MetaFilter posts tagged with hgwells

War of the Worlds and the Power of Mass Media

ichthuz — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:00:33 -0800

WNYC's Radiolab took a look into Orson Welles' 1938 radio production of H.G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds, which caused mass panic in the United States when listeners mistook a radio drama for actual reporting. They then explored the question of whether such hysteria could be recreated in a similar way, recounting stories from Quito, Ecuador in 1949 and Buffalo, New York in 1968. (There was one other attempt in Santiago, Chile in 1944 which is not mentioned in the Radiolab synopsis.)

That's no meteorite!

backseatpilot — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:31:01 -0800

Seventy years ago today was the original broadcast of "The War of the Worlds". Listen to it, uninterrupted, here. The program reportedly caused a mass panic across much of the Northeast. The Museum of Hoaxes has some good information about the extent of the actual "panic" that erupted from the broadcast. Grovers Mill - now part of Windsor Township - has a monument at the "crash site". Previously discussed monument at Woking, site of HG Wells' original Martian landing.

Woking Walker

Kronos_to_Earth — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:24:57 -0800

"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.... But just in case, Mr. Condron has some microbes at the ready to help take the thing out....

The jolliest indoor games. . .demand a floor.

EarBucket — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:47:53 -0800

Floor Games. H.G. Wells and miniature gaming.

But still they come...

benzo8 — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 05:50:22 -0800

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.

War of the Worlds!

zarq — Sat, 11 Dec 2004 15:33:20 -0800

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.

The Martians are Coming!

arto — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 12:29:21 -0800

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]

...a curious humming sound that seems to come from inside the object

Irontom — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 07:46:06 -0800

TV and the Hive Mind
64 years ago this week, six million Americans became unwitting subjects in an experiment in psychological warfare.

RunsWithBandageScissors — Tue, 29 Oct 2002 07:39:06 -0800

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

KirkJobSluder — Sat, 09 Mar 2002 08:06:07 -0800

The Time Machine opened in wide release this weekend but according to multiple reviews ( including this one) it looks like great-grandson Simon managed to transform a socialist metaphor for the dangers of industrialization into yet another special effects-loaded romantic movie. This seems to be an overall trend in Hollywood to remove the socio-political content from adaptations following The Count of Monte Cristo and Planet of the Apes. Perhaps we should just stick to the book on tape.