191: Halloween Special V: “The War of the Worlds” on the Radio

“No more defenses. Our army is wiped out—artillery, air force, everything wiped out.” This is the story of the invasion of New Jersey. “The War of the Worlds” is a 1938 radio adaptation of an 1897 science fiction novel by H. G. Wells that details an alien invasion of Earth, a seminal work that popularized the term “Martian” and the theme of “first contact” in sci-fi. 23-year-old Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre team were tasked with zhuzhing up the classic novel for their series of one-hour CBS radio plays, but unfortunately, the contemporary American setting, the shockingly realistic news bulletins, and the harrowing eyewitness accounts all added up to produce a panic among out-of-the-loop listeners. Invasion, fictional or otherwise, was at the fore of many minds as Germany broke treaties and demanded more land—the Allies ceded the Sudetenland just one month prior to the broadcast. The stories of a mass hysteria that gripped the nation have been exaggerated, but have no fear: we’ll take you through the radio play and the aftermath so you can decide whether or not you believe it. ____ Connect with us on ⁠HTDSpodcast.com⁠ https://www.htdspodcast.com/ and go deep into ⁠episode bibliographies⁠ https://www.htdspodcast.com/bibliography and ⁠book recommendations⁠ https://www.htdspodcast.com/book-recommendations join discussions in our ⁠Facebook community⁠ https://www.facebook.com/groups/257926761619618/ get news and discounts from ⁠The HTDS Gazette⁠ https://www.htdspodcast.com/newsletters-1 come ⁠see a live show⁠ https://www.htdspodcast.com/tour get ⁠HTDS merch⁠ https://htds-team-shop.fourthwall.com/ or become an ⁠HTDS premium⁠ https://htds.supercast.com/ member for bonus episodes and other perks.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:11Greg Jackson?

  It's about 8:40 in the evening, October 30th, 1938. John and Estelle Paltz are spending the evening at home in their apartment at 8 East 15th Street in New York City. This small brick apartment is just a block east from Union Square and above some small shops, like the Stamp and Album Company of America and Barticini General Contractors. It's not a particularly rich neighborhood. As the Federal Writers' Project Guide to New York puts it, "Union Square District belongs to the working people of New York." And that certainly describes John and Estelle. Theirs is a tenement life. They have six dollars to their name.

• 0:53Greg Jackson?

  Yeah, the Great Depression isn't over. Definitely not for the Paltzes. That's why they've decided to stay in tonight and enjoy a cozy fire and some music on the radio. While John gets comfy, Estelle turns on the set. It's already tuned to the local CBS station. I wonder, did they listen to something this afternoon? Perhaps they caught the musical stylings of the Texas Rangers now helping to make country music a distinct genre. Maybe they caught a performance by the New York Philharmonic. Well, whatever it was before, it's time to enjoy some more free-broadcast entertainment tonight. But then the music stops. A news broadcaster, it seems, cuts in.

• 1:38Greg Jackson?

  He's talking about a strange object that crashed in New Jersey. Huh, that's not very far from them. The Garden State is just across the Hudson? Estelle asks.

• 1:50Speaker 01

  What is it?

• 1:51Greg Jackson?

  John answers. A news broadcast, surely. They listen closely, and it only grows more horrific as they hear more. As Estelle later recounts.

• 2:02Speaker 01

  My blood seemed to coagulate and stop as one horrible thing after another happened right before us. New Jersey was in danger. Raymond Boulevard, Newark, a few blocks from my sister's home, and her babies, was filling with black smoke. The horror of it!

• 2:21Greg Jackson?

  John darts to the apartment roof to look for the black smoke while Estelle is frozen in front of the radio.

• 2:28Greg Jackson?

  Even though John can't see any black smoke, or any evidence of what this broadcast has described as an invasion, Estelle is robbed of reason. As she puts it,

• 2:38Speaker 02

  "Only one thing remained to do: Run. Fly! Get on the fastest thing on wheels and go as far and as quickly as our last of six dollars would take us."

• 2:49Greg Jackson?

  The couple flees into the streets, only stopping to warn a stranger of the coming invasion as they dash toward Penn Station on 34th Street. They buy tickets to take them to Hartford, hoping that getting out into the open country might buy them some temporary safety. It's a quote of Estelle:

• 3:06Speaker 02

  "Anywhere but wait to get trapped in downtown Manhattan and choke to death like rats."

