I have heard it. Edger Burgan was quite the voice actor and the show is a lot of fun. If you can find a copy at your local library, I recommend listening to a few shows.
@@hazelmoore4754 Anyone that thinks that a ventriloquist doing a radio show can't use their ability to change their voice and play different characters is probably an idiot that brings up politics for no other reason than to insult people that think differently than they do. I'd rather be a trumper, as you put it, than a liberal that shuns thinking outside the accepted norms of the party lines.
Bergen in his time was the #1 radio star in the country. Like Jeff Dunholm today. Or Jimmy Nelson with Farfel the Dog in the 1950’s for Nestle’s Quik. You KNOW that the guy is really doing all the talking but you suspend your sense of disbelief and focus on the dummy because the manipulation of the dummy seems so real and the dummy gets the best and funniest lines.
It happened twenty years before I was born, but my much older sister was 2, and my parents were in their early twenties. They heard from a neighbor what was "happening" and rushed to the radio. Of course, they tuned in just as the dramatized "news" broadcast was playing. They bought it completely, my mom was crying that my sister "hadn't had a chance to grow up", and they began rushing to load up the car. My father apparently planned to take his little family to a "cave" somewhere to hide from the Martians. My aunt, many miles away, was meanwhile off to church to "pray". There was definitely a panic. How widespread it was, I can't say, but it definitely alarmed my parents and my aunt. I don't remember my mother telling me how exactly they found out it was a radio drama, but eventually of course they did, and never actually got in the car to leave. My mom was still mad at Orson Wells for decades. lol
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
@@wizardoffrobozz It’s nice to see someone else using @name under a main comment. I wish others would, because if I don’t see my name after a reply notification, I’m much more likely to miss it, and yet, it could be a comment under “my” post! YT needs to fix this!
There may not have been a nationwide panic. But, my dad was 6 years old in 1938 and listening to the broadcast with his family in Philadelphia. He told me, that lots of the neighbors on his street were standing outside and looking up at the sky, apparently thinking it might be real.
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
There's literally a video from AT&T discussing the ridiculous amounts of calls they were having to deal with. It wasn't "just a few calls in New Jersey."
This War of the Worlds stunt was done a number of times over the years since Welles' day. The most tragic was the one in Ecuador on Radio Quito. It was so convincing that even the authorities fell for it and a few people died in the panic. I also heard a podcast showing that modern newscasters learn a lot from Orwelles' War of the Worlds about how to use specific kinds of music and atmosphere and how anchors can change their tone to grab the audience's attention so that not only will they pay attention to the current news but also through commercial breaks. It's all carefully orchestrated to keep ratings up.
I had to listen to this in Radio class in high school. It is the most fascinating thing to listen to if you've never heard it. It's incredible!!! One of the reasons I got into broadcasting!
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
I asked my mother about the broadcast as she, my father and three of my sisters were living in the New Jersey area at the time. My father was a cross country truck driver, so my mother was home with three children under the age of six years old. She said that she heard the disclaimers at the beginning and during the broadcast. But she said that it was so realistic, that she and my sisters went into hiding under the beds! Now, my mother was a bit of a storyteller, so I took her account of the broadcast with a grain of salt!
Months ago I would have agreed with you. I used to think Simon was what we call in America a "stuffed shirt" - all work and no play. Now I find your comment hilarious 😂😂😂 Because I just got finished watching a recent "Business Blaze" video of his. This guy has multiple personalities!!
While I am not old enough to have listened to the broadcast my close to retirement English teacher was a teenager at the time. To make some money for college she worked part time as a telephone operator for the local phone company. She vividly recalled that all of a sudden the switchboard went nuts with people frantically calling others trying to find out if they were safe. The local movie theater was swamped with calls by parents wanting the kids home. She recounted she listened in on several calls and most of the callers seemed to believe the Martins had landed. So take that for what it is worth.
@@Teri Anne, thank you for sharing this! 🛸 There’s an AT&T interview that was done in 1988 with switchboard operators, and they seem to confirm what your teacher said.
I know it was believed by some folks, my grandmother's parents bought it. She loved to tell how frightened they were until her older brother explained it to them.
So glad I get to have lunch with a new video. My wife and I absolutely love all the folks that work on this channel and Simons smooth silky voice is melts us both and allows us to relax after working all morning!
He forgot to mention that because of that other comedy radio show people tuned into, it caused listeners to tune into the broadcast late and miss the first disclaimer. Keep in mind the broadcast said this was a work of fiction before the show started, after the attack simulation, and at the end. So people came in during the attack on Grover’s Mill. Now obviously this didn’t cause mass panic…but let’s face it WE WANT TO BELIEVE :D I listen to the broadcast every year to end my Halloween and I love reading the comments of people telling stories about the broadcast that they learned from their grandparents. If you havn’t heard the broadcast, check it out. Despite its age, it’s still really really good.
