Orwell on the "War Of The Worlds" panic
Martha Bridegam
Cantril, with the assistance of Hazel Gaudet and Herta Herzog."
Here's the review:
"Nearly two years ago Mr. Orson Welles produced on the Columbia
Broadcasting System in New York a radio play based on H.G. Wells's
fantasia *The War Of The Worlds*. The broadcast was not intended as a
hoax, but it had an astonishing and unforeseen result. Thousands mistook
it for a news broadcast and actually believed for a few hours that the
Martians had invaded America and were marching across the countryside on
steel legs a hundred feet high, massacring all and sundry with their
heat rays. Some of the listeners were so panic-stricken that they leapt
into their cars and fled. Exact figures are, of course, unobtainable,
but the compilers of this survey (it was made by one of the research
departments of Princeton) have reason to think that about six million
people heard the braodcast and that well over a million were in some
degree affected by the panic.
At the time this affair caused amusement all over the world, and the
credulity of 'those Americans' was much commented on. However, most of
the accounts that appeared abroad were somewhat misleading. The text of
the Orson Welles production is given in full, and it appears that apart
from the opening announcement and a piece of dialogue towards the end
the whole play is done in the form of news bulletins, ostensibly real
bulletins with the names of stations attached to them. This is a natural
enough method of producing a play of that type, but it was also natural
that many people who happened to turn on the radio after the play had
started should imagine that they were listening to a news broadcast.
There were therefore two separate acts of belief involved: (i) that the
play was a news bulletin, and (ii) that a news bulletin can be taken as
truthful. And it is just here that the interest of the investigation
lies.
In the U.S.A. the wireless is the principal vehicle of news. There is a
great number of broadcasting stations, and virtually every family owns a
radio. The authors even make the surprising statement that it is more
usual to possess a radio than to take in a newspaper. Therefore, to
transfer this incident to England, one has perhaps to imagine the news
of the Martian invasion appearing on the front page of one of the
evening papers. Undoubtedly such a thing would cause a great stir. It is
known that the newspapers are habitually untruthful, but it is also
known that they cannot tell lies of more than a certain magnitude and
anyone seeing huge headlines in their paper announcing the arrival of a
cylinder from Mars would probably believe what he read, at any rate for
the few minutes that would be needed to make some verification.
The truly astonishing thing, however, was that so few of the listeners
attempted any kind of check. The compilers of the survey give details of
250 persons who mistook the broadcast for a news bulletin. It appears
that over a third of them attempted no kind of verification; as soon as
they heard that the end of the world was coming, they accepted it
uncritically. A few imagined that it was really a German or Japanese
invasion, but the majority believed in the Martians, and this included
people who had only heard of the 'invasion' from neighbors, and even a
few who had started off with the knowledge that they were listening to a
play. Here are excerpts from one or two of their statements:
'I was visiting the pastor's wife when a boy came and said, 'Some star
just fell.' We turned the radio on -- we all felt the world was coming
to an end... I rushed to the neighbors to tell them the world was coming
to an end.'
'I called in to my husband: 'Danny, why don't you get dressed? You don't
want to die in your working clothes.'
'My husband took Mary into the kitchen and told her that God had put us
on this earth for His honour and glory and that it was for Him to say
when it was our time to go. Dad kept calling 'O God, do what you can to
save us.' '
'I looked in the icebox and saw some chicken left from Sunday dinner...
I said to my nephew, 'We may as well eat this chicken -- we won't be
here in the morning.' '
'I was looking forward with some pleasure to the destruction of the
entire human race.... If we have Fascist domination of the world, there
is no purpose in living anyway.'
The survey does not reveal any single all-embracing explanation of the
panic. All it establishes is that the people most likely to be affected
were the poor, the ill-educated and, above all, people who were
economically insecure or had unhappy private lives. The evident
connection between personal unhappiness and readiness to believe the
incredible is its most interesting discovery. Remarks like 'Everything
is so upset in the world that anything might happen,' or 'So long as
everybody was going to die, it was all right,' are surprisingly common
in the answers to the questionnaire. People who have been out of work or
on the verge of bankruptcy for ten years may be actually relieved to
hear of the approaching end of civilisation. It is a similar frame of
mind that has induced whole nations to fling themselves into the arms of
a Saviour. This book is a footnote to the history of the world
depression, and in spite of being written in the horrible dialect of the
American psychologist, it makes very entertaining reading."
Interesting CW note to this item:
"Orson Welles (1915-1985) was at this time starting his highly
innovative film career, highlighted by *Citizen Kane* (1941) and *The
Magnificent Ambersons* (1942). In 1936 he had directed an all-black cast
in the Negro People's Theatre *Macbeth*; in 1937 he formed the Mercury
Theatre. The Mercury players provided the cast for this broadcast. The
script was written by Howard Koch (1902-1994). It was clearly stated at
the outset that this 'radio play' was suggested by H.G. Wells's *The War
of the Worlds*. Koch published 'the whole story' in *The Panic
Broadcast* (1970). He won an Oscar for the script of *Casablanca* (1942)
and wrote the script for *Mission to Moscow*... As a Communist he was
subpoenaed before the House Un-American Activities Committee and
blacklisted by Hollywood for many years."
c/o MAB
ROBBIE
Martha Bridegam <brid...@pacbell.net> wrote in message
news:3BBB7B76...@pacbell.net...
heh. interesting stuff. Thanks.
>
>
>
>
> c/o MAB
>
Gene Zitver
>In October 1940 Orwell reviewed *The Invasion from Mars* "by Hadley
>Cantril, with the assistance of Hazel Gaudet and Herta Herzog."
>
>Here's the review:
<snip>
Thanks a lot for this. It would be interesting to do a similar study of the
people who have believed and spread the rumors stemming from Sept. 11. It
wouldn't be surprising to find that people tend to believe the reports that
conform with their pre-existing opinions.
BTW there's an excellent web site that's devoted to checking out
Internet-spread rumors (they now have a page devoted to Sept. 11 and the
aftermath):
http://www.snopes2.com
Gene
John Rennie
> Cantril, with the assistance of Hazel Gaudet and Herta Herzog."
>
> Here's the review:
>
> "Nearly two years ago Mr. Orson Welles produced on the Columbia
> Broadcasting System in New York a radio play based on H.G. Wells's
> fantasia *The War Of The Worlds*. The broadcast was not intended as a
> hoax,
Who says? I have heard the whole programme and I am quite sure that
it was so intended. The 23 year old Orson Welles achieved instant stardom
and I feel certain that that is what he planned. Another interesting
broadcast that was filmed was his apology to all those people he frightened.
A classic in the annals of insincerity. Doesn't matter, the inspirer of
Citizen Kane can do no wrong in my eyes.