• 3:12Greg Jackson?

  Once aboard the train, they can finally collapse, hand in hand. The terrified couple scans the car. No one seems to be in a panic. They must not have heard yet! Just imagine the panicked mobs once word breaks out. John and Estelle decide to keep their secret to themselves. No need to. But wait! What's going on? The train is stopping! Did word just arrive about the invasion? Has it spread out of New Jersey already? Oh god, they're trapped again! John finds two young college students and asks them what's going on. But as he does, he can't help himself. He must explain his and Estelle's panic.

• 3:56Greg Jackson?

  "New Jersey has been invaded and it's in ruins! They heard it on the radio!" Just as Estelle feared, a crowd is gathering around her and John. Someone runs to ask the conductor why they've stopped and returns saying that "some woman needed an ambulance", but no, that can't be! Someone shouts, "He's just saying that to keep us calm!" The panic is growing. Some say that Estelle and John are lying, or that they're mad. But with everything going on in the world, invasions in Europe, invasions in Asia, could they be right? An invasion here, in America? Suddenly, John shouts to Estelle: "Who is Orson Welles?" Estelle stops. She knows that meaning.

• 4:40Greg Jackson?

  She's listened to many of the radio plays that Orson Welles wrote and starred in. She shouts out:

• 4:46Speaker 02

  Find a paper!

• 4:48Greg Jackson?

  Finding an old, trampled issue of the New York Tribune, the panicked train car tears through the paper until they find it written in plain ink. 8 p.m. Orson Welles Near Creek Theater. War of the Worlds.

• 5:18Greg Jackson?

  Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story.

• 5:39Greg Jackson?

  Happy Halloween, everyone, and welcome to our fifth annual Halloween special. As you likely have noticed, I generally prefer to find a spooky topic that aligns with where HTDS is in the story of America. And given where we are currently, it just makes good sense to bring you the story of the famous, or perhaps infamous, War of the Worlds radio broadcast. If you're not familiar with it, by all means, let me fill you in. Performed by the Mercury Theater on the Air, this Orson Welles retelling in 1938 of the classic turn-of-the-century Martian-invasion fiction originally by H.G. Wells - side note: no relation -

• 6:21Greg Jackson?

  is probably one of the most famous examples of mass hysteria, or at least reported mass hysteria, in U.S. history. As the story goes, many Americans had happily tuned in to hear the popular Chase and Sanborn Hour, featuring the ventriloquist antics of Edgar Bergen and his puppet, Charlie McCarthy. But some switched away when a less-than-stellar music act came on, landing them on the War of the Worlds broadcast, the already-started broadcast.

• 6:51Greg Jackson?

  Having missed CBS's opening disclaimer that clearly stated the program was a work of fiction, these unsuspecting listeners, thoughtless dial-twisting, you know, the radio equivalent of channel surfing on a TV, or mindlessly scrolling through social media, stumbled into a shockingly realistic news-style radio drama. And just in time, too. The Martians had landed in New Jersey, the state militia was being wiped out, and New Yorkers were choking on clouds of poison gas released by the alien war machines. The day after the broadcast, The New York Times headline declared, "Radio listeners in panic: Taking war drama as fact." Yep.

• 7:32Greg Jackson?

  Our friends John and Estelle Paltz weren't alone in thinking that the broadcast was a real news report. Tales abound of such confused and terrified people, including 63-year-old William Dock of New Jersey, who took to the streets with his shotgun, searching for the Martians invading his home state. Now, after the broadcast, there are studies about the panic and studies about those studies. Some say that America experienced widespread hysteria. Others say that the panic never happened, and was made up out of whole cloth by newspapers, exaggerating the matter. As we often find, the truth is in the middle. To quote historian A. Brad Schwartz, "The vast majority of listeners understood the

• 8:14Greg Jackson?

  broadcast correctly, and those few who were frightened did not passively accept what came to them over the airwaves." Close quote. But exaggerated panic or not, the aftermath and reaction to the supposed panic was real. As the War of the Worlds broadcast concluded at 9 o'clock on that fateful night, October 30th, 1938, "Mischief Night," as some called this Halloween Eve, police and reporters swarmed Orson Welles and the producers at CBS. They faced an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, and this led to a press conference at which Orson put on the most contrite performance of his career, telling reporters, "Of course, we are deeply shocked and deeply regretful of the results

