Orson Welles' "The War of the Worlds" radio drama - CBS October 30, 1938 - subtitled

This version of the broadcast is incomplete. I know it is because I've heard other recordings of it. For example, after the Martian cylinder opens up, news reporter Carl Phillips says "Wait a minute, there's someone crawling out of the hollow top! Someone or something!" But, in this version, the line is all messed up so that it sounds like Carl Phillips is saying "Someone is crawling, uh oh, something." At the beginning of Act Two, when Orson Welles, in the role of Professor Richard Pierson, is writing down his thoughts on the aftermath of the Martian invasion, he says "I look down at my blackened hands, my torn shoes and my tattered clothes." But here, the line about the "torn shoes and tattered clothes" is left out and only the "blackened hands" remark is heard. Finally, during Professor Pierson's closing narration (after the Martians are killed off by Earth bacteria and the world is saved), between his remarks about how strange it now seems for him to sit "in my peaceful study writing down this last chapter of the record begun at a deserted farm near Grover's Mill" and the "Strange to watch children playing in the streets" line, the Professor is supposed to say "Strange to see the University spires bright and clear through an April haze." But in this version, the entire line is left out altogether! I noticed that these same mistakes occur in almost every recording of this program in existence lately, whether on C.D.s, on internet apps, or the various versions available on YouTube. I once had a cassette of "War of the Worlds" that was put out by Nostalgia Lane Records. This tape included the parts l have mentioned that are left out of the recordings in existence today, but even the Nostalgia Lane version was incomplete: the opening announcement and music was replaced with a new introduction in which a man tells listeners about what they're about to hear while science fiction style music is heard in the background; this same music is heard at the end of Side One and at the beginning of Side Two, thus making it hard to hear the dialogue; the intermission announcement, the introduction to Part Two of the story as well as a part of the music for the start of Part Two are edited out; finally, the ending music and announcement, including the promo for the following week's show (a dramatization of "three famous short stories") are also missing and again, the sci-fi music is heard as well as the voice of the man at the beginning of Side One saying something like "This has been a production of Nostalgia Lane Records." Why is it that the complete, unedited version of the program never seems to be around lately?

honestly i can't blame people for being scared of this if I heard something like that I would shit my pants

Put on gas masks were goin in in meters not feet

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I can’t tell you how awesome this was as a college assignment. I was actually 100% invested in an assignment for once in my life lol

The first-ever fake news. How many committed suicide? Just wondering. Was THIS the test, to see how we can be manipulated by NEWS?

At the 9:30 mark, the piano piece is "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows".

I enjoyed listening to this but find it astonishing that anyone ever thought it was real.

To reply to Michael below; edited editions of War of... seem to have existed for many years. I own a single LP vinyl of it from Mercury Records as well as full length 2 LP vinyl version from same company, both from the 1970's. But yes, edited or altered versions do seem common online today. My Dad talked about how people in community gathered at a local store to listen to developments when he was a young adult in 1938.

Thank you for this. I listened to radio and still enjoy closing my eyes like I did when I was a little kid and letting my imagination take off. Radio is not as passive a media as television. It requires a particular attention since it lacks the visual. We only had three tv channels when I was a kid with really only two of them relatively clear. When transistor radios were available, I was in seventh heaven.

Radio at it's peak! Now "video killed the radio stars " ! Back there only profesionists worked for radio ! Now, they hire only idiots

Wells was a national treasure! Actor, writer, producer, genius.

Classic Si-Fi 4the real fan... thanks

Definitely would've fooled me. Sound design is insane

This was basically the 'Christopher Columbus of modern western broadcasting'.
What started off as a venture for one result - ended up becoming a whole new world of 'what one can do, as to lying to the masses'.
Now it's nothing but propaganda as far as the eye can see - with millions impervious to the fact.
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I guarantee the majority of those who will read this post laugh at those from this era, while believing what they're seeing on the news today.

😱

hello HIS people

spacex go to mars

Honestly, starting around the 15 minutes mark it is rather horrifying if you lived back in the late 1930s. It would have been terrifying to watch it on TV or the internet, but back than you had only your ears and whatever you could have made out of it so I can't imagine how people reacted. Well, I can... they were angry and almost killed Orson Welles...

What an entertaining and scarily realistic broadcast, thanks for sharing.