Photograph of a rehearsal of CBS Radio's The Mercury Theatre on the Air, printed in many US newspapers following the broadcast of "The War of the Worlds".Īt approximately 8:30pm on Halloween eve, Producer John Houseman said that CBS supervisor Davidson Taylor took a call in the control room, returning moments later, "pale as death". Sunday afternoon was upon them and Bernard Herrmann and his orchestra arrived in the studio where Welles was pumped to broadcast the evening's thrilling program. Rehearsal day with the sound effects team was on Saturday where special attention was given to crowd scenes, cannon fire, and boat horns in New York Harbor. On Thursday, Welles viewed the script as dull and stressed the importance of inserting news flashes and eyewitness accounts to create a sense of urgency and excitement. Houseman reassured Koch and together they worked on the script through the night, finishing the draft on schedule Wednesday. On Monday, October 24 they all agreed to assign American playwright and screenwriter Howard Koch the job of adapting The War of the Worlds.īy Tuesday night Koch was in deep distress saying he couldn't make the script exciting for radio. The production behind the simulated live newscast of The War of the Worlds grew from Welles who pitched the fake newscast idea to producer John Houseman and associate producer Paul Stewart. Photo care of Dallas Dispatch-Journal, October 31, 1938. Orson Welles at work in the CBS Radio studio. More panic-driven news updates followed describing the alien invasion unfolding around the country. The situation escalated when a panicked reporter said Martians were emerging and attacking people with heat-rays.
#The real war of the worlds series#
The next twenty minutes of broadcast aired as typical evening radio with a series of daunting news bulletin interruptions - unusual explosions observed on Mars, strange cylindrical objects landing on New Jersey farmland with police and crowds surrounding them. Welles continued to read a prologue which was loosely based around the original novel's opening, modified to set the story in 1939. The one-hour program narrated by actor and future filmmaker Orson Welles began with the show's theme music followed by an announcement that the upcoming episode was to be an adaptation of H.
The dramatic The War of the Worlds episode from Orson Welles' series The Mercury Theatre on the Air aired as a Halloween special on October 30, 1938, and allegedly caused major panic to the listening United States audience.
0 kommentar(er)