• 8:59Greg Jackson?

  of last night's broadcast." While we won't hear that story today, the only consequence that this gifted storyteller saw was a brilliant Hollywood career, which included directing Citizen Kane and playing Harry Line in The Third Man. Yes, our tale is Orson's brilliant broadcast of The War of the Worlds. That's what I would like to recreate for you today. But before we join Orson and the Mercury Theater for their scripted alien invasion, let's take just a moment to get a touch more context to help us understand why so many people were fooled, and to get a brief biography of today's guest storyteller, Mr. Orson Wells.

• 9:41Greg Jackson?

  Once that's done, we'll then tune into the CBS broadcast, or at least a shortened HTDS version of it.

• 9:51Greg Jackson?

  The power of the radio in early to mid 20th century America is truly incredible. Of course, we know this from past episodes. We witnessed the technology's spread with the nation's growing electric infrastructure in episode 156, and watch it bring entertainment and the world into people's living rooms in a way never previously imaginable. Speaking of entering people's living rooms, we also know that's the MO behind President Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats. Across several episodes, we've seen how FDR speaks to the average American in a way that no president ever has before, thereby making the seemingly distant and inaccessible executive of the nation feel like an intimate friend.

• 10:35Greg Jackson?

  Add to that, music programs and ballgames, and these radios, which are cheap to buy and free to use minus the electricity, a true selling point in the midst of the Great Depression, are nothing less than a godsend and true marvel of modern technology. But it's not just pre-arranged speeches and entertainment. Radio brings an option for news that neither newspapers nor film reels can even come close to touching: live reporting. Back in March 1932, when audiences found themselves desperate for updates about the kidnapping of the baby of the National Aviation Hero, Charles "Lucky" Lindbergh, they turned to their radios for the most up-to-date info.

• 11:16Greg Jackson?

  And when the child's remains were found that May, the whole nation mourned together as the news came over the radio waves. Okay, so the radio breaks news. But where is the line between news and reenactments? That blurs a touch with news shows like The March of Time. This and other programs in the 1930s broadcast both live and recreated events. Americans can hardly tell the difference sometimes. This happens not only with recreations of the Lindbergh kidnapping trials, but also with Herbert Morrison's emotional, riveting coverage of the 1937 Hindenburg crash. Remember that tragedy from episode 188?

• 11:57Greg Jackson?

  Well, Herbert records it on-site live, but it doesn't air live. It's broadcast later as a recording. Meanwhile, Americans are also used to breaking news interrupting their sports and other entertainment programs, especially, as we've seen in our last few episodes, with military invasions becoming commonplace around the world. In fact, it was just a month before Orson Welles' Martian Invasion of October 1938 that Americans heard about the Munich Agreement appeasing Adolf Hitler by giving him the Sudetenland, an event I trust you recall from episode 187. It's also interesting to note that just 10 months after the War of the Worlds, the Nazis

• 12:39Greg Jackson?

  used a falsifying radio broadcast to justify their impending invasion of Poland. You might recall that event from episode 187 as well. There's no evidence Orson Welles' work inspired them, of course, but it does show how, even on opposite sides of the globe, radio has become a powerful tool, not just for entertainment and real information, but even manipulation. In short, this is a time when radio is king, when news broadcasts are taken very seriously, even if the line between reenactment and live news can get blurry, and when entertainment programs regularly get interrupted for breaking news. And that is the perfect recipe to lead some Americans, particularly those who tuned in

• 13:24Greg Jackson?

  late, thereby missing the "this is fiction" preface, to take Orson Welles' scientific-sounding talk of a Martian invasion as the gospel truth. And now that we have our radio situation sorted out, ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to introduce our creative broadcaster, the one and only, Orson Welles.

• 13:47Greg Jackson?

  Born in 1915 to a concert pianist mother and a father who had made a fortune from inventing a popular bicycle lamp, George Orson Wells spent his earliest years in Wisconsin. But that changed when his father's alcoholism led to his parents' separation. Orson moved with his mother to Chicago, but that too ended abruptly when she died of hepatitis shortly after his ninth birthday. Returning to live with his wealthy but less than responsible father, Orson reached 11 years of age and was then enrolled at the prestigious Todd School for Boys in Woodstock, Illinois. There, under the mentorship of his teacher Roger Hill, Orson found the inspiration to pursue performance, taking to the stage and even experimenting with radio acting.

