Radio landmark War of the World’s to be rebroadcast and staged live in Adelaide
To mark seventy five years since the landmark 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, a series of events are planned in Adelaide to mark the event.
The 1938 broadcast was a pioneering media event
891 Adelaide’s evening programme with Peter Goers will devote on hour of its airtime to a rebroadcast of the show, orchestrated by Orson Welles.
According to urban myth, many listeners mistook the broadcast for a real life extra terrestrial incursion.
At a separate event in Whitmore Square in conjunction with Splash Adelaide,. The event will reportedly have a‘1930s American party atmosphere’. Attendees are encouraged to attend in costume.
“The event is to encourage people to revisit a medium that we all love and that allows the imagination to help play out an event, the same as happened on Halloween in 1938 and tricked all those people into thinking that Martians were invading earth,” said organiser Chris Brunner.
Co-organiser Carly Nason said: “It’s 75 years old but it’s still incredibly powerful to listen to and so we developed the event to show people just how moving it is. At the time, people were terrified by it — it’s probably the most infamous piece of radio you can listen to.”
891 Adelaide’s broadcast will air on Wednesday evening.