Selects: The Great War of the Worlds Panic Myth | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

hi there everyone it's me Josh and for. this week's select I've chosen our. episode on the war of the world's myth. from November 2020 one of the great. myths of the 20th century is that orison. Wells 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast. set off a mass panic in the United. States as Rubes from all corners of the. country grabbed their shotguns and ran. senselessly through the streets and. prayed death would be swift well it. turns out America's less gullible than. that instead we're gullible about the. idea that we're able think about that.

one as you enjoy this. episode welcome to stuff you should know. a production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh Clark there's Charles W Chuck Bryan. over there it's just the two of us. batching it. up without. cheering oh man I think Jerry's uh.

inclusion we're still batching it up how. do you mean I mean does she really ruin. the the batch scene for us sure she's. very maternal and judgy that's true oh. yeah you were headed down a kind Road. for a second I was with Jerry yeah that. doesn't sound like. [Laughter]. me so for all of you who are just tuning. in to the first time welcome this is. stuff you should know to everybody else.

who's tuning in for the multiple time. welcome this is stuff you should know. yeah we never do that some shows do that. what they welcome new listeners yeah and. kind of say what they do and I mean. we've literally never done that that's. fine that's lame hi we're who does that. any friends of ours yeah I mean the guys. on the Flop House they've been. podcasting as long as we have and every. single episode they say who they are and. what they do no okay well do you want to. do that this one time well I'm Chuck and.

Bryant and this is Josh Clark and uh. this is a podcast where we explain. things in a light-hearted and fun and. sometimes even funny way I disagree with. all of. that oh boy so uh what we're going to. talk about today because I think we need. to talk about this one in a slightly. somber tone Chuck it's a a blemish in. the history of America really if you. think about it well yeah and you know. what I've never actually had listened to. it until this week same here and it was.

it's it's a lot of fun to actually. listen to I would recommend it yeah. especially in a dark room um where. that's all you're concentrating on not. like a second screen kind of thing like. where you're really listening to this. radio play yeah and try and put yourself. there a little bit like what it must. have been like in well not 1898 that's. when the book came out yeah but in 1938. I mean what 40 years later just in that. 40 years stretch I mean think about the.

difference between 1980 and 2020 not. ridiculously different periods it's just. gotten 1898 exactly oh yeah it's gone. downhill um and don't think that had. nothing to do with Reagan's election in. 1980 but the the difference between 1898. and. 1938 are it's just like two different. worlds man um two different worlds comma. War of. the so I guess we should start with the.

book uh written by the great HG Wells um. it was the very first Alien Invasion. story uh to hit the bookshelves and. that's a pretty remarkable thing it was. a serialized thing at first in uh. magazines and Pearsons in the in the UK. and then Cosmo here in the US and then. they they finally slapped all those. serialized versions together into a book. and it sold pretty well yeah it's never. been on a print since that first edition.

in. 1898 that's pretty respectable I expect. as much for our book as well yeah I'm. sure it'll be still being published in. 40 years or 100 years yeah 140 years. even yeah well let's hope um so in this. book and like you said first Alien. Invasion story ever published which is. you know just the fact that this is a. completely new premise new conceit made. it you know kind of scary but in the. book um HG Wells describes like this.

this Alien Invasion um and part of the. the thing that was so scary about it at. least at the time from what I can gather. is that it was about like the breakdown. of society and we're talking like. Victorian era England society where like. rigid social rules and customs and mores. and and guidance for all Behavior at all. times was like the norm so the idea of. that breaking down was scary on in and. of itself I think that made the book.

kind of scary to contemporary readers. would that be right readers back then um. and that was one big theme that well. explored another one that he explored. and that at least I think whoever wrote. the Encyclopedia britanica article on it. said that the main point of this the. main subtext was um learning how humans. dominion over animals can be you know. cruel and thoughtless because all of a. sudden with these Alien Invaders who. were just wiping us off the map um we.

were the we were like you know. domesticated animals to them yeah so the. the shoe was on the other hoof and uh. sure it caused um or at least it was. intended to cause people to take kind of. a hard look at uh pre- animal farm uh to. make sort of a social statement about. how he treated animals yeah and so that. was in 1898 if you flash forward to. Orson wells in his Mercury Theater. version.