• 14:32Greg Jackson?

  But alas, just after Christmas in 1930, 15-year-old Orson suffered the loss of his only remaining parent. Kidney failure took his father. After finishing school the following year, he took his inheritance on a tour of Europe. In Dublin, he boldly walked into the Gate Theatre claiming to be a famous Broadway actor. Whether they believed him or not, he soon found himself performing onstage. Returning to the States, it's during a performance of Romeo and Juliet that Orson caught the eye of John Hausmann, who worked with the Federal Theatre Project's Negro Theatre Unit in New York. Ah, yes, you may recall the WPA's many arts-related projects back in episode 175.

• 15:13Greg Jackson?

  Well, Orson blew the top off New York's theatre scene with an adaptation of Macbeth, featuring a black cast and replacing Scottish witchcraft with Haitian voodoo. By 1937, he and his company had acquired their own stage and named it the Mercury Theatre, after a magazine that happened to be in the room at the time. Meanwhile, Orson made a pretty penny on the radio with shows like The March of Time and as the voice of noir detective The Shadow. If you don't know the answer yourself, ask an older relative sometime. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Without missing a beat, they'll probably respond: "The Shadow knows."

• 16:01Greg Jackson?

  Combining theater and radio, Orson then made a deal to produce radio dramas for CBS under the Mercury Theater banner, adapting classic literature into one-hour radio plays. Ah, that brings us to our tale. It's under these circumstances that Howard Koch ends up with the task of adapting H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds about a Martian invasion in early 20th-century England into a radio play about a Martian invasion in New Jersey and New York in 1938. After a week of sleepless nights struggling with the script and working with Jack Hausman and others from Mercury, Howard finally manages to land a script that meets Orson's strict expectations for drama.

• 16:44Greg Jackson?

  With a finished script, several rehearsals under their belt, and no real hopes for their Halloween broadcast, the Mercury Theater was ready to bring Martians to earth. Little did they know the outsized impact their creative work would have nationwide. So without further ado, let's go back to the start of this night, and this time, rather than listen with John and Estelle Paltz, let's go into the studio to watch the performance. And remember, what you're about to witness is a broadcast of fiction.

• 17:26Greg Jackson?

  It's seconds before 8:00 p.m., October 30, 1938. We're in Studio One on the 20th floor of the Columbia Broadcasting System's 24-story white brick skyscraper at 485 Madison Avenue in New York City. Choking down a glass of pineapple juice, the evening star, the 23-year-old handsome and haggard actor Orson Welles, steps up to his podium and dons his headphones. In less than a minute, he'll be doing what he was born to do: perform. With the sleeves rolled up, on his sweat-soaked dress shirt, his eyes dart across the script on his music stand one last time. The crew runs cables around the microphones facing the ten Mercury Theater actors below Orson.

• 18:11Greg Jackson?

  They warm their voices and ready their sound effects right next to the music conductor, Bernard Herman, as he warms up his twenty-seven-piece orchestra. With the countdown beginning, Orson signals to their announcer, Dan Seymour, to start. He steps up to the large black microphone marked "CBS", takes a deep breath, and kicks off this radio drama.

• 18:34Speaker 03

  The Columbia Broadcasting System and affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the air in "The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells.

• 19:05Speaker 03

  Ladies and gentlemen, the director of the Mercury Theater and star of these broadcasts, Orson Welles.

• 19:10Speaker 04

  We know now that in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's, and yet as mortal as his own. We know now that as human beings visited themselves about their various concerns, they were scrutinized and studied. Yet across an immense ethereal gulf, minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle, intellects vast, cool, and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.

• 19:57Speaker 03

  We take you now to the Meridian Room in the Hotel Park Plaza in downtown New York, where you will be entertained by the music of Raymond Riquelme and his orchestra.

• 20:21Speaker 03

  Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News. At twenty minutes before eight Central Time, Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars. The spectroscope indicates the gas to be hydrogen and moving toward the Earth with a northward velocity. We now return you to the music of Ramon Rachele, playing for you in the Meridian Room of the Park Plaza Hotel situated in downtown New York.

