This is awestin wells, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you
that the War of the World has no further significance, and it's the holiday
offering. It was intended to be the Mercury Theater's own radio version of dressing
up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying boom. And
now Audio Theater Central, Hello, Welcome to Audio Theater Central. This is
the show that explores family friendly audio drama through news, reviews and interviews.
I'm your host, J D. Setter, and this is a bonus episode
number one eighty eight. Well, today is a special bonus episode specifically to
commemorate and recognize that today is World Audio Drama Day, and whenever possible,
we always want to give you a little extra content to celebrate this day.
And also today is the eighty fifth anniversary of the Mercury Theater on the airs
War of the World's broadcast, and so it's just a special day all around.
And so I wanted to share that episode with you because I know there
are still many of you in our community who have never heard that original old
term radio broadcast. So that's going to be a little bit later on in
this episode, but before that, I'm going to be joined by Matthew P.
Warner from Audio Imagination seventy seven Productions, and we're going to talk about
the War of the World's Broadcast and Orson Welles and some of the other work
that he did, as well as Matthew's new show that has just released today
as well, and it's called Operator and it is related to this War of
the World's Broadcast, and so we're going to talk about that as well.
So a lot of stuff coming up. As I said, the War of
the World's Broadcast will be after I talk with Matthew, and just wanted to
give you a little heads up that because we're going to be talking about it,
there might be a few minor spoilers, But if you're familiar at all
with the story and it's source material, it is a loan survivor story,
so it's not going to be anything too surprising. But we're just going to
kind of talk about the history and some of the overall impacts of this broadcast,
and so that's going to be a lot of fun. If you are
interested in more about World Audio Drama Day, be sure to head over to
Audio Drama day dot Com and they've got some great material there that you can
check out. All right, well, let's bring on. Matthew. Just
say your name and the role you're playing in this production. Please excuse me,
excuse me, the local news station would like to talk to you.
Oh and here's a company play right. I'm here to ask you a couple
of questions. Well, I am happy to have Matthew P. Warner from
Audio Imagination seventy seven Productions on the show today. And we've talked about Matthew
and the work that he's been doing over the last few years on the show
here in the past. He's a writer, director, and actor. His
most recent release was The Gift in twenty twenty one, a Wonderful Christmas Story,
and today his new show is out and it's called Operator. We're going
to talk about that in a few minutes, but before we get to that,
there's sort of a prelude that we have to get to, right Matthew,
that's correct. Well, I shouldn't say we have to. We want
to because there's a tie in to his new show that is in relation to
the topic that we want to talk about. But first of all, thank
you for coming on. The show. Thank you so much for having me
a longtime fan of your show. Well, thanks, thank you so much.
So today is World Audio Drama Day. And this whole thing started a
handful of years ago with a group of people that said, we need to
have a day to celebrate this awesome medium of storytelling. And they said,
what better day to mark that on the calendar than the day of the original
War of the World's radio broadcast in nineteen thirty eight, which was October thirtieth,
and that show has been redone several times since then. But that was
the original adaptation that Orson Wells directed for the CBS Radio and this was part
of his Mercury Theater on the Air series and it is a classic piece of
broadcast radio history in addition to being just one of the most well known old
time radio episodes of all time. I mean, if you talk to people
who know old time radio at all, they're likely going to have heard of
the War of the Worlds and sorry, wrong number, and maybe some of
the common or Westerns gun smoke or whatever, but generally people know War of
the Worlds, And so we're gonna talk about that a little bit because it
all ties into operator and this very day World Audio Drama Day. So it's
gonna be fun. We're gonna talk about a little bit about the broadcast and
some of our thoughts on it before we do that. Matthew, what are
some of the other old time radio shows that you enjoy? Oh, I
mean all of them. I mean I've been listening to old time radio since
I was around eight years old, and I think the first one I was
ever introduced to was called and it's still one of my favorites. I listened
to it every year. It's called The Haunting Hour. Not a very well
known show and it was only on for two seasons, but I listened to
that. I love suspense and or Sanctum obviously. I've listened to several of
the Mercury Theater on the airs, but then to step away from the thriller
horror, I also liked Bergenham, McCarthy, Avid and Costello. I love
The Great Gildersleeve is one that I listened to, especially during the holidays,
but only listen to the holiday episodes. But yeah, I mean there's not
a whole lot that I don't like. Yeah, it's so good, and
Orson Wells is all throughout you know, old time radio history. I mean,
his adaptation of Leyman's rob Is is amazing. No, absolutely, And
of course what was the thriller? He was the Harry Lymer. Oh yeah,
I think so. I mean, but I mean back then he did
so many I heard a story that he would go from one play to the
other by ambulance because he was on such a tight time crunch. He would
be in one studio recording The Shadow, and then he would jump into an
ambulance and they would race him across town to do the Mercury Theater. And
then like he'd actually after the radio show, he would actually have a theater
production also called the Mercury Theater. So he would go from A to B
to C within a matter of hours. I mean he eventually did you know
Suspense, He did The Black Museum, which he was the host of.
I don't think that guy even knew limitations on what he could and couldn't do.
Yeah, yeah, And he's so iconic in so many roles too,
Like I mean, I can't imagine the Black Museum without him and his just
the whole persona that he has on there and the Shadow, I mean,
his iconic voice for Lamont Kranston in the Shadow. I mean, there's so
many shows that he influenced, but this was this one was very early in
his career. He was also on the verge of being canceled. He was
days away from being canceled when he pulled this hoax off, and it actually
saved him for years to come. And not only that, it made him
like a household name in a way because everyone was so fascinated by what he
had just done. Yeah, and of course he played it off totally innocent,
like I don't know what you're all talking about, and if you're not
familiar. This is based on the novel, the science fiction novel by H.
G. Wells. No relation, but actually Orson Welles didn't write this
adaptation. It was written by somebody else, but he directed it. And
he also started and I guess, I mean he's he starts off as the
narrator and we don't realize who this narrator is at first until we get later
on in the story. But it's just just so good. And I was
talking with the Austin Peachey ATC contributor the other day and he was saying that
even to this day, he's recently graduated from college and he got a degree
in media, and they're still talking about this broadcast in college classes to this
day. I'm not surprised. I mean, it really is, Like you
said earlier, I think it's probably one of the most prolific titles in audio
drama. It's and this is a horrible comparison, but I heard something years
ago that if you were to ask in any country about like the names of
serial killers, the only one that every country in the world has heard of
is Jack the Ripper, Okay, And I feel that this is one of
those plays that like everyone might not have heard, you know, people in
you know, Africa or even you know, anywhere else you know, might
not have heard of like Inner Sanctum or or you know, even shows that
we do today. But it's like everyone seems to be very aware of the
War of the World's broadcast. So that's why it seems like just one of
the biggest names out there. Might not be the greatest audio play ever done,
but it seems to have such a huge following and such credibility to its
name. Yeah. Well, and there's such a lore surrounding it, and
I think that's probably part of it. I heard a podcast several years ago,
and I wish I could remember what show it was, but I do
not. But they were talking about this very the whole phenomenon that this show
started or incited, and they were talking about a Central or South American country
which did a take on this. Obviously was a different script because you know,
the original novel is set in London, excuse me, in England,
and this story, you know, this adaptation is set in New Jersey and
New York, you know, the East Coast. But this radio station in
Central or South America had done an adaptation, you know, trying to sort
of recreate what Wells and Mercury did in their own language, and you know,
set in their own location, and they had a similar thing happened.
And this was not like back in the thirties or forties. This was relatively
recently, in the last decade or so, and I found it just so
interesting. You know, this whole idea is still still in people's consciousness and
there are still trying to pull off the same sort of, for lack of
a better term, a viral sort of hit, I guess, well back
back in the nineties. Just to touch on that, that just reminded me
back in the when I was in high school, back in the nineties.
Not to age myself too much, but I remember around this time, me
and a couple friends were in the kitchen in my parents' house carving pumpkins,
and my mom had this little box TV up on the counter and it was
showed this TV footage of this little girl whose face was badly burnt from an
asteroid that had just landed in New Jersey, and we're trying to carve our
pumpkins, but we keep watching it, and we keep watching it, and
as we're driving home later, we're talking about it and we're like, what
if, you know, what if? What is going on? Blah blah
blah. And then I got home and my mom was just rolling. She
was like, now it was like the sixtieth anniversary of the War of the
World's broadcast. They were doing a little TV mock up and we're like,
so immediately I call my buddy and he answers. He's like it was a
fake and I'm like I know, and then we're you know, back then,
three way calling was really popular, so we tried to call someone else
and then they're calling someone else, so there's a whole group of us.
Still we felt like total idiots, but I mean it just shows the it's
I mean, here they're you know, fifty years later, they're still touching
base on it, and you know, and it fooled us. But again,
you know, I'd love to play it off as we're dumb high schoolers,
but nope, they got us. Yeah, yeah, well it's it
comes down to that, you know, that news bulletin style format of telling
the story, and you know, it really does pull you right in.
And this is not the only audio drama adaptation of War for the World,
so it's been done by others. I mean, there was one that I
heard a few years ago by a production house in the UK that did a
really faithful adaptation from the novel and it was phenomenal quality. But you know,
this is a very different approach. And this actual broadcast War of the
Worlds from Mercury has been spoofed again and again too, and even in Adventures
and Odyssey we have it may not be a spoof, but it's more of
an homage to it. With the episode Terror from the Skies, which was
written by Paul McCusker and Portlite Family Media's own show that we did several years
ago, a Christmas show of all things called Babe of the Worlds, which
was written by Jeffrey Adams of Icebox Radio Theater, and that is sort of
turning that story around, and it tells the birth of Christ from the perspective
of news bulletins if Bethlehem had had a radio station. And so it's very
patterned after War of the World. I mean even the character's names. We
have a Carla Phillips is our main character, the main reporter, and we
have a Professor Pearson in it. And so this has become a part of
audio drama history again and again, and I think it's just a cool thing.