If you've never listened to one of the old broadcasts they are wonderful! My dad grew up listening to The Shadow and such in front of his dad's big radio (which has been fully restored and is sitting in my living room right now). I grew up hearing all the stories and one-year on one of my monthly trips to visit my relatives about 5 hours away I went to the library and checked out copies of old time Radio shows and listened to them on the way there. It really transports you there as your mind invents everything much like reading a book.
I think you missed the entire reasoning behind WHY there WAS mass panic that spread throughout parts of the country. 0ctober 30, 1938 fell on a Sunday. The broadcast began at 8PM, when most folks were still attending church services. Because most people were at church, they missed the introduction where Wells announced it was a fictional play. When people finally did tune it, all they heard was the heart of the story, about an alien invasion. This is what initially caused the panic amongst people. The panic essentially spread by word-of-mouth, neighbor to neighbor, with large masses of people buying into the hysteria. Most people heard only snippets of the broadcast, not realizing it was a playwright. So yes, there was mass panic in certain areas of the country. Perhaps you should dig a little deeper next time before posting a video that misses the entire synopsis of the storyline and how it came to be?
😀 The skill came more in his skill as a voice actor and creating fun characters to interact with him. Edgar Burgan was his own straight man. I have listened to it and it is a lot of fun. If you can find a copy at your local library, I recommend listening to a few shows.
You are wrong!! It might not have been wide spread panic, but my mother, her parents and a few others who lived in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and farmlands did believe something was going on for a couple of hours until they found out it was a radio broadcast. My mother was just 9yo at the time. 🏳️🌈🐻🌈🏳️🌈🐻🌈🏳️🌈🐻🌈
I love hearing this, being born in 1970 in Tasmania Australia all I ever knew was the occasional vague description on "oh yeah, war of the worlds caused a lot of panic" end of subject for 5 years where it may pop up in conversation . Mostly when the brilliant brilliant war of the worlds musical version became popular,, so I never really thought about it. Lover of the truth here 👍👍👍👍😀💞.
It has only been debunked in the past few years. The first thing I ever saw was an NPR (National Public Radio) article which went into quite a lot of detail about how exaggerated the whole thing was. Welles loved the attention, I think.
@@ferociousgumby There at too many personal stories from people back then saying there really was panic. Are they all lying? What would their motive be? And of course today’s media would want to debunk the message that Americans are easily fooled by whatever they present.
1930s - It has to be true, I heard it on the radio! 1950s - It has to be true, I saw it on TV! 1970s - It has to be true, my favorite music artist said it! 1990s - It has to be true, I saw it on the internet! 2010s - It has to be true, my favorite internet influencer said it!
In the 1970s, ABC broadcast a movie about people overreacting to this broadcast. I knew a man who was concerned by the show and went next door to the pastor's house to talk to him about it.
We talked about this in a Mass Media and Society class I took in college. It’s fascinating how suggestible people can be, whether they believed broadcast or the news media hype.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, when I was in high school, a local rock station's AM show did a bit on how the army corps of engineers was going to "drain the bay, to clean it", it kept going back and forth between the DJ and the newsroom for "updates", I thought it was hilarious, but I got to school and everyone was planning to cut to go see the empty bay,and the legs of the golden gate bridge I couldn't believe it!, kinda scary how gullible people can be huh?
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
I knew, before he appeared on-screen, the wondeful Simon was our narrator. Simon, you make all your offerings can't-miss/don't miss, with your excellent diction and, perfect tone. I found this piece fascinating; cheers!(from this All Saints' Day baby.)
Dr ROLFCOPTER! Peter Brough was the ventriloquist and, by all accounts, not a terribly good one - the radio was ideal for his "skills". His dummy was Archie Andrews. The programme was called Educating Archie and every week featured a celebrity guest.
A similar broadcast was made in, I forget, Mexico or somewhere in South America, and people really did panic and afterwards the radio station was attacked by angry crowds.
Crisp evenings demand ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
@@RealSaintB So Hunter is a good bloke, just misrepresented? Seems unlikely, or as likely as the rabid anti-Trump bollocks. Honestly, you Americans are amusing.
@@owenshebbeare2999 I never called him anything. I implied that newspapers picked up a story about Hunter Biden from the New York Post which is a tabloid and gave it the pretense of being a serious story. The story about the laptop is as much fiction as the War of the Worlds panic.
Hi Simon! Just a friendly correction: regarding the Catholic tradition is to celebrate "All Saints' Day on NOV 1. So the day BEFORE was known as (Hallowed eveving) thus the name HALLOWEEN (Hollowed evening). Love all your vids. Subbed to all your channels!
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
"best known and truly the first science fiction writer" Uhh... are we forgetting about Mary Shelly, the actual first science fiction writer. She only wrote Frankenstine, around 80 years before Wells first novel, The Time Machine, but were not counting her because she’s a woman right? Don’t get me wrong, I love Wells and I’ve read pretty much all of his work, but he was not the first sci-fi writer. Not to mention Lovecraft was first published about 5 years before Wells. You could also argue The Chemical Wedding (published in 1616, has had multiple re-writers) was the first. In terms of quantity, quality, and cultural impact, Wells could be within the top 5, but he was not the first. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Sincerely, A Science book nerd.
