[meteorite-list] The Meteorite that panicked a Nation

From: magellon <magellon_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:37 2004
Message-ID: <3FA2CCAB.7E4D8E4D_at_earthlink.net>

All,
Last evening marked the passing of an event that occurred
Sixty-five years ago. Even though many of us were not yet born,
we have all heard of about the panic associated with this event.

If you had turned your radio on just after 8' o'clock to your favorite
CBS station you would be entertained by Ramon Raquello and
his orchestra when the show was interrupted by a special report
from Intercontinental Radio News. The bulletin was to let people
know that scientists had noticed explosions on the surface
of Mars, and that something was flying towards the
earth at an incredible speed. After the announcement the music
began again. Then another news report came on. This time to
inform the audience that a huge, flaming object, believed to
be a meteorite had fallen to earth at Grovers Mill, New Jersey.
At Grovers Mill it was realized that the object was not a meteorite.
Eventually, a huge creature with a drooling V-shaped mouth
emerged from the object, zapped the people dead, and torched
the field with its heat-ray. And the horror continued....
Listeners thought they were tuning in live reports from the scene
but were actually hearing Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater
on the Air with their updated version of H.G. Wells' sci-fi novel
The War of the Worlds.

 The War of the Worlds broadcast terrified people from
coast to coast. Families fled their homes, covering their mouths
with handkerchiefs trying not to breathe the harmful black gas.
People packed into churches. Roads leading out of cities were
jammed with cars. People across the nation thought they were
going to die. It is estimated that over six million people listened
to that broadcast, and close to two million thought it was a
news bulletin.


For more info see:
movie "The Night that panicked America"
http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/warworlds/warw.html
http://www.waroftheworlds.org/the_broadcast.htm
Received on Fri 31 Oct 2003 03:57:16 PM PST