War of the Worlds

CJOB broadcasted Orson Welles’ radio play this past Halloween, marking the 71st anniversary since it’s original broadcast on CBS in 1938.

Orson Welles, courtesy of GoogleImages

If you’re looking to get some tips on how to produce radio creatively, War of the Worlds is definitely one of those classic radio stints that you would do well to have in your back pocket.

Just one listen will help you realise why so many Americans believed the play was real, and why War of the Worlds is still just as entertaining as it was 70 years ago.

It's realistic. War of the Worlds is crafted to sound like a breaking news story about martians invading Earth, and the formatting and reporter lingo is spot-on (albeit dated). Imagine yourself in the 1930s, and it sounds pretty convincing.

In the event of a martian attack, who wouldn’t expect the media to have journalists swarming in disaster areas, reporting live on the scene? Or the U.S. army storming over to the crash site, boasting their military strength and telling citizens “not to worry, we’ll have them blown to pieces in no time”, before being beaten to dust?

War of the Worlds also touches on something that I think we know, but are reluctant to admit: that even with all our defenses, we are defenseless; even though we think we’re prepared, we’re not prepared (hello, H1N1!).

This theme is repeated throughout the radio play as populations are easily killed off one by one, despite the best efforts of the military. The broadcast actually ends with a rather ironic twist on the theme as we discover the fate of the martians.

But most importantly, only three times during the course of the radio play is it mentioned that what people are listening to is fiction: once at the beginning, again at the 40 minutes interval, and then once more at the end of the broadcast.

In other words, a considerable amount of time for those tuning in late to believe that the martian invasion is real. Combine that with the fact that those who called their local police department discovered the police also thought the invasion was real, and you’ve got yourself nationwide panic.

But would it create the same public uproar today?

We are obsessed with our own destruction. Countless books, movies, and other works of art have been based on the fall of humanity: by our own hands, by someone else's hands, by rabid animals, by the supernatural, by disease, or by the brute force of nature, and I’m not sure why this is. Maybe we think we’ve got it too good here at the top of the food chain that something’s bound to attack us sometime. Or maybe we’re still mystified by death and what happens when we ‘stop being’.

Appealing to this innate obsession and taking advantage of the tense atmosphere at the time (the original broadcast aired just before the outbreak of the Second World War), Orson Welles’ production is structured perfectly for public captivation.

The journalist as human. Maybe it’s just me, but any news report suddenly becomes all the more captivating when journalists go off-script.

This tends to happen during a disaster, when journalists are thrown out into the field, and told to “report” on what they see. No preparation, no script – they are reacting to the event at the same time, and in the same way, that the rest of us citizens would. Only they have a mic and a camera, and more often than not, are being broadcast nationwide.

And I think others would agree that it (usually) takes a lot to shake journalists out of their professional demeanor. So when it does happen, we pay attention. For just a couple minutes, they are no longer the stoic figure of the media, they are human.

There’s a lot of this in War of the Worlds, and the “last broadcast” is probably my favourite example.

A reporter is standing on top of the CBS building, describing the scene as the martians advance upon New York City. He begins rather objectively and professionally, albeit incredulously, recounting in simple terms what is obviously a terrifying and devastating sight: people “dropping like flies” as they run from the martian’s poison gas that is quickly overtaking the city.

Finally he begins a countdown of the martian’s progress towards him where we start to hear the panic in his voice, knowing what is to come. Sure enough, he chokes out the last position of the martians at 50 feet away, then collapses. A long silence follows, before we hear the lone, despairing voice of a radio operator: “2X2L calling CQ New York. Is there anyone on the air? Is there anyone on the air? Isn't there.... anyone?”

War of the Worlds can be downloaded here.