• 21:19Greg Jackson?

  The radio drama continues in this way. A short piece of music plays, until it's interrupted by a special news bulletin announcing the discovery of astronomical disturbances on Mars. And, oh, is it realistic. It's easy to see how a listener, not really paying attention, or perhaps someone just coming to the program while mindlessly doing some dial twisting, could mistake this for a typical music program getting interrupted by real breaking news. The radio drama carries on, as the newsman introduces two characters with more information coming in about the explosions on Mars. The first of these live radio reporters is Carl Phillips, who's sent to Princeton, New Jersey, to interview eminent astronomer Professor Richard Pearson.

• 22:05Greg Jackson?

  While Professor Pearson is happy to explain that there is no life on Mars, the two are suddenly interrupted by more news that a large meteorite has crashed at the nearby town of Grover's Mill, New Jersey. The two men are able to travel the eleven miles in the space of a music break, where they are ready to investigate this odd occurrence further.

• 22:25Speaker 03

  We take you now to Grover's Mill, New Jersey.

• 22:30Speaker 01

  Ladies and gentlemen, this is Carl Phillips again, out at the Wilmouth Farm, Grover's Mill, New Jersey. I wish I could convey the atmosphere, the background of this fantastic scene. Hundreds of cars are parked in a field and back of us, and the police are trying to rope off the roadway leading into the farm, but it's no use. They're breaking right through. Cars' headlights throw an enormous spotlight on the pit where the object's half-buried.

• 22:55Speaker 03

  Colonial shape.

• 22:56Speaker 01

  Just a minute, something's happening. Ladies and gentlemen, this is terrific. This end of this thing is beginning to flake off. The top is beginning to rotate like a screw and this thing must be hollow.

• 23:07Speaker 03

  He's moving! Look at that! Keep that there, keep that, I tell ya! Keep those men back! Keep that there, keep those idiots back!

• 23:17Speaker 01

  Big off! The top's loose! Look out there! Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most terrifying thing I've ever witnessed. Wait a minute. Someone crawling out of a hole. Something, I can see tearing out of that black hole two luminous discs of the eyes. It might be a face, might be almost a...

• 23:50Speaker 03

  We are bringing you an eyewitness account of what's happening on the Wilmouth Farm, Grover's Mill, New Jersey.

• 24:06Speaker 03

  We now return you to Carl Phillips at Grover's Mill.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  Ladies and gent- my, ah. Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, here I am, back of a stone wall that joins Mr. Wilmouth's garden. From here, I get a sweep of the whole scene. I'll give you every detail, as long as I can talk and as long as I can see.

• 24:24Speaker 03

  More state police have arrived. They're drawing up a cordon in front of the pit. About thirty of them. No need to push the crowd back now. They're willing to keep their distance. The captain's conferring with someone. Captain and two policemen advance with something in their hands. I can see it now. It's a white hex gift tied to a pole. Flag of truce. If those creatures know what that means, what anything means. Wait a minute, something's happening. Humped shape is rising out of the pit. I can make out a small beam of light against a mirror.

• 24:58Speaker 03

  What's that? There's a jet of flame springing from the mirror and it leaps right at the advancing men. It strikes them head on. Lord, they're turning into flames! Now the whole field's caught by the woods of fire. The death tanks, tanks for the automobiles spreading everywhere. Coming this way now, about twenty yards to my right.

• 25:17Greg Jackson?

  The whole studio sits in silence as Orson's pregnant pause commands attention, letting the airwaves go deadly, shockingly silent. While listeners across the nation, like a stellar pulse, are certain they've heard Carl Phillips's last words, Orson continues to hold silence for a full six seconds before letting the actor Carl Frank continue the tale. And oh, do his words leave listeners in suspense.

• 25:42Speaker 03

  Ladies and gentlemen, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are unable to continue the broadcast from Grover's Mill. Evidently, there's some difficulty with our field transmission. However, we will return to that point at the earliest opportunity.

• 25:56Speaker 03

  You are listening to a CBS presentation of Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the Air in an original dramatization of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. The performance will continue after a brief intermission. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.

• 26:26Greg Jackson?

