c2meworld.com: “We know now that in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than our man’s, yet as mortal as his own.”
Those words opened the greatest fictional radio broadcast of all time, which aired 75 years ago this month and has been a source of fascination ever since, particularly among those who cherish our medium.
“War of the Worlds,” the 1938 broadcast on CBS Radio by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air, is the subject of a video documentarythat premieres Tuesday Oct. 29 on the outstanding PBS history program “American Experience.” I recommend it highly.
4 comments:
The power of sound! So true! Has anyone ever listened to the 'Virtual Barber' clip on youtube? I still have a hard time listening to it with my eyes closed and I probably flinch every time the scissors clip. I know it's not real, but when all of your other senses are cut off, sound becomes your reality. I think War of The Worlds may have been even more effective because of it's medium. Without any visuals, the audience has to rely entirely on what the reporter is saying and giving as evidence. Ones imagination takes over and well, what came next is history. There was an interesting Radio Lab episode about War of the Worlds and it's broadcast in other locations and the reactions of people -- worth a listen! http://www.radiolab.org/story/91622-war-of-the-worlds/
I've always been interested in content like War of the Worlds, total world catastrophe come on, what's not to love? I do also think that the power of sound is spectacular. I think about how I when engaging with something, music or sound has the ability to completely change my mood and feelings in either extreme or subtle ways. However I wonder how the "radio show" effect would still function in todays culture. I think back to the time when this first aired and image people sitting in their living rooms staring at this clunky radio with poor sound quality completely engaged and processing the stories coming out of that little box. I know we in theatre still do "radio plays" or "stage readings" which is similar I suppose, but the audience is still getting some visual to connect the audio with. I don't think that this method of story telling is completely irrelevant...I'd just be curious to see how it would be adapted to fit in.
I listened to the original broadcast for the first time this week, or at least the first time when I actually paid attention. It surprised me that there was actually a preamble to the broadcast that frames the whole thing in a fictional light, so obviously it was only the folks who tuned in a few minutes late that were fooled. I also listened this week to the RadioLab broadcast Sophie mentioned. The most interesting thing there for me was a story I'd never heard about a similar broadcast that took place in Quito, Ecuador in the 80's that actually resulted in actual panic, military mobilization and eventually the immolation of the radio station by an angry mob. By comparison, the reaction to the Mercury Theatre broadcast that resulted in a few thousand phone calls to police stations in New Jersey was pretty meek. Later, Orson Wells claimed that part of the Company's intent was to draw attention to what they saw as the blind acceptance as truth of whatever came out of their radios. I think I remember he even used the words "fed" and "tube," imagery which has stuck with us and sentiments whose poignancy have only increased. It actually draws a strange comparison to reality t.v. for me, a kind of Bizarro version of the War of the Worlds phenomenon, where we know for a fact it's all scripted and fake, but the facade that it's real somehow heightens the drama for us. I think we have become more skeptical and more foolish at the same time. I don't know exactly how that's possible, but someone oughtta write a play about it.
Someone SHOULD write a play about this...
I think Andrew's point about reality TV is an interesting one. I'm sure there are lots of people who believe that what happens on reality tv shows is real, unscripted, and raw. This leads to all of the silly tabloids writing stories about the latest feud between some of the housewives, or something about honey boo boo (I don't know reality tv very well... sorry for the bad examples). While it's certainly not the exact same thing as people panicking about hearing a fake broadcast about an alien invasion, it definitely has some parallels. The difference is that this radio show did have a disclaimer in the beginning of it, which most television shows don't.
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