he uh this is you know like you said. we're right in the middle or we're in. the Great Depression and we're headed. towards war and it's sort of an uneasy. feeling in the United States as a whole. so he thought perfect time to go in. there put a Fresh coat of pain on this. thing and scare the beebus out of the. American public by doing something that. they had never heard before which was. sort of a a verite style production.

yeah and I mean like it's it's easy to. overlook today but radio was still. rather new at the time in 1938 it was. like a you know cuttingedge. technological medium and it was not. fully defined so the idea of um creating. this I guess hoax broadcast is is the. best you can call it yeah. um this fictionalized version that was. what would you call it man I hate that. word so much I know it's really taken on.

a a bad Tang here lately uh yeah I mean. it's it's verite it's it's uh you know. of a faux documentary style right thing. that no one had ever heard like there's. no way when people heard this they would. think oh this is you know I know. Christopher guess this is sort of a. scary version I've seen Blair Witch I. know what's going on here I recognize. Lenny from Lever and Shirley anywhere I. know that's not real yeah so they.

weren't they weren't prepared for this. in 1938 when uh Orson Wells who was. already a big name in radio as the voice. of the Shadow which was big hit uh and. his Mercury Theater was pretty pretty. well respected at the time is yeah it's. like a live Stage Theater so they'd only. had this show for a few months by the. time October 1938 rolled around um but. their whole Jam was they were on CBS and. CBS had them uh do hourong radio. adaptations of classic um like novels.

like Treasure Island they they did. Around the World in 80 Days and so since. it was October they wanted to do. something spooky around Halloween they. decided yeah so so they were like well. what's the most boring scary book there. is and they said HG Wells War of the. Worlds so they decided to adapt it yeah. so they got together uh they're. rehearsing uh we'll talk a little bit. more about that in a sec but there. wasn't a strong feeling among the cast. and crew and the production group that.

thought it was going to be awesome. because I think probably because they. had never done anything like this they. had never heard anything like this they. thought is this even going to be any. good and a couple of different uh. sources in the production went to a. radio critic ahead of time it's like. thanks a lot and they said by the way. this is going to be a real. stinker they said apparently two. different people in the in the. production said that this will put. everyone to sleep and I don't I don't. have the impression that it's strictly.

because they didn't have any frame of. reference to judge it against because no. one had done this before from what I can. gather the originally it was going to be. really bad and really terrible and the. production and the cast and crew knew. this they knew that they were marching. toward embarrassment um with the the. early versions of the of the script yeah. so Orson he's sort of distracted he's. got a Stage production going on he's got. his partner in his group John the great.

John Housman uh who you all know from. the paper chase kind of a legendary. actor he was his one of his original. partners and he got together with Howard. is it kotch I never know if it's going. to be a cotch or a Coke doesn't matter. all right K and he was the writer uh who. was adapting the novel and they were. like we got to make this thing better. and one thing I think we can do this is. housan talking I'm not going to do a. John Housman but oh everyone he sounds.

right when I came across John hman being. involved like I can't wait I don't even. remember I mean he was just very serious. and sort of all I can think of is paper. chase and uh what was the TV commercial. he was it I want to say it was like. Schwab or nol Lynch I think it might. have been Merl Lynch maybe I don't know. but one of those Finance firms he did he. voiced for well yeah he was very famous. for having a very high pitch squeaky. falsetto voice and he talked very very. fast and and actually I know who it was.

it was FedEx and Dunkin Donuts that he. was well known for pitching he was the. time to make the donuts guy right with. the mustache so housan and cotch Coke. went in there and he said one of the. things we should do probably to make. this a little more scary and a little. more believable that it's an actual. broadcast is we you know time passes in. the book and we can't do that here so. let's just get rid of all that stuff so. it gives the appearance that it's going. down right now.

yeah that was enormously a huge change. um and I don't know if he did that to to. help the pacing move a little faster or. what um but that was that would pan out. to be a really important difference in. the original script that um Howard K. turned in uh and the one that they ended. up doing and then even beyond that some. of the other changes came just hours. before broadcast because apparently if. you worked with Orson Wells you should.

