War of the Worlds....could it be done today?

Marie5656

Marie5656

SF VIP
Location
Batavia, NY
I actually do not think it could be done today. At least not on radio, as it is no longer the primary source for entertainment or news. Plus with the internet and all. I do not think people are more savy , but there are too may places to check things.

I ask because back in 1968, on Halloween night, a Buffalo, NY radio station did their own version of the broadcast, set locally. They spent a month promoting it. Mentioned it hourly, had blurbs on TV, and in Newspapers. All area media outlets, as well as police, fire, and other services were sent explicit memos. That being said, people STILL responded as if it was really happening. Canada even deployed their military to the border.

In 1971 they redid the broadcast. Here is an audio of it from You Tube. I do not expect you to be interested in the whole thing...but if you read the crawler at the beginning, and listen to the announcement at the beginning from the news director (less than 5 minutes) he goes into all the stuff that happened due to the first broadcast. Even police and news media fell for it, even though they had been informed.

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Couldn't be done today, but it's still great entertainment. I've heard the original broadcast,Orson Welles in 1938, several times.
 
I listened to a documentary on Orson Well's version of "War Of The Worlds" on the radio. I loved it . I was very surprised at the hysteria that people believed aliens had actually come to Earth & were on the attack.
And no, I don't think that hysteria would happen again, not with scientists and the military's much more advanced technology.

Also, as I listened to the broadcast many of the announcers/speakers who were supposed to be serious/worried don't sound very concerned. :) Still, to hear it now is enjoyable.
Thanks for posting it. :)

But the over the radio, made-up story, "Clone" scared the heck out of me and I had fear from it that lasted for several days. lol
 

Back in the 70's, one of the networks had a three or four hour program that was sort of Waroftheworlds-ish, being all realistic broadcasts, starting out with a break-in into a sit-com. If I remember correctly (and I could probably be far off...), it was about the Russian invasion of the US, with cities being bombed, etc. It was very well done, very realistic, and had lots of disclaimers on frequently about how it was just a show. OK, that sets the stage for the following:

One of my daughter's friends was up in the wilds of Canada with her parents, siblings and her boyfriend on vacation. Where they were staying only got a French-speaking station. They turned the TV on one evening and this show was playing....dubbed in French. None of them spoke French. They gathered enough to see that something horrible was happening back in the US. They tried to phone home, but the phones were out (apparently nothing unusual in that area, but pretty damning evidence to them that SOMETHING was happening).

Everybody was upset, crying, praying and the boyfriend decided he needed to confess all his past sins as he was afraid he was going to die. The sins included messing around on his girlfriend with another classmate (not my daughter, thank heavens). It didn't take terribly long, thank goodness, for everyone to figure out that it was just a show but the damage had been done. The rest of the trip was pretty tense, needless to say.
 
I remember as a kid that every once in a while there was news that the world was going to end on a certain day. We kids would get together to wait for it. Needless to say we were were always very disappointed. :distrust:
 
My mother was 15 in '38, living in a very rural part of southern Ohio. People took what they were hearing at face value, and were justifiably scared. Folks today think they are above all that, but I personally don't think so. After all, some folks still admire Hillary and others still admire President Trump
 
Hoot N Annie said:
My mother was 15 in '38, living in a very rural part of southern Ohio. People took what they were hearing at face value, and were justifiably scared. Folks today think they are above all that, but I personally don't think so. After all, some folks still admire Hillary and others still admire President Trump
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A big yup!!!
 

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