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This mark of quality. A mark of Westinghouse. You can be sure if it's Westinghouse.
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Westinghouse.
Warning. Poisonous black smoke pouring in from Jersey Martians. Reaches South Street. Gas masks useless. Urge population to move into open spaces. Automobiles use Route 72324. Avoid congested areas. Smoke now spreading over Raymond Boulevard.
2X2L calling CQ. 2X2L calling CQ, New York. Isn't there anyone on the air? Isn't there anyone? 2X2L.
This is the result of panic. The blind and reasoning terror of men who run and do not truly know what they are fleeing. And this is the factual story of such a panic.
Good evening. I'm Ed Murrow. And this is the story of the night America trembled. It was October 30th, 1938. A night rather like other October nights in other years, except for perhaps two factors.
First, it was a year in which the nations of the world, at peace for almost 20 years, had recently seen shattered their comfortable illusion of security.
2,000 miles away, across an ocean now realized to be no longer a safeguard against invasions. The arrogant demands of a power hungry dictator had short weeks before forced potty Britain and proud France to agree to the humiliating peace of New York.
Thus, point one, that world events had left men shaken and unsure. Hence, open to emotional attack against their reason, against their intelligence and their logic.
Point two is somewhat harder to accept, but it's equally valid. It can be traced back countless centuries, beyond civilized mankind's reasoned fear of war, to primitive man's instinctive terror of the great unknown.
For October 30th was that mysterious night when dark tradition tells us, themes and demons walk the winds of the world. The one night of the year, when even sensible men believe that almost anything can happen.
The Eve of Halloween, 1938. And in a radio studio of the Columbia Broadcasting System in New York City, the actors and staff of the Mercury Theater on the air were putting the final touches to what was frankly a terror tale, which was to go on the air within a few short minutes.
We see them now in the final moments of rehearsal with their director.
It's 19, that hissing humming sound. I'd like you to mix in the hum a little bit faster and build it more than you do with the dress. Can you do it? Okay, I'll do it.
Okay, let's try it.
19?
Yeah, I got it.
About here. The captain and two policemen advance with something in their hands. As I can see it now, it's a white handkerchief tied to a pole, a flag of truce. If those creatures know what that means, what anything means...
Wait, wait, something's happening. A humped shape is rising out of the pit. I can make out a small beam of light against the mirror. What's that? There's a jet of flames springing from that mirror and at least right at the advancing men. It strikes them head on. Good Lord, they're turning to flame.
Well, I don't scare the daylight out of them. It does mean I've been rehearsing it for hours. You never can tell. Radio listeners are pretty blasé now.
Bill?
Yes. The sequence where you're calling old stations is the C-Q call.
Page 28.
Yeah.
Now, Bill better shade more. You think you're the last man alive on Earth, so let's have a little more desperation. I don't want to hand it up well. This is pure fantasy. Play with all the stops out, okay?
Okay.
15 minutes.
15 minutes.
Right.
Okay.
All right, everybody take ten positions at 755.
In October of 1938, the Columbia Broadcasting System Radio Network consisted of 110 affiliated stations in 44 states.
There was practically no sizable community in America which could not be reached by CBS broadcasts. Thus, from Maine to California and from Canada to the Gulf, listeners were tuned to the Mercury Theater on that fateful night.
In the eastern United States, the area closest to the scene of fictitious peril, reaction was most vivid and violent. However, it should be remembered that in their behavior, these Easterners were not unique. Everywhere, emotions and reactions were the same.
Panic struck universally out of the dark but peaceful sky on a night that began quietly enough.
Mother, that's Bob. Will you let him in, please?
Hello, Bob.
Good evening, Ms. Morgan.
Come on in. Mary will be down in a minute.
Thank you. Hello, Mr. Morgan.
Hello, Bob.
Nice out?
Yes, sir. It's swell.
Getting chilly?
No, it's just right. Perfect football weather.
You see the game yesterday?
You bet I did. Fourteen to nothing.
Pretty good team this year.
Seventh in the national writing. We ought to be first, too. We haven't even been scored on yet.
Those seven iron dukes. Think they'll make the Rose Bowl?
Well, I'll tell you. I think if we can get by Syracuse and Pitt, we got a good chance.
Hi, Bob.
Hi there.
Sorry to keep you waiting.
That's okay. We got plenty of time. Second show doesn't start for an hour.
Oh, where are we going?
I thought maybe the Rialto.
Oh, it's playing there.
Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire and Carefree. You seen it?
No, but I'd love to. Good night, Dad.
Bob, don't keep her out too late. No, sir.
Good night, Mom.
Good night, dear.
Night, Bob.
Good night, Miss Boyle.
What's on tonight, Dad?
Uh, what time is it?
