WEBVTT - Selects: The Great War of the Worlds Panic Myth 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.120 Hi there, everyone, It's me Josh. For this week's select 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:05.360 I've chosen our episode on the War of the World's 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:08.600 myth from November twenty twenty. One of the great myths 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:11.800 of the twentieth century is that Orson Wells nineteen thirty 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.360 eight War of the World's broadcast set off a mass 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.800 panic in the United States, as roobs from all corners 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:21.560 of the country grabbed their shotguns and ran senselessly through 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:24.360 the streets and prayed death would be swift. Well, it 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:27.920 turns out America is less gullible than that. Instead, we're 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:31.840 gullible about the idea that we're gullible. Think about that 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:36.839 one as you enjoy this episode. 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:45.840 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:50.800 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:54.040 Charles w Chuck Bryan over there. It's just the two 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:57.160 of us batching it up without you. 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:00.080 Oh man, I. 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:04.480 Think Jerry's inclusion. We're still batching it up. How do 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:08.200 you mean, I mean, does she really ruin the batch 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:08.920 scene for us? 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:13.839 Sure? She's very maternal and Judge's true. 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.280 Oh yeah, you were headed down a kind road for 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:16.680 a second. 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:21.080 I was with Jerry. Yeah, that doesn't sound like me. 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:26.679 So for all of you who are just tuning into 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.160 the first time Welcome, this is stuff you should know. 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:34.560 To everybody else who's tuning in for the multiple times Welcome, 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:35.720 this is stuff you should know. 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:36.720 Yeah, we never do that. 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:40.600 Some shows do that what they welcome new listeners. 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.360 Yeah, and kind of say what they do. And I 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:45.200 mean we've literally never done that. 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:48.280 That's fine, that's lame. Hi wis who does that? Any 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:48.960 friends of ours? 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:51.440 Yeah? I mean the guys on the Flop House. They've 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.920 been podcasting as long as we have. In every single episode, 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:56.280 they say who they are and what they do. 0:01:57.280 --> 0:01:59.560 No, okay, well do you want to do that this 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:00.200 one time? 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:02.840 Well, I'm Chuck Bryant and this is Josh Clark, and 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.240 this is a podcast where we explain things in a 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:08.760 lighthearted and fun and sometimes even funny way. 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:11.200 I disagree with all of it. 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:16.919 Oh boy, So what we're going to talk about today 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:18.600 because I think we need to talk about this one 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:22.400 in a slightly somber tone. Chuck, it's a blemish in 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.639 the history of America really, if you think about it. 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.120 Well, yeah, and you know what, I've never actually had 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:33.400 listened to it until this week, same here, and it was. 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:35.519 It's a lot of fun to actually listen to. I 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:36.480 would recommend it. 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:41.560 Yeah, especially in a dark room where that's all you're 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:43.919 concentrating on, not like a second screen kind of thing, 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:46.440 like where you're really listening to this radio play. 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:48.680 Yeah, and try to put yourself there a little bit 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.000 like what it must have been like in well, not 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.160 eighteen ninety eight, that's when the book came out. 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:56.120 Yeah, but in nineteen thirty eight. 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:59.320 I mean what forty years later, Just in that forty 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:02.760 year stretch, I mean, think about the difference between nineteen 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:08.160 eighty and twenty twenty. Not ridiculously different periods, it's just 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.640 gotten eighteen ninety eight exactly. Oh yeah, it's gone downhill. 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:14.480 And don't think that had nothing to do with Reagan's 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:19.240 election in nineteen eighty. But the difference between eighteen ninety 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.600 eight and nineteen thirty eight, yeah, are It's just like 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:30.760 two different worlds, man, two different worlds. Comma War of the. 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.720 So, I guess we should start with the book written 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:35.640 by the great HG. Wells. It was the very first 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:41.640 alien invasion story to hit the bookshelves, and that's a 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.480 pretty remarkable thing. It was a serialized thing at first 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:49.280 in magazines and Pearson's and the UK, and then Cosmo 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:53.000 here in the US, and then they finally slapped all 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:57.160 those serialized versions together into a book and it sold 0:03:57.200 --> 0:03:57.760 pretty well. 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:00.280 Yeah, it's never been out to print since that first 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:04.200 edition in eighteen ninety eight. That's pretty respectable. I expect 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:05.880 that as much for our book as well. 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.680 Yeah, I'm sure it'll be still being published in forty 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:13.520 years or one hundred years. Yeah, one hundred and forty years. 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:14.960 Yeah, well, let's hope. 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:18.840 So in this book, and like you said, first alien 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.800 invasion story ever published, which is you know, just the 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.720 fact that this is a completely new premise, new conceit 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:27.799 made it, you know, kind of scary. 