  It's no surprise that listeners nationwide are reeling from the apparent death of Carl Phillips. The actor who plays the radio newsman, Frank Reddick, had prepared for his role by listening to a recording of the actual broadcast of the crashing of the Hindenburg Zeppelin, which also happened in New Jersey just a year ago, in 1937. But now, in Studio One, actor Carl Frank brings the audience back from the most terrifying piano interlude of their lives. In his role as an unnamed newsman, he announces the death of on-the-ground reporter Carl Phillips. He then shares news that the state militia is launching a counter-strike.

• 27:08Greg Jackson?

  And then, as Captain Lansing of the Signal Corps attacks with 7,000 men, the radio audience listens with rapt attention as this... this cylinder suddenly grows taller than the trees. Captain Lansing responds by calling for a spotlight. But then, it's nothing but silence. And at this point, our in-studio newsman returns with horrible news.

• 27:32Speaker 03

  Ladies and gentlemen, I have a grave announcement to make. Incredible as it may seem, both the observations of science and the evidence of our eyes lead to the inescapable assumption that those strange beings who landed in the Jersey farmlands tonight are the vanguard of an invading army from the planet Mars.

• 27:51Speaker 03

  The battle which took place tonight at Grover Mills has ended in one of the most startling defeats ever suffered by an army in modern times. 7,000 men armed with rifles and machine guns pitted against the single fighting machine of the invaders from Mars. 120 known survivors. The rest strewn over the battle area from Grover's Mill to Plainsboro, crushed and trampled to death under the metal feet of the monster, or burned to cinders by its heat ray. Martial law prevails throughout New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.

• 28:22Speaker 03

  At this time, we take you to Washington for a special broadcast on the national emergency. The Secretary of the Interior.

• 28:30Speaker 03

  Citizens of the nation, I shall not try to conceal the gravity of the situation that confronts the country,

• 28:39Speaker 03

  nor the concern of your government in protecting the lives and property of its people. However, I wish to impress upon you, private citizens and public officials, all of you, the urgent need of calm and resourceful action. Blacing our faith in God, we must continue the performance of our duties, each and every one of us, so that we may confront this destructive adversary with a nation united, courageous, and consecrated to the preservation of human supremacy on this earth. I thank you.

• 29:23Greg Jackson?

  The military responds to the advancing Martians with an artillery attack. Listening in, audiences hear the 22nd Field artillery score a direct hit, only to have the Martians switch to spreading a thick, choking black smoke that, even with their gas masks, leaves the artillerymen coughing until they just go quiet. From the top of the broadcasting building in New York City, our unnamed newsman reports on the approaching Martians as New York evacuates the hopeless situation. As he reports:

• 29:55Speaker 03

  No more defenses. Our army is wiped out. Artillery, Air Force, everything wiped out.

• 30:07Greg Jackson?

  As more reports come in across the country of additional cylinders falling, smoke spreads across the Big Apple, killing everyone in its path. As it comes for our reporter, there's no one left to cut to. The only sounds are those of people in terror. A ham radio breaks the silence. Hopelessly, a voice asks across the quiet airwaves: Is there anyone on the air?

• 30:33Speaker 03

  And, uh, anyone?

• 30:38Greg Jackson?

  We then get another reminder that this is just a play, not a real story. Some hear this message, others are already on the run. Whether they're listening or not, the rest of the radio drama belongs to Orson. Coming back to the role of Professor Richard Pearson, the astronomer who managed to survive the attack at Grover's Mill, and now relates his experience through a diary.

• 31:01Speaker 04

  As I set down these notes on paper,

• 31:05Speaker 04

  I'm obsessed by the thought that I may be the last living man on Earth.

• 31:10Speaker 04

  I've been hiding in this empty house near Grover's Mill, a small island of daylight cut off by the black smoke from the rest of the world. All that happened before the arrival of these monstrous creatures in the world now seems part of another life.

• 31:28Speaker 04

  My wife,

• 31:30Speaker 04

  my colleagues, my students, my books,

• 31:34Speaker 04

  my observatory, my...

• 31:39Speaker 04

  My world. Where are they?

• 31:44Speaker 04

  Writing down my daily life, I tell myself I shall preserve human history between the dark covers of this little book that was meant to record the movements of the stars, but to write, I must live, and to live, I must eat.

• 31:59Speaker 04

  Presently, with an odd feeling of being watched, I caught sight of something crouching in a doorway. I made a step towards it. It rose up and became a man.