Oh, getting on to wait.
Uh, CBS, the Mercury Theater, NBC, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.
Charlie McCarthy. I like him. Let's listen to that.
Now, you know, you take now a punk like this Hitler, all spit and polish,
the mob gal in hell, every time he wipes his nose.
I like him. Don't raise an army just for the fun.
Mark, my words, there's going to be trouble.
Maybe even sooner than you think.
Uh, it was just a big bag of wind.
I don't know about that, now.
He already grabbed Austrian Czechoslovakia, ain't he?
Now he's got his eye on Poland.
A big bag of wind.
Everybody made the mistake, was they never should have buckled under him from the beginning.
If they just told him to go jump in the lake, well, what could he do?
Huh? Huh?
France on the west, Russia on the east,
Mussolini in the south, he can't move a muscle any direction.
Yeah, he could go up.
Up?
Yeah, he hit all of a sudden from there, anywhere he likes.
America.
America? Sure, why not?
I'd like to see him try to bomb this country.
Yeah, you maybe, but not me, because he just might get away with it.
I don't want to be nowhere around when the bomb starts falling.
You know, you sound like them Europeans.
They're all too yellow to call his bluff.
Yellow, what do you mean yellow, huh?
Well, I just said...
Yeah, I heard what you said. You think I'm yellow, is that it?
I'll wait a minute.
Come on, let go of me.
How about that?
You think I'm yellow?
Now look, you two, I don't want, no trouble here.
Lay off, will you?
I didn't mean you.
I just meant anybody won't stand up and fight for his country.
Yeah, I'll fight for my country, same as the next guy.
Don't think nothing different, huh?
Is that the baby center?
I imagine.
Oh, yes.
What's your hurry? It's not eight yet.
Well, I'm hungry.
Oh, thirst, do you mean?
Hey, Mrs. Chandler, I'm not late, am I?
No, Millie, right on time.
Is the baby in bed?
Mm-hmm.
And asleep? You remember when to feed him?
Yes, ma'am, 10 o'clock, right.
The bottle's in the refrigerator.
You remember how to warm it up?
Yes, ma'am.
Well, I left milk and sandwiches in the refrigerator, too.
So help yourself.
We won't be gone too long.
I'll be all right, Mrs. Chandler.
I brought my homework, so I've got plenty to do until you get back.
Yeah, well, hold down the fort, Millie.
We'll be at the country club.
I left the phone number on the telephone pad in case you need it.
We'll get along just fine.
Good night, Millie.
Good night, Mrs. Chandler.
Ten seconds.
The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliates present the Mercury Theater on the air in
War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.
Ladies and gentlemen, the host of the Mercury Theater.
We know now that in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being watched
closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own.
We know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns, they were scrutinized
and studied perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the
transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
Any action, Mike?
Not a thing.
You get the copy?
Yeah.
You said black, didn't you?
Yeah, that's right.
It's yours, then.
One-five-four, calling PD-1.
One-five-four, calling PD-1.
One-five-four, this is PD-1.
Come in.
Mac, give me a rundown on a New Jersey license, 3F92.
Repeat, New Jersey license, 3F92.
Rundown on New Jersey license, 3F92 will do.
Hold on.
Wainwright again.
Who else?
What does he think?
They're all stolen cars.
It tells him about 20 a night.
That's what you call an obsession.
He reads too much Dick Tracy.
That could be.
PD-1, calling one-five-four.
Go ahead, PD-1.
Description, New Jersey license, 3F92.
1936 blue two-door old sedan.
Registration A, 3-8-7-5-6-4.
Motor, G, 1-4-8-6-9-0.
Owner, Horace Adams.
1-4-07 West Boulevard, Camden.
You got it?
Got it.
Thanks, Mac.
Right.
A really good beaver.
You gotta have somebody like him to keep you awake a night like this.
I suppose Sunday nights are usually pretty dull after Labor Day.
Pretty dull.
You know, I took this job because I thought it was gonna be exciting.
On this particular evening, October 30th,
the Crosley Rating Service estimated that 32 million people were listening in on radios.
For the next 24 hours, not much change in temperature.
A slight atmospheric disturbance of undetermined origin is reported over Nova Scotia,
causing a low pressure area to move down rather rapidly over the northeastern states,
bringing a forecast of rain accompanied by winds of light-gale force.
Maximum temperature, 66.
Minimum, 48.
This weather report comes to you from the Government Weather Bureau.
We now take you to the Meridian Room in the Hotel Park Plaza in downtown New York,
where you will be entertained by the music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
From the Meridian Room in the Park Plaza in New York City,
we bring you the music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra.
And, with a touch of the Spanish, Ramon Raquello leads off with La Comparsita.
Yeah.