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:30.159 But in the book, HG. 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:35.919 Wells describes like this, this alien invasion, and part of 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.520 the thing that was so scary about it, at least 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:40.520 at the time, from what I can gather, is that 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.000 it was about like the breakdown of society. And we're 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:48.039 talking like Victorian era England society, where like rigid social 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:52.560 rules and customs and mores and guidance for all behavior 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:55.440 at all times was like the norm. So the idea 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:59.440 of that breaking down was scary on in and of itself. 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:01.360 I think that made the book kind of scary to 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:06.280 contemporary readers. Would that be right readers back then? And 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:09.039 that was one big theme that Wells explored. Another one 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:11.800 that he explored in that at least I think whoever 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:16.240 wrote the Encyclopedia Britannica article on it said that the 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:21.599 main point of this, the main subtext, was learning how 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:26.920 humans dominion over animals can be, you know, cruel and thoughtless, 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.760 because all of a sudden, with these alien invaders who 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.880 were just wiping us off the map, we were like, 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:36.080 you know, domesticated animals to them. 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.520 Yeah, so the shoe was on the other hoof, and 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:44.800 sure it caused or at least it was intended to 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.320 cause people to take kind of a hard look at 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.920 pre animal farm to make sort of a social statement 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.560 about how we treated animals. Yeah, And so that was 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.560 in eighteen ninety eight. If you flash forward to Orson 0:05:56.600 --> 0:06:02.000 Wells and his Mercury Theater version, he this is, you know, 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:04.560 like you said, we're right in the middle or we're 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:08.920 in the Great Depression and we're headed towards war, and 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.279 it's sort of an uneasy feeling in the United States 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.440 as a whole. So he thought, perfect time to go 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.440 in there, put a fresh coat of pain on this 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:22.160 thing and scare the bejeebis out of the American public 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.040 by doing really something that they had never heard before, 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.839 which was sort of a Verita style production. 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.159 Yeah, and I mean it's easy to overlook today, but 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:35.880 radio was still rather new at the time in nineteen 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.200 thirty eight. It was like a you know, cutting edge 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:44.240 technological medium, and it was not fully defined. So the 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:50.800 idea of creating this, I guess hoax broadcast is the 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:55.960 best you can call it. This fictionalized version that was 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.159 what would you call it? Man, I hate that word 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:00.000 so much. 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:05.000 I know it's really taken on a bad tang here lately. Yeah, 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:10.360 I mean it's verite. It's, you know, of a faux 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:14.720 documentary style, right, thing that no one had ever heard. Like, 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.880 there's no way when people heard this they would think, oh, 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:21.240 this is you know, I know, Christopher, guess this is 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.200 sort of a scary version. I've seen Blair Witch. I 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:25.280 know what's going on here. 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:29.720 I recognize Lenny from Laverne and Shirley anywhere. I know 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:30.480 that's not real. 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:33.600 Yeah, So they weren't prepared for this in nineteen thirty 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:37.320 eight when orson Wells, he was already a big name 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.080 in radio as the voice of the Shadow, which was 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:43.160 big hit, and his Mercury Theater was pretty pretty well 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:44.080 respected at the time. 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.640 Yeah, it's like a live stage theater. So they'd only 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:49.840 had this show for a few months by the time 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.239 October nineteen thirty eight rolled around. But their whole jam 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:57.080 was they were on CBS, and CBS had them do 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:03.400 our long radio adaptations of class like novels like Treasure Island. 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:06.160 They did around the world in eighty days, and so 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.480 since it was October, they wanted to do something spooky 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:13.040 around Halloween something, so they decided Yeah, so they were like, well, 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.840 what's the most boring scary book there is? And they said, HG. 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:18.800 Wells War the Worlds. So they decided to adapt it. 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.760 Yeah, so they got together, they're rehearsing. We'll talk a 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.360 little bit more about that in a sec. But there 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.880 wasn't a strong feeling among the cast and crew and 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.640 the production group that thought it was going to be 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:35.640 awesome because I think probably because they had never done 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:37.600 anything like this, they had never heard anything like this. 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:40.800 They thought, is this even going to be any good. 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.679 And a couple of different sources in the production went 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.439 to a radio critic ahead of time, it's like thanks 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:49.760 a lot, and they said, by the way, this is 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:51.040 going to be a real stinker. 