80 years of the most famous prank in radio history.
On the eve of Halloween 1938, the CBS radio station aired a radio program that informed the inhabitants of the United States of the attack by the Martians. Panic seized the Americans: kilometer-long traffic jams formed at the exit from the country, and armed volunteers began to come to police stations. How a comic radio show forced Americans to leave their homes en masse and embark on the path of interplanetary war.
Ruined my shoes while running from the Martians
The Mercury Theater radio play based on HG Wells' War of the Worlds was planned as a joke to coincide with America's Halloween celebrations. At the beginning of the program, which aired in the evening on the CBS radio station, a warning sounded, which for some reason no one attached importance to: “Ladies and gentlemen! Columbia Broadcasting Corporation is pleased to introduce you to Orson Welles and the Mercury Open Air Theater in a re-enactment of The War of the Worlds by HG Wells. The announcement was followed by a standard weather forecast, followed by music.
Suddenly the music died down - and the announcer in a serious voice announced the appearance of "extremely strange bright flashes on the surface of Mars." The music started playing again, but now it was interrupted all the time. Shocking messages followed one after another: first, astronomers came out, announcing that an unidentified large body was flying towards the Earth, then the radio station's "own correspondent" entered into the matter, broadcasting from the place of a giant meteorite.
In a voice breaking with excitement, the journalist described to the radio listeners a huge crater, massive human casualties and crowds of curious people who were dispersed by the police.
This was followed by an interview with a farmer who lost his livestock and crops due to the meteorite and lost his neighbors. But the matter did not end there: the fallen block turned out to be an alien ship, from which strange creatures crawled out with weapons of unprecedented destructive power - "death rays", which incinerated everything around.
Promotional video:
Continuing to hold the attention of radio listeners, the correspondent shouts "We are all going to die!" rushed to flight, after which the connection with him was "interrupted." The air was continued by a professor Pearson, who spoke about the highest level of technology development among the Martians, then he was interrupted by the head of the New Jersey National Guard, Montgomery Smith, who declared martial law in Mercer and Middlesex counties and sent four units of the National Guard from Trenton to Grovers Mill for evacuation civilians.
The air continued to receive reports of the landing of new machines, exterminating people and destroying infrastructure. An unnamed Home Secretary (the actors tried to portray the voice of Franklin Roosevelt) went on the air with an appeal to remain calm, which further assured listeners of the reality of what was happening.
The following reportage from the scene literally shook America: the Martians allegedly turned on their weapons at full power and began mass destruction of earthlings, incinerating the army cordon, and then the whole village.
"Escaping" from the deadly rays, the reporter managed to describe the roads clogged with refugees, burning houses, disfigured corpses. All the action took place against the backdrop of a monstrous grinding, howling and explosions.
The culmination of the performance was the report of the reporter that several alien vehicles were already crossing the Hudson, and the aliens themselves released a poisonous gas that poisons everything around. Then the broadcast was interrupted, there was interference and timid attempts of a certain radio amateur to contact at least someone.
The radios fell silent. Only at this moment - about 40 minutes after the start of the production - the announcer recalled that it was all an artistic production. Professor Pearson then described the end of the alien attack, which died abruptly due to lack of immunity to terrestrial bacteria, and at the end of the hour Orson Welles stepped out of character and congratulated the audience on Halloween.
However, no one listened to the writer: America was seized by a massive panic. Taking the performance for reality, people fought in hysterics, jumped out of windows, grabbed whatever they saw and ran out of their houses. On instantly many kilometers of traffic jams lined up - the Americans tried to leave at least somewhere. In an atmosphere of general horror, people tried to hide, to escape from the horror that the Martians bear.
Not only roads were congested, but all telephone lines as well: later, telephone companies will note that the statistics exceeded the usual figures by five times. The New York police received more than two thousand calls in a quarter of an hour, and in New Jersey they even managed to mobilize the National Guard and fire brigades.
Phones rang in government offices and hospitals - people begged to be rescued. There were also those who demanded to distribute weapons to the people, urgently mine the routes of the Martians, and also send suicide pilots on planes filled with explosives at them.
As expected, soon the "witnesses" showed up, miraculously escaping death and wishing to share their stories. People admitted that they really saw flashes from the shots of the Martians and even smelled their poisonous poisons.