Thanks, Tommy.
Where'd it go?
You're writing that Rocky Mount crash?
Yep. Almost finished.
How much copy you got on it?
Column. Column and a half, baby.
And build it to two columns.
I've got a good picture here and a double column spot on the front page.
Okay. There's not really much to it. No serious injuries.
Yeah.
Could use a good lead story.
All I've got is a community fund report.
That's the trouble on Sunday nights. Nothing ever happens.
That's right. That's the trouble with Sunday nights in the news business.
Nothing ever happens.
These people are comfortable, relaxed.
You might say even bovine in their smug complacency.
It's a Sunday night like other Sunday nights.
Quiet, uneventful, America is at peace.
There's no threat of war.
They have no way of dreaming that within a few short minutes,
their complacency is to be rudely shattered by an actor's voice,
speaking lines from a play.
Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music
to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News.
The opening words. The words that shook a nation.
At 20 minutes before 8 central time,
Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois,
reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas
occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars.
The spectroscope indicates the gas to be hydrogen
and moving toward the Earth with enormous velocity.
Professor Pearson of the Observatory at Princeton confirms Farrell's observation
and described the phenomenon as, quote,
like a jet of blue flame shot from a gun, unquote.
We now return you to the music of Ramon Raquello
playing for you in the meridian room of the Park Plaza Hotel
situated in downtown New York.
One troubled face out of ten,
but this is the face of dawning panic on the night America trembled.
And now a word from John Cameron Swayze.
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening to you.
When scientists learned to split the atom,
they found that it released something.
It was energy in the form of heat,
but it wasn't much from just one atom,
so they set up a chain reaction like this.
They found that it made the greatest physical force mankind has ever developed,
and they called it atomic fission.
Now less than ten years ago,
the Atomic Energy Commission turned to the nation's industry
to harness the power of the atom
and make it work for people in peacetime.
Engineers, scientists, and technicians
got together at Westinghouse
to tackle the toughest job in technical history.
And they succeeded.
They produced usable atomic energy,
the kind that drove the submarine Nautilus
over 60,000 miles without refueling.
And that's only the beginning of a bright new world.
Later this year, many of the lights at Pittsburgh
set with still another Westinghouse-built reactor,
the Shipping Port Power Plant,
a joint venture with Duquesne Light Company
and the Atomic Energy Commission.
And if you wonder what putting atomic energy to work means to you,
here's the man who can answer your question.
He's the man who set up the Atomic Power Division of Westinghouse,
Mr. Charles Weaver, Vice President for Atomic Power.
Thank you, John.
Today, atomic power isn't just a hope.
It's as much a fact as coal and oil.
Just as coal and oil started new industrial progress,
atomic energy marks the beginning of a new era,
with new comforts, new power to get where you want to go
and do what you want to do.
Putting this new atomic force to useful work
is a source of great satisfaction to us at Westinghouse.
Yes, an atomic power, too.
Westinghouse is first with the future.
The night America trembled.
We are bringing you the true story of the most memorable dramatic broadcast
in the history of radio,
the Mercury Theater's unforgettable dramatization of War of the Worlds.
The broadcast had just begun.
Its effect is not yet beginning to make itself felt
in the cities and hamlets of a nation
that will be caught in the grip of ungovernable terror.
Now a tune that never loses favor.
We have a popular stardust, Ramon Raquello and his orchestra.
One big one.
Okay, Dealer takes two.
Open a bed.
Check to the one you're trying to run.
Check.
Ladies and gentlemen, following on the news,
given an hour go with the moment to go,
I'm trying to find out.
To the large observatory of the country,
to keep an astronomical watch on any further disturbances occurring on the planet Mars.
Due to the unusual nature of this occurrence,
we have arranged an interview with the noted astronomer,
Professor Pearson, who will give us his views on the subject.
In a few moments, we will take you to the Princeton Observatory
and Princeton, New Jersey.
We return you until then to the music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra.
Don't care.
You turn that off. Turn it off. I'm studying.
You want to study what you're learning on the gregarious typo?
You happy?
This is good as a movie?
Better.
Look, the shooting star.
Hey, that was a bright one.
Cigarette?
Thank you.
Cigarette?
Look at that thing.
Look at those stars. They look so close.
You feel like you can just reach right up and touch them.
Sure you can. Do you want an handful?
It's crazy.
Crazy about you.
I got something for you today.
What?
This.
What? How about it?
What will my parents say?
You know what they'll say.
They'll say we're too young, too immature,
but they've been saying that for a year.
What have you said?
Shall we?
Tonight, right now.
I'd like to, Bob, but...
What's the matter?
Aren't you sure?
Well, I'm sure.
Well, then...
