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What ridiculous history fact is your favorite? (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

In 1938, Orson Welles adapted H.G. Wells's "The War of the Worlds" for the radio, apparently causing mass hysteria and a major part of the continental United States to believe that a martian invasion had occurred.

"A few policemen trickled in, then a few more. Soon, the room was full of policemen and a massive struggle was going on between the police, page boys, and CBS executives, who were trying to prevent the cops from busting in and stopping the show. It was a show to witness."[26]

During the sign-off theme, the phone began ringing. Houseman picked it up and the furious caller announced he was mayor of a Midwestern town, where mobs were in the streets. Houseman hung up quickly, "[f]or we were off the air now and the studio door had burst open."[4]: 404

How many deaths had we heard of? (Implying they knew of thousands.) What did we know of the fatal stampede in a Jersey hall? (Implying it was one of many.) What traffic deaths? (The ditches must be choked with corpses.) The suicides? (Haven't you heard about the one on Riverside Drive?)

This was a year after he adapted Shakespeare's Julius Caesar to be set in Nazi Germany.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Wasn't that just one newspaper reporting it which was more or less just an advert for the play?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

No. In fact, I quoted the first-hand accounts of the people in charge of the broadcast.

Yes, there may have been less of a panic than as advertised, but it wasn't a gross (or intentional) distortion. The drama was also only broadcast once.

The offices of the city of Trenton, New Jersey, a location within the dramatization, had its communications paralyzed for 3 hours due to the calls made to ask the city well.