War of the Worlds - HD
Audio -
Radio Broadcast 1938 Orson Welles
This version has been digitally enhanced to reduce some noise to make the listening experience more pleasant without destroying the ‘vintage’ feel of this old time radio classic. The introduction and music have been left as they were for your appreciation of the old-time radio.
The War of the Worlds is an episode of the
American Radio Drama Anthology series of
Mercury Theatre on the Air. On
October 30th,
1939 it aired as an early
Halloween special, where the first two thirds of the broadcast were presented as fake news bulletins suggesting that Martians had invaded
Earth. As the show goes on, the news bulletins describe the attack and the panic. Part of what aided the believability of this show was that it was a continuous broadcast, with no commercial breaks.
Civilians who believed it fell into panic
. In the days following the broadcast of this faked ‘war of the worlds’, many public figures, newspapers and citizens cried out for punishment against Orson Welles for his trickery. To this day it lives on as one of the most famous radio broadcasts.
Images are thanks to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds
Original Audio (before remastering)
https://archive.org/details/OrsonWellesMrBruns
War of the Worlds
Script:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/mars/wow
.htm
First edition of the original book
http://www.s4ulanguages.com/wells2
.html
Below is the start of the transcript for your reading pleasure:
ANNOUNCER:
The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air in The War of the Worlds by
H. G. Wells.
(
MUSIC: MERCURY THEATRE MUSICAL
THEME)
ANNOUNCER:
Ladies and gentlemen: the director of the
Mercury Theatre and star of these broadcasts, Orson Welles
. . .
ORSON WELLES: 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 busied 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 complacence people went to and fro over 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 has inherited out of the dark mystery of
Time and Space. Yet across an immense ethereal gulf, minds that to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle, intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. In the thirty-ninth year of the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.
It was 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 30, the
Crosley service estimated that thirty-two million people were listening in on radios.
ANNOUNCER: . . .for the next twenty-four hours not much change in temperature. A slight atmospheric disturbance of undetermined origin is reported over
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 force.
Maximum temperature 66; minimum 48. This weather report comes to you from the
Government Weather Bureau. . . . We now take you to the
Meridian Room in the
Hotel Park Plaza in downtown
New York, where you will be entertained by the music of
Ramón Raquello and his orchestra.
(MUSIC: SPANISH THEME SONG [A
TANGO] . . . FADES)
ANNOUNCER THREE:
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. From the Meridian Room in the Park Plaza in
New York City, we bring you the music of Ramón Raquello and his orchestra. With a touch of the
Spanish. Ramón Raquello leads off with "
La Cumparsita."
(PIECE STARTS PLAYING)
ANNOUNCER TWO: 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 Jennings Observatory,
Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas, occurring at regular intervals on the planet
Mars. The spectroscope indicates the gas to be hydrogen and moving towards the earth with enormous velocity. Professor Pierson 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 Ramón Raquello, playing for you in the Meridian Room of the
Park Plaza Hotel, situated in downtown New York.
- published: 27 Jan 2015
- views: 814