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Thursday
29Oct2009

Orson Welles' 'War of the Worlds' Online Friday Night

DateThursday, October 29, 2009 at 11:07PM
I know a thing or two about the legendary War of the Worlds broadcast of 1938. It served as the initial inspiration for my master's thesis covering what was called "First Person Singular," the then-revolutionary narrative technique Orson Welles employed in his radio dramas, and how his later film writing owed such a debt to those early days of radio. Before Welles, only 23 at the time of War of the Worlds, almost all radio dramas employed a narrator separate from the story, but Orson figured rightly that you could tell those stories more efficiently by giving the exposition to a central character.

Because of that, the approach allowed for the device in War of the Worlds of advancing the story through fake news reports. Problem was, even though there was a disclaimer before the broadcast that it was a work of fiction, roughly two million people thought it was a real alien invasion. Imagine if the show had more listeners: The radio ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (with Charlie McCarthy) attracted roughly 35% of the radio audience that night; War of the Worlds was heard by less than 4% of people with a radio. But there was panic in the streets of New York, FCC investigations, and more.

War of the Worlds returns Friday night, marking its 71st anniversary. The original radio drama will be streamed live on WaroftheworldsTribute, and it's all made possible by the new film Me and Orson Welles (thanks to First Showing for finding this earlier today). The stream will begin at 8pm Eastern.

What you'll notice, among other things, is how sophisticated Welles' use of sound was for the period and a more naturalistic approach to dialogue than was common at the time. You wouldn't hear characters talking over each other anywhere but The Mercury Theatre On the Air.

That show, and probably this episode in particular, launched a few careers: Welles, John Houseman, Joseph Cotton, and conductor Bernard Herrmann, whose first score was Citizen Kane. The famed breakfast table scene in that film, incidentally, has nearly the exact same structure to scenes in Welles' radio adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days, which aired one week prior to War of the Worlds.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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