WEBVTT - The Great War of the Worlds Panic Myth 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:03.560 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of five 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:12.720 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:16.160 I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles w Chuck Bryan over there. 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:20.800 It's just the two of us batching it up without Jerry. 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:26.920 Oh man, I think Jerry's inclusion, we're still batching it up. 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:30.800 How do you mean? I mean, does she really ruin 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:38.120 the batch scene for us? Sure? She's very maternal and judge, Yeah, 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:40.080 you were headed down a kind road for a second. 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:47.920 I was with Jerry. That doesn't sound like me. So 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:50.080 for all of you who are just tuning into the 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:53.040 first time, welcome, this is stuff you should know. To 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:57.840 everybody else who's tuning in for the multiple times, Welcome, 0:00:57.920 --> 0:00:59.920 this is stuff you should know. Yeah, we never do that. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.680 Some shows do that what they welcome new listeners, Yeah, 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:05.840 and kind of say what they do. And I mean 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:10.320 we've literally never done that. That's fine, that's lame. Hi, 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:12.880 which who does that? Any friends of ours? Yeah? I 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:15.919 mean the guys on the Flop House, they've been podcasting 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:18.360 as long as we have. In every single episode they 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:21.319 say who they are and what they do. No, okay, 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:23.759 well do you want to do that this one time. Well, 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:26.920 I'm Chuck Bryant and this is Josh Clark, and uh, 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:29.560 this is a podcast where we explain things in a 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.920 lighthearted and fun and sometimes even funny way. I disagree 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:39.520 with all of that. Oh boy, So what we're gonna 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:41.280 talk about today, because I think we need to talk 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:44.600 about this one in a slightly somber tone. Chuck, it's 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:48.200 a blemish in the history of America really if you 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:51.480 think about it. Well, yeah, and you know what, I've 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:55.760 never actually had listened to it until this week, same here, 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.320 and it was It's a lot of fun to actually 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:01.520 listen to. I would recommend it, Yeah, especially in a 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:05.840 dark room, um, where that's all you're concentrating on, not 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:07.840 like a second screen kind of thing, like where you're 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.560 really listening to this radio play. Put yourself there a 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.200 little bit like what it must have been like and 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:18.280 well not And that's when the book came out. Yeah, 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:20.720 but in ninety eight, I mean what forty years later, 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:23.799 Just in that forty years stretch, I mean, think about 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:31.359 the difference between nine eight and not ridiculously different periods. 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:36.320 It's exactly. Oh it's gone downhill, um, And don't think 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:38.960 they had nothing to do with Reagan's election in nineteen eighty. 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:44.760 But the difference between eight and nineteen thirty eight are 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:49.280 it's just like two different worlds, man um, two different worlds, 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:53.600 common War of the So I guess we should start 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:57.880 with the book written by the great H. G. Wells. Um. 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:02.600 It was the very first an invasion story to hit 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:06.360 the bookshelves, and that's a pretty remarkable thing. It was 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:10.360 a serialized thing at first, and magazines and Pearson's in 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.480 the in the UK, and then Cosmo here in the US, 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:18.480 and then they finally slapped all those serialized versions together 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:22.160 into a book and it sold pretty well. Yeah, it's 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:24.080 never been on a print since that first edition in 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.480 that's pretty respectable. I expect that as much for our 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.200 book as well. Yeah, I'm sure it'll be still being 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:35.160 published in forty years or a hundred years, a hundred 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:39.880 and forty years. Yeah, well let's hope. Um. So in 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.440 this book, and like you said, first alien invasion story 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:46.560 ever published, which is you know, just the fact that 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:49.840 this is a completely new premise, new conceit made it, 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.360 you know, kind of scary. But in the book, um, H. G. 