âNo more defenses. Our army is wiped outâartillery, air force, everything wiped out.â
This is the story of the invasion of New Jersey.
âThe War of the Worldsâ is a 1938 radio adaptation of an 1897 science fiction novel by H.G. Wells that details an alien invasion of Earth, a seminal work that popularized the term âMartianâ and the theme of âfirst contactâ in sci-fi. 23-year-old Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre team were tasked with zhuzhing up the classic novel for their series of one-hour CBS radio plays, but unfortunately, the contemporary American setting, the shockingly realistic news bulletins, and the harrowing eyewitness accounts all added up to produce a panic among out-of-the-loop listeners.
Invasion, fictional or otherwise, was at the fore of many minds as Germany broke treaties and demanded more landâthe Allies ceded the Sudetenland just one month prior to the broadcast. The stories of a mass hysteria that gripped the nation have been exaggerated, but have no fear: weâll take you through the radio play and the aftermath so you can decide whether or not you believe it.
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