be on the lookout for him to come in at. the last minute and be like all the. stuff we've been practicing for a week. or two forget all of that we're we're. doing this instead and part of that from. what I can tell is that he was trying to. shake up the actors shake them out of. whatever complacency they'd worked. themselves into with rehearsal and to. get this raw more terrified performance. and uh apparently it worked I mean I. can't imagine I didn't hear any. rehearsals or anything like that I would. have loved to have compared you know the. week before to you you know the actual.

broadcast but the everyone delivered. these really great um really great. performances and they really nailed by. Showtime um the realism in a lot of ways. not just in the. performances um but also in just little. details like they you know they were. they were doing a a mock radio program. which we'll talk about a little more in. detail in a second but they were they. were pretending to have news bulletins. break in so they were they were doing. the things that news bulletins did one.

of the things that stuck out to me was. one of the eyewitnesses so it's an actor. but one of the eyewitnesses is like. being interviewed by a news reporter on. the scene and they start to talk and the. news reporter goes can you can you speak. loud speak more loudly and move into the. microphone please and the the um I think. the actor actually says how's that and. the guy repeats himself and then the. actor has repeat himself what he was. originally saying so it has like that. veneer of you know authenticity just.

from little details like that that you. know really it stood out to me when I. was listening for him but if you're if. you're not listening for him you you. just it makes you buy into the whole. thing that much more yeah and the other. big change that Wells brought along was. uh stretching out the first two halves. of the thing such that uh it went past. it went 40 minutes and radio at the time. every 30 minutes like on the half hour. they would check in with a station ID. check and listeners even though radio.

was new uh was were well honed to this. station break every 30 minutes and so. when 10 minutes passed the the half hour. go by and there ain't and there ain't no. station break that really makes people. kind of Buy in to what they're listening. to is possibly real uh and then you add. to the fact that there were no sponsors. for this show yeah so they weren't. cutting to a Casper or uh or uh me me. UND these ads right all of a sudden I.

couldn't remember any sponsor except can. you imagine John hman saying made with. Mod no I thought it' be made with Mod. doll yeah that's right that's a much. better Housman I had something in my. throat uh so yeah there were no sponsors. so basically it really came across as. something that was super super realistic. sounding right so all that is to say. that they had really by the time this. broadcast aired uh at 8:00 p.m. on. Sunday October 30th 1938 they they they.

were not going to be the laughing stock. and this is not going to be embarrassing. it was going to be pretty awesome. actually should we take a break I think. so Chuck and then we'll come back and we. will reveal the broadcast after. [Music]. this to stuff you should know.

[Music]. Okay so we've reached Showtime air time. 8m Sunday October 30th. 1938 Mercury Theater on the air began. broadcasting its adaptation of HG Wells. War of the Worlds and at the very. beginning it's introduced as much. there's an announcer who says that I.

think that's lost probably to time. somewhat cuz everyone probably thinks. that they just tried to trick everyone. but no they actually introduced it as. what they're doing uh you know that this. is a radio Place one year in the future. right right and yeah Orson Wells so it's. introduced by an announcer Orson Wells. comes in does the introductory essay and. then they did something really smart and. interesting especially for the time they. went to a musical program that was.

supposedly being broadcast from the. Meridian room in the hotel Park Plaza so. if you were just tuning in right then. you would have no idea that this was. Mercury Theater on the air You' have no. idea that this was a tele playay you. would think that you were listening to. um something that was pretty regularly. broadcast which was live music at some. like Ballroom in a hotel somewhere in. New York um that they set up like a. radio transmitter to transmit out over. the radio that was pretty frequent but. this was part of the show like if you.

hadn't paused it that is right right. exactly so that but that was a huge part. of the show because that lulled um. listeners into kind of complacency and. listeners who tuned in late and missed. that introduction thought that this is. what they were listening to and then the. first News Bulletin hits yeah and that's. where things start to get really. interesting they break in you know one. of these interrupt your previously. scheduled programs kind of things right. right and they come in and uh with these.

bulletins but they're not super long at. first because they treat it kind of how. it would be in real life it's just sort. of a breaking story something's going. together it was fairly obtuse and they. didn't like you know say martians are. attacking us right now everyone from the. get-go you sort of left it up to the. listener to kind of piece it together. little by little they would go back to. the Meridian room for a bit mhm and it. wasn't for very long but cuz you know. they couldn't waste too much time but it. was long enough it wasn't for like 10.