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:59.080 Wells describes like this, this alien invasion. Um. And part 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.600 of the thing that was so scary about it, at 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:03.720 least at the time, from what I can gather, is 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:06.120 that it was about like the breakdown of society. And 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:10.840 we're talking like Victorian era England society, where like rigid 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.880 social rules and customs and Morey's and and guidance for 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.280 all behavior at all times was like the norm. So 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.760 the idea of that breaking down was scary on in 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:24.080 and of itself. I think that made the book kind 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:28.039 of scary to contemporary readers. Would that be right readers 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:30.719 back then? Um? And that was one big theme that 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.359 Well has explored. Another one that he explored in that 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:37.240 at least I think whoever wrote the Encyclopedia Britannica article 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.320 on it said that the main point of this, the 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:47.280 main subtext was um, learning how humans dominion over animals 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.800 can be, you know, cruel and thoughtless, because all of 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:53.760 a sudden, with these alien invaders who were just wiping 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.160 us off the map, Um, we were the we were like, 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:01.960 you know, domesticated animals to them. Yeah, so the shoe 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:06.000 was on the other hoof, And uh, sure it caused 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:08.680 or at least it was intended to cause people to 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.800 take kind of a hard look at a pre animal 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.640 farm to make sort of a social statement about how 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:18.479 we treated animals. And so that was if you flash 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:24.480 forward to Orson Welles in his Mercury Theater version, he uh, 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:26.479 this is you know, like you said, we're right in 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:30.640 the middle or we're in the Great Depression and we're 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.840 headed towards war and it's sort of an uneasy feeling 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.240 in the United States as a whole. So he thought, 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.080 perfect time to go in there, put a fresh coat 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:44.440 of paint on this thing and scare the bijebas out 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:47.280 of the American public by doing really something that they 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.920 had never heard before, which was sort of a verite 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:55.440 style production. Yeah, and I mean it's it's easy to 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.400 overlook today, but radio is still rather new at the 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:03.560 time in it was like, you know, cutting edge technological 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:08.000 medium and it was not fully defined. So the idea 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:14.120 of um creating this I guess hoax broadcast is the 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:19.039 best you can call it. Um, this fictionalized version that 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:22.120 was what would you call it? Man, I hate that 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.400 word so much. It's really taken on a bad tang 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:30.040 here lately. Uh. Yeah, I mean, it's it's verity. It's 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:35.880 it's uh, you know, of a faux documentary style thing 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:38.840 that no one had ever heard, Like, there's no way 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.640 when people heard this they would think, oh, this is 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:44.839 you know, I know Christopher Guests, this is sort of 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.920 a scary version. I've seen Blair Witch. I know what's 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:51.960 going on here. I recognize Lenny from Laverne and Shirley anywhere. 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.120 I know it's not real. So they were they weren't 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:59.040 prepared for this in when orson well, as he was 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.120 already a big name in radio as the voice of 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.560 the Shadow, which was big hit, and his Mercury Theater 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:08.640 was pretty pretty well respected at the time. It's yeah, 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:11.200 it's like a live stage theater. So they'd only had 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.680 this show for a few months by the time October 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.600 rolled around. UM. But their whole jam was they were 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:21.760 on CBS, and CBS had them do our long radio 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:26.920 adaptations of classic UM like novels like Treasure Island they 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.720 did around the world in eighty days. And so since 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.080 it was October, they wanted to do something spooky around 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:36.320 Halloween something, so they decided yeah. So so they were like, well, 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.760 what's the most boring scary book there is? And they said, 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:41.440 h G wells wore the world, so they decided to 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:45.800 adapt it. Yeah, so they got together, they're rehearsing. We'll 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:47.440 talk a little bit more about that in a sec. 