MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023

 MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 - THE MARTIANS ARE COMING.

TODAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 - IN HISTORY.

In this Halloween season, I’m writing about a great panic 85 years ago. - the Martians are coming.

***

October 30, 1938 — The War of the Worlds, the science fiction novel by English author HG Wells about a spaceship from Mars landing on Earth and causing panic, death, and destruction, was published in 1897. On this day in 1938, actor Orson Welles allegedly caused real-life panic across America when he presented the story in an all-too-realistic radio broadcast.

I’m a little Science Fiction fan. As a kid, I read some of the most famous books - Isaac Asimov and the various PERN books by Anne McCaffrey.  

And I have read many of the HG Wells books, too - and Jules Verne.  

*****

In 1938, there was no television - and radio was the nightly entertainment for many Americans. The country was slowly emerging from the Great Depression.  

I wasn’t alive then, but I’m picturing the situation. My parents had a vast standing radio in the basement as I grew up in the 1950s. In the era before television, that kind of device was common in American Households (probably similar to today’s large-screen television.)

Some of the most popular radio shows in 1938 were:
Fibber McGee and Molly, 

Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge

Fred Allen’s Town Hall Tonight 

Edgar Bergen - with his wooden-headed laugh-getter Charlie McCarthy -

Jack Benny show

Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater - the medium for today’s blog

Bob Hope’s Pepsodent Show

Lowell Thomas & Walter Winchell. 

Fanny Brice & Frank Morgan

I picture families setting up a Scrabble game or Euchre card game on the card table and somebody turning the dial to see what might be playing that night. (Very much like “channel surfing” these days).  

So, on Sunday, October 30, 1938, those scrolling through the various radio stations might have come upon Mercury Theater. It sounded authentic - like a regular newscast from that day. “NEWS FLASH - A MARTIAN SPACESHIP HAS LANDED IN NEW JERSEY. “The spaceship landed at Grovers Mill, New Jersey. The radio cast sounded like newscasters as they reported all the calamity surrounding the landing of a spacecraft in central New Jersey (about halfway between New York and Philadelphia - on US 1 (which at that time was the route from Canada all the way to the Florida Keys)  

People thought it was real. I imagine neighbors calling neighbors in Eastern Iowa (where I grew up) with the news. “Helen and Woody - are you listening to the radio? Martians have landed in New Jersey. We are under attack from outer space!”. 

And my parents (Helen and Woody) would have called Elva and Floyd Lacy. “Have you heard the news? It’s on the radio. Martians are attacking us.” Then they would have called the Buxtons (down the street).  

 

If the Martians could land in New Jersey, they could land in Iowa (or any place).  

In today’s terminology, it would go “viral” in minutes. “The Martians have invaded us.”

“A disclaimer at the top of the show explained that what followed was a dramatization, but if the listener missed the announcement, it would be another 40 minutes before another one was issued. By then, a lot of people had been taken in.”. Or ... they may have just ignored the disclaimer.

The resulting hysteria -- people fleeing in their cars, barricading themselves inside their homes -- led to calls for stricter regulation of radio broadcasting to prevent this sort of thing from occurring again.”

*****

I’m not sure that something similar could occur again. There are too many television, radio stations - and online resources. I probably would log on and ask Google, “Are we being attacked by Martians?”. 

Of course, something true could happen - and we might not believe it. Maybe it could be something like “Israel uses a small atomic bomb on Iran” (or Russia uses an atomic bomb on Ukraine). And we may or may not accept the “news flash.”  

*****

Would you be suspicious if something like this aired? (It would have to be different - we’ve had enough probes of Mars),  When I first heard that Russia had invaded Ukraine, I thought it was “fake news.” 

So, what could cause you to panic?

LOVE WINS
LOVE TRANSFORMS
LOVE DOES NOT INVADE (but wouldn’t it be nice <grin>)

KAREN ANNE WHITE, © OCTOBER 30, 2023