seconds they did it for like a minute a. minute and a half right it made it seem. right then like that was what you were. listening to that that was the program. and the bulletin was in fact the. bulletin rather than the opposite being. true yeah So eventually you start to. piece together what's going on and you. have uh this attack in New Jersey of all. places and uh Princeton University they. had like a a Princeton astronomer on. they have government officials and they. kind of roll it out little by little.

until about the 17 minute 17 and 1/2. minute Mark and then that's when it. really kind of gets uh super scary and. people really see the full picture of. what's going on so Chuck um I I feel. like we should read a little bit of the. script there's this one part starting. about the 1730 minute Mark I think you. said where they um I as I like to say. they tore the lid off the sucker do you. want to be announcer or. Phillips I'll be the announcer all right.

okay but I want you to do Phillips as. Sammy Davis. Jr so here's the announcer wait hold on. I'm getting on my tap shoes okay okay. you ready candy man uhhuh you sure. bab I'm not going to do it that way okay. all right all right so let me give you a. little bit of background real quick so. oh these news bulletins up to this point. of basically said there's some weird. thing that landed they thought it was a. meteorite at first that landed in Gro. Mill New Jersey um and then later.

bulletin said that oh actually there's. some weird. techical like weird things emerging from. this thing we thought was a meteorite so. now we're back at Grover's mail so I'm. the announcer we are bringing you an. eyewitness account of what's happening. on the wilmouth farm Grovers Mill New. Jersey and that was kind of like a they. were breaking into to let you know that. then they go back to more piano for some. reason and then we now return you to. Carl Phillips at Grover over his Mill L.

ladies and gentlemen am I on am I on. ladies and gentlemen here I am back of a. stone wall that adjoins Mr wilus Garden. from here I get a sweep of the whole. scene I give you every detail as long as. I can talk as long as I can see more. State Police have arrive they're drawing. up a cordon in front of the pit about 30. of them no need to push the crowd back. now they're willing to keep their. distance the captain is confirming with. someone we we can't quite see who oh yes. I believe it's a professor Pearson yes. it is is now they've parted uh the.

professor moves around one side studying. the object while the captain and two. policemen Advance with something in. their hands I can see it now it's a it's. a white handkerchief tied to a pole a. flag of truce if those creatures know. what that means what anything means wait. something's. happening you can cut in any time who. can take a. rainbow oh wait. sorry a hum 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 there's a jet flame. springing from the mirror and it leaps. right at the advancing men it strikes. them head on good lord they're turning. into. flame. God now the whole Field's caught. fire the woods the barns the gas tanks. of automobiles it's spreading everywhere. it's coming this way about 20 yards to. my.

right very nice and scene. okay that was great Chuck so um they. they you mentioned or I should say. Phillips the uh reporter on the scene. mentioned Professor Pearson and he's. this he ends up being the main character. and he's uh he's an interview he's an. astronomer that's interviewed earlier on. and he's on this scene as it happens um. and the pro the program just keeps going. like that like there's another there's a.

main announcer um who I played I thought. rather well um thank you same to you. quite a future as a Foley artist if I. may say so thank you very much I've been. practicing you want to hear my machine. gun I've been doing that one since I was. like six all right how about walking. through the. forest all right now how how about a. good punch to the. face oh wow was good thank you I prob.

punched myself in the face okay I'm. dedicated that's how dedicated to the. the art of FY oh man so um the the. announcer just keeps bringing in more. and more news as this thing goes on and. unfolds of like now these things aren't. just in New Jersey they're in Chicago. they're like out west they're they're. starting to invade everywhere and. they're killing people left and right. that you said there was a government. official that reads a statement it's. actually that they say that it's the. Secretary of the Interior which I.

thought was particularly genius because. I mean probably not that many people. were familiar with the Secretary of the. Interior totally Harold X yeah um but. they had him sound like FDR so that it. would kind of play on everyone's um I. guess unconscious or I'm sure there were. people who were like that sounds just. like FDR but at the very least it would. kind of evoke that government Authority. the reality of like a a government. figure you know. yeah so meanwhile on the other stations.

