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WAR OF THE WORLDS
70th Anniversary Performance of the Controversial Orson Welles' Radio Play before a Live Studio Audience at Middlesborough Town Hall, Wednesday 5th March, 20:00 as part of AV Festival 08 (28 February - 8 March)
On Halloween seventy years ago (30th October, 1938), the power of radio was demonstrated in the most unexpected way when an adaptation of H.G.Wells' novel 'War of the Worlds' - which features a Martian invasion of Earth - had US listeners fleeing their homes in panic. The fictional news bulletins incorporated into the drama by director, co-writer and performer Orson Welles' were taken as real events by radio listeners who - in the atmosphere of growing tension and anxiety in the days leading up to World War II - had never heard fiction presented as fact in this way before and mistakenly believed the events to be true.
The drama became a broadcasting landmark and arguably the most well-known radio drama in history, which even Adolf Hitler recognised, citing the panic as 'evidence of the decadence and corrupt condition of democracy!”
Courtesy of coll. Agence Martienne
Orson Welles, Broadcasting Mercury on the Air, CBS, 1938
As part of AV Festival 08's celebration of broadcast, and to mark the 70th Anniversary of this controversial event theatre director Joanna Read will recreate the original radio recording in front of a live audience at Middlesborough Town Hall on Wednesday 5th March.
Explains Orson Welles' biographer, acclaimed film director ('Paper Moon', 'Last Picture Show', 'Daisy Miller' 'Texasville', 'What's Up Doc?') Peter Bogdanovich: “ In the aftermath of the reported panic, a public outcry arose, but CBS Radio informed officials that listeners were reminded throughout the broadcast that it was only a performance. Welles' and the Mercury Theatre escaped punishment, but not censure. However, the controversy did nothing to harm Orson Welles'' burgeoning reputation and brought him notoriety and instant fame on both a national and international level”
'War of the Worlds' is now viewed as the first major step in what was to become a long and illustrious, although chequered, career for Welles', which included 'A Touch of Evil', Lady From Shanghai', 'The Magnificent Ambersons', and 'Othello', as well 'Citizen Kane' - the 'greatest movie ever made' - according to the annual polls, which he wrote, directed and starred in.
Historians have calculated that although only some six million heard the CBS broadcast (rival station NBC's audience was over 30 million), of those that listened some 1.7 million believed it to be true, and 1.2 million were 'genuinely frightened! The uproar that followed was anything but minute: within a month there were about 12,500 newspaper articles about the broadcast or its impact.
The broadcast's fame has gone on to inspire many others including Queen's song 'Radio Gaga', which is a tribute to the medium of radio written by Roger Taylor, and which includes the lyrics: 'You gave them all those old time stars / Through wars of worlds - invaded by Mars'!
Its influence has also touched a wide variety of TV series either as direct references or in copycat story lines, ranging from: 'X-Files', 'Hey Arnold', 'The Flintstones', the cartoon series of 'Dennis the Menace', and three episodes of 'The Simpsons'. As well as a video game ('Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater'), a comic book (E C Comics' 'Weird Science'), Woody Allen's movie 'Radio Days' and book plot lines by Sidney Sheldon and Arthur C Clarke amongst others!
AV Festival 08 is organised by Audio Visual Arts North East, an independent charitable company. AV Festival 08 forms part of NewcastleGateshead's world-class festivals and events programme managed by culture10, based at NewcastleGateshead Initiative.