Winters Theatre Company will be performing the 1938 Radio Script of “War of the Worlds” by Howard E. Koch. Show dates will be the first two weekends of October (October 5,6,7, and 12,13,14).
On Sunday evening, October 30, 1938, Orson Welles caused a nationwide panic with his broadcast of “War of the Worlds”—a realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth. This was prime-time in the golden age of radio, when millions of Americans had their radios turned on.
Perhaps as many as a million radio listeners believed that a real Martian invasion was underway. Panic broke out across the country. In New Jersey, terrified civilians jammed highways seeking to escape the alien marauders. People begged police for gas masks to save them from the toxic gas and asked electric companies to turn off the power so that the Martians wouldn’t see their lights. One woman ran into an Indianapolis church where evening services were being held and yelled, “New York has been destroyed! It’s the end of the world”.