My dad and his brother were listening to war of the worlds when their sister came home from work. She stood there and listened for a minute and asked them about the martians...they told her to be quiet and listen...soon she was out the door warning everybody around them. She was not the only one who ran around warning everybody. They lived near a small town in southern Ontario Canada. Many people who were listening also thought it was true. Many of them didn't seem to realize it was just a story. It wasn't just one place that was mentioned in the story. During it, they kept talking to different cities in the story that seem to get zapped and no longer communicated like they were all dead, or their communication devices had been disabled by the martians. There were a lot of people who thought it was true. Many people ever read science fiction...in fact a much greater % of north American people didn't read. I suggest you do your homework before you present stories like this. I generally really like your stuff but sometimes they are out to lunch.
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
My favorite parts are when the martians first use their heat rays at like 17 minutes and the end “if someone knocks on your door and no one there , it’s Halloween”
Crisp evenings demand ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
Off topic: So how did that popular radio show presented by a ventriloquist - & presumably his dummy! - on a competing radio channel [referred to as being on at the same time as the original WOTW broadcast] work exactly?!!🧐🤷🏻♀️
Simon - As far as I'm aware, the American pronunciation (and most commonly accepted one amongst actual practicing pagans of today) for Samhain is "SOW-an, where "sow" rhymes with "cow," and the accent is on the first syllable. :-) I've been a practicing witch for 30 years, and I've never heard it pronounced the way you do. But again, I'm American and so are my fellow local practitioners, so there ya go. ;-) P.S. Samhain, pronounced like it's spelled, is a killer old-school punk band. ;-)
My father was a young teenager when this was broadcast and his father and family we're outside looking up in the sky see if anything was coming down in our family there was just concern until the broadcast was over but from my understanding there were many people that panicked in the great city of St Louis thinking that and a Armada of martians we're soon to descend on the great city of St Louis you also got to remember Hit Radio broadcasts back in the day could be literally listen to throughout the whole country to this day I live in Florida but I can listen to St Louis Cardinal baseball St Louis Blues hockey on a clear evening on my car radio just tuning in to KMOX AM radio which was one of the largest Broadcasting centers of the nation
Rob Cunningham Well, they didn't have TV. He did vadeville and films, so his characters were already a known quantity for radio. He did eventually do some TV as well.
That radio broadcast was an absolutely brilliant piece of work and well worth a bit of panic. If anything you really know how to put the dampers on any story, don't you. This is one you could have left alone, Orson Welles was brilliant.
Since nobody has mentioned it yet, I'll add that the movie BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION uses Grover's Corner New Jersey, the fictional town Welles set the landing in, as an important plot point in its story.
Crisp evenings demand ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
If you want the truth, go directly to the source. AT&T operators from NY to Cally were inundated with calls from panicked people! Orson Wells did an Oscar deserving performance that night. You have to listen to these ladies to understand the true terror.
Hi, don’t mind me. Just looking into what I believed was a joke with my class assignment… This truly is the first time that something discussed in English class has caught my attention in this way. 😂😂😂
Thanks a lot pal, I was just about to try and get a book published about the hysteria caused by the War of The Worlds broadcast. I spent 12 years doing research on the topic, THANKS A LOT OL' CHAP
you may want to get your facts straight Simon. AT&T switchboard operators have attested to a completely different response to the radio program. switchboards were COMPLETELY lit with callers trying to contact loved ones to see if they were still alive, and as severe as to say that they were going to kill themselves and family members before the martians had the chance. this is coming from women who were ACTUALLY THERE!!! there are other testimonials confirming similar panic and fright. again, from people who were there. you could only imagine what would happen present day if a realistically orchestrated threat had gone viral on the internet!
I have always wondered that myself. I was a fan of Murphy Brown starring his daughter so I have over the years read articles about her father. Including the fact she says she had a sibling rivalry going with the dummy! I have seen him performing in old movies and a few old tv shows. However when I read he had had a long running radio show featuring Charlie I remember thinking that can't be right, that would be stupid. However I heard a few of the shows on a radio station featuring old radio programs and can confirm he had conversations with the dummy. I still think it is stupid. :)
The Uluru He was quote good in vaudeville and film. The character he created was well known, so it was natural he went to the mass market. My parents had an old casette with radio shows on it. Bergen was quite fun to listen to, and sometimes quite dirty.
I went trick or treating back in the day. We went to one apartment and an old man opened the door. We yelled "Trigger treat!" and the old man said "I have no trigger and no treat." and slammed the door. We ran away scared. I was 11 years old.
Part of why Orson Wells, no relation to H.G., changed the setting to the USA was it made it more practical for the actors to have US accents. Ever heard somebody say, "Jolly Old Chap" in a Brooklyn, New York accent? Not convincing. Not convincing at all. That was long before US and UK broadcast outlets exchanged actors, as in the Monty Pythons going on Saturday Night Live.