I know a justice of the peace,
and we could be there in an hour.
Ladies and gentlemen,
a special announcement from Trenton, New Jersey.
It is reported that at 8.50 p.m.,
a huge flaming object, believed to be a meteorite,
fell on a farm in the neighborhood of Grover's Mill, New Jersey,
22 miles from Trenton.
The flash in the sky was visible within a radius of several hundred miles,
and the noise of the impact was heard as far north as Elizabeth.
We have dispatched a special mobile unit to the scene,
and we'll have our commentator, Mr. Phillips,
in the description, as soon as he can reach there from Princeton.
In the meantime, we take you to the Hotel Martinette in Brooklyn,
where Bobby Millett and his orchestra
are offering a program of dance music.
I must be at this point.
Yeah, couldn't be.
New Jersey is 500 miles north.
We take him now to Grover's Mill.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Carl Phillips again
at the Willman Farm, Grover's Mill, New Jersey.
Professor Pearson and myself made the 11 miles from Princeton in just 10 minutes.
Well, I hardly know where to begin to paint for you
a weird picture of the strange scene before my eyes.
I guess that's the thing directly in front of me, half buried in a vast pit.
It must have struck with terrific force.
The ground is covered with splinters of a tree.
It must have struck on the way down.
What I can see of the object itself
doesn't look very much like a meteor,
at least not like the meteors I've seen.
It looks more like a huge cylinder.
The color is sort of yellowish-white.
Curious spectators now are pressing close to the object
in spite of the efforts of the police to keep them back.
One man wants to touch the thing.
He's having an argument with a policeman.
And the policeman wins.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, there's something I haven't mentioned at all
as excitement, but it's becoming more distinct.
Perhaps you've caught it already on your radio.
Listen.
Can you hear it?
It's a curious humming sound
that seems to come from inside the object.
Now, move the microphone closer.
Now, here we are.
Now, we're not more than 25 feet away.
Can you hear it now?
Hello?
Oh, hello, Molly.
No, no, I'm just waiting here
for Paul and his wife.
We're going to church.
The radio?
No, I haven't. Why?
What?
Well, just for a minute, perhaps.
Thanks, Molly.
The thing is smooth, and as you can see,
a cylindrical shape.
Just a minute. Just a minute. Something's happening.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is terrific.
This end of the thing is beginning to flake off.
The top is beginning to rotate like a screw.
The thing must be hollow.
Hey, she's a movement.
Look, the darn thing's unscrewing.
Keep back there. Keep back, I'll tell you.
Maybe there's men in it trying to escape.
It's red hot. They'll burn to a cinder.
Keep back there. Keep those idiots back.
She's off! The top's loose!
Look out there! Land back!
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most terrifying thing
I have ever witnessed. Wait a minute.
Someone's crawling out of the hollow top.
Someone or something.
I can see peering out of that black hole
two humanist discs.
Are they eyes? It might be a face.
It might be good heavens.
Something's wriggling out of the shadow
like a gray snake.
Now it's another.
And another.
They look like tentacles to me.
There, I can see the thing's body.
It's as large as a bear, and it glistens like wet leather.
But the face, it's indescribable.
I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it.
The eyes are blank.
Oh, no, no, please, no, Bob.
I'll be shaped like saliva,
dripping from its rim.
The monster, or whatever it is,
can hardly move.
It seems weighted down by both.
I'm sorry.
Time's wild city task.
Oh, what?
Wait a minute.
Hey, Johnny, you got anything on the wire
about a meteor falling in the desert?
No, man, we haven't got anything on it.
Nothing at all.
No, man.
Don't mention it.
What do you suppose is ailing her?
Why, what's up?
She says you heard something on the radio
about a meteor landing in New Jersey
carrying Martian monsters.
Boy, people.
So, the Mercury Theater on the air
blithely proceeds with its dramatization
of H.G. Wells' War of the World.
The actors, of course, have no way of knowing
that the performance is sowing the seeds of panic
amongst hundreds of thousands
who believe they're actually hearing a factual report.
But others are beginning to feel its impact.
For instance, the officers on duty
at the State Police and Fire Dispatchers' Office
in Trenton, New Jersey.
State police.
No, sir, we don't know anything about that.
Well, there is no Grover's Mill in New Jersey.
There's a Grovesville, but there's no Grover's Mill.
I can't help it, sir, what the radio says.
There's no such place.
State police.
No, ma'am, we don't know anything about that.
Well, I can't help that, ma'am.
We just don't know anything about it.
Well, did I say something about a quiet Sunday evening?
What's going on, anyway?
I don't know. They say it's been announced in the radio.
You better check.
State police.
No, sir, we have no information on that. Sorry.
We are bringing you and I witness a count
of what's happening on the Wilmeth Farm
Grover's Mill, New Jersey.
