The Night America Trembled

The Martians Are Coming!!!! The Martians Are Coming!!!!

Today marks the seventy-eighth anniversary of Orson Welles' Infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast.

Welles' name will forever be linked to the "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast of October 30^th, 1938 that panicked America.  In order to commemorate the occasion of Orson Welles' birthday we at Far Future Horizons would like to offer our dear readers a very special Wellsian treat with the following triple feature:

The Night America Trembled

The Night America Trembled is a television documentary that first aired on September 9, 1957, hosted by legendary dean of American journalists, Edward R. Murrow, and is an account of the panic and mayhem that ensued as a result of the Mercury Theatre’s infamous broadcast.

An Animated Film Version of Orson Welles Radio drama War of the Worlds

This is a full feature internet video clip of a Gerry Anderson (of Fireball XL 5 and Thunderbirds fame) style version of the War of the Worlds. They took the whole of the 1938 version of the Orson Welles infamous radio broadcast and created an Andersonsque animated full length presentation of it. This is truly amazing and awesome to the max. Well worth watching again and again.

The War of the Worlds Part 1: The Coming of the Martians

The War of the Worlds Part 2: Earth Under the Martians

When Orson Welles Met H.G. Wells

H.G. was initially dismayed by Orson's dramatization because he felt it distorted the fundamental message of his book which was the destructive imperialism of a technologically advanced race. Fortunately by this time his dissatisfaction had been mitigated by a curiosity about the stir the broadcast had caused. Interestingly enough, Adolf Hitler mentioned the "panic" stirred by the broadcast in one of his many infamous oratories, and Orson refers to this particular "Great Munich Speech" during their meeting:

"Mr. Hitler made a good deal of sport of it, you know... Its supposed to show the corrupt condition and decadent state of affairs in democracy that The War of the Worlds went over as well as it did."

What follows is the rare audio clip of H.G. Wells meeting Orson Wells.

When Orson Welles Met H.G. Wells

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.