Listen to the original broadcast, and read along.
Pretty cool, I’ve never heard the original broadcast, but I guess it was a successful experiment in mass hysteria 
Unintentionally, yes. The Museum of Hoaxes has a page on the phenomenon.
The interesting part is that “Most of those who panicked were middle-aged or older. Younger listeners tended not to panic because they recognized Orson Welles’s voice as the voice of the hero in the popular radio series, The Shadow.”
Radio was still a relatively new medium for most people, so it’s interesting that the ones who gave it the most credence were probably less familiar with the dramatic aspects of it.
That’s interesting, thinking that radio was new technology, less then 100 years ago. I read that article and found this kind of funny.
“The 1938 broadcast was not the only time a dramatized broadcast of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds was mistaken for an account of real events. In November 1944 the play caused a similar panic when it was broadcast in Santiago, Chile, and in February 1949 it once again stirred up unrest when it was performed by a radio station in Quito, Ecuador. The situation in Ecuador provoked an angry mob to surround the radio station and burn it to the ground.”
Wow they must of been PO’d burning down the station and all, guess they were ‘Boned’ har har har!
I think in that case they were pissed b/c they had been freaked out, but realized that it was a ‘fraud.’
(Which might be what you were saying. I wasn’t sure.)
Radio Lab did an awesome, awesome ep on this (with Zoe Keating doing the music!) about how the War of the Worlds has caused mass hysteria THREE TIMES. In Ecuador a radio DJ decided to play a Spanish-language translation of the radio play, and the government responded with tanks! Tanks!
LOL Tanks, bet that was a candid camera moment!
Yup Exactly
Craaaaaaaap is scary, I ain’t listening to it it’s like 5:30 halloweves night. waaaaaay too late