Orson Welles Looks Back at the 1938 ‘War of the Worlds’ Radio Broadcast Warning of a Martian Invasion

In a 1955 episode of the classic BBC Four series Orson Welles’ Sketch Book, the great actor/director looked back at his radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells story “War of the Worlds” and the effect it had on the world. The story, which was broadcast on the radio show The Mercury Theatre on the Air on Halloween 1938, caused a real panic, particularly in the United States, about a Martian invasion.

The famous 1938 Mercury Theatre broadcast of the HG Wells story was mistaken by many listeners for a real Martian invasion.

This amazing video essay is now 70 years old, yet his words were quite prescient to modern times.

70 years ago, Orson Welles spoke about his famed radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ ‘The War of the Worlds’. He claimed the 1938 broadcast, that depicted a Martian invasion of Earth, caused mass hysteria (a debated claim). Welles also said that one of the aims of the broadcast was to highlight people shouldn’t believe everything they hear on the radio.

The 1938 ‘War of the Worlds’ Broadcast

AT&T Operators Recall the ‘War of the Worlds’ Broadcast

Thanks Chip Beale!