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.680 But there wasn't a strong feeling among the cast and 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.520 crew and the production group that I thought it was 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.440 gonna be awesome because I think probably because they had 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:00.640 never done anything like this. They had never heard anything 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.480 like this, and they thought, is this even gonna be 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:06.920 any good? And a couple of different sources in the 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:10.400 production went to a radio critic ahead of time, it's like, 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:12.920 thanks a lot, and they said, by the way, this 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:17.080 is going to be a real stinker, they said, Apparently 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:20.280 two different people in the in the production said that 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.840 this will put everyone to sleep. And I don't I 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.280 don't have the impression that it's strictly because they didn't 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.040 have any frame of reference to judge it against, because 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:31.720 no one had done this before. From what I can gather, 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.440 the originally it was going to be really bad and 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:38.600 really terrible, and the production and the cast and crew 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.440 knew this. They knew that they were marching towards embarrassment. 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:46.679 Um with the the early versions of the of the script. Yeah, 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:49.960 so orson he's sort of distracted. He's got a stage 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:53.720 production going on. He's got his partner in his group, 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:56.719 John the Great John Houseman, Uh you all know from 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.760 the Paper Chase, kind of a legendary actor. He was 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.080 his one of his original partners, and he got together 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.440 with Howard Is it catch? I never know if it's 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:09.360 going to be a colt or a coke, doesn't matter, 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.040 all right, koc h and he was the writer who 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:15.640 was adapting the novel, and they were like, we gotta 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:18.040 make this thing better. And one thing I think we 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.240 can do. This was Houseman talking, I'm not gonna do 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.680 a John Houseman, but everyone knows how he sounds. Right. 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.080 When I came across John Houseman being involved, was like, 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.080 I can't wait. I don't even remember. I mean, he 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:32.560 was just very serious and sort of all I can 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.280 think of his Paper Chase. And what was the TV 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:38.560 commercial was it? I want to say it was like 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.760 Schwaberry Lynch. I think it might have been Merrill Lynch 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:44.080 maybe I don't know. But one of those finance firms 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:46.760 he did he voiced for, well, yeah. He was very 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:50.320 famous for having a very high pitched, squeaky falsetto voice, 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:53.320 and he talked very very fast, and actually I know 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:55.640 who it was. It was FedEx and Duncan Donuts. He 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.520 was well known for it, right, he was the time 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:02.160 to make the donuts guy right with the must so 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:06.600 houseman and uh, Cotch Coke went in there and he said, 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:08.280 one of the things we should do, probably to make 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:11.400 this a little more scary and a little more believable 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:16.000 that it's an actual broadcast is you know, time passes 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:18.640 in the book and we can't do that here, so 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:20.440 let's just get rid of all that stuff so it 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:24.000 gives the appearance that it's going down right now. Yeah, 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.000 that was enormously a huge change. Um. And I don't 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.040 know if he did that too to help the pacing 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:33.120 move a little faster or what, um, but that was 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.880 that would pan out to be a really important difference 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.520 in the original script that um Howard Kay turned in 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:43.840 uh and the one that they ended up doing. And 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.640 then even beyond that, some of the other changes came 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:51.800 just hours before broadcast, because apparently, if you worked with 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:54.440 Wars and Wells, you should be on the lookout for 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:56.040 him to come in at the last minute and be 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.120 like all the stuff we've been practicing for a week 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.400 or two, forget all of that. We're we're doing this instead. 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:03.960 And part of that, from what I can tell, is 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:06.079 that he was trying to shake up the act or 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:09.280 shake them out of whatever complacency they'd worked themselves into 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:13.559 with rehearsal and to get this raw, more terrified performance. 