Who was the voice behind the 1938 radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds"?

Listened to the original broadcast years ago, it was funny to know that people freaked out. Love Orson Welles!

ObnoxiousFire174, when i was a teen (oh so long ago) i had the vinyl recording of this...and while my mother told the tale of my panicked grandfather driving them from n.y. to canada you can clearly hear in the broadcast several disclaimers that this was a halloween inspired show!

My father taught high school English in the 70’s and 80’s. One of his classes was Science Fiction. He always did a semester on War of the Worlds to include the hysteria it created after the airing. I took his class twice!

msjg2017: I believe this broadcast and the publics' response is the main reason why our government is lying to us about UFO's and extraterestrials on our planet.

Orson Welles was married to the glamorous Rita Hayworth.

penawareof, Yes, and he treated her like crap. I normally do not take sides, but I read biographies on both actors and they all say the same message. He married her to have a beautiful trophy wife. He then slept with whom ever he wanted and then when it was time to make a public appearance, he wanted Rita on his arm. By the ended of their marriage, he began being physically abusive. They had 1 daughter together. Rita went on to have more bad marriages. Welles apparently was a genius and great actor, but almost no one wanted to work with him, due to his attitude and personality. He made few movues. The ones he made and is known for, he directed and produced. He pretty much used the same cast for his movues, like Agnes Moorehead, Joseph Cotton. He was a perfectionist and good at what he did. Unfortunately, we have so little of his work to value, because he alienated a lot of influential people.

The consensus is that the majority of Americans were listening to Bergen and McCarthy when War of the Worlds started. As soon as Bergen and McCarthy finished, that radio station went to commercial and a fair majority of those listeners turned to War of the Worlds just as the aliens were landing! They had missed the beginning stating that this was a radio play!

K'Daneth1, It should be taught in school. This was an excellent question and it's too bad most young people today don't even know about this tumultuous event.

I remember listing to the shadow on the radio

The best radio voice on the old shows back in the day.

penawareof, i slept with your mom. She was bigger than orson wells

before my time but heard how he scared many OMG!

The disclaimers were added later to prevent another panic.

I think some people committed suicide because they were so afraid

MSJG2017, Our government is a total disaster and major liars. Big cheats who care only for their selves.

Player #1952, My Dad was 9 during War of the World's. He listened from the start and heard that it was a dramatization. When the adults tuned in, they were panicking and calling each other up. My Dad kept telling them that it was just a story.

if you want to watch Orson Wells today? Just Google "Dean Martin Roast" . and enter the name of a celebrity like Lucilla Ball, any celebrity.

My step father bought the album for me and my sister when we were young kids. Our parents went to a party. My sister was 12 and very mature. Our parents were only gone for two hours. My sister was bored and she remembered the album. When our parents came back were shaking on the sofa scared.lol. They had to console us til we could get back to sleep.lol. That was in 1971! When I got in my 20's I got into Science fiction.I have seen War of the Worlds in many forms but the original radio was the scariest.

I believe I heard it on the Paul Harvey and the rest of the story radio show. Had he been there I would have gotten it wrong as that's who popped into my head first

I think the reason given to why the government hides ufo reports is true.probably it stemmed from the war of the world's broadcast. hevki would have freaked too. we have to remember Orson wells had Avery believable voice and it was radio not tv.

Guillermo Jr., 100% correct, unfortunately

Kitty Golightly, there was never a panic urban legend

THE SHADOW KNOWS.... HAHAHAHAHA

Can not believe that the people did not pay attention to the beginning of the broadcast. Yes, I understand that some tuned in later, but I am talking about those that others that tuned in at the very beginning. it still boggles my mind that so many were... what is the word I am looking for, bamboozled(?). All they had to do was look out of their windows and see that nothing was happening.

Truly showed the need to "get all the facts" before acting. Some families even considered suicide, though I do not know if any attempted it. Also, shows the need for people to read more and to read various genres...

Great movie I have an it's a keeper.

A little known fact: radio towers are restricted to only broadcast a certain radius. I suppose this was one of the reasons... panic could spread easily. We don't need the radio to do that anymore; we have the internet! Don't believe me? How about the toilet paper shortage of 2020! LOLOLOL!

gamehappy0728, nor will there ever be anything else even close to 🐒 business

we are in the midst of a similarly unfounded and media driven panic today..

I'm sad to know that I'm sad I know that

Just pressed the 50/50 button and automatically timed me out

thank you for playing the game that I created

ObnoxiousFire174, I asked my dad about this one time. He said you have to remember, they didn’t have the Internet and TV and ways to get an update. If they didn’t have disclaimers during breaks – I’m not even sure there were breaks in the broadcast-you would have no way of knowing if you tuned in late. Of course in retrospect, you could probably tune to another radio station and see if they were covering something like this but given the times I don’t think it’s as funny as I used to that people panicked.

not many kids named Orson any more.. Wells, Beane, then.. umm.. nothing

Gffg; I’ll have a time

MSJG2017, why is this first time I'm hearing of this, never learned or heard of it til now, but I do agree H.G.W. and his ingeniously creative writing style, was most certainly a one of a kind.

I can't imagine it time when the only way to know what's going on in the world is by radio.

people actually committed suicide

and afterwards, anytime anyone else put on a fake scare like that, the announcer always breaks in to remind ppl, this is only a show, this is not real.

SparkyChaz2018, Orson repeatedly apologized and I don't think anyone involved had a clue that people would react in real fear.