Meanwhile, I count of it.
That must be it.
The hell's he talking about? Grover's Mill.
There's no such place.
Maybe it's just a play or something.
We're not returning to Carl Phillips at Grover's Mill.
Am I on?
Ladies and gentlemen, here I am, back up a stone wall
that adjoins Mr. Wilmeth's garden.
From here, I get a sweep of the whole scene.
I'll give you every detail as long as I can talk,
as long as I can see.
More state police have arrived. More state police?
They're drawing up a fort just in front of the...
State police.
No, sir, we have no information on that yet.
We're checking it now.
All right. Just wait until next year, you will see.
Oh, next year, next year. Always next year.
The Dodgers ain't won a penance since 1920.
That means they're never going to win another, huh?
Probably.
Or I wish I knew all the answers like you.
Come on, you guys. Why are you two always arguing?
Mike, have you heard? Heard what?
About the Martians.
A spaceship full of Martians landed near Trenton,
50 miles from here. It's on the radio now.
Martians?
That's what the guy said.
Some guy on the radio, some professor from Princeton.
The state cops are out there now.
The captain and two policemen
advanced with something in their hands.
Yes, I can see it now.
It's a white handkerchief tied to a pole, a flag of truce.
If those creatures know what that means,
what anything means,
wait, wait, something's happening.
A hump shape is rising out of the pit.
I can make out a small beam of light against a mirror.
What's that? There's a jet of flames springing from that mirror,
and it leaps right at the advancing men.
It strikes them head on.
Good Lord, they're turning into flames.
Now the whole field's caught fire.
The woods, the barns,
the gas tanks of autumn appeals,
it's spreading everywhere. It's coming this way.
About 20 yards to my right.
Ladies and gentlemen,
due to circumstances beyond our control,
we are unable to continue the broadcast from Grover's Mill.
Evidently, there is some difficulty with our field transmission.
However, we will return you to that spot of the earliest opportunity.
Well, come on.
Come on, we've got to get down there fast.
They've got a car.
Down where?
Down at Grover's Mills.
Well, where's Grover's Mills?
Somewhere near Trenton, I think.
Come on, now, wait a minute, fellas.
We don't know what this is all about.
Who don't know?
It's what I told you.
It's the Nazis.
The guy in our radio said it was monsters from Mars.
It's Nazi air raids.
Come on!
Come on!
Hey, you guys, wait for me!
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have just been handed a message
that came from Grover's Mill by telephone.
Just a moment.
Whose deal?
Who's speaker?
Is that anybody who doesn't book or anymore?
Huh, this is important.
At least 40 people, including six state troopers,
lie dead in a field east of Grover's Mill.
Their bodies burned and distorted
beyond all possible recognition.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the next voice you hear
will be that of Brigadier General Montgomery Smith,
commander of the state militia at Trenton, New Jersey.
Trenton, that's where my family lives.
Listen, listen.
I have been requested by the governor of New Jersey
to place the counties of Mercer and Middlesex,
as far west as Princeton and east to Jamesburg,
under martial law.
Four companies of state militia
are proceeding from Trenton to Grover's Mill
and will aid in the evacuation of homes
within the range of military operations.
Thank you.
You have just been listening to...
You heard that guy calling out to the Army.
Hey, my folks, I think I better call him.
I'm saying it easy, buzz, alright?
How do you know?
What's wrong?
How far is that from here?
500 miles.
Well, let's play cards.
Oh, put me out.
I don't want to play cards.
My fire departments are persecuting or fighting the flames
which menace the entire countryside.
We have been unable to establish any contact
with our mobile unit at Grover's Mill,
but we hope to be able to return you there
at the earliest possible moment.
Something moving, solid metal.
Kind of a shield-like affair rising up out of the cylinder.
It's standing on legs, actually rearing up
on a sort of metal framework.
Now it's reaching above the trees and the searchlights are on it.
Hold on!
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have a grave announcement to make.
Incredible, as it may seem,
both the observations of science
and the evidence of our own eyes
lead to the inescapable assumption
that those strange beings who've been living
in the Jersey formlands tonight
are the vanguard of an invading army
from the planet Mars.
Mars?
Bob, Bob, turn around, go back, go back.
Bob, Bob, I want to go home!
I want to go home!
And now, back from vacation,
here's Betty Perness.
Welcome back, Betty.
Thank you.
It's very nice to be back.
And now, I want to show you an exciting new symbol.
And here it is.
The symbol that represents the very newest ideas
in home appliances.
New design, new performance.
It's the shape of tomorrow from Westinghouse.
And now, here's the exciting shape of tomorrow
in brand new 1958
Westinghouse laundry equipment.
