Whose 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds caused a widespread national panic? Answer
On a late October evening in 1938, a radio broadcast plunged a nation into chaos. The voice behind the theatrical mayhem belonged to the young and audacious Orson Welles 📻, a name that would be etched into history for what some have called the greatest “hoax” of all time. Welles, along with his Mercury Theatre on the Air, adapted H. G. Wells’s science-fiction novel, The War of the Worlds, not as a traditional play, but as a series of realistic news bulletins.
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The broadcast unfolded with chilling realism. Listeners who tuned in late, missing the program’s opening announcement, were greeted with what sounded like an emergency bulletin interrupting a musical performance. Reports from a New Jersey town described a strange meteorite landing, followed by horrifying accounts of alien invaders attacking with a “heat-ray.” These dramatic reports escalated, suggesting the government was being overwhelmed and the world was ending, leading some panicked listeners to flee their homes.
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