Orson Welles' 1938 'War of the Worlds' Panic: Could It Happen Again?

Eighty-eight years after Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre company stunned radio audiences with a fictional Martian invasion, national bestselling author William Elliott Hazelgrove warns that modern audiences remain vulnerable to mistaking a convincing fabrication for reality. In his book Dead Air: The Night That Orson Welles Terrified America, Hazelgrove reconstructs the making of the October 30, 1938, broadcast, examines contemporary accounts of frightened listeners, and explores how a young performer used the language of breaking news to command America's attention. The anniversary raises an unsettling question: Could it happen again?

Welles' broadcast used interrupted programming, eyewitness accounts, and authoritative voices to make an impossible invasion sound immediate and credible. Some listeners believed they were hearing an actual emergency. The extent of the 1938 panic remains debated. Drawing on contemporary newspaper accounts, Hazelgrove argues that the reaction was more substantial than some later interpretations suggest. His book takes readers inside the studio and into the experiences of listeners who believed the fictional reports. Today, artificial intelligence can imitate familiar voices, manipulated video can depict events that never occurred, and alarming claims can spread before anyone checks their source.

Hazelgrove is marking today's anniversary with an interview scheduled on WCPT's Chew's Views with Richard Chew and an essay scheduled for publication in The Hill. His anniversary media appearances also include WGN Radio's John Landecker, WDCB's The Arts Section with Gary Zidek, and The Steve Gruber Show. William Elliott Hazelgrove is the national bestselling author of ten novels and fourteen narrative nonfiction, including Dead Air, Capone's Vault, and Henry Knox's Noble Train. A former Ernest Hemingway Writer in Residence, he is based in the Chicago area.