This was not an April Fools' Day joke!
"This article appeared in the New York Times on Oct. 31, 1938.
"A wave of mass hysteria seized thousands of radio listeners between 8:15 and 9:30 o'clock last night when a broadcast of a dramatization of H. G. Wells's fantasy, 'The War of the Worlds,' led thousands to believe that an interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and New York."
And here is the audio! and many other audio books for your listening pleasure! http://www.mercurytheatre.info/
You might also enjoy... "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens read by Orson Wells.
"The finest radio drama of the 1930’s was The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a show featuring the acclaimed New York drama company founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman. In its brief run, it featured an impressive array of talents, including Agnes Moorehead, Bernard Herrmann, and George Coulouris. The show is famous for its notorious War of the Worlds broadcast, but the other shows in the series are relatively unknown. This site has many of the surviving shows, and will eventually have all of them. "
Enjoy....
james