I dislike the "modern" interpretations of this cultural event, that there wasn't a panic. Like we can look back across more than a half century and know what the zeitgeist of the time was.
You've got a lot of facts wrong here. Outline of History was two volumes in its first book form, and was serialized in magazine format for months before that. The warning for War of the Worlds was not broadcast three times but once. Welles withheld one other, and there were only supposed to be two.
Most indiviulas, tooked it seriously, thoughts, they did panicked..so terrified..it sounded so..real..too..me, is marvelous he's, explained..too the reporter's, so..he's, did now..peoples, no longers fears..
The people of Grovers Mills went out and shot up water towers, you’d think that the water towers weren’t exactly moving, might have clued in that there were no Martians and you don’t shoot unarmed water towers. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Was anyone admitted to hospital as a result of being attacked by martians though? And didn't they know that the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one? Oh yes Simon, the m is not pronounce in Samhaim so it sounds a bit like sawnn or maybe sownn. I believe in America the second syllable is more like winn than the British.
I read once that the trident can be used to illustrate the origin of Halloween. One prong being for the pagan origin, another for the Christian dogma origin, and the other for the American origin.
My grandmother took it literally and people in their neighborhood were running 4 the hills it's in this person option that there was no panic I say there was hitler was knocking at the door and people thought we couldn't be bombed then pearl harbor
I'm more fascinated by the idea of a ventriloquist having a radio act.
I wasn't about to comment the same haha. Feels like cheating..
I have heard it. Edger Burgan was quite the voice actor and the show is a lot of fun. If you can find a copy at your local library, I recommend listening to a few shows.
Anyone that listens to a ventriloquist on the radio is probably a Trumper..😂😂
@@hazelmoore4754 Anyone that thinks that a ventriloquist doing a radio show can't use their ability to change their voice and play different characters is probably an idiot that brings up politics for no other reason than to insult people that think differently than they do. I'd rather be a trumper, as you put it, than a liberal that shuns thinking outside the accepted norms of the party lines.
Bergen in his time was the #1 radio star in the country.
Like Jeff Dunholm today.
Or Jimmy Nelson with Farfel the Dog in the 1950’s for Nestle’s Quik.
You KNOW that the guy is really doing all the talking but you suspend your sense of disbelief and focus on the dummy because the manipulation of the dummy seems so real and the dummy gets the best and funniest lines.
It happened twenty years before I was born, but my much older sister was 2, and my parents were in their early twenties. They heard from a neighbor what was "happening" and rushed to the radio. Of course, they tuned in just as the dramatized "news" broadcast was playing. They bought it completely, my mom was crying that my sister "hadn't had a chance to grow up", and they began rushing to load up the car. My father apparently planned to take his little family to a "cave" somewhere to hide from the Martians. My aunt, many miles away, was meanwhile off to church to "pray". There was definitely a panic. How widespread it was, I can't say, but it definitely alarmed my parents and my aunt.
I don't remember my mother telling me how exactly they found out it was a radio drama, but eventually of course they did, and never actually got in the car to leave. My mom was still mad at Orson Wells for decades. lol
Congratulations you were raised by idiots
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
@GrannyGoose Fascinating!! thank you!!!!
@@GrannyGoose, this is a GREAT comment!! Thank you for sharing an inside look at this piece of history!! 🛸
@@wizardoffrobozz
It’s nice to see someone else using @name under a main comment. I wish others would, because if I don’t see my name after a reply notification, I’m much more likely to miss it, and yet, it could be a comment under “my” post! YT needs to fix this!
There may not have been a nationwide panic. But, my dad was 6 years old in 1938 and listening to the broadcast with his family in Philadelphia. He told me, that lots of the neighbors on his street were standing outside and looking up at the sky, apparently thinking it might be real.
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
I asked my father about that as it was broadcast when he was 10 years old. He said he never thought it was real. He did say it was fun.
@pieter pietert Why would you ask such a question? I have no reason to answer it, so I won't.
@pieter pietert close, but not quite. Your grandmother would have been born before WWII, 1940 if she would have been 80.
There's literally a video from AT&T discussing the ridiculous amounts of calls they were having to deal with. It wasn't "just a few calls in New Jersey."
@@Bethany, exactly!! I saw that interview too just a while ago. It was filmed in 1988.
This War of the Worlds stunt was done a number of times over the years since Welles' day. The most tragic was the one in Ecuador on Radio Quito. It was so convincing that even the authorities fell for it and a few people died in the panic. I also heard a podcast showing that modern newscasters learn a lot from Orwelles' War of the Worlds about how to use specific kinds of music and atmosphere and how anchors can change their tone to grab the audience's attention so that not only will they pay attention to the current news but also through commercial breaks. It's all carefully orchestrated to keep ratings up.
And twice in Portugal I believe.
I had to listen to this in Radio class in high school. It is the most fascinating thing to listen to if you've never heard it. It's incredible!!! One of the reasons I got into broadcasting!