So when did you first hear this particular show and what are what are
your thoughts on it overall? Like what is it that draws you to this
episode? So, like I said, like I was introduced to it from
my parents when I was six years old. I was a huge fan of
old black and white movies and silent films. I mean, at six,
Charlie Chaplin was my hero, and so I would watch Charlie Chaplin, Laurel
and Hardy Marx Brothers. And I want to say. When I was about
eight, my dad came in and said, hey, because you're such a
fan of old movies, you should try these, and he gave me two
sets of cassettes. One said comedies and one said thriller. So I was
like, hmm, let's start with the thrillers because that seems more interesting than
the comedies. And War of the Worlds was the was the third one I
listened to. Wow, I listened to the like I said earlier, the
Haunting Hour, and then on the other side was the Hall of Fantasy.
And then I was like, oh, War of the World is an entire
cassette. And I remember finding it really interesting at eight years old, but
I don't think I understood it like the impact. And it was shortly after
I had heard it for the first time that my grandfather actually told me that
it had caused a panic, which again at eight wasn't really comprehending. And
then it actually, I really do have a long run with long history with
this play. When I was you know, in ten to twelve, my
cousins would come over and we'd turn into a game where we'd actually have it
in the background, acting like we were minding our own business, and then
we'd hear the first broadcasts and they were like, what are we going to
do? And then we'd start acting like we were boarding up the windows and
securing the doors and then grabbing our toy guns and staring at the windows,
and you know, as kids, we'd lose interest relatively quickly, so we
never really saw the whole game through, but it was something that we did
on multiple occasions. They'd come over, is you want to play that Alien
Invasion game? Like, yeah, I'll go grab the cassette. I love
that. Yeah, it was fun. It was It was totally fun.
In fact, i'd do it now if they were available. But and then
in college I started listening to it. I kind of got back into it.
I'd start, you know, over the years, I'd start listening and
branching out to way many other audio old time radio plays, and then in
the last ten years, I started revisiting the ones from when I was younger,
and then I think I just had more of an understanding of this one
because I'd listened to it and I'd start understanding more of what they were trying
to do. And then like there's even scenes that I'd start getting chills and
I'm like, wow, I've heard this probably one hundred plus times, and
now it's actually affecting me because I tried to also imagine what people back then
were thinking and hearing, and it definitely gives you chill if you really think
about what's happening and the way he directs it, And there's several scenes that
stick out that just just even think of it now kind of gives me a
little chills, just because what he was aiming to do. But yeah,
I listened to it every year, especially on the thirtieth, which I didn't
even know that that was World Audio Drama Day until a few years ago,
so I was always I always considered it war the World's Day in my mind.
But yeah, no, I enjoy the show. It's definitely one of
my favorites. And the older I get and the more I listen to it,
the more I appreciate the story. And then of course reading about everything
they went through to get it going, and all the different rumors of what
it could have been, what it might not have been, how impactful it
was, how it might not have been impactful at all. It's just it's
all fascinating to me. Oh yeah, yeah, And there's just little things.
So I just listened to it and I picked up on some things that
it had been Actually, it had been a couple of years since I've heard
it, and so it was really interesting to me as I was, you
know, trying to prep for this conversation and so I was really listening to
the little details and it was so genius. And I don't know if this
is in the script. I don't know if you've ever seen a script,
I haven't, so this this may have been part of the script, or
this just may have been the actors themselves. But that particular scene, you
know, we have the press conference with the military commander, and he's adding
in these uz and these little you know, verbal crutches into what he's saying
that made it sound so real, Like how many times have you heard a
press conference where they speak every single word clearly like no, they they stumble,
they and so working those little things into it, and then the reporter
at one point he's like they go from the studio to him and he's like,
am I on? You know, those little things like that made it
sound like this is really an actual happening right now, And you know,
it did not sound like a play. No, it did. In fact,
when the first time they go to the farm at Grover's Mill, he's
talking to the one that witnessed the asteroid or the crash, and even starts
to talk to him, and as he starts talking, he interrupts him.
He says, a little closer, a little closer to the microphone. So
I mean, yeah, so it's it's really well done. And I have
seen the script obviously, that part with the farmer is in the script.
As far as how many ums from the military, I don't know if I
can't recall off the top of my head, but yeah, no, it's
it's it really does sound real. And when you think about the time that
all this started, from like eight o'clock to by eight point fifteen, you
know, I mean, all of a sudden, Jersey is under attack.
It must have gotten people so confused and terrified for them not to realize this
is a lot of things happening for fifteen minutes. And that guy sure does
sound an awful lot like well, you know, I mean, who had
a very distinctive voice for twenty three years old. Yeah, yeah, And
maybe because it was still early on in his career, then he wasn't the
no. I don't know, but maybe he wasn't quite the well known actor,
certainly, not that he was or that he is today, but maybe
he, you know, his voice hadn't quite reached everybody yet at that point.
I don't know, but it's just interesting. And there's this that moment
where they say that they're going to turn the the station over to the military
or some kind of so they can have their milicia. Yeah, so you
hear their broadcasts back and forth and stuff like that, and then we get
that moment where there's just silence and he's like, is anybody on the air.
That moment is chilling. But that's not till forty minutes in, and
so this is all building up, and and it's right after that that we
that's like the end of the first act. And then we get the announcement
saying, oh, this is a radio play, blah blah blah, we'll
be back after this or whatever it is. I can totally see how some
people might have been a little bit concerned. I mean, you're forty minutes
into this thing before they ever I mean, if you listen to the very
beginning, they say the Mercury Theater presents whatever. But right after that,
you know, it goes into this whole news bulletin, as you alluded to
earlier, starts off with the musical interludes and then goes into these news bulletins,
breaking into the music, and for thirty five minutes at least, you're
hearing this stuff and you're like, wow, I can totally see because you
mentioned also think about the timeframe nineteen thirty eight, Like, you know,
these days, we're very much more skeptical about things like this, Oh yeah,
you know, yeah so, but back then, you know, they're
just like, this is the radio, you know, this is where we
get all of our information. Yeah, exactly. And that's a great point
because back then, obviously the depression was only you know, was still people
were still suffering from the depression, even though it had been you know,
almost ten years. It was such a time of innocence and there was so
much, so much, you know, people are so naive back then,
and I don't think radio was that old. I mean I don't have I
mean, I'm sure there was, you know, something here and something there,
But it was the thirties that it really started to pick up. And
with all of the possible uprising of the like what was going on in Germany
and over in Europe with the Nazi uprising and stuff like that. People were
so fascinated by what was going so as they change the station and they hear
this really gradual build up, and it was a very gradual build up because
it was just you know, gaseous explosions on the planet Mars, like it
was nothing. And then all of a sudden they come back and they mention
it again, and then the next thing, which you know, everyone's gonna
be like, minute, this is something something must be going on, because
now they're going to Princeton and they're talking to some famous astrologists, and then
all of a sudden, now it's in the farm. So it was a
really well done build up. And even though it was over a fifteen minute
period, just to the build up for when the Martians finally come out and
attack, it's it really does. Even listening to it now, it does
seem like a much bigger, longer build up. So I can see where
back then people being a little bit more naive and a little bit more nervous
about what was happening on the other side of the world, and whatnot.
That it would be really easy to, I guess, manipulate them that way,
because who would have thought anything different, especially with the way they did
it. Yeah. Yeah, And like you said in the moment, I'm
sure those minutes felt like hours, you know, absolutely, But to touch
on that scene you were saying, that's one of the scenes that still gives
me chills. When they're on the broadcast building and he's talking about the Martians
coming closer and being fifty yards away twenty five. Then he starts coughing because
of the gas, and then all of a sudden, there's a sound of
him collapsing, and then it it goes on for nothing other than traffic and
the mayhem down below for a good five ten seconds. So it's it really
is like is it is it all done? And then all of a sudden,
the same voice you hear her earlier with the two x two L calling
you know CQ, because earlier in the play you hear it, and when
there's so many people alive and activity happening, it's he's like two x two
L calling CQ, two x two L calling CQ. But now he's doing
it again, much slower, much more concerned, and it's you know,
it's very creepy, you know, because it's very spread out, and then
he just ends it, you know, with is there anyone? And then
there's a long pause, and then all of a sudden, like you said,
they announce that it's a play. But then after that it actually becomes
your typical old time radio drama. Now there's music built into it and there's
narration, and it's still great from start to the end. But when I
was talking to my cast, I was saying, at least listen to the
first forty minutes. I highly recommend the whole play, but if you listen
to nothing else, at least the first forty minutes to understand what people were
going through. Right, Yeah, because you're right, it totally does take
a turn. And that's why I said, it's sort of like the first
act, even though they're not like equally, they're not equal in duration,
but it totally takes a turn, and then it feels a little bit more
like the original novel. You know, you have this loan survivor kind of
just sharing his sort of diary or his journal as he's living out his days
or whatever, and that's very much like the novel. But yeah, the
build up up to that point, it's like edge of the seat type of
stuff. Absolutely, it's intense, and they did such a good job.
And then when you start to read about all the stories behind it, it
just becomes even more to me more genius some of the stuff they did.
And again, if the stories are true, you know, some of the
stuff. I read one way that they kind of anticipated this was going to
happen, so they had kind of barricaded the doors to the recording studio.
I don't know if that's true. It was just one of the stories I
read. And I actually also heard John Housman in an interview talking about years
ago saying that Orson had, you know, we knew what we were doing.