• 32:11Speaker 04

  A man armed with a large knife. Stop!

• 32:16Speaker 04

  Where do you come from? I come from...

• 32:21Speaker 04

  From many places.

• 32:24Speaker 04

  A long time ago, from Princeton. Princeton, huh?

• 32:29Speaker 04

  That's near Grover's Mill. Yes.

• 32:32Speaker 04

  Grover's Mill.

• 32:37Speaker 05

  There's no food here. This is my country, all this end of town down the river, there's only food for one.

• 32:44Speaker 04

  Where were you? You're in a uniform.

• 32:45Speaker 05

  Yeah, what's left of it. I was in the militia, National Guard. That's good. There wasn't any war, any more than there's war between men and ants.

• 32:54Speaker 04

  Yes, but we're eatable ants. What is there left?

• 32:58Speaker 05

  Life, that's what. I wanna live. Yeah, and so do you. We're not gonna be exterminated. And I don't mean to be caught either. Chained and fattened and bred like an ox.

• 33:12Speaker 04

  What you gonna do?

• 33:13Speaker 05

  I got it all figured out. We'll live underground. I've been thinking about the sewers. Under New York, there're miles and miles of them. The main ones, they're big enough for anybody. And there're cellars, vaults, underground storerooms, railway tunnels, subways.

• 33:31Speaker 05

  You begin to see, huh? We got a bunch of strong men together. No weakness. That rubbish, out. We gotta make safe places for us to stay in, see? Get all the books we can. Science books. That's where men like you come in, see? We raid the museums. We'll even spy on the Martians.

• 33:54Speaker 05

  May not be so much we have to learn before...

• 33:58Speaker 05

  Just imagine this. Four or five of their own fighting machines suddenly start off. Heat rays right and left, not a Martian in 'em. Not a Martian in 'em, see? But men. Men who've learned the way how. May even be in our time. Gee. Imagine having one of them lovely things with a heat ray wide and free. We'd turn it on Martians, we'd turn it on men. We'd bring everybody down on their knees.

• 34:26Speaker 04

  That's your plan?

• 34:27Speaker 05

  Yeah. You. Me.

• 34:31Speaker 04

  You're more of a miss. We don't know world. I see. Hey.

• 34:38Speaker 04

  Hey, what's the matter? Where you going? Not to your world.

• 34:45Speaker 04

  Bye stranger.

• 34:49Speaker 04

  Well, after parting with the artillerymen, I came at last to the Holland Tunnel, entered that silent tube. Anxious to know the fate of the great city on the other side of the Hudson. Cautiously, I came out of the tunnel, made my way up Canal Street.

• 35:04Speaker 04

  Suddenly, my eyes were attracted to the immense flock of blackbirds that... And there before my eyes, stark and silent,

• 35:14Speaker 04

  lay the Martians with the hungry birds pecking and tearing brown shreds of flesh and their dead bodies.

• 35:22Speaker 04

  Later, when their bodies were examined in laboratories, it was found that they were killed by the putrefactive and diseased bacteria against which their systems were unprepared.

• 35:34Speaker 04

  Plain, after all, man's defenses had failed by the humblest thing that God, his wisdom, has put upon this earth.

• 35:44Speaker 04

  May be that the destruction of the Martians is only a reprieve to them and not to us.

• 35:52Speaker 04

  The future ordained, perhaps?

• 36:13Greg Jackson?

  While Orson isn't fully aware of what his broadcast has done, he's got an idea. CBS executive Davidson Taylor has already tried to pull the plug on the broadcast after learning that their switchboards have been overwhelmed with phone calls to the studio and hearing tales of mass hysteria in reaction to the broadcast. Nonetheless, show producer Jack Hausman managed to fend off the executives, allowing the show to finish. But neither of the Mercury Theater actors nor its crew are ready for the restless night in weeks that await them. Similarly, Americans as a whole are not ready for the restless years that await them. They don't yet know that the terrors of war that they just experienced in a science fiction

• 36:56Greg Jackson?

  radio drama will soon return in the years ahead, when they'll listen to reports of real American soldiers, sailors, pilots, and marines, fighting in the largest, most technologically advanced war the world has ever seen. Not a war of the worlds, but certainly a world war.

• 37:14Greg Jackson?