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
I asked my mother about the broadcast as she, my father and three of my sisters were living in the New Jersey area at the time. My father was a cross country truck driver, so my mother was home with three children under the age of six years old. She said that she heard the disclaimers at the beginning and during the broadcast. But she said that it was so realistic, that she and my sisters went into hiding under the beds! Now, my mother was a bit of a storyteller, so I took her account of the broadcast with a grain of salt!
I said it before and I'll say it again, the only thing Simon is missing is a pipe and or a glass of Brandy. Well maybe a fireplace. 🤔
Fabulous idea. He should do it.
Simon's next channel: Simon reads Sherlock Holmes
He has a skill and crystal ball on the shelf... He's actually a super villain
Months ago I would have agreed with you. I used to think Simon was what we call in America a "stuffed shirt" - all work and no play.
Now I find your comment hilarious 😂😂😂
Because I just got finished watching a recent "Business Blaze" video of his.
This guy has multiple personalities!!
And Strings
While I am not old enough to have listened to the broadcast my close to retirement English teacher was a teenager at the time. To make some money for college she worked part time as a telephone operator for the local phone company. She vividly recalled that all of a sudden the switchboard went nuts with people frantically calling others trying to find out if they were safe. The local movie theater was swamped with calls by parents wanting the kids home. She recounted she listened in on several calls and most of the callers seemed to believe the Martins had landed. So take that for what it is worth.
@@Teri Anne, thank you for sharing this! 🛸 There’s an AT&T interview that was done in 1988 with switchboard operators, and they seem to confirm what your teacher said.
I know it was believed by some folks, my grandmother's parents bought it.
She loved to tell how frightened they were until her older brother explained it to them.
So glad I get to have lunch with a new video. My wife and I absolutely love all the folks that work on this channel and Simons smooth silky voice is melts us both and allows us to relax after working all morning!
He forgot to mention that because of that other comedy radio show people tuned into, it caused listeners to tune into the broadcast late and miss the first disclaimer.
Keep in mind the broadcast said this was a work of fiction before the show started, after the attack simulation, and at the end. So people came in during the attack on Grover’s Mill.
Now obviously this didn’t cause mass panic…but let’s face it WE WANT TO BELIEVE :D
I listen to the broadcast every year to end my Halloween and I love reading the comments of people telling stories about the broadcast that they learned from their grandparents. If you havn’t heard the broadcast, check it out. Despite its age, it’s still really really good.
I like the impression of an old timey radio newscaster
If you've never listened to one of the old broadcasts they are wonderful! My dad grew up listening to The Shadow and such in front of his dad's big radio (which has been fully restored and is sitting in my living room right now). I grew up hearing all the stories and one-year on one of my monthly trips to visit my relatives about 5 hours away I went to the library and checked out copies of old time Radio shows and listened to them on the way there. It really transports you there as your mind invents everything much like reading a book.
I think you missed the entire reasoning behind WHY there WAS mass panic that spread throughout parts of the country. 0ctober 30, 1938 fell on a Sunday. The broadcast began at 8PM, when most folks were still attending church services. Because most people were at church, they missed the introduction where Wells announced it was a fictional play. When people finally did tune it, all they heard was the heart of the story, about an alien invasion. This is what initially caused the panic amongst people. The panic essentially spread by word-of-mouth, neighbor to neighbor, with large masses of people buying into the hysteria. Most people heard only snippets of the broadcast, not realizing it was a playwright. So yes, there was mass panic in certain areas of the country. Perhaps you should dig a little deeper next time before posting a video that misses the entire synopsis of the storyline and how it came to be?
@3:01, A Ventriloquist act, on the radio...
Ooh, that must take skill.
😀 The skill came more in his skill as a voice actor and creating fun characters to interact with him. Edgar Burgan was his own straight man. I have listened to it and it is a lot of fun. If you can find a copy at your local library, I recommend listening to a few shows.
You are wrong!! It might not have been wide spread panic, but my mother, her parents and a few others who lived in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and farmlands did believe something was going on for a couple of hours until they found out it was a radio broadcast. My mother was just 9yo at the time.
🏳️🌈🐻🌈🏳️🌈🐻🌈🏳️🌈🐻🌈
Both of my parents lived in New Jersey. My mother never listened to the show and my father, who did normally listen to it, hadn't that day.
I love hearing this, being born in 1970 in Tasmania Australia all I ever knew was the occasional vague description on "oh yeah, war of the worlds caused a lot of panic" end of subject for 5 years where it may pop up in conversation . Mostly when the brilliant brilliant war of the worlds musical version became popular,, so I never really thought about it. Lover of the truth here 👍👍👍👍😀💞.
@@Megs, check out some of the comments. I think it was a different story than presented here.
Wow, I had always believed the hype of the Orson Wells broadcast.
Please see my comment above. There was panic... perhaps not as large as some say, but there was a panic alright.
It has only been debunked in the past few years. The first thing I ever saw was an NPR (National Public Radio) article which went into quite a lot of detail about how exaggerated the whole thing was. Welles loved the attention, I think.
