rogerwilkerson: Today marks the 78th anniversary of Orson Welles’ and the Mercury Theater&rsqu
rogerwilkerson: Today marks the 78th anniversary of Orson Welles’ and the Mercury Theater’s broadcast of War of the Worlds… it’s THEE radio show that inspired my love for broadcasting and like every year I will be listening to the show in honor of Halloween and the genius that was Orson Welles. And as Welles said, “This is Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you that The War of The Worlds has no further significance than as the holiday offering it was intended to be. The Mercury Theatre’s own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying Boo! Starting now, we couldn’t soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night… so we did the best next thing. We annihilated the world before your very ears, and utterly destroyed the C. B. S. You will be relieved, I hope, to learn that we didn’t mean it, and that both institutions are still open for business. So goodbye everybody, and remember the terrible lesson you learned tonight. That grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody’s there, that was no Martian…it’s Hallowe'en.” Long live Halloween! -- source link