"Once the tripods start to move, no more news comes out of that area..." Fortunately Michael Condron's tribute to The War of the Worlds, put up on its centenary, will continue to remain in place....
posted on Aug 9, 2008 - View this thread

Today's post of tenuously related audio brings you ten historic radio broadcasts, 529 eternal questions in popular music, and one mildly amusing black metal band prank call.
posted on Aug 29, 2007 - View this thread

Orson Welles may be best known as the director and star of Citizen Kane, but before he made movies he was a star of the radio. Although he gained notoriety by narrating War of the Worlds in 1938, he was also the voice of Lamont Cranston, The Shadow, and had a successful run as the creator and star of the Mercury Theater On The Air, which, after gaining sponsorship, became known as the Campbell Playhouse. Even after the heyday of radio, Welles provided his voice for The Black Museum series (based on real-life cases from the files of Scotland Yard), and The Lives of Harry Lime, a prequel to his role in the film The Third Man.
posted on Jan 10, 2007 - View this thread

Belgium is no more. Flanders has unilaterally declared independence, and the king has left the country in protest, RTBF reports.
posted on Dec 14, 2006 - View this thread

Edison's Conquest of Mars! Garrett P. Serviss' unofficial, 1898 sequel to War of the Worlds, featuring Thomas Edison and Lord Kelvin as the heroes. It seems this book originated the space battle and the ray-gun, not to mention the aliens-built-the-pyramids plot. Sounds like a blast.
posted on Nov 17, 2005 - View this thread

I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing is the new blog by screenwriter Josh Friedman. Not much there yet but what is is fun, especially parts one and two of his adventures with arbitration on War of the Worlds. (Of note: Friedman is the writer who adapted James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia for David Fincher Brian De Palma.) {via The Screenwriting Life}
posted on Aug 21, 2005 - View this thread

What with the new movie and the whole Tom and Katie thing, it's no surprise that the world's gone War of the Worlds mad recently. Still, for my money, this Darkhorse comic, adapted from H.G. Well's original text is gonna be ace - there are twelves frames up at the moment and they're adding all the time, with the aim of completely some 120 pages of superbly drawn comic-novel in the not-too-distant... Enjoy.
posted on Jun 21, 2005 - View this thread

The new War of the Worlds movie will premiere in June '05. Based on H.G. Wells book, (e-text), the story terrified thousands of American radio listeners and caused a panic on October 30, 1938. That night, a series of increasingly alarming breaking news reports (narrated by a young Orson Welles) about an invading force of Martians interrupted the Mercury Theater show on WABC radio in NYC. Welles had announced at the start of the hour that he was reading a story, but most of the audience tuned in late and thought it was all real. More information can be found here and here. Wav files of the original broadcast can be downloaded (or purchased) from here. "They're bombing New Jersey!": Check out a picture of the NYTimes front page and full text of the article they ran the next day. War of the Worlds has been made into several films, including this one from 1953.
posted on Dec 11, 2004 - View this thread

Space 1999 models. War of the Worlds, Flash Gordon, Alien and more. Welcome to the art of Martin Bower.
posted on Jul 15, 2004 - View this thread

War of the Worlds cover art from the last hundred years or so. (Plus, related artwork and the Martian-Canadian conspiracy, finally uncovered!) [via kottke]
posted on Jul 9, 2004 - View this thread

Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News....
Today is the 65th anniversary of the famous Mercury Theatre presentation of War of the Worlds, as adapted for Radio by Orson Welles. The infamous broadcast (listen in Real Audio or RealAudio or TrueSpeech) caused no small amount of uneasyness, and even some outright panic as listeners, already unsettled by coverage of the impending war in Europe, were all to willing to believe that Martians had indeed landed in Grovers Mill, New Jersey. The broadcast led to an FCC investigation and remains a touchstone in the evolution of the American media.
posted on Oct 30, 2003 - View this thread

TV and the Hive Mind
64 years ago this week, six million Americans became unwitting subjects in an experiment in psychological warfare.
posted on Oct 27, 2003 - View this thread

America in the 1930s : on film, in print, on the air. Some highlights : War of the Worlds, the Robert Johnson notebooks, Superman's identity crisis, Babe Ruth, a female evangelist, building the Chrysler Building.
posted on Jul 9, 2003 - View this thread

War of the Worlds (this is not about Bush) Don't own a television? Want an alternative? Live performance, live orchestra, no net. October 30, 2002 8-9 PM Eastern. Glenn Beck recreates Orson Welles chilling performance that captivated a nation along with full orchestrations and foley effects. this is a radio broadcast
posted on Oct 29, 2002 - View this thread