uh there's one that's running uh. opposite which is a really really. popular radio show at the time um. probably the most popular uh Chase and. sandborn hour which had the very very. famous ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and. his dummy Charlie McCarthy and we talked. about that on our ventriloquism episode. remember that they started out on radio. yeah which is hysterical I don't even. know uh why they would even with the. dummy part just do two you wouldn't even.

to wear that's what he did you wouldn't. even have to wear pants no no you be. naked sit around in your spaghetti. stained undershirt and and yeah naked. from the waist down maybe some socks. doing a couple voices here's your. contract Edgar Bergen what do you think. about that Charlie oh don't get me. started like that's it I could be a. famous for trolist on the radio you just. you just did it I think I think. Hollywood's going to come a calling uh. but the real sort of interesting um.

factoid here I think is that people were. channel surfing back then when you cut. to commercial just like we used to do. when we didn't have pause buttons and. fast forward buttons and what is this. pause button you keep mentioning I've. never heard of this you've never paused. television no wow you you need to I. don't believe I've ever paused anything. in my. life it's funny we were Emily and I have. been watching that German sci-fi series. is dark which is very challenging to.

follow and uh there's a lot of rewinding. like wait wait who was that what did. they just say and we rewind it a bit and. do that again and or you know of course. I got to go to the bathroom let me just. pause it and I was thinking about how. not too long. ago you just if you missed something you. missed it you just peed the couch or you. peed yourself on the couch yeah mhm. there was no like clear like let me go. back and clear this up it's like what. did he say I have no idea guess we'll. never know there's no internet you look. it up I guess I should probably stop.

watching the show all together you go. walk up to the VCR and press a jack but. at any rate uh back then let's say. Charlie McCarthy goes to break I know. all word for Mark bonser and they flip. it over to War of the Worlds at this. point in the broadcast when the S is. hitting the fan and it's going to scare. the pants off of people in 1938 well. yeah even more that I think that they. would have dialed over even before that. so they might have caught like a a News.

Bulletin and then maybe some of that. music from the Meridian room um so it. really would have caught them and there. were supposedly a substantial number of. people who did dial over and were like. wait wait what what is going on here and. now we come to the reaction the response. because if you picked up the paper the. next day in America um just about. anywhere in any major city you're going. to find huge blaring headlines like the.

one that the New York daily news printed. in tall bold letters fake radio War. stirs Terror through the US yeah stories. of of uh shock and hysteria stories of. people taking their own life stories of. people dying from heart attacks uh the. AP said a man in Pittsburgh found his. wife with poison in her hand and said. I'm going to I'd rather die this way. than like that mhm and you know talking. Wells afterward in the aftermath of this.

he apologizes publicly says they didn't. intend to do this um we had we didn't. know it was going to cause a panic and. then you know if you look over the years. more interviews it sort of seems like. Wells is a little more like you know we. thought it would be pretty fun to scare. people and I didn't know if it was going. to cause a panic but we definitely. intended it to have this effect on. people uh whereas Housman and cotch were. like no we really didn't mean it um so. it was sort of conflicting reports from.

the production on what they thought was. going to be the result right um and I've. read an interview with John Landis the. great director who um worked with Wells. on a project that never got made toward. the end of Wells life and he didn't say. that Wells admitted to him that he meant. to but he got to know him enough that he. was like yes if you watch this this. initial press conference where he's. apologizing because the whole country. was ripped apart in chaos and were run. running wild in the streets and like.

nearly rioted because of his. broadcast he is not at all he's he's. just as happy as a lark that this all. happened of even though he's pretending. to apologize and he said that was just. that's just s and Wells did you just say. apologize it's a it's a new version I'm. testing out I like it it's it's good. kind of yeah it's it's at least as good. as apologize so this was just a couple. of days in the news cycle it wasn't the.

biggest deal in the world even though it. was fairly Sensational uh storywriting. for for. newspapers uh and it might have just. gone that way had it not been for a. Princeton University social psychologist. a couple of years later named uh Hadley. cantrol and cantrol released a book on. the real effects of this thing and. basically said that you know people were. praying crying they were frantically. trying to escape death from the Martians.

