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Orson Welles said in his autobiography that several police officers arrived at the studio during the live broadcast, prompted by calls from listeners. There are

Orson Welles said in his autobiography that several police officers arrived at the studio during the live broadcast, prompted by calls from listeners. There are also reports from the time about telephone switchboards being overwhelmed by calls. I'm of the opinion that these recent takes on the coverage of the event are themselves a bit of an over-correction: there may not have been national pandemonium, but there were certainly examples of confusion and panic among listeners.

spaced-out 6y ago
>Orson Welles said in his autobiography that several police officers arrived at the studio during the live broadcast, prompted by calls from listeners Is there any documentation of that actually happening, though? How many calls were they responding to? Remember also that this is before the internet, if you wanted more info about something, calling the police is one of the few things you can do. Plus, an author writing an autobiography has a vested interest in trying to build the story up.
- input_sh 6y ago
  > Is there any documentation of that actually happening, though? How many calls were they responding to? I really doubt police in 1938 kept track of every time they left the station (especially if it turned really mundane) and same thing goes for phone calls. Best we can do is trusting someone's memory, which is not really reliable.
  - spaced-out 6y ago
    >Best we can do is trusting someone's memory, which is not really reliable. I disagree, we can do a lot better than just blindly believing, aka "trusting", any claim just because it was made by someone in the past. First off, in a time when it was common to broadcast all kinds of shows on the radio, including variety shows, readings of novels, and plays/dramas, I find it rather dubious that a large number of people panicked and thought there's an actual alien invasion rather than just assuming it's another show. It also wasn't the only thing on the radio at that moment. The linked article mentions that a far more popular comedy variety show was broadcasting at the same time, so again, a huge number of people just panicked and thought aliens were invading, even though they could turn their dial and see only one station was talking about it. Finally, where are the first hand accounts? Where are the accounts of people who panicked, or who's family members, friends, or neighbors were panicking? Given all of this, I think what's likely is that the broadcast raised some eyebrows at the time (some people perhaps called the police for more information), and was later blown out of proportion for publicity reasons.
    - Izkata 6y ago
      > I find it rather dubious that a large number of people panicked and thought there's an actual alien invasion rather than just assuming it's another show. One thing might make a difference here, War of the Worlds was structured as a news broadcast rather than a narrative.
      - mwcampbell 6y ago
        I found a recording [1], and it's clear to anyone who listened from the beginning that it was a radio drama. An announcer introduces Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air, and then after some intro music, Welles narrates a prologue. I suppose, though, that people joining the broadcast after that opening could have been fooled. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5uEA21-_Yo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5uEA21-_Yo
    - JdeBP 6y ago
      There are, interestingly, first hand accounts in the U.S. national archives of people who explicitly stated that they did not panic. * https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/fall/war-of-worlds.html https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/fall/war...
      - Retric 6y ago
        I suspect most people didn’t, but even 1 in 50 listers would still be a lot of people flipping out.
    - tharkun__ 6y ago
      Well yes but :) I remember back in Germany I turned on the TV one night, not knowing what was going to be on. What I heard was various news broadcasters talking about the Soviet union attacking West Germany. Tanks were rolling over the borders between East and West Germany, fighter jets in the air. All with accompanying video material of actual tanks rolling and all that and narrowly averting nukes being fired. All of it was actual news material, including the news anchors, nothing was fake recorded. I was quite confused for some time until I figured out that it was a "ZDF History" episode that specifically cut together various news broadcasts to make it look like they were remembering "that time when the East attacked the West" and that they were trying to show how easy it is to "change the past" this way or even make people think that this was actually going on, if this had been broadcast live in the evening news instead. And this is way before deep fakes.
  - JdeBP 6y ago
    That's not the best, though. The letter from Paul Morton, city manager of Trenton, to the FCC is in the U.S. national archives. Xe says that the broadcast "completely crippled communication facilities of our Police Department for about three hours". However, xe makes no mention of dispatching officers. The root of xyr complaint is the telephone call volume and "long distance phone calls from many states".
    - permo-w 6y ago
      How likely do you realistically think it is that, in 1938, a city manager named Paul’s pronoun wasn’t “he”? Besides, English has an unknown pronoun, it’s “they”
  - Spooky23 6y ago
    My wife as an intern scanned logbooks from a local fire department. They kept a continuous log from the 1890s to present.
aaron695 6y ago
> Orson Welles said in his autobiography Orson Welles didn't write an autobiography, did he? All I can see is unfinished memoirs, unpublished?
- robgibbons 6y ago
  Thanks for the correction; it was not an autobiography, rather a biography called Citizen Welles by Frank Brady. I read it a few years ago, just had to dig it out again to confirm.
  - aaron695 6y ago
    You might be able to find the quote better, but this is all I could see (p 170), memories are quite pliable, perhaps it's not there? "Question: When were you first aware of the trouble caused? Welles: Immediately after the broadcast was finished when people told me of the large number of phone calls received." Note he's not even confirming he spoke to someone who would know if there was a 'large number of phone calls'. https://archive.org/details/citizenwellesbio00brad https://archive.org/details/citizenwellesbio00brad

spaced-out 6y ago

>Orson Welles said in his autobiography that several police officers arrived at the studio during the live broadcast, prompted by calls from listeners Is there any documentation of that actually happening, though? How many calls were they responding to? Remember also that this is before the internet, if you wanted more info about something, calling the police is one of the few things you can do. Plus, an author writing an autobiography has a vested interest in trying to build the story up.