@@ferociousgumby
There at too many personal stories from people back then saying there really was panic. Are they all lying? What would their motive be? And of course today’s media would want to debunk the message that Americans are easily fooled by whatever they present.
Old media always hating on new media.
1930s - It has to be true, I heard it on the radio!
1950s - It has to be true, I saw it on TV!
1970s - It has to be true, my favorite music artist said it!
1990s - It has to be true, I saw it on the internet!
2010s - It has to be true, my favorite internet influencer said it!
2021 - (Trumpers) It has to be true, QAnon said it.
In the 1970s, ABC broadcast a movie about people overreacting to this broadcast. I knew a man who was concerned by the show and went next door to the pastor's house to talk to him about it.
What was the movie called
“The Night That Panicked America”.
We talked about this in a Mass Media and Society class I took in college. It’s fascinating how suggestible people can be, whether they believed broadcast or the news media hype.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, when I was in high school, a local rock station's AM show did a bit on how the army corps of engineers was going to "drain the bay, to clean it", it kept going back and forth between the DJ and the newsroom for "updates", I thought it was hilarious, but I got to school and everyone was planning to cut to go see the empty bay,and the legs of the golden gate bridge I couldn't believe it!, kinda scary how gullible people can be huh?
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
@@Lisa, this is great!! 😂
I'm liking this bc you pronounced Samhain properly.
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
I knew, before he appeared on-screen, the wondeful Simon was our narrator. Simon, you make all your offerings can't-miss/don't miss, with your excellent diction and, perfect tone. I found this piece fascinating; cheers!(from this All Saints' Day baby.)
2:50 you should do a video on the time people listened to Ventriloquist act on the radio. Why?
@Dr ROLFCOPTER! But they can't see it. It would just be a guy doing two voices.
@Dr ROLFCOPTER! It's like an audio book of famous paintings.
Dr ROLFCOPTER! Peter Brough was the ventriloquist and, by all accounts, not a terribly good one - the radio was ideal for his "skills". His dummy was Archie Andrews. The programme was called Educating Archie and every week featured a celebrity guest.
A similar broadcast was made in, I forget, Mexico or somewhere in South America, and people really did panic and afterwards the radio station was attacked by angry crowds.
Crisp evenings demand ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
'Samhain' is pronounced 'Sow-Ann', MH in Gaelic is like the W sound in English
Newspapers lied. imagine that
wells must've been a russian agent trying to hack the 1940 election.
Tabloids lied, real newspapers picked up the lie, basically the same way the story about Hunter Biden started
@@RealSaintB So Hunter is a good bloke, just misrepresented? Seems unlikely, or as likely as the rabid anti-Trump bollocks. Honestly, you Americans are amusing.
@@owenshebbeare2999 I never called him anything. I implied that newspapers picked up a story about Hunter Biden from the New York Post which is a tabloid and gave it the pretense of being a serious story. The story about the laptop is as much fiction as the War of the Worlds panic.
The answer to the video title’s question is yes there was. I have no idea where the myth of this being a myth comes from.
Were you there?
One day I decided to listen to “War of the Worlds” and UA-cam recommended the best channel. Horrocraft by GM Danielson. I’ve been hooked since.
Sooo, newspapers made radio more popular by trying to mudsling it. Sounds like the Streisand Effect (before it became named as such).
Hi Simon! Just a friendly correction: regarding the Catholic tradition is to celebrate "All Saints' Day on NOV 1. So the day BEFORE was known as (Hallowed eveving) thus the name HALLOWEEN (Hollowed evening).
Love all your vids. Subbed to all your channels!
Just goes to show, "don't swallow any opinion predigested" still applies today.
I still spell it "Hallowe'en".
Didn't know this channel exists until today. Happy it found me. Good content Simon
I'm actually watching this on October 30th lol
Simon do a biographics on Orson Welles
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
"best known and truly the first science fiction writer" Uhh... are we forgetting about Mary Shelly, the actual first science fiction writer. She only wrote Frankenstine, around 80 years before Wells first novel, The Time Machine, but were not counting her because she’s a woman right? Don’t get me wrong, I love Wells and I’ve read pretty much all of his work, but he was not the first sci-fi writer. Not to mention Lovecraft was first published about 5 years before Wells. You could also argue The Chemical Wedding (published in 1616, has had multiple re-writers) was the first. In terms of quantity, quality, and cultural impact, Wells could be within the top 5, but he was not the first.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
Sincerely,
A Science book nerd.
ya, but Mary Shelly was a female so who cares? men do the important things in life. Women do the dishes ha!
