By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Eighty years ago the world was on the brink of global war, and the American people were spooked by a fictional invasion.
Tuesday, Oct. 30, marks the 80th anniversary of the first broadcast of “The War of the Worlds,” Orson Welles’ radio adaptation of the H. G. Wells’ novel.
The Wood County Historical Center will celebrate the anniversary by presenting a recreation of the broadcast at 8 p.m. that night. Tickets are $10.
The cast and crew of the show doesn’t expect to induce panic the way the original reportedly did. How many people back in 1938 actually took the broadcast to be actual news is subject of debate.
Jane Milbrodt, who provides the music, isn’t surprised if some people did. “It sounds like it’s really happening.”
Kent and Janet McClary at the request of Historical Center Director Kelli Kling assembled a cast of local thespians. This is the fourth time the couple has been involved in a recreation of the broadcast.
“It’s nostalgic,” Janet McClary said. “It’s a piece of history. People like to see it performed.”
She will join Jim Barnes, who also participated in those earlier productions, in providing the sound effects. And they have enlisted a real radio personality Clint Corpe, of the WBGU-FM’s “Morning Show,” for a central role.
Others involved include Tom Milbrodt doing sound and actors Lane Hakel, Jeremy Kohler, and Jim Toth. The show will be taped for possible future broadcast.
Together they will bring to life the story of Martians landing in Grover’s Mill, New Jersey, and then running roughshod toward New York. Welles staged the story as a series of news bulletins interrupting an evening of musical entertainment. The urgency of those bulletins gave the script a vivid sense of reality. “It’s really a super adaptation,” Tom Milbrodt said.
The next day newspapers reported of cases of people in panic because they thought the invasion was real. Some, Janet McClary said, may have tuned in late, missing Welles’ introduction.
Some even thought it was Germans, not Martians attacking.
While the Martians never conquered the earth, the broadcast and its effects certainly captured the imaginations of many.
Kling said the show is a perfect fit for the season and with the Leisure Time theme at the museum this past year. Radio has been a big part of it.
It shows that entertainment can go awry, she said.
That’s not expected to be the case with this broadcast of “The War of the Worlds.”
