people crowding the streets, and National Guardsmen assembling.<\/p>\n

But in spite of the hysteria entering popular folklore, it didn’t happen.<\/p>\n

The supposed panic was largely works of fiction by newspapers looking for ways to take down the medium threatening their livelihoods – the radio.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the 23-year-old Welles issued an apology in a press conference the following morning.<\/p>\n

Across the Atlantic, Adolf Hitler described the supposed panic as evidence of “the decadence and corrupt condition of democracy”.<\/p>\n

Within weeks, a large volume of Americans surveyed would claim they listened to the program and were alarmed.<\/p>\n

But the ratings showed that fewer than two per cent of the population actually tuned into the show.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Orson Welles broadcasts his radio show of H. G. Wells’s science fiction novel “The War of the Worlds”. (AP\/AAP)<\/p>\n

The broadcast was dramatically outrated by the Chase and Sanborn Hour, a program starring ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy.<\/p>\n

But another version of the radio play did cause genuine hysteria eleven years later.<\/p>\n

A Spanish-language broadcast caused panic in Ecuador in February 1949.<\/p>\n

When the hysterical mob realised they had been had, they rioted, setting the radio station alight.<\/p>\n

At least seven people were killed.<\/p>\n

The radio drama made Welles an overnight celebrity, and he was signed to a substantial Hollywood contract the following year.<\/p>\n

His first film, Citizen Kane, is widely regarded as the most influential movie of all time.<\/p>\n

\"CitizenOrson Welles wrote, directed and starred in Citizen Kane in 1941. (Bettmann Archive)<\/p>\n

Initially, Welles was irritated at how the press had hyped up the panic his radio play caused.<\/p>\n

But as time went on, Welles would become the most enthusiastic exaggerator \ufeffof the events of that night.<\/p>\n

“Houses were emptying, churches were filling up – from Nashville to Minneapolis there was wailing in the streets and the rending of garments,” he later said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A particularly realistic radio play adaptation of HG Wells’ sci-fi novel The War of the Worlds caused mass…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-249417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}