6 million people listen to this thing. and at least one six of them were. frightened or disturbed and I have the. evidence right. here yeah the evidence that he had was. based on a series of interviews with 135. people almost all of them were in New. Jersey which remember that's where the. um the Crux of the invasion and. destruction being described took place. cuz Grover's Mill New Jersey is actually. a real town in Jersey um so he went to.

Jersey cuz he was in Princeton so he. went where he was and interviewed 135. people and he he said were you scared by. this broadcast and the participant would. say yes and he would say you're in my. study and he'd ask the next one were you. scared were you scared by this broadcast. they say no he'd be like you're not in. the study that's crazy and so yeah he. said in the in the methodology that he. selected a 100 out of The 100 35 because. they had been scared by the broadcast.

and so he took this these interviews of. people in New Jersey and he extrapolated. it to the rest of the country and he. said Yep this is this is real this is a. really great example of people um being. fooled into into Terror and panic and. you know the response is when this. happens like we saw after the world war. the world's broadcast people will run. out into the street they will flee the. the city they will um call their friends.

and neighbors they will um they may. attempt suicide they may die of a heart. attack like the New York Times um. reported uh that 20 or so people in New. York alone needed to be treated for for. shock and hissteria this is what happens. when somebody toys with the public trust. and um yeah it's pretty nuts the end. yeah that was what that was the end of. Hadley's Hadley's book I right uh yeah. not the end of this. episode so this is what this specific.

study is what if you've ever taken a a. mass media or a Communications uh. College uh class you've probably studied. War of the Worlds largely because of. this study basically it might have just. come and gone if it weren't for this um. this academic paper that were put out. and all of a sudden for decades and. decades it's reported on as like a a. cautionary tale almost. of responsibility in media even.

fictional media and you know as recently. as 2013 PBS American Experience. documentary said this was the case our. old Pal's at Radio Lab in 2008 did an. episode about this where that was the. case MH but there were a few problems. with this paper beyond the supremely bad. methodology behind just getting scared. New Jersey people to go in there and and. give their report was they found up we.

they ended up finding Real ratings for. this thing and not a ton of people even. heard it it turns out uh right so so his. six million estimate was way off way way. way off and they did a survey during the. program that said 2% of respondents said. that they were listening and some. markets like big cities like Boston even. preempted this thing uh for local. programming so it wasn't a ton of people. it wasn't a ton of people being scared. and. like just literally losing their minds.

with fear and panic and things swing so. far the other way that it the the. narrative became you know what no one. was really scared at all and what. newspapers really did was they put out. hit pieces on a competing medium uh like. radio and how you shouldn't trust it. anymore so so what happened over the. last within sometime within the 21st. century but sometime in the 2010s. the the the myth that America lost its.

mind went Bonkers and ran wild in the. street because they were panicked by the. war of the world's broadcast was shown. to be a myth that it didn't happen and. that was the new understanding for a. little while um just a few years until. another guy came along and said you know. what um they're actually both both are. right and both are wrong in a lot of. ways should we take a break and talk. about the truth always being somewhere.

in the middle. [Music]. mhm done to stuff you should know. [Music].

the. serious all right I said the truth is. always somewhere in between that's not. always the case with everything in life. obviously but that's that's a saying for. a reason uh and that's definitely seems. to be the case uh in this case with a. gentleman named a brad Schwarz he's a. probably the leading War of the World. scholar and he went back and he went and. investigated the and the cables that. that came in uh they were at the.

University of Michigan archives and. these are the letters that actually came. in to Wells and the Mercury Theater in. the days after the broadcast and what he. contends and I agree is that this is. what you need to be reading is what. people were really thinking at the time. that weren't just cherry-picked in the. town where that got attacked in New. Jersey who were obviously they were. going to be freaked out more than anyone. in the country right so one of the. things that he points out is you know. every everybody been you know since. around 2010 or maybe a little earlier.

everyone had been wailing on Hadley. canant tril um for his terrible terrible. methodology um but they the the. revisionists were also kind of doing the. same thing they were making all sorts of. suppositions like the idea that the. newspapers had basically conspired to. target radio its rival to show how. irresponsible it was and how it. shouldn't be trusted with the news that. is really newspapers that should be.

