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Mercury Theater on the Air’s

The War Of The Worlds by H.G. Wells

October 30th 1938

Starring Orson Welles, Frank Readick

On Halloween eve, October 30, Dan Seymour announced from the Studio One at 8 pm: "The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affilitated stations presents Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on the Air in The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells."

After a short prologue by Welles, the music of Bernard Hermann's orchestra played until it was interupted by news bulletins from Mount Jennings Observatory in Chicago and the Wilmuth Farm in Grover's Mill. At 8:12 pm, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy finished their opening act on NBC's Chase and Sanborn Hour, and millions turned their radio dials to CBS rather than stay with the musical acts on NBC. Hooper ratings determined that 12% of the NBC audience switched to CBS, almost 4 million listeners, and heard the news bulletins coming from Grover's Mill as if the events were actually taking place. The reporter "Carl Phillips" suddenly cried "Just a minute! Something's happening!"

THUS BEGAN ONE OF THE MOST INFAMOUS RADIO DRAMAS IN HISTORY...

The finest radio drama of the 1930’s was The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a show featuring the acclaimed New York drama company founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman.

In its brief run, it featured an impressive array of talents, including Agnes Moorehead, Bernard Herrmann, and George Coulouris. The show is famous for its notorious War of the Worlds broadcast, but the other shows in the series are relatively unknown.

The show first broadcast on CBS and CBC in July 1938. It ran without a sponsor until December of that year, when it was picked up by Campbell’s Soup and renamed The Campbell Playhouse.

Approximate play time of 1 hour.