The 1958 Space Mate.
Here, you'll find the shape of tomorrow
in this modern new design.
The shape of tomorrow and new convenience, too.
Imagine a clothes dryer
that operates right on top of the laundromat
and takes up only 25 inches of space.
And look.
Now, push button controls
for the most accurate washing and drying yet.
And here is the exciting new custom imperial
laundromat and dryer.
You'll see the shape of tomorrow
in this style light control panel
that lights up like this.
Push button controls
that give five wash and two rinse temperatures.
And that same stunning control panel
lights up this twin electric clothes dryer.
Push button controls here, too,
give you just the right drying
for every kind of fabric.
And here, the shape of tomorrow
means the very last word in convenience
in this beautiful Westinghouse
wash and dry combination.
It takes just two minutes of your time
to load clothes and set the dials.
And your clothes are beautifully washed
and properly dried all automatically.
In every laundromat,
there's the famous revolving agitator
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And every dryer has new, improved,
direct airflow drying.
See the 1958 Westinghouse
shape of tomorrow laundromats and dryers now.
The most advanced and the most complete line
of home laundry equipment made today.
And remember, too, you can be sure
if it's Westinghouse.
October 30th, 1938.
The night America crumbled.
The impact of the Mercury Theatre's broadcast
of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
is as devastating as it is unexpected.
The Columbia Broadcasting System
and its affiliated stations, the newspapers,
the police and fire departments,
of the whole nation,
all are being deluded by an aggra of calls
from frenzied listeners
who believe the radio drama to be the real thing.
More than a million listeners from coast to coast
are caught in the grip of a contagious mass hysteria
and they flee in terror from an incredible bogeyman,
mythical invaders from the planet Mars.
Strewed over the battle area from Grover's Mill to Plainsborough,
crushed and trampled to death
under the metal feet of the monster,
seen to cinders by its heat ray.
Langham Field, Virginia.
Stouting planes report three Martian machines
visible above treetops,
moving north towards Somerville
with population fleeing ahead of them.
Heat ray not in use.
Although advancing at express train speed,
invaders pick their way carefully.
One moment, please.
Here's a bullet from Basque Ridge, New Jersey.
Coon hunters have stumbled on a second cylinder
similar to the first,
embedded in the great swamp 20 miles south of Morris.
Hello? Is this the country club?
I want you to be convinced you're Mrs. Chandler.
And hurry! Please hurry!
There can be open and the fighting machine ring.
They are taking a position to the foot hill.
Hello?
Mr. Chandler, this is Millie.
Can you come home, please, right away?
No, the baby's all right. It's the Martians.
Yes, Martians!
Do you mean you haven't heard?
Oh, Mr. Chandler, it's all over the radio.
All the things are happening.
The Martians have landed in New Jersey
with plane bombers and poison gas,
and they've killed everyone in Trenton.
We've got to get out of here!
If it's in Trenton, they'll kill us all!
No, I'm not scared.
It's just that...
Yes, yes, I'll wait you dead here.
But hurry! Hurry!
Machines also sighted by telephone operator
East of Little Sac,
within 10 miles of Plainfield.
Here's a bullet from Winstonfield, Long Island.
A fleet of army bombers carrying heavy explosives
flying north in pursuit of enemy.
Army bombing plane V-843 of Bayonne, New Jersey.
Lieutenant Boat commanding eight bombers
reporting to Commander Fairfax Langham Field.
This is Boat reporting to Commander Fairfax Langham Field.
Enemy tripod machines now in sight,
reinforced by three machines from the Maristown Cylinder,
six all together.
One machine partially crippled, believed hit by shell
and army gun and watch young bombers.
Guns now appear silent.
A heavy black fog hanging close to the Earth
to be treated as a threat to me.
Listen, this thing's got not a hand.
The switchboard downstairs is thought to be the cause
of people who think it's the real McCoy.
No, kid, I wish I were. It's an awful mess.
But take care of it.
I know that, but they don't.
What do you want me to do?
I have to make some sort of an announcement.
Tell them it's just a dramatization.
We'll do that. Please, the switchboard out there
is about ready to go out of their minds.
They're circling.
Ready to strike.
A thousand yards and we'll be over the first.
Eight hundred yards.
Six hundred.
Four hundred.
Two hundred.
There they go.
The giant arm raised.
Green flash.
They're spraying us with flame.
Two thousand feet.
Engines are giving out.
No chance to release bombs.
Only one thing left.
Drop on them plain and all.
We're diving on the first one.
The engine's gone.
This is Bayone New Jersey calling Langham Field.
This is Bayone New Jersey calling Langham Field.
Come in, please. Come in, please.
This is Langham Field. Go ahead.
