Recent Articles
- H.O.P.E needs your help to make their Thankgiving Dinner Collection a success
- Kucinich: Why I Voted NO
- CGW’s North Service Center remains closed for building maintenance
- Transitioning to the role of a stay at home mom
- APSU’s Downtown Art Gallery opening was the highlight of November’s Art Walk
- Blue Star Memorial marker dedication Monday
- Clarksville Dental Center hosting candy buy back to benefit the United Way
- APSU to celebrate National Distance Learning Week with several events
- Odom: ‘The court has ruled. Goins, Hargett do your job!’
- Patton to be portrayed at APSU library Athenaeum
- WKAG disputes Charter’s attempted justification for their removal of Channel 3
- Businesses in Historic Downtown Clarksville to hold Holiday open house
- Sluggish APSU Governors ease past Oakland City
- Home-Canned Apple Pie Filling
- APSU student Costello debuts photography and collage exhibit at Trahern
Official Sites
- City of Clarksville, TN
- Clarksville Department of Electricity
- Clarksville Gas and Water Department
- Clarksville Montgomery County School System
- Clarksville Police Department
- Clarksville, Montgomery County Economic Development Council
- Clarksville, TN Ordinances
- Fort Campbell, Ky
- Montgomery County, Tennessee
- Montgomery County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Office
- Parks after Dark
Deja vu? Roxy recreates radio broadcast of H.G. Well’s “War of the Worlds”
Mass hysteria. Alien invasion. The radio broadcast that terrorized a nation.
The 1938 Mercury Theatre broadcast of H.G. Well’s classic sci-fi thriller, The War of the Worlds, will be recreated tonight and Saturday night, (Oct. 31-Nov. 1), at 8 p.m. in “the other space” at the Roxy Regional Theatre. Admission is $10.
Pop Watch Blog says:
“Seventy years ago today (Oct 30, 1938), a 21-year-old Orson Welles, along with his Mercury Theater players, gathered at New York City’s CBS studios to perform a one-hour radio play—an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. Panic would ensue—though much of it was probably blown a wee bit out of proportion by newspapermen unhappy with radio’s increasing dominance—and mass media would never be the same. It’s easy to say that we were a younger, more naive society in 1938 and it was cake for Welles to convince six million listeners than Martians really were invading Earth, starting with Grover’s Mill, NJ.”
The first two thirds of the 60-minute broadcast was presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested to many listeners that an actual Martian invasion was in progress. Compounding the issue was the fact that the Mercury Theatre on the Air was a ’sustaining show’ (i.e., it ran without commercial breaks), thus adding to the dramatic effect. Although there were sensationalist accounts in the press about a supposed panic, careful research has shown that while thousands were frightened, there is no evidence that people fled their homes or otherwise took action. The news-bulletin format was decried as cruelly deceptive by some newspapers and public figures, leading to an outcry against the perpetrators of the broadcast, but the episode launched Welles to fame.
This broadcast of The War of the Worlds was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air and was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938, airing over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds.
For more information, call the Roxy Theatre box office at 931.645.7699.
About Christine Anne Piesyk 
In my 40+ years in media, I have worked as feature writer, investigative reporter, editor, publisher, and film/theater/arts critic. I brought my liberal New England activism to Tennessee several years ago, having finally completed a mid-life undergraduate degree in community organizing and women's studies, and an MA in Interdisciplinary Arts with a concentration in Alzheimer's Disease. I served on Future Search Commissions for two colleges and on homelessness for the City of Northampton (MA), where I applied some of my undergrad work in urban planning and community development. I am a member of FreeThinkers for Peace and Civil Liberties. I am a certified storm spotter just because weather fascinates me. In my spare time (define spare time please?) I am a voracious reader, obsessive movie buff, ballroom dancer, and classical music junkie. I also create sci-fi/fantasy and renaissance costumes. I see life as an ongoing opportunity for learning and adventure (one current interest is mastering preparation of foods from India and Southeast Asia). My dream: a return trip to Machu Picchu. After all, the best things still to come. All posts by Christine Anne Piesyk as presented on Clarksville Online are copyright ©2006, 2007, 2008 to the author.
Email: womanspeak@gmail.com
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.