input_sh 6y ago
> Is there any documentation of that actually happening, though? How many calls were they responding to? I really doubt police in 1938 kept track of every time they left the station (especially if it turned really mundane) and same thing goes for phone calls. Best we can do is trusting someone's memory, which is not really reliable.
- spaced-out 6y ago
  >Best we can do is trusting someone's memory, which is not really reliable. I disagree, we can do a lot better than just blindly believing, aka "trusting", any claim just because it was made by someone in the past. First off, in a time when it was common to broadcast all kinds of shows on the radio, including variety shows, readings of novels, and plays/dramas, I find it rather dubious that a large number of people panicked and thought there's an actual alien invasion rather than just assuming it's another show. It also wasn't the only thing on the radio at that moment. The linked article mentions that a far more popular comedy variety show was broadcasting at the same time, so again, a huge number of people just panicked and thought aliens were invading, even though they could turn their dial and see only one station was talking about it. Finally, where are the first hand accounts? Where are the accounts of people who panicked, or who's family members, friends, or neighbors were panicking? Given all of this, I think what's likely is that the broadcast raised some eyebrows at the time (some people perhaps called the police for more information), and was later blown out of proportion for publicity reasons.
  - Izkata 6y ago
    > I find it rather dubious that a large number of people panicked and thought there's an actual alien invasion rather than just assuming it's another show. One thing might make a difference here, War of the Worlds was structured as a news broadcast rather than a narrative.
    - mwcampbell 6y ago
      I found a recording [1], and it's clear to anyone who listened from the beginning that it was a radio drama. An announcer introduces Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air, and then after some intro music, Welles narrates a prologue. I suppose, though, that people joining the broadcast after that opening could have been fooled. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5uEA21-_Yo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5uEA21-_Yo
  - JdeBP 6y ago
    There are, interestingly, first hand accounts in the U.S. national archives of people who explicitly stated that they did not panic. * https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/fall/war-of-worlds.html https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/fall/war...
    - Retric 6y ago
      I suspect most people didn’t, but even 1 in 50 listers would still be a lot of people flipping out.
  - tharkun__ 6y ago
    Well yes but :) I remember back in Germany I turned on the TV one night, not knowing what was going to be on. What I heard was various news broadcasters talking about the Soviet union attacking West Germany. Tanks were rolling over the borders between East and West Germany, fighter jets in the air. All with accompanying video material of actual tanks rolling and all that and narrowly averting nukes being fired. All of it was actual news material, including the news anchors, nothing was fake recorded. I was quite confused for some time until I figured out that it was a "ZDF History" episode that specifically cut together various news broadcasts to make it look like they were remembering "that time when the East attacked the West" and that they were trying to show how easy it is to "change the past" this way or even make people think that this was actually going on, if this had been broadcast live in the evening news instead. And this is way before deep fakes.
- JdeBP 6y ago
  That's not the best, though. The letter from Paul Morton, city manager of Trenton, to the FCC is in the U.S. national archives. Xe says that the broadcast "completely crippled communication facilities of our Police Department for about three hours". However, xe makes no mention of dispatching officers. The root of xyr complaint is the telephone call volume and "long distance phone calls from many states".
  - permo-w 6y ago
    How likely do you realistically think it is that, in 1938, a city manager named Paul’s pronoun wasn’t “he”? Besides, English has an unknown pronoun, it’s “they”
- Spooky23 6y ago
  My wife as an intern scanned logbooks from a local fire department. They kept a continuous log from the 1890s to present.

aaron695 6y ago

> Orson Welles said in his autobiography Orson Welles didn't write an autobiography, did he? All I can see is unfinished memoirs, unpublished?

robgibbons 6y ago
Thanks for the correction; it was not an autobiography, rather a biography called Citizen Welles by Frank Brady. I read it a few years ago, just had to dig it out again to confirm.
- aaron695 6y ago
  You might be able to find the quote better, but this is all I could see (p 170), memories are quite pliable, perhaps it's not there? "Question: When were you first aware of the trouble caused? Welles: Immediately after the broadcast was finished when people told me of the large number of phone calls received." Note he's not even confirming he spoke to someone who would know if there was a 'large number of phone calls'. https://archive.org/details/citizenwellesbio00brad https://archive.org/details/citizenwellesbio00brad