Even though he claimed he didn't, there's always that did he know or
did he not know? Was his plan? Was it just an accident?
Yeah? So yeah, so I like to think that he knew and that
you know that, you know, I heard something that the police were even
trying to call in and tell them that they need to break the show and
announce it right there, but they just hung up and they refused to do
all this stuff like no, we're in this through you know, they probably
knew that they were at the end of their rope and they needed to save
their show, and what a way to do it. Yeah, well,
I mean he was an entertainer, he was a showman. He knew you
know, he knew what he was doing. I think. Yeah, it's
fascinating. And if you haven't heard this show yet or haven't looked into the
history, in the show notes is a link to the Wikipedia page, which
has a ton of information and of course links elsewhere to check that out.
And then also in the show notes is a link to a post from a
few years ago on the ATC blog where we shared an embedded player where I
found some audio of Orson Welles talking about that night for several years after after
the fact. So you definitely want to check that out. It's only a
couple of minutes long, but it's worth hearing. So we're going to give
you an opportunity to listen to that show right here in this episode in just
a few minutes. But we have alluded to this throughout the conversation. But
your new production Operator, which is out today over at dramafi dot com,
is very much influenced by or tied into this War of the World. So
tell the listener what is the premise of operator and what is the tie in
here to War of the worlds. Well, it's about that night during the
broadcast from pretty much the perspective of the telephone operator. In every documentary I
watched on this show, there was very little mentioned about the telephone operator other
than that they were inundated with panic calls all evening, and to me,
in some ways they were like the real heroes of this panic. And so
I thought the fact that no one's ever touched on this other than I did
see a six minute little short video that AT and T did back in I
think it was nineteen eighty eight where they brought four telephone operators in and talked
very vaguely about that night from their point of view, And so I thought,
I was, like, what a great idea for a story to tell
it from the point of view of the telephone operator. So it's about that
night from their point of view, especially from one character in particular named Fay
Rogers, and it's just her retelling her experience and everything she went through with
three other women, how they held that night and did the best that they
could during this potential panic and how they kind of overcame it and worked through
it. And in many ways, it's kind of a woman's empowerment story,
I guess. In other ways, it's just a fun way to touch upon
a really fascinating evening back in nineteen thirty eight. Yeah. Yeah, And
I also enjoyed it too, just because again the era of that time and
the way the telephone switchboards worked and you know, plug things in and moving
that that's how you would reconnect the calls, and just the whole way that
worked. I've always just I find that stuff interesting. And so it's getting
sort of a look into the process of what it might have looked like.
Even in the beginning of your show, it's very much like it's a normal
evening, and so that we might see a little bit of what it would
look like on the floor there as they're just taking calls. Then of course
the things start getting ratcheted up when this broadcast starts, But just that whole
look into that side of things is interesting. And so this is about an
hour and a half long, and you had a cast of twenty five people,
and so this is your most ambitious projects so far. And also if
I'm not mistaken. I think this is your first time working with remote talent.
So what was that process like for you? All? In all,
it went really well. I mean I had reached out to the the one
actress that I knew I was going to use, as I've used in every
one of my productions, was Annie di Martino. She's always kind of my
leading lady, but she wasn't this time. I had a specific character who
I really really loved writing about, Missus Taylor, because she kind of oversees
and takes control over the situation. But I'd reached out to several people from
various production companies to see if they wanted to lend voices, and then of
course I got you know, Jonathan Cook in there and Alicia Hansen, and
I did do several auditions, going to everyone's home to do them, just
to try and keep it, you know, more personable. And then when
Alicia sent me her, I called them one liners because they were just a
series of panic phone calls. And as soon as I got hers, I
reached back out to her and said, hey, are you at all interested
in reading for someone else and an actual part? And she was right on
board and she did it, and I had one character specifically in mind for
her, and then when I heard her lines, I said, so,
how would you like the main, main part and she was like, oh,
yeah, that's great. But her living in Florida between conversations and sending
her lines pre recorded to kind of not that there was any doubt in her
ability, but it was kind of hard to direct from across the country.
So giving her lines because they talked very specifically back in the nineteen thirties,
the voice never went down, it always went straight, or it went up
at the end, kind of like very similar to an Australian accent. How
it always kind of ends with the last syllable tuning up. And so I
would send her a series of lines and then you know, like say it
kind of like this and then make it your own. And she did just
that, so that was fantastic. In fact, there was not a single
line that she sent me that I needed her to re record, wow,
because she is professional through and through. And then Jonathan sent me several different
takes and said that guy's got amazing voices, and so he sent me several
different voices and then those are the only two that I didn't actually get to
see in person or or talk to. I knew Jonathan was gonna be fantastic.
Just so here you go, play with it, do whatever you want,
just make it panicked. And he delivered constantly, and then everybody else
lived Johansson, Logan, and Annie. I got the pleasure of having them
in the studio. So that was that was fun, Yeah, just to
actually get to work with them, and you know, it's always fun to
be in the studio, right right, So how much research did you have
to do before you actually started writing. I spent about eight months doing research.
That's why I did not release anything in twenty twenty. Towards the end,
right before I released A gift, I started thinking about this play,
and so I just started reading it. Obviously, I listened to it,
and like I said before, I was listening to it alongside The Chasing Sanborn
Hour to make sure that their musical interludes timing lined up with the timing of
broadcasts, to see if it would actually make sense that someone would have switched
the station to actually hear something that would draw them in. And now,
so for the listener, explain the connection there to The Chasing Sanborn. What
was absolutely Yeah, so back in nineteen thirty eight, the Chasing Sanborn Show,
which starred Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy The Little Ventriloquist Puppet was the number
one show on the air at the time, and The Mercury Theater, which
was on CBS, was like ranked number forty or something along those lines,
and it wasn't doing well and it was on the verge of being canceled,
and so when they decided to do the War of the worlds. Rumor has
it that they had been kind of following along the Chas and Samborn Show for
weeks, taking times to kind of on average around four minutes and thirty seconds
is when they do their musical interlude, and they would do it. They
would they kind of monitored it for a couple of weeks just to see,
knowing that that was the War of the World is coming up, and they
wanted to time it that by the time people switch stations, because I guess
it was quite common that during musical interludes people would switch the stations to see
what else was on the air, and so they wanted to time that when
people would switch over to CBS that there was some very vague mentioning of gaseous
explosions on the planet Mars and describing what it was like, just to make
it kind of well, this is happening, not a big deal, but
we're going to keep an eye on it. But then, if you know
the stories are true, people were so fascinated by outer space, let's tune
into this. So that's how it kind of started. But that was I
mean, you have the number forty show against the number one show. I
guess, yeah, they go big or go home, and they went big.
Yeah, So thank you for clarifying that, because I'm sure there are
some people who didn't realize that. And that also goes that's another element on
that probably helped to heighten the panic, was because they were just catching snippets
of these things as they were bouncing between stations. So right, So yeah,
so back to operators, So you were listening to this to try to
make sure that as you're telling your story, it's unfolding in a reasonably close
timeframe to what was going on in the real broadcast. That yeah, absolutely
that, And also I wanted to make sure that what I was going to
have happening, because when they listened to it, there's obviously, you know
their telephone operators, so there's going to be a series of calls, and
so I wanted to keep the as it gradually gets worse, I wanted to
keep it in line with what was actually happening in the broadcast. And so
there'll be moments where they'll be on a regular phone call helping a customer out
or subscribers they would call him back in the thirties, and then the next
one is just a little odd, like what a strange question, Okay,
here's the number for the police station in Grover's Mill. And then the next
one is, you know, what happened an earthquake in the field out there,
and you know, so there would just be it was just a very
gradual build up. So I wanted to make sure as I was listening to
it that what was happening in operator was falling in line with that up until
that moment where New York is destroyed and he's on that you know two x
two L calling Zekiu, is there anyone on the air. Wanted to make
sure it all lined up to that exact moment, So that's why I had
to listen to it. And then of course the fascination of how many of
these rumors are true, of what they did to pull off display and stuff,
and then it almost kind of became an obsession. I just it's such
a fascinating story, you know, even how they chose Trenton, New Jersey.
They spun a globe and said where are we doing it? And they
stuck their finger on it to stop it, and they said Trenton, New
Jersey. You know, it's just everything about it. I heard this was
they actually had a script written and Orson Wells did not care for it,
and so between him, John Husman, and one other writer who they gave
all their credit to, they spent literally the night before rewriting it as a
series of broadcasts. So yeah, that's pretty much. Yeah, it was
just a ton of endless research and also making sure I had notebook after notebook
of notes, and also hearing it gave me ideas when writing my script.
Sure, yeah, yeah, do you know how to pronounce that guy's name.
It's spelled koc h. And I've heard that surname pronounced several different ways
over the years. I've heard it coke and and oh I've always I always
thought it was Robert Kott. Is it about Robert Kotch? Well, according
to Wikipedia, it's Howard. Oh, Howard Cotch. I'm sorry, Yes,
that is correct. I believe the last name is Cotchutch Okay, yeah,
yeah, I had I've never heard the name spoken, so I wasn't
sure. And yeah, so he's the one who is credited with with the
script. But it's I mean, that's a ton of work to spend that
many months of your life working on this, and that's before you ever even
started the actual production process. Yeah, it's correct. I'd actually pitched the
idea just to see what I have a friend who's also very into audio drama
and old time radio, and she has a podcast called The Bitter Sweet Life.
We met for lunch years ago and we would just throw ideas around and
I just said, in passing, it's like, what do you think of
this is probably almost ten years ago, Oh wow, And I said,
what do you think of the idea of a story about the war of the
World's from the point of view of the telephone operator? And I just remember
her mouth kind of dropping. I mean, like, man, I wish
i'd thought of that. And then that was the other part of the research
was has anyone done a story from that point of view and really has anything
other than because like you said earlier, it's been redone time and time again.