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:17.199 And apparently it worked. I mean, I can't imagine I 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:19.200 didn't hear any rehearsals or anything like that. I would 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:21.839 have loved to have compared, you know, the week before too, 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:26.920 you know, the actual broadcast. But everyone delivered these really great, um, 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:32.160 really great performances, and they really nailed by showtime, um 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:34.120 the realism in a lot of ways, not just in 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:39.280 the performances, um, but also in just little details like 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:41.760 they you know, they were they were doing a a 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:46.600 mock radio program, which we'll talk about a little more 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.160 in detail in a second, but they were they were 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:52.240 pretending to have news bulletins breaking, so they were they 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.199 were doing the things that news bulletins did. And one 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:58.600 of the things that stuck out to me was one 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.360 of the eyewitnesses, so it's an actor, but one of 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:04.040 the eyewitnesses is like being interviewed by a news reporter 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:06.080 on the scene and they started to talk, and the 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:08.679 news reporter goes, can you can you speak loud? Speak 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.440 more loudly and move into the microphone please, and that 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.640 the I think the actor actually says, how's that? And 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:16.880 the guy repeats himself, and then the actress to repeat 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.719 himself what he was originally saying. So it has like 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:24.839 that veneer of you know, authenticity, just from little details 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:27.560 like that that, you know, really it stood out to 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:29.200 me when I was listening for him. But if you're 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:31.360 if you're not listening for him, you you just it 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.000 makes you buy into the whole thing that much more. Yeah, 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:37.040 And the other big change that Wells brought along was 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.440 stretching out the first two halves of the thing such 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:45.760 that it went past it went forty minutes, and radio 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:49.120 at the time, every thirty minutes, like on the half hour, 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.240 they would check in with the station I D check 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:57.880 and listeners, even though radio was new, were well honed 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.520 to this station break every thirty minute, And so when 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:04.920 ten minutes passed, the half hour go by and there 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:07.679 ain't and there ain't no station break. That really makes 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:10.360 people kind of buy in to what they're listening to 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:12.920 is possibly real. Uh. And then you add to the 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.920 fact that there were no sponsors for this show. Yeah, 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:22.640 so they weren't cutting to a Casper or or me, 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.120 me and these ads all of a sudden, I can 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:28.680 remember any sponsor. Can you imagine John Houseman saying made 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:33.560 with modal? No, I thought it'd be made with modal. Yeah, 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.160 that's right, that's a much better Houseman. I had something 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:38.440 in my threat. Uh. So, yeah, there were no sponsors. 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:42.520 So basically it really came across as something that was 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:46.760 super super realistic sounding. Right, So all that is to 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:50.080 say that they had really by the time this broadcast 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:55.600 aired eight p m. On Sunday, October eight, they they 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:58.440 were not going to be the laughing stock and this 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:00.040 is not going to be embarrassing. It was going to 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.320 be pretty awesome. Actually, should we take a break, I 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:05.680 think so, Chuck, and then we'll come back and we 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:40.240 will reveal the broadcast after this. Okay, so we've reached showtime. 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:45.760 Air time a p m. Sunday, October, Mercury Theater on 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:49.320 the Air began broadcasting its adaptation of H. G. Wells 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:51.680 War of the World, and at the very beginning, it's 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:54.440 introduced as much there's an announcer who says that I 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:58.040 think this loss is probably to time somewhat because everyone 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:00.600 probably thinks that they just tried to trick everyone. But no, 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.520 they actually introduced it as what they're doing. You know 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:07.160 that this is a radio place at one year in 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:11.040 the future, right right, And yeah, Orson Welles. So it's 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.560 introduced by an announcer. Orson Wells comes in does the 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:18.480 introductory essay, and then they did something really smart and interesting, 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:24.040 especially for the time. They went to a musical program 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.400 that was supposedly being broadcast from the Murdian Room in 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:31.120 the Hotel Park Plaza. So if you were just tuning 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:34.160 in right then, you would have no idea that this 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:36.800 was Mercury Theater on the air. You would have no 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:39.400 idea that this was a teleplay. You would think that 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:43.120 you were listening to UM something that was pretty regularly broadcast, 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:45.760 which was live music at some like ballroom in a 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.560 hotel somewhere in New York. UM that they set up 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.000 like a radio transmitter to transmit out over the radio. 