The Original War of the Worlds

The original broadcast of "The War of the Worlds", or "Invasion from Mars" as it was originally called, was broadcast by radio the night before Halloween in 1938. However, there was an quite an odd reaction to this radio show; it sounds like a real news broadcast. People listening to the program thought that everything was real. They introduced the title of the show at the beginning but that was it. The program begins with a classical music band playing then all of the sudden a voice interrupts and gives a "special announcement" saying that scientists have recently seen strange explosions on mars, then the broadcast goes back to the music. The voice interrupts again saying there has been a strange object that has landed on a farm, the announcer sounds concerned and then his report turns into a full blown panic. The broadcasters announce that it is the duty of radio to inform the people of what is going on in the world. The broadcast is then handed over to the "military" or something along those lines who escalate the situation by announcing a full blown battle between the aliens and the military and that millions of people have been evacuating. People went in to a full blown panic over this story, and I can see why. The announcers sounded extremely convincing along with the special effects. If you hadn't listened to the beginning of the broadcast you would have had no idea that it was fiction and in my opinion even if you did here the beginning of the story it would still have been easily believable. Not until the end of the broadcast does Orson Wells announce that he was in character and that the entire story was fake and in honor of Halloween.