In fact, I think I saw on social media several audio companies are
going to be releasing their own adaptation on the thirtieth of this month, you
know, so, I think there's at least three to five new versions of
it every year. But I was curious if there was anything original based around
it and not a retelling of it. Yeah, And so that was more
like a always so cool to do something original, and so I just wanted
to see if there was anything out there. And you pulled it off,
and it's very enjoyable to listen to. And I loved the nod to your
previous release with the appearance of the DJ again. Oh yeah, hopefully that's
not too much of a spoiler for the listener, but not at all.
I thought that was pretty cool. No, we threw in a we threw
in a Hopefully old time radio fans will catch them. There are a couple
easter eggs in there. One you mentioned earlier, there's a shout out to
sorry wrong number in there twice, and another one of my favorites the house
on Cypress Canyon from uh suspense. There's a shout out to that in there,
and then there's a couple of little easter eggs about Orson Wells in there
as well, just to see if anyone you know catches them. I missed
the Cypress Canyon reference. I'm gonna have to listen again. Yeah, it's
I think it's a phone number. Okay, Okay, I think Jonathan says
it. I think Jonathan says it. The phone number goes, I need
to reach my number Cypress Canyon, and then he gives the house address that's
mentioned in the play. Oh, I love that kind of stuff. That's
so cool. Yeah, and then there's a like, uh, I guess
this isn't really spoiling the show. But a phase station is twenty three,
which is how old Orson Wells was when he did The War of the Worlds.
And then one caller who happened to be my wife, asks if they've
been spotted in Kenosha, and that's where Orson Wells was from. Okay,
I did I remember that because I used to live in Wisconsin, so I
definitely picked up on that, but I wasn't sure why it was mentioned,
so that's cool. Yeah, there's just a couple of little Easter eggs out
there. So I love it. I love it. So is there I
mean, we don't want to give away any spoilers, because there are some.
There is a little bit of a twist in this one, but it
is primarily just as you said, it's the hearing this whole story go down
from the perspective of this of these operators, and so you're that's primarily what
you're following, so like it doesn't deviate too much off of that, and
so there's not like this huge whole plot that's going on. But there is
a little bit of a twist in there that I thought was kind of cool.
But anything else that the listener might want to know before they give this
one to listen, I highly recommend they listened to The War of the World's
First for sure, just because if I even my little Orson Wells monologue at
the end type monologue that I give right at the close, as far as
it's just just I hope they enjoy it. I hope they have fun with
it. I hope it makes sense, and I hope it does. The
War of the World's I guess I would hope that Orson Wells would be proud
of it. Nice. Nice, Yeah. I loved how you came on
at the end and delivered the credits in that you know, it's sort of
in a character and oh man, that that was just a really cool way
to wrap it up. And as as I've already said, as soon as
we finish here, we're going to roll the episode and let let people listen
to the original broadcast. And after you finished that, yeah, you definitely
want to head over to Dramafy give this a listen and just see what it
might have been like for these people. As Matthew said, we don't have
a whole lot of documentation about what actually went down in this place, so
there's there's some speculation, but it seems pretty plausible to me the way this
this unfolds. So kudos to you for putting this project together. And I
think this is the perfect day to have it release and have people go enjoy
it. No. Absolutely, yeah, And all those phone calls, there's
a couple montages of phone calls. All of them are loosely based on actual
calls. None we're obviously recorded, but based on newspaper articles I read they're
all loosely based on these possible phone calls. That's cool they got I like
that was that was a fun scene to write. That was one of my
favorite scenes is the phone called montage. You know. When I first heard
about this, I wondered if you were going to use any actual clips from
the broadcast, and you didn't, and you actually had You recreated some of
the moments with your own cast, and I thought that was a really cool
way to do it, rather than relying on the clips that's been done in
others. On the shows before, they'll use clips of previous broadcasts or whatever.
So I kind of just expected that you would do that at some point,
and I liked that you didn't, and it was a really cool idea
to recreate those and it sounds really great. Ryan Duke did the retelling of
most of them in Austin Simmons did the main announcement of the attack from Mars
and those were so fun. Then, plus to edit them and put on
the filter that makes them sound like they're on the radio, and then add
the crackling and yeah, and even with the even with the montage at the
end. I wanted to do it to because the one thing about Orson Wells
is obviously I didn't know the man, but I felt that he loved to
hear himself and he loved to announce who he was, because it was always
this is Orson Wells, as if we didn't know. But he loved to
call himself out and he loved to So I thought, what a fun way
to try and to impersonate it and give a little closing monologue because he either
always started his show with the monologue or he would end it with like now
for the real you know, creme de la creme me. So I thought
it'd be fun to kind of do that, and then using Alicia, I
said, hey, I'll give you a shout out about your upcoming plays like
they used to do on Suspense when they would announce who the star up and
coming. So so yeah, that was fun. And then just to add
the crackle and do the little different voices and stuff. And I don't know
if even on the trailer we did. We did it very much to sound
like an old time radio broadcast. It's fun. It's fun to travel back
in time. And that's the one thing I enjoyed most about this was when
I do these plays, I have to feel like I'm there, and I
have to feel when I'm listening to it, just with a gift when they
first walk into Goodwin's Goods, I actually had to get that christmasy feeling.
So when you go and you hear the sound of the fire and the toy
train and the music box, like okay, I feel warm, And then
in the control the switchboard room, when I hear it, I feel cold,
which is how I very much imagine one of those rooms would be,
especially back then, because you know, their technology wasn't like it is today,
so you know, and they had strict rules to follow, and back
then there wouldn't have been a buzzer. There would have been a flashing light.
So I was like, well, we can't hear a flashing light.
So we had to get creative, and so I created this buzz It's like,
well, they hear the buzz now they see the light. Yeah.
Yeah. And so it was fun to kind of come up with all this
stuff because all the footage of switchboard rooms that I found from the thirties are
silent because there's narration over him, so I can't hear the sounds. So
we legit had to make our own sounds from the pulling of the chords of
the plugging into the chairs, scooching, and background crowd talking and yeah,
the buzzers. Yeah it was It was fun and so you know, it
takes me there, so yeah, hopefully it takes everybody listening. Yeah,
and that's true about the environments and trying to give the impression of where where
the listener is observing these scenes taking place. And so yeah, I think
you did a good job that. And to your point about Wells, you
know, I don't think he was a stranger to a bit of pomposity,
you know. So right, he's kind kind of known for that, especially
later on in his career. He kind of just did whatever he wanted to
do, right, And I mean, in a way I get it because
I think when he was eighteen, he was already classified as a genius because
he did some theater version of a Shakespeare play, but he did it in
a like Ahitian voodoo style, and the reviews about this play that he had
done, in this twist he had done on a Shakespeare play was just through
the roof, like he was this boy genius and nobody had ever seen anything
like it, and so I totally get where he got his ego from.
And he just never seemed to lose it, never got humble with it.
Oh goodness. Well, I'm glad that you got this project finished. I
know you had some challenges to get it out in time, but I'm so
glad you overcame those and got this out. So of course link is in
the show notes to head over to dramafy and check that out. And thank
you so much for taking the time to chat with me about old time radio
and about Operator. This has been a lot of fun. Oh it's been
my pleasure. And seriously, JD, thank you so much for everything you've
done for us and even the audio drama community. You've made a lot of
us. I mean, you spread the word of what we're working on,
and I think a lot of us. I don't think you'll ever realize how
much you mean to all of us and how much we appreciate everything you've done
for us and the audio drama community. Well, that's very kind of you,
and it's my pleasure. I love audio drama and whatever I can do
to help spread the word is my pleasure. And hey, it's a world
audio drama day, So go listen to War of the Worlds, listen to
Operator, and then go listen to anything else you want, because it is
the perfect day to celebrate. And thank you for celebrating with us here at
atc absolutely well, thanks again to Matthew for joining the show. And now
here is the moment you've been waiting for a chance to listen to the War
of the Worlds. And even if you've already heard this, this is the
perfect day to revisit that story. So let's jump into the original nineteen thirty
eight radio broadcast of the War of the Worlds from Mercury Theater on the Air.
The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Wells and the Mercury
Theater on the Air in the War of the World by H. G.
Wells, Ladies and gentlemen, the director of the Mercury Theater and star of
these broadcasts, Orson Wells. We know now that in the early years of
the twentieth century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's
and yet as mortal as his own. We know now that as human beings
busy themselves about their various concerns. They were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost
as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm
and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complaisance, people went to
and fro of the earth about their little affairs, serene in the assurance of
their dominion over this small spinning fragment of solar driftwood, which, by chance
or design man is inherited out of the dark mystery of time and space.
Yet across an immense ethereal gulf minds that are to our minds as ours are
to the beasts in the jungle, intellects, vast, cool and unsympathetic,
regarded this first with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against
us. In the thirty ninth years the twentieth century came the Great Disillusionment.
Near the end of October. Business was better, the war scare was over,
more men were back at work, sales were picking up. On this
particular evening, October thirtieth, the Crosley Service estimated that thirty two million people
were listening in on radio. For the next twenty four hours. Not much
change in temperature. It's like atmospheric disturbance of undetermined origin is reported of the
nova Scotia, causing a low pressure area to move down rather rapidly over the
Northeastern States, bringing a forecast of rain accompanied by winds of light gale forts.
Maximum temperature sixty six, minimum forty eight. This weather report comes to
you from the Government Weather Bureau. We take you out of the Murdian Room
in the Hotel Park plaZma in downtown New York, where you will be entertained
by the music of Raymond Richuelo and his orchestra. Good evening, ladies and
gentlemen, from the Meridian Room in the Park Plaza Hotel in New York.