Eight Army bombers in engagement
with enemy tripod machines over Jersey Flats.
Trenton, New Jersey operator, how many times do I have to die here?
Well, you please, Murray.
What do you mean you can't die? You've got to get through.
The circuits are busy.
Come on, I've got to call home through.
Hey, where's Charlie going?
Charlie's driving home with Dave.
Hurry up to the phone, will you, please?
Warning.
Poisonous black smoke pouring in from Jersey Marshes.
Reaches South Street.
Gas masks useless.
Urge population to move into open spaces.
Automobile shoes route seven, 23, 24.
Avoid congested areas.
Smoke now spreading over Raymond Boulevard.
We've got to get out of here.
We've got to get out of here.
We've got to get out of here.
We've got to get out of here.
Stop spreading over Raymond Boulevard.
It's just a radio play, sir.
State police.
No, no, ma'am, ma'am, it's just a radio play.
State police.
No, sir, it's just a...
No, sir, we have no official confirmation,
but we believe it's just a radio play.
Got anything yet, Browning?
No, wait a minute, something's coming in now.
Hey, this is it.
State police.
It's just a radio play, ma'am.
Attention all units, attention all units.
There is no invasion from Mars.
The invasion panic is the result of a radio broadcast.
Repeat, there is no invasion from Mars.
Proceed to distribute this information as quickly as possible.
Yes, sir, we're positive.
Attention all units, attention all units.
I'm speaking to the roof of the broadcasting building, New York City.
The bells you hear are ringing to warn people to evacuate the city
as the Martians approach.
Estimate that in the last two hours,
three million people have moved out along the roads to the north.
Such as in River Parkway, still kept open for motor traffic.
Avoid bridges to Long Island, hopelessly jammed.
All communication with Jersey Shore closed ten minutes ago.
No more defenses, our army wiped out, artillery, air force.
Everything wiped out.
This may be the last broadcast.
We'll stay here till the end.
Jane, it's the end of the world.
We're all going to die.
I just heard it on the radio.
Give you a ticket, anywhere.
As far as this will take me, then hurry, the Martians are coming.
Black smoke, drifting over the city.
People in the streets see it now, they're running towards the East River.
Thousands of them dropping in like rats.
Now the smoke's spreading faster.
It's reached Times Square.
They're falling like flies.
Now the smoke is crossing Sixth Avenue, Good Avenue.
It's a hundred yards away, 50 feet.
What on earth's the matter with you?
The babies, the monsters, the monsters are going to kill us.
Now monsters, what monsters? What are you talking about?
Radio.
Dad, the announcer must be dead.
2X2L calling CQ.
2X2L calling CQ.
2X2L calling CQ, New York.
Isn't there anyone on the air?
Isn't there anyone?
2X2L.
It's just a radio place, sir.
The whole city must have gone nuts.
You mean the whole nation? The AP says the same thing is happening everywhere.
This is the lead story I wanted, and I can't even find time to remake the front page.
When is this ever going to end?
It's just a radio play, man.
No, man. There is no invasion, it's just a radio play.
Engine company five and chemical three, the summer's set in the war.
Hey, where's Barbara's mouse?
We've come to volunteer.
Yeah, the Nazi war place where they land.
Look, look! There are no Martians or no Nazis. It's just a radio place on the whole.
A radio place.
I'll beat it! Get out of here!
But, Chief, it was clearly announced as a play.
Here's a publicity release in tonight's paper.
Now, listen.
When the Mercury Theatre on the air broadcasts over the Columbia Network at 8 p.m.,
they will do H.G. Wells War of the World.
This is one of the first shows about Martians.
It tells how the octopus-like creatures from Mars lay waste the earth
Until there are only a few humans left
Yes, that's absolutely right every paper
Well, how clear can you make a thing all they had to do is check nobody in his right mind would believe it
You can give her Rudy Valley for three days. I'm getting hungry. I'm the one that's hungry. I tell you Charlie
I'm so starved. I could almost
Don't look at me that way
What are you talking about
Yo, we've been listening to the radio ever since you left. We haven't heard anything about it. I'll get it. I'll be on every station
Out of character to assure you that the war of the world has no further significance than as the holiday offering
It was intended to be the Mercury Theater's own radio version of dressing up in the sheet
And jumping out of a bush and saying boo
Starting now we couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night
So we did the next best thing we
Annihilated the world before your very ears and utterly destroyed the Columbia Broadcasting System
You will be relieved
I hope to learn that we didn't mean it and that both institutions are still open for business
So goodbye everybody and remember please for the next day or so the terrible lesson you learned tonight
that grinning glowing
globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch and
If your doorbell rings and nobody's there
There was no Martian
It's Halloween
Of all the why didn't you check the other stations? We didn't have time sir. We were too busy listening
You mean you're really believed
Your kids have got a lot to learn
Yeah, I guess you're right. It's all right Milly. It's all over now. Are you sure, Mr. Chang? Yes, Milly.