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:53.600 That was pretty frequent. But this was part of the 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:59.560 show paused. It is right right exactly so, but that 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:01.160 was a huge which part of the show because that 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:04.960 lilled um listeners into kind of complacency, and listeners who 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.080 tuned in late and missed that introduction thought that this 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.440 is what they were listening to. And then the first 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:14.720 news bulletin hits, yeah, and that's where things start to 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:17.560 get really interesting. They break in, you know, one of 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:22.160 these interrupt your previously scheduled programs kind of things, and 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.680 they come in and with these bulletin's, but they're not 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.240 super long at first because they treat it kind of 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:31.080 how it would be in real life. It's just sort 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:35.080 of a breaking story. Something's going together. It was fairly obtuse, 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.640 and they didn't like, you know, say, Martians are attacking 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:41.600 us right now everyone from the get go, I sort 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:43.280 of left it up to the listener to kind of 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:45.240 piece it together a little by little. They would go 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:48.160 back to the Meridian room for a bit, and it 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:51.360 wasn't for very long, but because you know, they couldn't 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.600 waste too much time, but it was long enough. It 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:55.160 wasn't for like ten seconds. They did it for like 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:57.360 a minute a minute and a half. Right. It made 0:16:57.360 --> 0:16:59.440 it seem right then, like that was what you were 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:01.520 listening to, that that was the program and the bulletin 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:05.240 was in fact the bulletin rather than the opposite being true. Yeah. 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:08.000 So eventually you start to piece together what's going on, 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:13.159 and you have, uh, this attack in New Jersey of 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:17.760 all places, and uh, Princeton University they had like a 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.560 Princeton astronomer on. They have government officials and they kind 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:25.000 of dole it out a little by little until about 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.840 the seventeen minutes seventeen and a half minute mark, and 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.040 then that's when it really kind of gets, uh, super 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.880 scary and people really see the full picture of what's 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.960 going on. So Chuck, um, I feel like we should 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:39.640 read a little bit of the script. There's this one 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.639 part starting about the seventeen thirty minute market think you 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.440 said where they um as I like to say, they 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:47.399 tore the lid off the sucker. Do you want to 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:54.080 be announcer or Phillips? I'll be the announcer, okay, but 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:56.879 I want you to do Phillips as Sammy Davis jor. 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:02.600 So here's the announcer. Wait, hold on, I'm getting on 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:09.720 my tap shoes. Okay you're ready, Canny man, I'm not 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:12.760 gonna do it that way. Okay, So let me give 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:15.120 you a little bit of background real quick. So these 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.920 news bulletins up to this point of basically said there's 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:20.360 some weird thing that landed they thought was a meteorite 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:24.160 at first, that landed in Grover's Mill, New Jersey. Um. 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:27.119 And then later bulletin said that, oh, actually there's some 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:31.960 weird tentacle like weird things emerging from this thing we 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:34.479 thought was a meteor Right. So now we're back at 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:38.359 Grover's Mill. So I'm the announcer. We are bringing you 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.200 and I witness account of what's happening on the Wilmouth 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.359 Farm Grover's Mill, New Jersey. And that was kind of 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:46.560 like they were breaking in to let you know that. 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:48.600 And then they go back to more piano for some reason. 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:51.800 And then we now return you to Carl Phillips at 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:55.240 Grover's Mill. Lady, ladies and gentlemen. Am I on on, 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:57.919 ladies and gentlemen. Here, I am back up a stone 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:01.040 wall that adjoins Mr. Willmas Garden. From here I get 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:03.600 a sweep of the whole scene. I'll give you every 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.120 detail as long as I can talk, as long as 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:08.680 I can see. More State police have arrived. They're drawing 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.040 up a cordon in front of the pit, about thirty 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:13.200 of them. No need to push the crowd back now 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:16.200 they're willing to keep their distance. The captain is conferring 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.840 with someone we we can't quite see who. Oh, yes, 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.680 I believe it's a professor Pearson. Yes it is. Now 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:26.720 they've parted. The professor moves around one side, studying the object. Well. 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:29.639 The captain and two policemen advance with something in their hands. 