Today we bring you the music of Raymond Roquelo and his orchestra with the Dutch
of the Spanners. Raymond Rochello leads off with Laura Kampasita. Ladies and gentlemen,
we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from
the Intercontinental Radio News. At twenty minutes before eight Central Time, Professor Farrell
of the Mount Gunnings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of
incandescent gas occurring at regular intervals on the planet moors. The specroscope indicates the
gas to be hydrogen and moving towards the Earth with enormous velocity. Professor Pearson
of the observatory at Princeton confirms Farrell's observation and describes the phenomenon as quote like
a jet of blue flame shot from a gun unquote. We now return you
to the music of Ramon Rochello playing for you in the Meridian room of the
Park Claza Hotel situated in downtown New York, and now a tune that never
loses favor the ever popular starda Raymond Rockelo and his art ladies and gentlemen.
Following on the news given in our bullet in the moment ago, the Government
Meteorological Bureau has requested the large observatories of the country to keep an astronomical watch
on any further disturbances occurring on the planet Mars. Due to the unusual nature
of this occurrence, we have arranged an interview with a note astronomer, Professor
Pearson, who will give us his views on this event. In a few
moments, we will take you to the Princeton Observatory at Princeville, New Jersey.
We return you until then for the music of Ramon Racchello and his Orchid.
We are ready now to take you to the Princeton Observatory at Princeton,
where Carl Phillips, our commentator, will interview Professor Richard Pearson, famous astronomer.
We take you now to Princeton, New Jersey. Good evening, ladies
and gentlemen. Carl start up speaking to you in the observatory at Princeton.
I'm standing in a large center secular room, pitch blacking steps for noblong split
in the series. Through this opening, I can see a sprinkling stars that
cast a kind of faustic glow over the intimate mechanism of the huge telescope.
The ticking sound you hear is the vibration of the potwork. Professor Pearson stands
directly above me on a small platform, peering through the giant lane. I'll
ask you to be patient, ladies and gentlemen, during any delay the Mayor
rollers during our interial, besides to ceaseless watch of the heavens. Professor Pearson
may be interrupted by telephone or other communications during this period, he is in
constant touch with the astronomical centers of the world. Professor may I be Ginnard
questions any times, Bess, would you please tell our radio audience exactly what
you see as you observe the planet Mars through your telescope. I think unusual
at the moment, mister Philip, a red disc swimming in a blue sea.
Transverse stripes throught the disc quite distinct now because Mars happen to be at
the point nearest the Earth in opposition, as we call it. In your
opinion, what are these transverse stripes signified? President Huh, not canals,
I can assure you, mister Phillips, see, although that's the popular conjecture
of those who imagine Mars to be inhabited, from a scientific viewpoint, stripes
the merely the result of atmospheric condition pecuriar to the planet. Then you're quite
convinced as a scientist that living intelligence as we know it does not exist on
Mars. Say the chances against it or a thousand to one. And yet,
how do you account for these gas eruptions occurring on the surface of the
planet at regular intervals, Philip's I cannot account for it. By the way,
Pessa, for the benefit of our listeners, how far is Mars from
the Earth, Approximately forty million miles. Well, that seems a safe enough
distance. Just a moment, ladies and gentlemen, someone has just handed Professor
Pearson a message. While he reads it, let me remind you that we
are speaking to you from the observatory in Princeton, New Jersey, where we
are interviewing the world famous astronomer Professor Pierson. One moment, please, Professor
Pearson has passed me a message which he has just received. Professor may I
read the message to the listening audience. Certain ladies and gentlemen, I shall
read you a wire addressed Professor Pearson from doctor Gray of the Natural History Museum,
New York. Quote nine fifteen pm Eastern Standard Times. Seismograth registered shock
of almost earthquake intensity occurring within a radius of twenty miles of Princeton. Please
investigate, signed Lloyd Gray, Chief of Astronomical Division. Unquote Fessor Pearson.
But this occurrence possibly has something to do with the disturbances observed on the planet
Mars. Hardly, mister Phillips, this is probably a meteorite of unusual size
and it's arrival at this particulous time. It's merely a coincidence. However,
we shall conduct your search as soon as daylight permits. Thank you, professor.
Ladies and gentlemen. For the past ten minutes we've been speaking to you
from the Observatory of Princeton, bringing you a special interview with Professor Pearson,
noted astronomer. This is Carl Phillips speaking. We are telling you now throughout
New York studio. Ladies and gentlemen, here is the latest bulletin from the
Intercontinental Radio News, Toronto, Canada. Professor Morris of McMillan University reports observing
a total of free explosions on the planet Mars between the hours of seven forty
five pm and nine twenty pm Eastern Standard times. This confirms earlier reports received
from American observatories. Now nearer home comes a special bulletin from Trenton, New
Jersey. It is reported that at eight fifty pm, a huge flaming object,
believed to be a meteorite, fell on a farm in the neighborhood of
Grover's Mill, New Jersey, twenty two miles from Frantis. The flash in
the sky was visible within a radius of several hundred miles, and the noise
of the impact was heard as far north as Elizabeth. We have despatched the
special Mobile unit to the scene and we'll have our commentator Carl Phillips give you
a word picture of the scene as soon as he can reach there from Princeton.
In the meantime, we take you to the Hotel Martinette in Brooklyn,
where Bobby Mallett and his orchestra are offering a program of dance music. We
take you now to Grover's Mills, New Jersey. Edythan, gentlemen, this
is Carl Phillips again, hot at the Wilmer's Pome Garverck Mail new checket.
That's the testing myself made the eleven miles in tension in ten minutes. Well,
I I they know where it begins. Thankful your word picture of the
same scene before my eyes. But stumping out of a modern Arabian knife,
I just got here. I haven't had a chest to look around, jest.
I guess that's it. Yes, I guess that's the thing directly in
front of me, half buried in a vast piff. Must have stuck with
terrific force the ground is covered with splinters of a tree. It must have
struck on its way down. But I can see if the object itself doesn't
look very much like a meteor, at least not the media's i've seen.
It looks more like a huge cylinder. As the diameter of what would you
say, Professor Pison for what would you say? What's the diameter of this?
About thirty yards? The metal on the sheath is well, I've never
seen anything like it. The color is sort of yellowish white. It's curious.
Spectators now are pressing close to the option, in spite of the efforts
of the police to keep them back, getting in front of my life.
Would you mind standing much side, please the cloud back. Here's mister Wilmot's
owner at the bard here he may have some interesting fact to add. Mister
Wilmot, would you please tell the radio audience as much as you remember of
this rather unusual visitor that dropped in your backyard A step posted. Please,
ladies and gentlemen, this is mister Willman Well. I was listening to the
radio Louder Pleaser findon a louder please closing. Yes, I was listening to
the radio and kind of drowsy. Professor Fellow was talking about Mars, so
I was half chosen and half yes, yes, this Wilmot. And then
what happened? Well, as I was saying, I was listening to the
radio kind of halfway, yes, mister Willett. And then you saw something?
Not first off, I heard something And what did you hear? A
hissing sound like this, kind of like a post of July rocket. Yes,
then why I turned my head out the window and would have sworn I
was to sleep and dreaming. Yes, I've seen a kind of greenish streak,
and then zingle something to smack the ground, not me clear my chair?
Well were you frightening, mister Wilmoth, Well, I'm quite sure I
reckon. I was trying to rile. Well, thank you, mister Wilmoth,
Thank you very much. You want me to tell that's the word.
That's funny. Ladies and gentlemen, you've just heard, mister Wilmoth, owner
of the farm where this thing has fallen. I wish I could convey the
atmosphere, the background of this fantastic scene. Hundreds of cars have parked in
the field and back of listen to the police. That's trying to rope off
the roadway leading into the farm, but it's no use, breaking right through
car's headlights. Throw an enormous spotlight on the pit where the objects have buried.
Some of the more daring stones now are venturing near the edge, stand
out against the metal schemes. One man watched the touch of thing. He's
having an argument with the policeman. The policeman wins. Now, Ladies and
gentlemen, there's something I haven't mentioned in all this excitement, but it's becoming
more distinct. Perhaps you've caught it already on your radio. Listen, Please,
do you hear it? A curious humming sound that seems to come from
inside the object. I'll move the microphone nearer here now, we're not more
than twenty five feet away. Can you hear it now, Professor Pearson?
Yes? Can you tell us the meaning of that scraping noise inside the thing?