handling the news and maybe you can. listen to Little Orphan Annie on on the. radio but that's about it that that was. all supposition that was as much. supposition as um Hadley canant Trill e. extrapolated his findings in New Jersey. to the rest of the country um and a brad. Schwarz one of the reasons I think he's. doing a good job is because he's he's. saying no we're if you actually sit down. and read these letters and these cables. that were coming in in the days after. they really probably paint the most. accurate picture anyone's ever found to.

this to this point of how it was. actually received like you can see. almost in real time at the time um what. people were saying about this by in. their letters to Orson Wells into the. Mercury Theater on the air yeah and and. it was a range of feelings it was. everything from people who said you know. what we knew it wasn't real but it was. really scary and super awesome uh I. don't know if they said things like. super awesome he said that a number of.

people wrote in who actually um made fun. of the people who fell for it and said. that you know they're they're gullible. they're they're Rubes and one writer. even said they should be sterilized and. disenfranchised yeah because they'd. shown that in an actual emergency they. were undependable they would just run. around like chickens with their heads. cut off in the street yeah and Schwarz. sort of draws a line uh between what was. going on back then to us today with this. whole fake news hoax garbage that we.

have to listen to day in and day out and. uh basically said this was the first. viral phenomenon in media was the War of. the Worlds broadcast and it was a mixed. bag some people loved it some people did. think it was real and panicked but it. certainly was not this widespread uh. Panic across the country like you were. talking about yeah he said less than a. quarter of the letters described what he. would consider iic but even most of. those weren't actually angry when they.

were writing the letter A lot of them. were thrilled like you got me he did. right but he did say um that yes there. are cases that you see in these letters. and and cables um that that describe. people panicking so that did happen in. some cases most of it seems to have been. isolated in New Jersey so if Hadley Ken. Trill had not extrapolated his findings. and had you know interviewed more people. who had different reactions to the.

broadcast but if it had just been like. an investigation into the reaction in. New Jersey that study or that book would. have been much more useful but the fact. is he just screwed the screwed the. methodology up so badly that it's it's. basically useless but he wasn't he. didn't make up the the Panic that he. described necessarily he may have. exaggerated it who knows but it did it. does seem to have actually happened in. some cases but it was sporadic few and. far between certainly not organized and.

certainly not seen across the rest of. the country like it was reported on by. the papers the next day yeah which sort. of leads us to the story of the the poor. pulses of Manhattan this Manhattan. couple um they did fall for it they were. very scared uh apparently as The Story. Goes they got their last $6 together and. got on a train to get the heck out of. New York um assuming not going west into. new Jersey uh they went North toward.

Connecticut um got as far as they could. on what little money they had get off. the train and you know there's a bunch. of other passengers that they're telling. you know they're warning everybody of. what's happened right and this one guy. there goes over and gets the and I just. pictured this in the movie it's like no. one's listening to this guy and he he. picks up the newspaper basically the TV. Guide it's like it's the Dunkin Donuts. guy he says Hey guys it says right here. uh War the world's broadcast is supposed. to be on at that hour um like it just.

says right here in the newspaper it's a. it's a radio play everyone no one right. everyone no nobody okay and then he just. goes and gets on a train and leaves but. they feel bad for them that the other. people uh that were you know that had. gathered together they loaned them or. gave them I guess some money and chipped. in and got them back to New York City. and then later uh Estelle PTZ wrote a. 15-page letter uh the next day to Orson.

Wells that was very admiring and uh said. how thrilled she was but I can't imagine. what else is in that 15-page letter it's. a lot of. pages I know hell of a story I think is. what which she just kept just over and. over and over right so um so that was. one of the letters that AB Schwarz. turned up in that Trove and like if it. very clearly describes a couple. panicking because they mistook the war. of the world's Broad but again um this.

was not like Across the Nation like the. papers reported and Schwarz actually. explains the papers basically um as a. combination of a couple of things one is. a a bias I can't tell if it's selection. bias volunteer bias or confirmation bias. but the bias is as follows if you're in. a a newsroom and all of a sudden your. phone starts ringing off the hook and. you're getting 150% more calls that. night and all of them are people asking. about this Martian Invasion and what's.

