Invasion from Mars, 1938
From the archives of Paul Corbin
It was 7 p.m. on Oct. 30, 1938. I was finishing a day's work on my Watkins delivery route in rural Stoddard County and had pulled my 1935 Ford car into Mr. Cazart's service station in Bloomfield. Mr. Cazart was filling my gas tank with six gallons of gas that would cost me one dollar.
I could hear music, coming from a radio inside the station, when suddenly the musical program was interrupted by a news bulletin, stating that a huge, unidentified flaming object could be seen in the eastern sky. The broadcast then went back to the regular program of music.
I can well remember that this news bulletin kind of shook me up, but I went ahead and paid Mr. Cazart his one dollar and headed for home, which was only about a quarter of a mile from his station.
When I got home, my wife had our little Philco radio going full blast, and as I came into the house, the musical program was again interrupted. This time, the reporter described a "saucer-like space craft" that had just landed at Grover's Mill in New Jersey.
At this point, listeners throughout the United States were glued to their radios, anxiously waiting for more information on this invasion force, which was supposedly bent on destroying our world.
An emotional newscaster described in a dramatic voice a saucer-like vehicle that had just landed. Odd-looking creatures were emerging from the space ship.
"Good heavens!" the announcer shouted. "Something that looks like a serpent with tentacles is crawling out of the flying saucer! They are as big as bears, with eyes that seem to send out rays of light! Their skin looks like wet leather!"
It was reported at the time that the broadcaster had previously made a statement, explaining that the program was just a fictional radio play, but most listeners--myself included--had failed to hear this statement. The simulated news broadcast and sound effects were so realistic that most of the listening audience was convinced that they were hearing an actual news account of an invasion from Mars.
Traffic filled the roads with people trying to reach the safety of their homes. They carried food to their basements and cellars, not knowing how long they would have to hide there to escape this alien force. They chinked the cracks around doors and windows with whatever they could find to keep out poison gas. They loaded their guns to protect themselves from this hostile invasion. In many cases, it was several hours before people were informed that this was all just a hoax.
The spellbinding episode that was perpetrated on our society by Orson Wells and the Mercury Theater of the Air has gone down in history as the greatest Halloween trick of all time, and it clearly demonstrated that our news media, with a few well-chosen words and sound effects, can manipulate the minds of the people, leading them to believe a totally unreasonable and fantastic situation.
Editor's note: The Mercury Theater of the Air was dramatizing the H.G. Wells' novel War of the Worlds. Thanks to 101-year-old Paul Corbin for bringing our readers a first-hand account of this historic event. Corbin will celebrate his 101-year birthday at the Advance Assisted Living Center on Nov. 27, 2015.
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