It was not until morning that they finally calm down the raging America: people began to return to their homes, and photographs of Orson Welles began to appear on the front pages of newspapers explaining everything that had happened. The performance was discussed for more than a month - in total, 12.5 thousand publications were published. According to experts, published later, the audience of the radio show reached 6 million people, and 1.2 million believed in the reality of the attack.
Over time, the fear of gullible Americans gave way to anger: many even sued the CBS radio station demanding compensation for moral damage. All of them were rejected, with the exception of one - Wells personally secured her payment: a man went to court who ruined his new shoes while running away from the Martians.
Ecuadorian syndrome
Orson Welles' production was the first in a series of resonant pranks with which television and radio stations tried to entertain their listeners. An attempt to adapt Wells' War of the Worlds was made in Ecuador, but there it had already led to human casualties.
In February 1949, the owner of the local radio station Leandro Paes and the writer and journalist Eduardo Alcares decided to stage their own version of the play. The prudent "jokers" agreed in advance with the local newspaper El Comercio, in which notes began to appear in advance that people saw UFOs in the vicinity of Quito and other parts of Ecuador. When people's interest was piqued, a production was broadcast on the radio station.
Unlike CBS, the Ecuadorian radio operators were not going to warn anyone. Moreover, the translation of the work was adapted for the inhabitants of Ecuador - they heard the names of the usual streets and districts, getting more and more frightened. The effect followed immediately: panicked people rushed to disperse in all directions, someone tried to storm the police arsenals in search of weapons, and the most prudent barricaded themselves in basements with provisions.
Arson and clashes with the police broke out everywhere, and a whole wave of riots took place.
The police and fire brigades promptly left for the places indicated by the "correspondents" of the Quito radio station, several military units were alerted. Even some of the members of the local government managed to believe in the alien attack - a special committee even gathered for an emergency meeting.
When the deception was finally revealed, the reaction of the Ecuadorians turned out to be more violent than the journalists who were carried away by their joke had expected - the El Comercio editorial office and the Quito radio station were defeated. The perpetrators of all the events - Alcares and Paes - managed to escape, but they still failed to escape the punishing hand of the offended Ecuadorians. After some time, Paes's house was set on fire, his nephew and fiancée perished in the fire, and he himself had to emigrate to Venezuela. Unrest in the vicinity continued for several more days, resulting in the deaths of several dozen people.
Subsequently, all the unfolding events were called "Ecuadorian syndrome" from journalists. The essence of it was that people, not fully understanding the situation, immediately proceeded to active actions. Moreover, the participation in the turmoil of the police, firefighters and the army increased the trust in information about the aliens, forcing people to succumb to general panic, and not to reason logically.
Split in Belgium
In December 2006, the main state television channel of Belgium RTBF decided to play a trick on its viewers: after abruptly interrupting all programs, television workers broadcast sensational news about the disintegration of the country into Flanders and Wallonia. The speaker reported in a serious tone that the relevant decision was made by the Flemish parliament, and all the required notifications were sent to the EU, UN, OSCE and other authorities.
It was not difficult for the Belgians to believe in the reality of what was happening - discussions about the unity of Belgium have indeed been going on for a long time. However, this time the rally went too far: reports about trains stopped at the new border and clashes in Brussels caused a general panic, and in some places the registration to self-defense units began altogether - however, from whom they intended to defend themselves, they could not even explain later. organizers.
Throughout the broadcast, there was a creeping line at the bottom of the screen, warning viewers that this was all a joke. However, as with the radio show in the United States, most viewers ignored the warning.
Subsequent polls showed that 89% of the TV audience believed in the draw, and only 5% still read the notice of the draw.
The persuasiveness of well-played announcers, as well as politicians, famous people and ordinary Belgians played a role, from whom they took comments on this matter without warning or explanation.
The general panic in the country lasted for two hours, until the announcers finally admitted that they had pranked their viewers. They were dismissed from their posts: the "joke" led to too serious consequences - millions of ordinary people suffered. Many politicians also found themselves in an uncomfortable position: one British minister managed to make a proposal to discuss what is happening in Belgium.
One retired colonel in the Dutch army drew up a provocative memorandum. According to the document, the troops of the Netherlands had to take special measures to disarm the Belgian units and establish control in the territory of Flanders. According to his calculations, it turned out that it would be enough to air the Royal Air Force and transfer two divisions to key points in the disputed areas.
Alexandra Balandina