  But that, of course, is a story, or rather, the story to come in following episodes. So for now, I'll defer to our brilliant guest storyteller, Orson Welles, as he signs off from our Halloween broadcast. Take it away, Orson.

• 37:30Speaker 04

  This is Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen. Out of character, to assure you that the War of the Worlds has no further significance than as the holiday offering it was intended to be: the Mercury Theater's own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying "Boo!"

• 37:48Speaker 04

  So goodbye, everybody, and remember, please, for the next day or so, the terrible lesson you learned tonight: that grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody's there, that was no Martian, it's Halloween.

• 38:11Greg Jackson?

  History That Doesn't Suck is created and hosted by me, Greg Jackson, with guest performances by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater. Episode researched and written by Greg "Not-a-Marshall" Jackson and human scum Will King. War of the Worlds script written by Howard Koch and based on the novel H.G. Wells. Production by Airship. Sound design by Molly Baugh. Audio editing by Mohammed Shazadeh. Theme music composed by Greg Jackson. Arrangement and additional composition by Lindsey Graham with Airship. For bibliography of all primary and secondary sources consulted in writing this episode, visit htdspodcast.com.

• 38:57Greg Jackson?

  HTDS is supported by fans at HTDSpodcast.com/membership. My gratitude to you kind souls for providing funding to help us keep going, thank you. And a special thanks to our patrons whose monthly gift puts them at producer status. Adam Goran, Ahmed Chapman, Amy and Ross Hinton, Andrew Nissen, Andrew Sherwin, Anna M. Huta, Art Lang, Baby Nico, Bob Stinnet, Bonnie Brooks, Ryan Gavigan, Ryan Boils, Ryan Goodson, Bruce Hibbert, Kayden Howitz, Charles Clendenin, Charles Starkey, Charlie Majes, Christopher Merchant, Christopher Lyle, Christopher Pullman, Christopher Young, Cody Brown, Colleen Martin, Colin Ferris Pennington, Connor Hogan, Craig Burhost, Dan G., Daniel

• 39:38Greg Jackson?

  Beecham, Daniel L. Connor, Darren Chambers, Farrell the Kid Lovell, David Rifkin, Dean Heiser, Geronte Spencer, Donald Moore, Eli Edwards, Elizabeth Chris Janson, Ellen Stewart, Ernesto Franco, Ernie Lomaster, Ethan Lowery, Ethan Thompson, G2303, Jeffrey Nelson, George J. Sherwood, Gareth Griffin, Gina Johnson, Gordon Garwood, Henry Brunges, Holly Hamilton, Jake Gilbreth, James Bledsoe, James Blue, James Schlender, Jarrett Zangora, Jeffrey Moots, Jennifer Minjioni, Jennifer Ruth, Jessica Poppin, Joe Dobis, John Booby, John Frugal Dugal, John Huber, John Messmer, John Aliberos, John Riedlewicz, John Schaefer,

• 40:18Greg Jackson?

  Jonathan Schaaf, Jordan Corbett, Joseph Curry, Joshua Steiner, Julian Wright, Justin Tolman, Karen Bartholomew, Carl Freedman, Carl Romer, Ken Culver, Kim R., Kimberly Pruitt, Kristen Pratt, Kyle Decker, L. Paul Goringer, Laura Norman, Lawrence Newbauer, Linda Cunningham, Mark D. Worrell, Mark Ellis, Marcia Smith, Mason Glenn, Matt Siegel, Michael Longest, Michael Sullivan, Nick Cafrell, Nicholas Powell, Owen W. Sedlak, Paul Huganrock, Philip May, Randy Keen, Rich Ruck, Rick Brown, Rob Dravovic, Robert Shelton, Rock Gay, Ryan Fogleman, Sam Holtzman, Sarah Prescott, Sarah Traywood, Scott Hurst, Shane Smith, Shannon

• 40:58Greg Jackson?

  Hoagland, Sharon Feasen, Sean Baines, Sean Collins, Stacy Ritter, Steve Williams, The Creepy Girl, Thomas Churchill, Thomas Matthew Edwards, Thomas Sabbath, Tim and Sarah Turner, Todd Curran, Tom Bostafa, Travis Cox, Walter M. Ames, Wesley McKee, William Durham, William Curry, William Thompson, and Zach Jackson. Join me in two weeks, or I'd like to tell you a story.