He didn't say for that he was. Tf? Lol
My dad and his brother were listening to war of the worlds when their sister came home from work. She stood there and listened for a minute and asked them about the martians...they told her to be quiet and listen...soon she was out the door warning everybody around them. She was not the only one who ran around warning everybody. They lived near a small town in southern Ontario Canada. Many people who were listening also thought it was true. Many of them didn't seem to realize it was just a story. It wasn't just one place that was mentioned in the story. During it, they kept talking to different cities in the story that seem to get zapped and no longer communicated like they were all dead, or their communication devices had been disabled by the martians. There were a lot of people who thought it was true. Many people ever read science fiction...in fact a much greater % of north American people didn't read. I suggest you do your homework before you present stories like this. I generally really like your stuff but sometimes they are out to lunch.
Time for ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
@@Gary Johnston, 🛸 thank you for sharing this! This story seems to confirm several others I’ve heard in comments under this subject.
Memory is exaggerated with time
Wich is why witness accounts aren't considered evidence
you look fabulous in this new set judging by this one, I'm going to love this channel as much as I do your others!!
My favorite parts are when the martians first use their heat rays at like 17 minutes and the end “if someone knocks on your door and no one there , it’s Halloween”
Makes me wonder what other BS we have been fed through the years. Great episode, thank you!
Crisp evenings demand ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
Thank you for bringing the facts of this event
Intriguing arrangement of books in the background.
Off topic: So how did that popular radio show presented by a ventriloquist - & presumably his dummy! - on a competing radio channel [referred to as being on at the same time as the original WOTW broadcast] work exactly?!!🧐🤷🏻♀️
Simon - As far as I'm aware, the American pronunciation (and most commonly accepted one amongst actual practicing pagans of today) for Samhain is "SOW-an, where "sow" rhymes with "cow," and the accent is on the first syllable. :-)
I've been a practicing witch for 30 years, and I've never heard it pronounced the way you do. But again, I'm American and so are my fellow local practitioners, so there ya go. ;-)
P.S. Samhain, pronounced like it's spelled, is a killer old-school punk band. ;-)
With the part about things that used to happen on halloween, it's a thing in St. Louis to ask Trick or Treators to tell a Joke for candy
My father was a young teenager when this was broadcast and his father and family we're outside looking up in the sky see if anything was coming down in our family there was just concern until the broadcast was over but from my understanding there were many people that panicked in the great city of St Louis thinking that and a Armada of martians we're soon to descend on the great city of St Louis you also got to remember Hit Radio broadcasts back in the day could be literally listen to throughout the whole country to this day I live in Florida but I can listen to St Louis Cardinal baseball St Louis Blues hockey on a clear evening on my car radio just tuning in to KMOX AM radio which was one of the largest Broadcasting centers of the nation
I'm sorry... a ventriloquist on the radio?
Rob Cunningham Well, they didn't have TV. He did vadeville and films, so his characters were already a known quantity for radio.
He did eventually do some TV as well.
That radio broadcast was an absolutely brilliant piece of work and well worth a bit of panic. If anything you really know how to put the dampers on any story, don't you. This is one you could have left alone, Orson Welles was brilliant.
Since nobody has mentioned it yet, I'll add that the movie BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION uses Grover's Corner New Jersey, the fictional town Welles set the landing in, as an important plot point in its story.
I have heard Concrete, WA went into a minor panic because the broadcast was accompanied with a power outage.
Crisp evenings demand ghost stories and fantasy! Perhaps two radio play ghost stories I’ve produced AND a brand-new mystery listed on my channel “Claude Chabot Presents” right here on YT. AND a radio fantasy comedy, “A Trip to the Moon” starring Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, which features Larry Robinson, who, as a child actor, worked with Orson Welles. Here’s the link: ua-cam.com/video/Hex2ltykNTM/v-deo.html--Claud. If you don’t want to click the link just search “Claude Chabot presents” on UA-cam.
If you want the truth, go directly to the source. AT&T operators from NY to Cally were inundated with calls from panicked people! Orson Wells did an Oscar deserving performance that night. You have to listen to these ladies to understand the true terror.
Hi, don’t mind me. Just looking into what I believed was a joke with my class assignment… This truly is the first time that something discussed in English class has caught my attention in this way. 😂😂😂
I'm glad such a fuss was made at the time. That radio broadcast got me into old time radio shows!
Thanks a lot pal, I was just about to try and get a book published about the hysteria caused by the War of The Worlds broadcast.
I spent 12 years doing research on the topic, THANKS A LOT OL' CHAP
@@spactick, if you did 12 years of research then you’d know what was presented here isn’t too accurate and that there really was panic :)
@@PeaceIsYeshua ha! that note was done with my tongue firmly placed in my cheek
@@spactick
🤪😂
you may want to get your facts straight Simon. AT&T switchboard operators have attested to a completely different response to the radio program. switchboards were COMPLETELY lit with callers trying to contact loved ones to see if they were still alive, and as severe as to say that they were going to kill themselves and family members before the martians had the chance. this is coming from women who were ACTUALLY THERE!!! there are other testimonials confirming similar panic and fright. again, from people who were there. you could only imagine what would happen present day if a realistically orchestrated threat had gone viral on the internet!
