The Night That Panicked America

9/23/2024

**_The Martians are coming, the Martians are coming!!!_** On the night before Halloween, 1938, Orson Welles directs a radio adaptation of HG Wells' novel The War of the Worlds from forty years prior. The "breaking news" style of ominous storytelling convinced many listeners throughout America to take it seriously, causing a panic. The illusion of realism was reinforced by the lack of commercial interruptions, which meant that the first break didn’t come until after all of the alarming "news" had been given. A television production, “The Night that Panicked America” (1975) works well enough to help you see how Welles’ show could deceive those who failed to hear the opening announcement indicating that the show was a work of fiction. Paul Shenar does a good job playing Welles and there