Possibly the unequal cooling of its surface? I say, do you still
think it's a media? Professor? What to think? The metal casing is
definitely extraterrestrial, not found on this. Friction with the Earth's atmosphere usually tears
holes in the meteorite. This thing is moves today. Something's happening, Ladies
and gentlemen. It's terrific. This end of the thing is beginning to flake
off. The top is beginning to rotate like a screw. And this thing
must be hollow. But they go out there, ladies and gentleman, this
is the most things. A waking, someone calling someone, or something I
can see turning out of that black hole too luminous discs, the eyes,
it might be, a face, might be almost of heavens. Something breaking
out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now it's another one, and
another one and another one. They look like tacos to me. That yeah,
I can see the thing's body and now it's large and glarge of a
bear. It's Christmas like wet weather. But that's paste, ladies and gentleman
seen describers. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it so haweful
and eyes are black and the gleam like a surf in the mountains. That's
kind of v shaped, with slight but dripping from its rimless lips. And
see the oh quiver and pulse hatan. The monster or whatever it is can
hardly move it. He's way down by possibly gravity is something of the things
rising up down. The crowd falls back. That seems plenty that most experiences
and jail like they'll find words and well, I pull this microphone with me
as I talk them, I have to stop the description till I can take
a new position. Hold on when you please. I'll be right back in
a minute. We are bringing you an eye witness account of what's happening on
the Wilmoth Farm, Groversville, New Jersey. We now return you to Carl
Phillips that Grover's Mill. Ladies and gentlemen, my aunt, ladies and gentlemen,
Ladies and gentlemen. Here I am back of a stone wall that joins
mister Wilman. From here I get a sweep of the whole, saying,
I'll give you every piece hail as long as I can talk and as long
as I can see. More. State police have arrived. That's drawing up
a cordon in front of the pith, about thirty of them. No need
to push the card back now they're willing to keep their distance. The captain
conferring with someone and quite to see who. Yes, I believe it's Professor
Pearson. Yes it is now now they've parted, and the Professor moves around
one side, studying the object while it's captain and two policemen advanced with something
in their hands. I can say it now. It's the white hats have
tied to a poll flag of truce. Those creatures know what that means,
but anything means. Wait a minute, something's happening. I'm shapes rising out
of the pit and then make out a small beam of light against the mirror,
Profess said. The flame springing in the mirror, and at least at
the advancing men strikes some head on. Lord, they're turning it a the
word bank for the automobiles fighting everywhere. Coming to point out not twenty hours,
ladies and gentlemen, due the circumstances beyond our control, we are unable
to continue the broadcast from Grover's Mill. Evidently there's some difficulty with our field
transmission. However, we will return to that point at the earliest opportunity.
In the meantime, we have a late bulletin from San Diego, California.
Professor Ndelkoffer, speaking at the dinner of the California Astronomical Society, expressed the
opinion that the explosions on Mars are undoubtedly nothing more than severe volcanic disturbances on
the surface of the planet. We continue now with our piano interlude. Ladies
and gentlemen, I've just been handed a message that came in from Grover's Mill
by telephone. That's one moment. Please. At least forty people, including
six State troopers, lie dead in a field east of the village of Grover's
Mill, their bodies burned and distorted beyond all possible recognition. The next voice
you hear will be that of Brigadier General Montgomery Smith, commander of the State
Militia at Trenton, New Jersey. I have been requested by the Governor of
New Jersey to place the counties of Mercer and Middlesex as far west as Princeton
and east to james Burg under martial law. No one will be permitted to
enter this area except by special pass issued by state or military authorities. Four
companies of State Militia are proceeding from Trenton to Grover's Mill and will aid in
the evacuation of homes within the range of military operations. Thank you. You
have just been listening to General Montgomery Smith commanding the State Militia at Trenton.
In the meantime, further details of the catastrophe at Grover's Mill are coming in.
The strange creatures, after unleashing their deadly assault, crawled back in their
pit and made no attempt to prevent the efforts of the firemen to recover the
bodies and extinguish the fire. The combined fire departments of Mercer County are fighting
the flames which menace the entire countryside. We have been unable to establish any
contact with our mobile unit at Grover's Mill, but we hope to be able
to return you there at the earliest possible moment. In the meantime, we
take you to just one moment, please, Ladies and gentlemen. I have
just been informed that we have finally established communication with an eye witness of the
tragedy. Professor Pearson has been located at a farmhouse near Grover's Mill, where
he has established an emergency observation posts. As a scientist, he will give
you his explanation of the calamat. The next voice you hear will be that
of Professor Pearson, brought to you by direct wire. Professor of Pearson,
of the creatures in the rocket cylinder at Grover's Mill. I can give you
no authoritative information either as to their nature, their origin, or their purposes
here on Earth. Of their destructive instrument. I might venture some conjectural explanation,
one of a better term. I shall refer to the mysterious weapon as
a heat ray, or too evidence that these creatures have scientific knowledge far an
advance of our own. It might guess that in some way they are able
to generate an intense heat in a chamber of practically absolute nonconductivity. This intense
heat they project in a parallel beam against any object they choose, by means
of a polished parabolic mirror of unknown composition, much as the mirror of a
lighthouse projects a light. That is my conjecture of the origin of the heat
ray. Thank you, Professor Pearson. Ladies and gentlemen. Here is a
bulletin from Trenton. It is a brief statement informing us that the charred body
of Karl Phillips has been identified in the Trenton Hospital. Now here's another bulletin
from Washington, DC. The Office of the Director of the National Red Cross
reports ten units of Red Cross emergency workers have been assigned to the headquarters of
the State Militia stationed outside of Grover's Mill, New Jersey. Here's a bulletin
from State Police Princeton Junction. The fires at Grover's Mill and vicinity are now
under control. Scouts report all quiet in the pit and there is no sign
of life appearing from the mouth of the cylinder. Now, ladies and gentlemen,
we have a special statement from mister Harry MacDonald, Vice President in charge
of operations. We have received requests from the State Militia of Trenton, who
places their disposal our entire broadcasting facilities. A view of the gravity of the
situation and believing that radio has a responsibility to serve in the public interests at
all times, we are turning over our facilities to the State Militia at Trenton.
We take you now to the field headquarters of the State Militia near Grover's
Mill, New Jersey. This is Captain Lansing of the signal car attached to
State Militia now engaged in military operations in the vicinity of Grover's Mill. Situation
arising from the reported presence of certain individuals of unidentified nature is now under complete
control the cylindrical object, which lies in a fit directly below our position,
surrounded on all sides by eight battalions of infancy without heavy field pieces, but
adequately on with rifles and machine guns. All caused for alarm, if such
cause ever existed, is now entirely unjustified. Things, whatever they are,
do not even ventured a poke their head above the pit. I can see
their hiding place plainly in the glare of the search lights. Here, with
all their reported resources, these creatures can scarcely stand up against heavy machine gun
fire. Anyway, It's an interesting outing for the troops. I can make
out their cocky uniforms crushing back and forth in front of the lights. Looks
almost like a real war. There appears to be some slight smoke in the
woods bordering the milt Stone River, probably fire started by campers. Well,
we ought to see some action soon. One of the companies is deploying on
the left flank. A quick thrust and it will all be over. Oh
wait a minute, I see something on top of the cylinder. Oh no,
it's nothing but a shadow. Now the troops are on the edge of
the wilmc farm. Seven thousand armed men closing in on an old metal toobe
a tub. Brother. Well wait, that wasn't a shadow. It's something
moving solid metal, kind of a shield, like a fair rising up out
of the cylinder, going higher and higher. It's standing on legs, actually
rearing up on a sort of metal framework. Now it's reaching above the trees,
and the searchlight through on it. Hold on, ladies and gentlemen,
I have a grave announcement to make. Incredible as it may seem, both
the observations of science and the evidence of our eyes lead to the inescapable assumption
that those strange beings who landed in the Jersey farmlands tonight are the vanguard of
an invading army from the planet Mars. The battle which took place tonight at
Grove of Mills has ended in one of the most startling defeats ever suffered by
an army in modern times. Seven thousand men on with rifles and machine guns
pitted against the single fighting machine of the invaders from Mars. One hundred and
twenty known survivors, the rest strewn over the battle area from Grover's Mill to
Plainsborough, crushed and trampled to death under the metal feet of the monster or
burned to cinders by its heat rays. The monster is now in control of
the middle section of New Jersey and has effectively cut the state through its center.
Communication lines are down from Pennsylvania to the Atlantic Ocean. Railroad tracks are
torn in. Service from New York to Philadelphia discontinued, except rooting some of
the trains through Allerton and Phoenixville Highways to the north, south and west of
Clogworth. Frantic human traffic, police AU Army reserves are unable to control the
mad Flight. By morning, the fugitives will have swunged Philadelphia, Camden,
and Trenton. It is estimated to twice their normal population. Martial law prevails
throughout New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. At this time we take you to Washington
for a special broadcast on the national emergency. The Secretary of the Interior cit
there, sons of a nation. I shall not try to conceal the gravity
of the situation that confronts the country. Are the concern of your government in
protecting the lives and property of its people. However, I wish to impress
upon you, private citizens and public officials, all of you, the urgent
need of calm and resourceful action. Fortunately, this formidable enemy is still confined
to a comparatively small area, and we may place our faith in the military
forces to keep them there. In the meantime, placing our faith in God.
We must continue the performance of our duties, each and every one of
us, so that we may confront this destructive adversary with a nation united,
courageous, and consecrated to the preservation of human supremacy on this earth. I
thank you you have just heard the Secretary of the Interior speaking from Washington.
Bulletins too numerous to reader piling up in the studio here were informed that the
central portion of New Jersey is blacked out from radio communication due to the effect
of the heat ray upon power lines and electrical equipment. There is a special
bullet in New York. Cables have been received from English, French, and
German scientific bodies offering assistance. Astronomer's report continued gas outbursts at regular intervals on
the planet Mars. The majority voiced the opinion that the enemy will be reinforced
by additional rocket machines. There have been several attempts made to locate Professor Pearson
of Princeton, who has observed Martians at post range. It is fed he
was lost in the recent battle. Langhamfield, Virginia guarding planes report three Martian
machines visible above treetops moving north towards Somerville, with population fleeing ahead of them.
The heat ray is not in use. Although advancing at express trained speed,
invaders picked their way carefully. They seem to be making a conscious effort
to avoid destruction of cities and countryside wherever they stop to a brute power lines,
bridges and railroad tracks. Their apparent objective is to crush resistance, paralyzed
communication, and disorganized human society. Here is a boltin from Basking Ridge,
New Jersey. Coon hunters have stumbled on a second cylinder similar to the first,
embedded in the Great Swamp twenty miles south of Marstown. Army Field pieces
are proceeding from Newark to blow up the second invading unit before the cylinder can
be opened in the fighting machine rig. They are taking up a position in
the foothills of Watching Mountains. Another another boltan from Langhamfield, Virginia. S
Guarding planes report enemy machines now three in number, increasing speed northward, kicking
over houses and trees in their evident haste to form a conjunction where their allies
south of Marstown Machines also sited by telephone operated east of Middlesex. Within ten
miles of Plainfields, there is a bolt from Winstonfield, Long Island, a
fleet of Army bombers carrying heavy explosive flying north in pursuit of enemy scouting Plains
act as guide. They keep the feeding enemy in sight just a moment,
please, ladies and gentlemen. We've run special wires to the artillery line in
the station villages to give you direct reports from the zone of the advancing enemy.