Why would a radio show broadcast a ventriloquist act? 🤔
I have always wondered that myself. I was a fan of Murphy Brown starring his daughter so I have over the years read articles about her father. Including the fact she says she had a sibling rivalry going with the dummy! I have seen him performing in old movies and a few old tv shows. However when I read he had had a long running radio show featuring Charlie I remember thinking that can't be right, that would be stupid. However I heard a few of the shows on a radio station featuring old radio programs and can confirm he had conversations with the dummy. I still think it is stupid. :)
@@teriannebeauchamp254 LOL
Maybe he was a lousy ventriloquist and the only way for peopke not to see his lips move was doing on the radio. And was he killed a video?
The Uluru He was quote good in vaudeville and film. The character he created was well known, so it was natural he went to the mass market.
My parents had an old casette with radio shows on it. Bergen was quite fun to listen to, and sometimes quite dirty.
Love Samhaim. Even set out a soul plate.
gee.....the media creating a hysteria. i'm shocked. /sarcasm
Jules Verne was truly the first sci-fi writer. Perhaps a biographic on him.
The bonus stuff should be in the text version as well. Great videos.
1938 was a totally different world and yes there was a big panic at least in New York and New Jersey. A lot of people thought it was the Nazis.
I love the irony of when someone will use this incident to prove how gullible people are.
Who votes that we should get a Simon reading of the War of the Worlds script?
I went trick or treating back in the day. We went to one apartment and an old man opened the door. We yelled "Trigger treat!" and the old man said "I have no trigger and no treat." and slammed the door. We ran away scared. I was 11 years old.
Ah! Late night radio should bring back that format. Kinda like how Steve Parker did George Orwell's 1984!
Holy crap - I went to school in Blackie Alberta Canada! I had no idea about it being the first reference of trick or treating.
That’s a really cool logo, who designed that for you?
Part of why Orson Wells, no relation to H.G., changed the setting to the USA was it made it more practical for the actors to have US accents. Ever heard somebody say, "Jolly Old Chap" in a Brooklyn, New York accent? Not convincing. Not convincing at all. That was long before US and UK broadcast outlets exchanged actors, as in the Monty Pythons going on Saturday Night Live.
I dislike the "modern" interpretations of this cultural event, that there wasn't a panic. Like we can look back across more than a half century and know what the zeitgeist of the time was.
Never let the truth spoil a good story.
Early squad!! Hey Simon! Have a gr8 day everyone!!! 😊😊😊
Well well, Why didnt I guess it would be Simon on this video 😂
You've got a lot of facts wrong here. Outline of History was two volumes in its first book form, and was serialized in magazine format for months before that. The warning for War of the Worlds was not broadcast three times but once. Welles withheld one other, and there were only supposed to be two.
Thank you
Simon, do you have any other channels besides top tenz, today I found out, biograpics and this one? If so may I please get the link for them?
Most indiviulas, tooked it seriously, thoughts, they did panicked..so terrified..it sounded so..real..too..me, is marvelous he's, explained..too the reporter's, so..he's, did now..peoples, no longers fears..
Ah yes, the primordial Q-Anon soup.
Yes, you Americans are strange, if it isn't left-wing conspiracies, it's right-wing ones. Such power, yet so immature, all of you.
Hold up a second. . . People actually listened to a ventriloquist on the radio?
And Arthur?
Jules Verne was writing at the same time I believe.
Wait hang on, a radio ventriloquist?...
the 30's were a crazy time
He was famous before radio, so he was a known quantity already.
Imagine today: "Look at the sky everybody. You see the moon? That's no moon! It's a death star and it is about to destroy our entire planet!"
So newspapers and competing media attacking each other is not something new.
The people of Grovers Mills went out and shot up water towers, you’d think that the water towers weren’t exactly moving, might have clued in that there were no Martians and you don’t shoot unarmed water towers. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Hi Simon love your videos, samhain is pronounced sow-in (sow as in pig) 👍
Was anyone admitted to hospital as a result of being attacked by martians though? And didn't they know that the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one?
Oh yes Simon, the m is not pronounce in Samhaim so it sounds a bit like sawnn or maybe sownn. I believe in America the second syllable is more like winn than the British.
welles was way ahead of his time
NOt really...but it was hard to tell wit the stench of HAM in the air....or was that Orson Wwlles??????????
I read once that the trident can be used to illustrate the origin of Halloween. One prong being for the pagan origin, another for the Christian dogma origin, and the other for the American origin.
With media articles, maybe it is true, maybe it isn't.
What normal people see : radio
What old times media see : mass panic and terror
Advertising after you first. X
My grandmother took it literally and people in their neighborhood were running 4 the hills it's in this person option that there was no panic I say there was hitler was knocking at the door and people thought we couldn't be bombed then pearl harbor
Today if aliens actually invaded and the media reported on it, people would just call it fake and gay and go on about their lives.
Looking at the comments, seems there was panic at the time!
Nice chair Simon!
But what about Ghostwatch??
Please.... Samhain is pronounced 'sowwen'. Irish does not share English pronunciation for all letter combinations.