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.)
posted by ichthuz on Nov 30, 2009 - 22 comments

Orson Welles's radio War of the Worlds recreated by the casts of Star Trek.
posted by feelinglistless on Oct 30, 2009 - 23 comments

Master of the hoax finally goes straight. Clifford Irving, author of the now infamous Autobiography of Howard Hughes, publishes his own autobiography, Phantom Rosebuds. Irving has already covered the story of that Hughes forgery pretty thoroughly in his earlier book, The Hoax, and Lasse Hallstrom retold the story in a film starring Richard Gere. Phantom Rosebuds though makes a case for the rest of Irving’s life - f for fake, the subsequent novels, the jail time and the dramatic consequences of the hoax which draw him into a world of espionage, renegade presidents, and rogue hitmen.
posted by blimp77 on Jul 11, 2008 - 5 comments

::Call me Ishmael::Don Quixote::A Lesson for all Actors::Father Mapple's Sermon::The Lost Films of Orson Welles:: [more inside]
posted by vronsky on Feb 14, 2008 - 23 comments

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 by goodnewsfortheinsane on Aug 29, 2007 - 11 comments

Orson Welles: The One Man Band - a movie that takes a look at the last years of Mr. Welles. German/English with English subtitles. Full .avi download available.
posted by Burhanistan on Jul 13, 2007 - 18 comments

Orson Whales, book/video/audio mash of the novel Moby Dick, Orson Welles from an Italian movie, Led Zeppelin and original artwork by Alex Itn. See also Ulysees.
posted by stbalbach on May 4, 2007 - 27 comments

The Other Side of the Wind is the lost last film of Orson Welles, a reputed unseen masterpiece, that may finally see the light of day in late 2008. The film tells the story of Jake Hannaford (played by John Huston), an aging movie director who has to film a low budget sex-and-symbolism flick to avoid getting overtaken by the Movie Brats of the Spielberg/Coppola generation. After providing voiceovers to two documentaries on the Persepolis ceremonies of 1971 and an intimate portrait of the Shah of Iran, Welles obtained Iranian financing to finish The Other Side of the Wind. Unfortunately, after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the bank accounts of his Iranian financier were seized, which led to the negatives for the film getting locked in a French vault. After Orson Welles died in 1985, his lover/collaborator Oja Kodar had to settle his estate with Orson's estranged (but never divorced) wife Paola Mori. There the matter might have rested, if not for an unfortunate coincidence. (More inside.)
posted by jonp72 on Apr 15, 2007 - 50 comments

This evening, I entertained myself with these clips from YouTube and Google Video. Come inside if you like Bette Davis, Charles Laughton, Kubrick, Frankenstein, Shakespeare, and company...
posted by grumblebee on May 21, 2006 - 46 comments

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 by brundlefly on Nov 17, 2005 - 20 comments

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 by anastasiav on Oct 30, 2003 - 15 comments

Magnificent Wellesian Flop to Be Remade as Mini-Series Ok, have I got something for you. Well, I think so. Actually, the title could have read : "Teenagers ruin Orson Welles' carrier", or there are a couple of other ideas, not going to bore you with them.

A&E to remake The Magnificent Ambersons at $14 mil, it will star Madeleine Stowe, Jennifer Tilly, James Cromwell, Jonathan Rhys-Myers and Thora Birch (Talk about a bad cast. Tilly? Each!)
"For those who don't know, Welles' second film was cut by over 40 minutes (mostly at the end) by order of his studio while he was away making (or trying to make) "It's All True" in Brazil. The loss of these 40 minutes is generally considered one of the great tragedies in film history, as much for the effect on Welles' subsequent career as for the masterpiece that might have been. (Not that it isn't a masterpiece of sorts, as it is.)"
Problems with this? Chances are that the original Welles script will be buried under too much new content. Then again, We could see the 40 minutes worth of cut content (Damn Teenagers). A&E claims that they have the technology and the resources to make the script better, stronger, and more agile with better reflexes than befoure. Heh. I'm goofy that way.
posted by tiaka on Jul 31, 2000 - 3 comments