[78-L] Panic..or myth? (Hey, it was 73 years ago tonight,

[Michael Biel]

From: James Tennyson <jtennyson at sympatico.ca>
>> When I first read about the panic when I was a teenager I asked my father
>> if he had heard the broadcast. He said that in fact he HAD heard it. He 
>> turned the radio on mid broadcast so he hadn't heard the opening of the 
>> show. He said he thought" What the hell is is this? " and turned to another 
>> few stations which were doing their regular stuff and he realized 
>> immediately it was Orson Welles...AND it was Hallowee'en.  JRT

If he knew it was Orson Welles, he was one of the probably fifteen
people would have known who Welles was outside of the people in NYC
broadcasting or theatre.  He was still a NOBODY at that time.  His
Mercury Theatre program had been on for three months of low ratings, and
all his earlier radio had been done without named credit.  


On 10/31/2011 2:40 PM, Rodger Holtin wrote:
> Some were truly panicked. My dad's family was happily enjoying Nelson 
> Eddy when the old man in their upstairs apartment came downstairs in tears 
> blubbering about the end of thw world.

As I just posted (after your posting, however) Eddy finished singing at
about 6:30 into the program and the Martians had not yet crawled out of
their machine, let alone start to destroy the earth.  

What this shows is that even people who DO remember, don't always
remember accurately.