First, we take you to the battery of the twenty second Field Artillery
located in the Watching Mountains. Range thirty two meters thirty two meters projection thirty
nine degrees thirty nine degrees, fires forty after the right set. Ship range
thirty one meters thirty one meters projection thirty seven degrees thirty seven degrees, fires
eight sets, but the type of of one of them that stops the others
are trying to repair. Get the range. Ship fifty thirty meters thirty meters
projection twenty six degrees by seven degrees. Fire, Thank you the fell answer
letting off of smoke. What is it? Black troops moving this way,
lank close to the ground, moving fast, Put on gas maps, get
ready to file fifty twenty four meters twenty four meters protection twenty four degrees,
twenty four degrees fire and thief looks coming near. Got the range twenty three
meters. We we thank you. Army bombing plane the eighth forty three or
three own New Jersey Lieutenant vote commanding eight bombers reporting the Commander fairfaxs langham Field.
This is both reporting the Commander Fairfax langham Field. Enemy tripod machines now
in sight, reinforced by three machines from the Marstown Cylinder six all together one
machine partially crippled. Believe hit by shell from army gun in watchung mountains.
Guns Now a fair silence, A heavy black fog hanging close to the earth
of extreme density, nature unknown, no sign of heat. Ray and I
mean now turns east, crossing Passaic River into the Jersey Marshes. Another straddles
the Pulaski Skyway. Evident objective is New York City. They're pushing down a
high tension power station. Scenes are close together now and we're ready to attack.
Plane cycling ready to strike one thousand yards and we'll be over the first
eight hundred gods six hundred four, one hundred two hundred. There they go.
Giant arm raised, bring flesh with flame two thousand feet. Engines are
giving out no chance to release bombs. Only one thing left. Stop on
the plane at all. We're diving on the first one. Now the engine's
gone. Hay is fayon, New Jersey calling langham Field, Fyon, New
Jersey calling langham Field, come in please, langham Field, who hit eight
Army bombers an engagement with enemy tripod machines over Jersey Flats. Engines incapacitated by
heat ray all crash, one enemy machine destroyed. Enemy now is charging heavy
black smoke in direction of New York, New Jersey, New York, New
Jersey Warning. Poisonous black smoke pouring in from Jersey Marshes reaches south seet mass
useless urch populations move into open spaces. Automobiles use Route seven twenty three twenty
four avoid congested areas. Hope now spreading over over Raymond Boulevard to X two
well calling, stay killed to x T well calling, stay killed to X
two well calling. Eight X ray are come in place. The next three
are coming back into X two l as reception as reception, Tay please,
where are you? Eight X ray are what's the matter? Where are you?
I'm speaking from the roof of broadcasting buildings. I'm speaking from the roof
of broadcasting buildings, New York City. The wells you hear are ringing you
one of people to evacuate the city as martians approach. Estimated in the last
two hours, three million people have moved out along the roads to the north.
Hutchison River Parkway is still kept open for motor traffic. Boyd Bridges to
Long Island hopelessly jammed. All communication with Jersey Shore closed ten minutes ago.
No more defenses, our armies wiped out, artillery, air force, everything
wiped out. May be the last broadcast. We'll stay here to the end.
People are holding service here below us in the cathedral. Now I look
down the harbor, all manner of boats overloaded with clean population pulling out from
ducks withdraw jammed noise and crowds like New Year's even city. Wait a minute,
see the enemy is now inside about the palisades. Five five great machines.
First one is crossing the river. I can see it from here,
waiting, waiting the Hudson, like a man waiting to a brook. A
bulletin has handed me Martian cylinders are falling all over the country, one outside
of Buffalo, one in Chicago. Saint Lewis seemed to be timed in the
space. Now the first machine reaches the shore. He and watching, looking
over the city. Fel cowige head is even with the skyscrapers. He waits
for the others rise like a line of new towers on the city's west side.
How they lifting their metal hands. This is the end. Now boat
comes out, black smolts drifting over the city. People in the street see
it. Now. They're running towards the east River, thousands of them,
dropping in like rats. Have a smoke spreading past. It's reach times square.
People are trying to run away from it, but it's no use.
They're falling like flies. Now they smolts crossing sixth Avenue, fifth Avenue,
huh, one hundred yards away. It's h M X duel calling say killed
the X. Two Well calling say killed no X to well calling say,
kill New York. Isn't there anyone on the air? Isn't there anyone on
the air? In there anyone? Two x two L. You are listening
to a CBS presentation of a Uston Wells and the Mercury Theater on the air
in an original dramatization of the War of the World by HG. Wells.
The performance will continue after a brief intermission. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System
The War of the World by H. G. Wells, starring Orson Wells
and the Mercury Theater on the air. As I set down these notes on
paper, I'm obsessed by the thought that I may be the last living man
on Earth, hiding in this empty house near Grover's Mill, a small island
of daylight, cut off by the black smoke the rest of the world.
All that happened before the arrival of these monstrous creatures in the world now seems
part of another life, life that has no continuity with the present furtive existence.
The lonely derelict to pencils these words on the back of some astronomical notes
bearing the signature Richard Pierson, looked down at my blackened hand and try to
connect them with a professor who lives at Princeton, and who, on the
night of October twentieth, glimpsed through his telescope an orange splash of light on
a distant planet. My wife, my colleagues, my students, my books,
my observatory, my world. Where are they? Did they ever exist?
Am I Richard piss? What day is it? Do days exist without
calendars? As time pass? When they know? Human hands left to wind
the clock? Writing down my daily life, I tell myself, I shall
preserve human history between the dark covers of this little book that was meant to
record the movements of the stars. Right, I must live, and to
live, I must eat, find moldy bread in the kitchen, and an
orange not who spoiled to swallow. You've watched at the windows time to time
I catch sight of a martian above the black smoke. Smoke still holds the
house in its black coil, but length hissing sound. And suddenly I see
a martian mounted on his machine, spraying the air with a jet of steam,
as if to dissipate the smoke. I watching a corners, his huge
metal lakes nearly brush against the house, shausted by terror. I fall asleep.
Morning morning sun streams in the window. Black cloud of gas is lifted,
and the scorched meadows to the north look as though a black snow storm
has passed over. I venture from the house. I make my way to
a road no traffic, and their wrecked car baggage overturned. The blackened skeleton
push on north. Some reason, I feel safe for trailing these monsters and
running away from them, and I keep a careful watch. I have seen
the martians speed, said one of their machines. Means appear over the top
of trees. I'm ready to fling myself plant on the head. Come to
a chestnut tree. October. Yes, that there, right on my pockets.
Let's keep alive. Two days I wander in a vague northerly direction through
a desolate world. Finally I noticed a living creature, a small red squirrel
in a beech tree. I stare at him and wonder he stares back at
me. I believe at that moment the animal and I share the same emotion,
the joy of finding another living being. For Shawn North, I find
dead cows in a brackish field, and beyond the charred ruins of a dry
silo made standing god over the wasteland, like a lighthouse deserted by the sea.
I love purchase a weathercock the arrow going to North oh Next day I
come to a city, city vaguely familiar, and its contours, yet its
building strangely dwarfed and leveled off, as if a giant had sliced off its
highest tars with the capricious sweep of its hand. Reached the outskirts on Newark.
Newark, undemolished, but humbled by some whim of the advancing Martians.
Presently, with an odd feeling of being watched, I caught sight of something
crouching in a doorway, I mean a step towards it, rose up and
became a man, man armed with a large knife. I come from from
many places, a long time ago, from Princeton, Princeville. Groover's milk,
yes, Groover's milk. There's no food here. This is my country.
You always send the town down the river. There's only food for one.
Which way you're going, I don't know. I guess I'm looking for
people. And what was that? Do you hear something? Just then?
No? Me? A bird? Life? Bird? You get to know
that birds have shadows these days. Hey, we're in the open here.
Let's call in this doorway here and talk. Have you seen any Martians?
They're going over to New York night. The sky is a live with their
lights, so as if people were still living in it, they like can't
see them. Five days ago a couple of them carried something big across the
flats from the airport. I think they're learning how to fly. Fly,
yeah, fly. It's all over with humanity. Stranger of us still,
you and I two of us left. They got themselves in solid ey,
wrecked the greatest country in the world. Those green stars. They're probably falling
somewhere every night. They've only lost one machine. There isn't anything to do.
We're done, We're licked. Where were you? You're in a uniform?
Yeah, what's left of it? I was in the militia National Guard.
That's good. There wasn't any war any more than there's war between men
and ant Yes, but we're eatable lands and I found that out. What
do they do to us? I've set it all out right now. We're
caught as we're wanted. Martian only has to go a few miles to get
a crowd on the run. But they won't keep on doing that. They'll
begin catching the systematic, like keeping the best and staring us, and cages
and things. They haven't begun on us yet, not the gun. Well
it's happened so far is because we don't have sense enough to keep quiet,
bothering them with guns and such stuff and losing our heads and rushing off in
crowds instead of our rushing around blind. We got to fix ourselves up,
fix ourselves up according to the way things are now, cities, nations,
civilization progress. But well, there won't be any more concerts for a million
years or so, and no nice little dinners at restaurants. If it's amusement
you're after, I guess the game's up. What is there left? Right?