going on and is this real or is this a. hoax or have you guys heard anything. about this and some of those calls are. even from the local police who are also. getting similar calls and now they're. calling you to find out then it seems. like there's a lot of people calling and. freaking out about this Martian thing. but if you step back if you zoom out and. look at that number of people that. actually called The Newsroom it's just. this minute fraction of the population. of whatever town it is um so it wasn't a. bunch of people freaking out but to the.

people answering the phone in The. Newsroom who are getting swamped with. calls way more calls than usual it did. seem like that so that combined with. anecdotal reports that no one followed. up with followed up on from The Wire. services that people were attempting. suicide or having heart attacks or. whatever that just being reported and. related as fact LED everybody to believe. that this was actually happening out. there in the country that people were. running wild maybe not my town cuz I. stuck my head outside of The Newsroom.

and I didn't see anything but I hear. they're going crazy in Chicago right now. or I hear they're really going nuts in. Milwaukee or whatever um and that's how. it got reported and that's what everyone. thought happened people who lived. through this thought that this happened. the next day Orton Wells thought his. career was in Jeopardy the next day. because he accidentally made America go. berserk and that's how that myth began. and that's how it stood and and a brad. Schwarz basically traced it back to lazy. lazy. reporting so myth.

busted thanks to Abad Schwarz and. us and us for sure I'm glad you included. us so there's an interesting footnote. here though because this actually did. kind of play out that way um eight years. later in night was it eight years later. yeah 1948 in Ecuador about so this is in. keto Ecuador these broadcasters recreate. the Orson Wells radio play um and they.

did a version that went a lot further. than his did and got other radio. stations to join in and add to the. reporting which really pretty brilliant. move there to increase like you turn the. station and it's happening over there. too right and this really did scare. people they really did take to the. streets and. panic uh There Was You Know public Panic. going on and then the crowd finds out. that it's fiction and they get angry and. actually turn into an angry mom and burn. down the local newspaper building that.

had the radio station inside of it. killing six people yeah six people died. 15 people were injured like they knew. that the staff was in that building and. they set the building on fire to try to. kill them A bunch of people escaped out. the back but a lot of people didn't. escape and the two people who were. responsible for the uh broadcast. including um Ecuador's most beloved and. trusted presenter um were indicted for. it like they're more safer basically. yeah exactly um and they were they were.

indicted for their role in this like. people died because of it and this. actually does seem to have happened in. in Ecuador amazing yeah so there you go. the idea that America fell into chaos. and panic after the war of the world's. broadcast in 1938 is largely myth go. forth and spread the gospel everybody. unless you're in Ecuador and then you're. like no that's actually happened here uh. and since I said that actually happened. here I think Chuck is time for listener.

mail so this is uh from Tom in the UK. did you see this email I don't think so. it's great it's one long sentence and. I'm going to try and read it in uh how I. think Tom speaks I'm going to do. asy as Tom from the UK because just the. way he wrote it I think Tom probably. talks a little bit like this this isn't. Tom from the UK who was our tour manager. when we did our UK tour is it no well.

shout out to that Tom in the UK this is. an engineer and this is what he has to. say all right sup Josh and Chuck Tom. engineer from the UK Stoke on Trent big. fan of the show been binging for about 2. years and got through all of them all of. you lot even Jerry have got me through a. lot these last couple years and I put a. few people on to your podcast wanted to. email you lot for a while and finally. managed to get round to emailing a load.

of things to people about stuff that. really doesn't. matter emailed a TV show about one of. their actors a par a particle physicist. about using a lightyear of lead as a. frame of reference the company super. noodles for the excellent job they've. done with their super noodle pot but I'm. not much for the peas and I just wanted. to say I know you like the Japanese Mayo. but you really need to try the Polish.

Mayo spot on all the best. tom boy oh boy Tom that was great and. Chuck that was a fantastic Stoke on. Trent accent the the the most accurate. I've ever heard and the. first Tom that was a great email and. you're right Chuck I love that email so. much I had so much fun you were right to. choose that one um so thanks Tom thanks. for writing in uh thank you for. including us in your list of people you. harassed via email um and keep listening. okay and keep writing in maybe we'll.

make this a regular thing Chuck I would. love that yeah so Tom write in again uh. and if you want to write in too we want. to hear from you you can send us an. email to stuff podcast at. iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts my heart. radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows. [Music].