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:31.560 I can see it now. It's a it's a white 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.600 handkerchief tied to a pole, a flag of truce. If 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:38.000 those creatures know what that means, what anything means? Wait, 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:49.120 something's happening. You can cut in any time. Who can 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:56.040 take a rainbow? Wait? Sorry, hump shape is rising out 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:58.080 of the pit. I can make out a small beam 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:00.640 of light against a mirror. What's that? There's jet there's 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:03.240 a jet flame springing from the mirror and at leaps 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.040 right at the advancing men. It strikes them head on. 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:10.800 Good lord, they're turning into flame. Oh god, oh my god. 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:17.680 Now the whole field's caught fire, the woods, the barns, 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:20.560 the gas tanks, the automobiles, and spreading everywhere. It's coming 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:28.760 this way, about twenty yards to my right, very nice 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:35.080 and scene that was great, Chuck so Um they they 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.199 you mentioned, or I should say Phillips. The reporter on 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:41.920 the scene mentioned Professor Pearson, and he's this he ends 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:45.320 up being the main character and he's uh, he's an 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:47.880 interview he's in a Stromer's interviewed earlier on and he's 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.879 on the scene as it happens. Um, and the the 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.720 program just keeps going like that, like there's another there's 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:58.360 a main announcer. Um, who I played? I thought rather well, Um, 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.000 thank you, and it seemed to you by the future 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:03.119 as a fully artist, if I may say so, thank 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:05.240 you very much. I've been practicing. You want to hear 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:09.359 my machine gun? I've been doing that one since I 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:12.359 was like six. All right, how about walking through the forest? 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:18.920 All right now, how about a good punch to the face. 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:24.760 Oh wow, that was good, Thank you. Probably punched myself 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:28.959 in the thing. I'm dedicated. That's how dedicated to the 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:34.440 art of fully so. Um. The announcer just keeps bringing 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:36.399 in more and more news as this thing goes on 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:39.080 and unfolds of like, now, these things aren't just in 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:42.560 New Jersey there in Chicago. They're like out West they're 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:46.359 they're starting to invade everywhere, and they're killing people left 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:49.000 and right. That you said there was a government official 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:51.679 that reads a statement is actually that they say that 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:54.080 it's the Secretary of the Interior, which I thought was 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:58.359 particularly genius because I mean, probably not that many people 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:03.119 were familiar with the Secretary of the Interior, Harold x Um, 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:07.000 but they had him sound like FDR so that they 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:11.560 would kind of play on everyone's um, I guess unconscious 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:14.040 or I'm sure there were people who are like the 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:16.399 sounds just like FDR, but at the very least, it 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:19.919 would kind of evoke that government authority, the reality of 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:24.479 like a government figure, you know. Yeah. So meanwhile, on 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:29.520 the other stations, there's one that's running opposite, which is 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:32.520 a really really popular radio show at the time, um 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:36.639 probably the most popular, Chasing Sandborn Hour, which had the 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:41.880 very very famous ventriloquist Edgar Bergen in his dummy Charlie McCarthy, 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:44.480 and we talked about that on our ventilla Quism episode. 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:48.920 Remember that they started out on radio, which is hysterical. 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:52.199 I don't even know why they would even bother with 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:54.119 the dummy part. Just do too. You wouldn't even know 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:57.160 that's what he did. You wouldn't even have to wear 0:22:57.200 --> 0:23:04.640 pants around and your spaghetti stained under shirt and yeah, 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:08.199 naked from the waist down, maybe some socks, doing a 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:10.879 couple of voices. Here's your contract Edgar Bergin, What do 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:14.560 you think about that? Charlie Dart get me started, Like 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:17.480 that's it. I could be a famous vintiloquist on the radio. 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:19.840 You just you just did it. I think I think 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:22.879 Hollywood's gonna come with Collin. But the real sort of 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:28.000 interesting um factoid here, I think is that people were 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:30.520 channel surfing back then when you cut to commercial, just 0:23:30.600 --> 0:23:33.679 like we used to do when we didn't have pause 0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:38.040 buttons and fast forward buttons. And what is this pause button? 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:40.480