Deseret News archives: In 1938, ‘War of the Worlds’ broadcast was too realistic

A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
On Oct. 30, 1938, the radio play “The War of the Worlds,” starring Orson Welles, aired on the CBS Radio Network.
And fake news was born.
OK, a different kind of fake news.
Smithsonian records that on Halloween morning, 1938, Orson Welles awoke to find himself the most talked about man in America.
His adaptation of H.G. Wells’ novel about a Martian invasion of New Jersey had hit its mark. Some listeners mistook those bulletins for the real thing, and their anxious phone calls to police, newspaper offices and radio stations convinced many journalists that the show had caused nationwide hysteria.
By the next day, the 23-year-old Welles’ face and name were on the front pages of newspapers coast to coast, along with headlines about the mass panic his CBS broadcast had allegedly inspired.
At a news conference, reporters asked him if he knew the show would create panic. He never definitively answered that question.
“Radio listeners panic-stricken by ‘interplanetary war,’” read the front page of the Deseret News on Monday, Oct. 31, after the performance. Here are some stories from Deseret News archives on “War of the Worlds.”
“`War of the Worlds’ illustrated radio’s power of suggestion”
“‘War of the Worlds’ still puts a thrill into audiences”
“‘War of the Worlds’ revisited? Welles film has L.A. shaking for fear of quake”
“Script fetches $143,000″
“Citizen Welles lives on in re-release of ‘42 film”