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.840 They said, Apparently two different people in the production said 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:59.760 that this will put everyone to sleep. And I don't 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.120 have the impression that it's strictly because they didn't have 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:05.920 any frame of reference to judge it against, because no 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.439 one had done this before. From what I can gather, 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:12.120 the originally it was going to be really bad and 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.320 really terrible, and the production and the cast and crew 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:19.120 knew this. They knew that they were marching toward embarrassment 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:22.520 with the early versions of the of the script. 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.280 Yeah, so orson, he's sort of distracted. He's got a 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:30.480 stage production going on. He's got his partner in his group, 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.160 the great John Houseman you all know from the paper Chase, 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:37.000 kind of a legendary actor. He was one of his 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:41.959 original partners, and he got together with Howard is it Kotch. 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:44.200 I never know if it's going to be a Cotra 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:48.640 Coke doesn't matter, all right, koc h. And he was 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.960 the writer who was adapting the novel and they were like, 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.160 we got to make this thing better. And one thing 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:56.559 I think we can do this was Houseman talking, I'm 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.480 not going to do with John Houseman, but everyone knows 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:01.360 how he's out right. 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:03.559 When I came across Shawn house and being involved, he 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:04.679 was like, I can't wait. 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:07.360 I don't even remember. I mean, he was just very 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.640 serious and sort of all I can think of his 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:13.240 paper chase and what was the TV commercial was it? 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:16.280 I want to say it was like Schwab or no, 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:17.199 Merily Lynch. 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:18.960 I think it might have been Merrill Lynch Maybe I 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.079 don't know. But one of those finance firms he did 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:22.720 he voiced for, well. 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.360 Yeah, he was very famous for having a very high pitch, 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:29.080 squeaky falsetto voice, and he talked very very fast. 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:31.040 And actually I know who it was. It was FedEx 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:33.240 and Dunkin Donuts. He was well known for. 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.040 It, right, he was the time to make the donuts 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:41.360 guy right with the mustag. So Houseman and Cotch Coke 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:43.840 went in there and he said, one of the things 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.319 we should do, probably to make this a little more 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.880 scary and a little more believable that it's an actual broadcast, 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.880 is you know time passes in the book, and we 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.120 can't do that here, so let's just get rid of 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.520 all that stuff so it gives the appearance that it's 0:10:58.520 --> 0:10:59.480 going down right now. 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:04.680 Yeah, that was enormously a huge change. And I don't 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:06.959 know if he did that to help the pacing move 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:11.360 a little faster or what, but that would pan out 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.960 to be a really important difference in the original script 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:19.160 that Howard Kay turned in and the one that they 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.640 ended up doing. And then even beyond that, some of 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:27.840 the other changes came just hours before broadcast, because apparently, 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.439 if you worked with Orson Wells, you should be on 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:32.320 the lookout for him to come in at the last 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:34.400 minute and be like, all the stuff we've been practicing 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.080 for a week or two, forget all of that, we're 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:40.080 doing this instead. And part of that, from what I 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:42.280 can tell, is that he was trying to shake up 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.120 the actor, shake them out of whatever complacency they'd work 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:48.840 themselves into with rehearsal, and to get this raw, more 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:53.480 terrified performance. And apparently it worked. I mean, I can't 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:55.559 imagine I didn't hear any rehearsals or anything like that. 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:57.559 I would have loved to have compared, you know, the 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:01.240 week before to you know, the actual podcast, but that 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:05.760 everyone delivered these really great, really great performances, and they 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:10.400 really nailed by showtime the realism in a lot of ways, 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:15.199 not just in the performances, but also in just little 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.800 details like they you know, they were they were doing 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:23.079 a mock radio program, which we'll talk about a little 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.679 more in detail in a second, but they were they 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.120 were pretending to have news bulletins break and so they 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.600 were they were doing the things that news bulletins did. 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:34.200 One of the things that stuck out to me was 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:38.000 one of the eyewitnesses. So it's an actor, but one 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:40.360 of the eyewitnesses is like being interviewed by a news 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:42.680 reporter on the scene and they started to talk, and 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.080 the news reporter goes, can you can you speak loud? 