That's why I want to live, and so do you. We're not
going to be exterminated, and I don't mean to be caught either. Came
and fattened and bred like an ox, you're gonna do. I'm going on
right under their feet. I got a plan. We men as men were
finished. We don't know enough. We got to learn plenty before we got
a chance. We've got to live and keep free what we learned, see
I've thought it all out. See, I can't tell me the risk.
Well, it isn't all of us that are made for wild beasts. That's
what it got, That's what it got to be. That's why I watched,
watched you all those little office workers that used to live in these houses.
They've be no good, they haven't any stuff in them. Run run
off to work. I've seen hundreds. I'm running to catch their commuters train
in the morning, afraid they you can if they didn't, running back at
night, afraid they wouldn't be in time for dinner. Lives insured and a
little invested in case of action, and on Sundays worried about the Here at
the Martians, there'll be a godsend for those guys. Nice roomy cages,
good food, careful breeding, no worries. Yeah, after a week or
so of chasing around the fields on empty stomachs, they'll come and be glad
to be caught. You've thought it all out, haven't you better have?
That? Isn't all these Martians are going to make pets us train them to
do twicks. Who knows gets sentimental over the pet boy who grew up and
had to be killed. Yeah, and some Maybe they'll train to hunt us.
Yes they will. There's men who do it. Plad me like meantime,
you and I and others like it. Where are we to live in
the Martians on the earth. I got it all figured out. Live underground.
I've been thinking about the sewers, and in New York they're miles and
miles of the main ones. They're big enough for anybody, and they're selling
balls underground storerooms, railway tunnel subways. Beginning to see, we've got a
bunch of strong men to get it. No, we that rubbish out as
you meant me to go with you a chance, won't quarrel about that?
Go on. We got to make safe places for us to stay. And
see at all the books we can, science books. That's where men like
you come in. See we raid the museums. We'll even spire in the
Martians. It may not be so much we have to learn before. Just
imagine this, Four or five of their own fighting machines suddenly start off heat,
raised right and left. Not a martian in them, not a martian
in them. See, yes, but men, men who've learned the way.
How maybe in our time? Jeez, imagine having one of them lovely
things with the teeth ray wide and free. We turn it on martians,
we turn it on men. We bring everybody down on their knees. That's
your plan, you mere, We on the world. I see, hey,
hey, what's the best? Where are you going? Not to your
world? By stranger? I after parting with the artillerym and I came at
least the Holland Tunnel, entered that silent tube, anxious to know the fate
of the great city on the other side of the Hudson. Cautiously, I
came out of the tunnel and made my way up Canal Street, reached fourteenth
Street, and there again black powder and several bodies, and an evil,
ominous smell from the gratings of the cellars of some of the houses. I
wandered up through the thirties and forties, stood alone on time squares caught sight
of a lean dog running down Seventh Avenue, a piece of dark brown meat
in his jaws, and packer starving mongrel at his heels, made a wide
circle around me, as though he feared I might prove a fresh competitor.
Walked up Broadway in the direction of that that strange powder, fast silent shop
windows displaying their mute wares to empty sidewalks fast the Capital Theater silent dark past
a shooting gallery, were a row of empty guns faced an arrested line of
wooden ducks. Near Columbus Circle, and noticed models of nineteen thirty nine motor
cars in the showrooms facing empty streets. Over the top of the General Motors
Building, I watched a flock of black birds circling in the sky. Hurried
on, Suddenly I caught sight of the hood of a Martian machine standing somewhere
in Central Park, gleaming in the late afternoon sun. Insane idea, I
rushed recklessly across Columbus Circle and into the park. I climbed a small hill
above the pond at sixtieth Street. From there I could see, standing in
a silent row along the mall, nineteen of those great metal titans, their
cowls empty, their steel arms hanging listlessly by their sides. I looked in
vain for the monsters that inhabited those machines. Suddenly my eyes were attracted to
the immense flock of black birds that covered directly below me. They circled to
the ground, and there before my eyes stark and silent lay the Martians,
with the hungry birds pecking and tearing brown shreads of flesh their dead bodies.
Later, when their bodies were examined in laboratories, as is found that they
were killed by the putrefactive and diseased bacteria against which their systems were unprepared.
Plain, after all man's defenses had failed, by the humblest thing that God
as wisdoms, put upon the surf. Before the cylinder fell, there was
a general persuasion that through all the deep of space, no life existed beyond
the petty surface of our minute sphere. Now we see further, dim and
wonderful is the vision I conjured up in my mind of life spreading slowly from
this little seed bed of the Solar System throughout the inanimate vastnesses of siderial space.
Remote dream may bee may be that the destruction of the Martians is only
a reprieve for them, and not to us. The future ordained breath has
strange. It now seems to sit in my peaceful study Princeton, writing down
this last chapter of the records. Begun at a deserted farm and Grove's mill.
Strange to watch children playing in the streets. Strange to see young people
strolling on the green while the mule spring grass heels the last black scars of
a bruised derth. Strange to watch the sightseers enter the museum where the dissembled
parts of a Martian machine are kept on public view. Strange when I recall
a time when I first saw it, bright, clean, cuts, hard
and silent under the dawn of that last great day. This is awes and
wells, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you that the war
of the world has no further significance than as the holiday offering. It was
intended to be the Mercury Theater's own radio version of dressing up in a sheet
and jumping out of a bush and saying boom, starting now. We couldn't
soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night, so
we did the best next thing. We annihilated the world before your very ears
and utterly destroyed the CBS. You will be relieved, I hope, to
learn that we didn't mean it, and that both institutions are still open for
business. So goodbye, every and remember please for the next day so the
terrible lesson you learned tonight that grinning, glowing globular invaders your living room is
an inhabitant of the punkin patch, and it's your doorbell rings and nobody's there.
That was no Martian. It's Halloween the night. The Columbia Broadcasting System
and it's affiliated station's Cost to Cost has brought you The War of the World
by hq wel the seventeenth and its weekly series of dramatic broadcasts featuring Uson Wells
and the Mercury Fater on the air. Next week we present a dramatization of
pre famous short stories. This is the Columbia Broadcasting Well. I hope you
enjoyed listening to that broadcast. It was really great to revisit it after several
years and getting to hear it again. It's just a masterful piece of audio
drama. And again I hope you enjoyed it. But now that you have
that context for what this story is all about, now it is time for
you to head over to Dramafy and give a listen to Matthew's new show Operator
And just a couple of thoughts on this production. Overall, I really enjoyed
it. As I said in the conversation with Matthew, just a really interesting
way to contextualize this whole historical audio drama and look at it from a different
point of view. Really interesting. There were a couple of moments where the
acting was just a little bit stiff for my liking, but overall it was
good, and I will say that the standout performance in this was from Matthew
himself as the character of Richard. He was really really great in that role,
and also one of the smaller characters, Robin. I really wish we'd
have heard more from her or from that actress, and maybe Matthew will use
her again in some future productions. But she was fantastic, and I really
really liked how he came on at the end and sort of wrapped things up
and gave the credits in character. I mentioned that earlier as well, but
that was a really neat touch. And overall, you know, this is
a production that's done very much in the style of that feel of an old
time radio show, So don't go into it expecting really deep, immersive soundscapes
and that kind of stuff. That's not the approach that he takes with his
productions. But it's still a really fun show. I quite enjoyed it,
and as we said before, because it all ties into World Audio Drama Day
and the Word of the World's broadcast, I can't think of a better day
to give it a lesson, especially after just listening to the original broadcast that
inspired this one. So of course, there is a link in the show
notes to head over to Drama Fi and check that out. But if you
do, may be sure to reach out and let us know what you think
of it and what you think of the War of the World show in general
as well. Would love to hear your thoughts on that. There's all the
ways to get in touch with me at Audiotheatercentral dot com slash contact and we
will be back to regularly scheduled programming in the next episode. But I hope
you enjoyed this special bonus episode. The show notes with the links to everything
that we talked about is at Audio Theatercentral dot com slash one eighty eight and
I will see you next time. Thank you so much for listening. Happy
World Audio Drama Day. Audio Theater Central is a production of Porchlite Family Media.
Our theme music was composed by Sam Avendano The show is produced and edited
by yours truly Jdsetter and our website Audio theater central dot com. Maybe I
should have mentioned it in the thing, but I don't know the scene,
the scene where she's talking to Richard on the phone from Concrete, Washington,
that actually happened. I made a post about recently. They call it how
the War of the World's put a small Washington city on the map. Oh.
In fact, there's a every Saturday in October up in Concrete they do
what's called a ghost walk, and they actually talk about that night because a
storm did happen and it did take out the power and phone in the city
of Concrete, Washington, during the moment of the show where all of the
other ships were seen landing across the country. So everyone in Concrete freaked out
thought it was really happening. And this was at five thirty our time,
versus eight thirty in New York where it was airings. So everyone's running outside
with their guns, shooting them up in the sky, terrified that they're being
attacked. There's a little audio clip, a little tiny audio clip of this
really old man who's talking about driving back into town and seeing everyone running around
and they were picking people up in their truck, and then they drove down
to their general store and they all barricaded themselves in there. Wow. In
fact, my wife and I are going there to take the tour, and
we've been reaching I've been reaching out to the lady that runs at her name's
Valerie. But yeah, no, it was kind of neat that this,
you know, in my own backyard, so to speak, that it reached
all the way over here and stuff. Wow. Yeah, I had no
idea. I assumed that the reference to a small town in Washington was just,
you know, an homage to your home state or something. I didn't
realize that that was an actual historical fact. That's really cool. Ports Flight
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