The original broadcast of Orson Wells and “The War of the Worlds”, the book by H.G. Wells (no relation). This originally aired on October 30, 1938. With America concerned about events in Europe and the Pacific, tensions were already high.
This broadcast and adaptation of Well’s original novel was done in the style of a news broadcast. It purported to be reporting on an invasion by Martians. As a result, many listeners failed to catch the disclaimers and believed the broadcast to be real news.
You can download an MP3 version of the file for free from the Internet Archive here.
Or listen to it right now.
