The Novum Times

War of the Worlds: The Martian ‘invasion’ people thought was real

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There’s no end of treasures that can be found at the University of Calgary. And in a timely fashion, UCalgary’s senior communications specialist Heath McCoy has written a piece about one set of literary gems: The university possesses a rare collection of the writings of H.G. Wells (author of the original War of the Worlds novel and the father of modern science fiction.) Those works will be featured in an art exhibition next April.

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This week, however, is also a big one for fans of Wells. It’s 85 years ago this week (Oct. 30, 1938) that Orson Welles narrated an adaptation of War of the Worlds for a radio program. Many people, however, didn’t realize Welles was reading from a work of fiction and mistakenly believed Martians were invading Earth.

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It caused quite a panic and Welles apologized to the public at a press conference the following morning.

The panic occurred during a time of great American anxiety, Dr. Peter Toohey (a professor in the Faculty of Arts’ Department of Classics and Religion, and a renowned expert and author on the history of emotions) said in McCoy’s article. The emotion of fear is often rooted in deeper, underlying factors, such as depression or anxiety, he noted.

You can read the entire article here.

Here’s a copy of the Calgary Herald page from 85 years ago that discussed the event:

Oct. 31, 1938 newspaper page

Oct. 31, 1938 Vancouver Sun page
A spacecraft falls to earth in this  illustration for a Vancouver Sun story on the nationwide panic that followed the broadcast of Orson Welles radio play The War of the Worlds on Oct. 30, 1838. The broadcast was based on an H.G. Wells novel of a Martian invasion of earth. Orson Welles and the Mercury Players presented it like a radio news broadcast, and it was so convincing thousands of Americans thought it was real. Postmedia archives.
H.G. Wells
H.G. Wells was a schoolteacher and journalist before gaining fame as a writer of science-fiction stories including The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds, all of which have been produced as movies. An active socialist and advocate for progressive social policies, he expressed a wariness and skepticism towards the effects of technology upon society in much of his writings. Postmedia archives.

 

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