The War of the Worlds
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Team Smokey
N 40° 18.758 W 074° 36.337
18T E 533510 N 4462531
Martian Landing site in Orson Welles dramatization of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds located off Cranbury Road in Grover's Mill, NJ.
Waymark Code: WM4GNK
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 08/22/2008
Views: 96
On the evening of October 30, 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre presented a dramatization of H.G. Wells'
The War of the Worlds as adapted by Howard Koch. This was to become a landmark in broadcast history, provoking continuing thought about media responsibility, social psychology and civil defense. For a brief time as many as one million people throughout the country believed that Martians had invaded the earth, beginning with Grover's Mill, New Jersey.
The first half of the 60-minute broadcast was presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested to many listeners that a Martian invasion was in progress. (Because the Mercury Theatre on the Air was a 'sustaining show' [without sponsorship], the broadcast had no commercials). Some fled their homes; others were terrified. The news-bulletin format was decried as cruelly deceptive by some newspapers and public figures, leading to an outcry against the perpetrators of the broadcast, but the episode launched Welles to fame.
Some of the above information was taken from Wikipedia. To see a much greater in depth explanation of the story, please see the
Wikipedia Entry.