This is CBS the Columbia Broadcasting System
For the listeners who tuned in to the Mercury Theater on the air broadcast night
And did not realize that the program was merely a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' famous novel The War of the Worlds
We are repeating the fact made clear four times on the program that the entire content of the play
entirely fictitious
I don't understand. Well, it was just a radio play Milly. I
Can't believe it. It's so real
Oh
Yes, it was so real
So real that it completely fooled poor Milly and more than a million others who slowly came to their senses and
Realized they'd been panicked by a colossal Halloween joke. And what were their reactions?
Well, many laugh with perhaps just a touch of historical relief in their laughter
Me scared? Of course not. I knew it was a play all the time. Sure, me and the old woman we'd run down the streets mingle with the crowds
But if we wasn't scared ourselves just for the kicks. See how the others was taking us. You know what I mean
Others were somewhat indignant. A fine trick to play on people. My sister passed out
That all the kids were screaming their heads off. The whole house was in an uproar. Is that what you call entertainment?
And still others were furiously angry
Hello CBS
So yeah, what are you gonna do about me?
I'm 300 miles from home without a penny in my pocket
Where am I calling from?
Buffalo, New York, that's where I'm calling from and it's all your fault
So the reactions of the period but there is one thing we must not overlook
All this took place in 1938 in a less sophisticated
Restricted yesteryear that did not know the atom bomb guided missiles and rockets that may shortly fly to the moon
20 years ago the concept of an alien race was novel to us hence alarming
Today we realize that Mars is very near
closer perhaps in time than we imagine
There is every reason to believe that long before the Martians come to us. We will go to them. I
I wonder if we will panic them as they did us on the night America trembles
The night John Cameron Swayze is playing with fire
Ladies and gentlemen a good evening to you
I'm using this torch as a high concentration of heat. Now. I ask you to tell me whether heat is a friend or an enemy
He will light a friendly cigarette
But it can also burn up hard-earned money if I let it heat runs power stations that make electricity
Here's one of the most efficient producers of electricity in the world the Kiger Creek station of the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation
It's more efficient because Westinghouse engineers have found new ways to harness extra heat to run these turbines
Big turbine blades for example look like this
Until recently they could only stand so much heat and pressure the limit had been reached no available battle could lift the problem
So Westinghouse metallurgists came up with a brand new kind of steel that raised the limits of heat and cut the cost of making
Electricity one of these pieces of steel wire is made of Westinghouse metal
It will stand the kind of heat we're talking about the other won't
Metal developed in Westinghouse laboratories will help this power station to produce more electricity for less money
Over the years Westinghouse engineering has helped to make electricity your best servant the biggest bargain in your family budget
Improvement on top of improvement has made Westinghouse first with the future in research in
In engineering in new ideas you can be sure if it's Westinghouse
Westinghouse products seen on tonight's program are made in Mansfield, Ohio and in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Your friends and neighbors at the more than 60 Westinghouse plants throughout America. Hope you enjoyed tonight's play
Next week Westinghouse studio one presents first prize for murder
Written especially for studio one by Phil Reisman, Jr. based on a story by John D. McDonald
Starring Darren McGavin. Who is Nathaniel Arch? No one has ever seen him
Here is the best available picture of the mysterious Mr. Arch
All that is known is that he wrote the mystery novel double dead which has won mystery writers of America's prize for the best novel by a new writer
It is not widely known however that double dead reveals the details of an actual double murder that the authorities have never been able to
solve. Be sure to join us next week to find the answer to who is Nathaniel Arch
In first prize for murder starring Darren McGavin
Two weeks from tonight Westinghouse studio one brings you the first part of the exciting drama
Mutiny on the Shark written especially for studio one by Max Ehrlich
Starring Richard Bassard
A story of the new kind of living that the atomic age has brought with it
The drama of life aboard an atomic submarine
Be with us again two weeks from tonight for part one of Mutiny on the Shark
Starring Richard Bassard
Starring Richard Bassard
Starring Richard Bassard
Starring Richard Bassard
No more burning your fingers reaching for toast
This beautiful new Westinghouse toaster with this exclusive lift up lever lift small pieces and extra inch
By now save six dollars on confection colors model four dollars on chrome model
Your choice only $15.95
Studio one greatly acknowledges the cooperation of Paramount Pictures
Whose current release is Cecil B. DeMille's Ten Commandments
Westinghouse studio one has come to you from New York and has been selected for viewing by America's armed forces at home and overseas
This is Art Hanna saying goodnight for Westinghouse