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:48.000 Speak more loudly and move into the microphone please, and 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.040 that the I think the actor actually says, how's that, 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:53.160 and the guy repeats himself, and then the actor has 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.000 to repeat himself what he was originally saying. So it 0:12:56.080 --> 0:13:00.560 has like that veneer of you know, authenticity, just from 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:04.000 little details like that that, you know, really it stood 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:05.480 out to me when I was listening for him. But 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:07.680 if you're if you're not listening for him, you you 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:09.480 just it makes you buy into the whole thing that 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:10.040 much more. 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:12.880 Yeah, and the other big change that Wells brought along 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:17.000 was stretching out the first two halves of the thing 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.880 such that it went past it went forty minutes, and 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.200 radio at the time, every thirty minutes, like on the 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.920 half hour, they would check in with a station id check, 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:34.600 and listeners, even though radio was new, were well honed 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:38.240 to this station break every thirty minutes. And so when 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:41.600 ten minutes passed, the half hour go by and there 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.360 ain't and there ain't no station break, that really makes 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:47.080 people kind of buy in to what they're listening to 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:49.840 is possibly real. And then you add to the fact 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:52.920 that there were no sponsors for this show. Yeah, so 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:59.840 they weren't cutting to a Casper or or me Undy's 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:02.760 as right, all of a sudden, they can't remember any sponsor. 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.040 Can you imagine John Housman saying made with Modall. 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:09.120 No, I thought it'd be made with Modell. 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:12.839 That's right, that's a much better Housman. I had something 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:13.400 in my threat. 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:17.080 So yeah, there were no sponsors. So basically it really 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:21.160 came across as something that was super, super realistic sounding. 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.640 Right, So all that is to say that they had 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:28.640 really by the time this broadcast aired at eight pm 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:32.600 on Sunday, October thirtieth, nineteen thirty eight, they were not 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:35.440 going to be the laughing stock and this is not 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:37.760 going to be embarrassing. It was going to be pretty awesome. 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:39.400 Actually, should we take a break? 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:41.840 I think so, Chuck, and then we'll come back and 0:14:42.320 --> 0:15:15.880 we will reveal the broadcast after this. Okay, so we've 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:20.920 reached showtime. Airtime, eight pm, Sunday, October thirtieth, nineteen thirty eight, 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:25.480 Mercury Theater on the Air began broadcasting its adaptation of HG. 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.160 Wells War of the World, and at the very beginning 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:31.120 it's introduced as much. There's an announcer who says that. 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.320 I think that's loss is probably to time somewhat, because 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.680 everyone probably thinks that they just tried to trick everyone. 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:39.640 But no, they actually introduced it as what they're doing. 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:42.680 And you know that this is a radio place at 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:44.880 one year in the future. 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.560 Right, right, And yeah, Orson Wells. So it's introduced by 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.320 an announcer. Orson Wells comes in, does the introductory essay, 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.840 and then they did something really smart and interesting, especially 0:15:55.840 --> 0:16:00.880 for the time they went to a musical program that 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:04.280 was supposedly being broadcast from the Meridian Room in the 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.920 hotel Park Plaza. So if you were just tuning in 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:11.040 right then, you would have no idea that this was 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:14.040 Mercury Theater on the air. You'd have no idea that 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.400 this was a teleplay. You would think that you were 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:20.200 listening to something that was pretty regularly broadcast, which was 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:23.200 live music at some like ballroom in a hotel somewhere 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:25.800 in New York that they set up like a radio 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:27.680 transmitter to transmit out over the radio. 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.000 That was pretty frequent. But this was part of the show. 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.920 Like if you hadn't paused it, that is right right. 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:37.160 Exactly so, but that was a huge part of the 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:41.080 show because that lulled listeners into kind of complacency, and 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.480 listeners who tuned in late and missed that introduction thought 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:46.320 that this is what they were listening to. And then 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:48.320 the first news bulletin. 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:52.360 Hits yeah, and that's where things start to get really interesting. 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.320 They break in, you know, one of these interrupt your 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:59.160 previously scheduled programs kind of things, right, right, and they 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:02.800 come in and with these bulletins but they're not super 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:06.120 long at first because they treat it kind of how 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:07.800 it would be in real life. It's just sort of 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:11.840 a breaking story. Something's going together. It was fairly obtuse, 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.320 and they didn't like, you know, say, Martians are attacking 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.280 us right now everyone from the get go. I sort 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:20.000 of left it up to the listener to kind of 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.200 piece it together. Little by little. They would go back 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.200 to the Meridian room for a bit, and it wasn't 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.280 for very long, but because you know, they couldn't waste 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:30.520 too much time, but it was long enough. It wasn't 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:32.280 for like ten seconds. They did it for like a minute, 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:33.680 minute and a half, right. 