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Comments

• [1] Tom Gullett from St. Paul, MN March 06, 2008 - 01:25AM

  Enjoyed your show about "War of the Worlds". For your information, there was another updated broadcast of this famous radio drama. In 1965, a radio station in San Francisco broadcast a story about some strange object landing at the Berkeley Flats, a tidal fringe of SF Bay. And, I fell for it. Was quite scared, matter of fact.

  The broadcast consisted entirely of reports from the field, describing how this "craft" was seen from the Bay Bridge and the orange glow in the night sky. I was living in San Leandro, south of Oakland, and went out looking at the sky for this glow. I should have caught on when no other station in the area was broadcasting anything about this, but I didn't. I don't remember how the whole issue resolved itself, but I do remember being taken in completely.

  
  
• [2] Carl Furst from New York March 07, 2008 - 03:41PM

  When I was a kid, my father played for me a recording of War of the Worlds as produced in the 1970's by the BBC that featured Richard Burton and music by the Moody Blues.

  I was scared to death by this recording, the music was so haunting, I just had to listen to it over and over. Eventually I could have sworn that I saw lights over the city, that there were large 3 legged martian machines roaming downtown manhattan and quickly headed under the covers. I figured, if it's real, I'm a cinder from that heat ray, if I lie here and live... my mind is playing tricks on me.

  Great Show!

  C.

  
  
• [3] Douglas C. Anderson from New York Suburbs March 09, 2008 - 06:21PM

  This was a extremely insightful program. One of my memories of "War of the Worlds is that delightful "snippet" in Woody Allen's Radio Days when the couple in the car where the program.

  The 1953 motion picture's sound track has a sort of unique distinction in the history of sound effects. The "sound" created when the first capsule opens in the farmer's field was created by unscrewing a Mason jar inside of a commode.

  
  
• [4] Joe Chevere from Chicago, IL April 13, 2008 - 09:24PM

  Great show! A good one not mentioned was "Special Bulletin," the 1983 made-for-TV movie shot on video tape. It was about a group of home-grown terrorist who make nuclear device and tries black mail the US Government. A lot of people thought it was real. Remember that one?

  
  
• [5] Ben Greeley from Philadelphia, PA March 03, 2009 - 11:16PM

  WHYY only now has broadcast this program, a year after the original. I'm surprised and disappointed that the hosts failed to mention NPR's own version of TWOTW (I can't remember when, perhaps 1998, the 60th anniversary?) "hosted" by Terry Gross and "reported" by Scott Simon. No panic followed (I asssume) probably owing to the sophistication of NPR listeners. We enjoy Mr. Krulwich's reports, on radio or TV.

  
  
• [6] Eliezer Pennywhistler from Trenton, NJ November 25, 2009 - 04:15PM

  Yeah, OK. It was a while ago, but I just heard it, so .....

  1) Your summary didn't mention that within the story the entire response was military, that the milirary lied to the American people, and American civilation collapsed completely right after the invasion.

  2) At that time radio networks never played records - "Ramon Raquello" was "live".

  3) The Hindenberg coverage wasn't on tape, as tape was not invented (by the Nazis!) for another 8 years. It was a 78 RPM transcription disc.

  4) The NJ Militia was real and was under the command of a certain General Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr. - Junior's father.

  5) The real response to the broadcast engendered a lot of fear, but no violence, no suicides, no mayhem. You are welcome to imagine what the response would be like today.

  Thanks for a great show,

  Eliezer Pennywhistler, Trenton, NJ -- just a few miles away from Grover's Mill, NJ.

  (And where Bruno Hauptmann went to the electric chair as part of the hox by that well-known practical joker, Charles Lindbergh - who earlier had hidden his child in a closet, setting the entire household off on a frenzied search, FYI).

  
  
• [7] Eliezer Pennywhistler from Trenton, NJ November 25, 2009 - 04:23PM

  Perhaps they did not mention the Terry Gross / Scott Simon version, Mr. Greeley, was because it was awful - terrible acting, terrible production, terrible pacing and about as chilling as a pat of melted butter.

  As I remember, there was no audience response at all, except for some people wondering how much that turkey cost to make.

  >> While I am here, make that "military" on my previous post. Thanks.