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:35.840 It made it seem right then, like that was what 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:37.639 you were listening to, that that was the program, and 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:40.199 the bulletin was in fact the bulletin rather than the 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:41.320 opposite being true. 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.679 Yeah, So eventually you start to piece together what's going on, 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:50.800 and you have this attack in New Jersey of all places, 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:55.720 and Princeton University they had like a Princeton astronomer on. 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:59.119 They have government officials, and they kind of dole it 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:03.439 out a little by little until about the seventeen minutes 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.160 seventeen and a half minute mark, and then that's when 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:10.480 it really kind of gets super scary and people really 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:11.959 see the full picture of what's going on. 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.120 So, Chuck, I feel like we should read a little 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:15.800 bit of the script. 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.800 There's this one part starting about the seventeen thirty minute 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.960 market think you said, where they as I like to say, 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:23.480 they tore the lid off the sucker. 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:25.840 Do you want to be announcer or Phillips? 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:31.280 I'll be the announcer, all right, okay, but I want 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:33.600 you to do Phillips as Sammy Davis Junior. 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:38.280 So here's the announcer. 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:39.959 Wait, hold on, I'm getting all my tap shoes. 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.320 Okay, Okay, you ready, canty ma'am uh. 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:47.320 Huh sure, bab, I'm not gonna do it that way. 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:49.000 Okay, all right, So. 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:50.920 Let me give you a little bit of background real quick. 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.680 So these news bulletin's up to this point have basically 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.399 said there's some weird thing that landed. They thought it 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.359 was a meteorite at first, that landed in Grover's Mill, 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:03.480 New Jersey, and then later bulletins said that, oh, actually 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:08.160 there's some weird technical like weird things emerging from this 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.040 thing we thought was a meteorite. So now we're back 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.959 at Grover's Mil. So I'm the announcer. We are bringing 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:18.240 you an eyewitness account of what's happening on the Willmuth Farm, 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.199 Grover's Mill, New Jersey. And that was kind of like 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:23.359 they were breaking in to let you know that. And 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:25.320 then they go back to more piano for some reason. 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.520 And then we now return you to Carl Phillips at 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:30.920 Grover's mil. 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:32.800 Ladies and gentlemen, am I am I on, ladies and gentlemen. 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:35.480 Here I am back up a stone wall that adjoins 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:38.240 mister Wilmo's garden. From here I get a sweep of 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:41.120 the whole scene. I give you every detail as long 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:43.520 as I can talk, as long as I can see. 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.040 More State police have arrived. They're drawing up a cordon 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:48.399 in front of the pit, about thirty of them. No 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.000 need to push the crowd back now, they're willing to 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:53.480 keep their distance. The captain is conferring with someone we 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:57.399 can't quite see who. Oh, yes, I believe it's a 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:01.200 professor Pearson. Yes it is. Now they've parted. The professor 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:04.119 moves around one side, studying the object, while the captain 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:06.679 and two policemen advance with something in their hands. I 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.159 can see it now. It's a white handkerchief tied to 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.119 a pole, a flag of truce. If those creatures know 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:15.840 what that means, what anything means? Wait, something's happening. 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:27.040 Sh you can cut in anytime. Who can take a rainbow? 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:32.840 Oh wait, sorry, a hump shape is rising out of 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:34.879 the pit. I can make out a small beam of 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:35.879 light against a mirror. 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:36.439 What's that? 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:39.119 There's a jet there's a jet flame springing from the mirror, 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:42.160 and it leaps right at the advancing men. It strikes 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.080 them head on. Good lord, they're turning into flame. 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:48.359 Go go. 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:54.359 Now. The whole field's caught fire, the woods, the barns, 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:57.320 the gas tanks of automobiles, spreading everywhere. It's coming this 0:20:57.440 --> 0:20:58.560 way about twenty. 0:20:58.400 --> 0:20:59.240 Yards to my right. 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:06.919 Very nice and scene. 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:12.560 Okay, that was great, Chuck. So they they you mentioned, 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:15.399 or I should say Phillips. The reporter on the scene 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:19.040 mentioned Professor Pearson, and he's this he ends up being 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:22.560 the main character, and he's, uh, he's an interview he's 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:24.560 in an astronomer I's interviewed earlier on and then he's 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:28.119 on this scene as it happens, and the program just 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:30.720 keeps going like that like, there's another there's a main 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:35.720 announcer who I played. I thought rather well, thank you 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:36.639 and same to you. 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:39.320 But the future as a folly artist, if I may say. 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:41.720 So, thank you very much. I've been practicing. You want 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:45.720 to hear my machine gun? I've been doing that one 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:46.919