THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

Possible Influences

Script by

John F. Barber

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
©2022 Re-Imagined Radio. All rights reserved (except those granted by the Creative Commons license)

Re-Imagined Radio
Season 10, Episode 09, October 17, 2022

Final Draft

The War of the Worlds

Possible Influences

Re-Imagined Radio
Season 10, Episode 09
Final Draft

Premier broadcast: October 17, 2022

Written and produced by John F. Barber

Sound design, Music composition, Post-Production by Marc Rose

Graphics by Holly Slocum

Synopsis
"The War of the Worlds" is a legendary radio story. Perhaps the most famous ever told. It is alleged to have caused mass confusion among its listeners, through its use of realistic sounding news bulletins and other narrative techniques.

Although "The War of the Worlds" is the most noted, there were other, earlier experiments with radio storytelling that may have influenced Orson Welles and his production of "The War of the Worlds."

We explore some in this episode of Re-Imagined Radio, "The War of the Worlds: Possible Influences."

COLD OPEN
SFX: WOW #1, LENGTH: 1:57. SAMPLE FROM 2021 PERFORMANCE. EXTERIOR. CAPTAIN LANCE LANSING DESCRIBES OPENING OF FIRST BATTLE. CARL PHILLIPS DESCRIBES THE RESULTS.
CAPT. LANSING
Now wait a minute! I see something on top of the cylinder. No, it's nothing but a shadow. Now the troops are on the edge of the Wilmuth farm. Seven thousand armed men closing in on an old metal tube.   
Wait, that wasn't a shadow! It's something moving... solid metal... kind of a shield like affair rising up out of the cylinder... It's going higher and higher. Why, it's standing on legs... actually rearing up on a sort of metal framework. Now it's reaching above the trees and the searchlights are on it. Hold on!
SFX: CONTINUES TO CARL PHILLIPS' REPORT
CARL PHILLIPS
Ladies and gentlemen, I have a grave announcement to make.
Incredible as it may seem, both the observations of science and the evidence of our eyes and ears lead to the inescapable assumption that these strange beings are the vanguard of an invading army from the planet Mars.
The battle which took place tonight at Battle Ground, Washington, has ended in one of the most startling defeats ever suffered by an army in modern times; seven thousand men armed with rifles and machine guns pitted against a single fighting machine of the invaders from Mars. One hundred and twenty known survivors. The rest burned to cinders by the Martian's heat ray.

PROLOGUE
MUSIC: RIR THEME
ANNOUNCER
Welcome to Re-Imagined Radio, a program about radio storytelling. I’m Jack Armstrong. With each episode we combine dialogue, sound effects, and music to engage your listening imagination. This episode is no different, and here to tell you about it is John Barber, producer and host.
HOST
Thank you Jack. Hello everyone. Welcome.
It's October. Anniversary of the most legendary radio story ever told, "The War of the Worlds." Four times now, to celebrate this anniversary we have presented our own retelling of this classic story. This year we look behind the story, and share some new information.
For example, we began our program with an introduction by Charles C. Shaw, announcer for KTSA radio, San Antonio, Texas, about a conversation between H.G. Wells, author of The War of the Worlds, and Orson Welles, director and star of the radio adaptation. The conversation was recorded just before Halloween, 1940, two years after the initial broadcast of "The War of the Worlds." We'll hear that conversation later in the program.
"The War of Worlds," the radio adaptation by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air, is alleged to have caused mass confusion among its listeners through its use of realistic sounding news bulletins and other storytelling techniques.
Although "The War of the Worlds" is called the best, it was not the first. Earlier experiments with radio storytelling may have influenced Orson Welles and his radio storytelling.
We explore some examples in this episode of Re-Imagined Radio, originating from KXRW-FM, Vancouver, Washington's community radio station. We thank them for their support.
And we thank YOU for joining us as Re-Imagined Radio presents "The War of the Worlds: Possible Influences."
MUSIC: CINEMATIC TRANSITION
HOST
In 1938 radio storytelling was new, full of promise, but untested. On Halloween Eve, 30 October, Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on the Air used authentic sounding break-in news announcements, some seemingly live on location, to advance the narrative of their radio dramatization of the H. G. Wells novel, The War of the Worlds. The result was confusion and chaos--some called it panic--about the invasion of Earth by beings from the planet Mars.
SFX: WOW #2, LENGTH: 00:17. INTERIOR. CROWD OF REPORTERS GATHERED IN A CONFERENCE ROOM, JOSTLING FOR POSITION, TALKING, QUESTIONING ORSON WELLES. DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING. CROSS FADE TO NEXT SFX.
HOST
The next morning, the star and director, Orson Welles, was summoned to the Columbia Broadcasting Building in New York City to explain himself to reporters.
SFX: WOW #3, LENGTH: 00:30. INTERIOR. WELLES RESPONDING TO REPORTER'S QUESTION.
REPORTER
Do you think, Mr. Welles, that you might have taken unfair advantage of the public when using a method [dropout] as a conveyance for authentic news?
WELLES
I don't believe that I have since it is not a method original with me. It is used by many radio programs. I am terribly shocked by the effect it has had. I don't believe the method is original with me or peculiar to the Mercury Theatre's presentation . . .
HOST
This answer by Welles the day after his performance of "The War of the Worlds" was another performance. Welles was 23-years old. He enjoyed a wide reputation for his stage and radio performances, including The March of Time and as The Shadow. Earlier in the year, CBS Radio invited him to launch and direct his own weekly radio show, The Mercury Theatre on the Air. The first broadcast was an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, in July.
Now, the morning after "The War of Worlds" had stunned radio listeners, the press demanded explanations. 
At that moment, Orson Welles was internationally famous. He wanted to stay that way. And so his answers were vague, noncommittal, and meant to portray himself as the shocked victim of unexpected outcomes from his radio storytelling.
But listen again to what Welles said . . .
SFX: RAPID REWINDING OF A TAPE MACHINE. WE HEAR THE "CLUNK" OF THE SWITCH, THE WHINE OF THE REWINDING, WORDS HEARD RAPIDLY BACKWARDS. THE TAPE STOPS, ANOTHER "CLUNK" OF SWITCH AND TAPE REPLAYS A PORTION OF WITS RECRODED CONTENT
SFX: WOW #4, LENGTH: 00:09. EXCERPT FROM WOW #3.
WELLES
 . . . I am terribly shocked by the effect that it's had. I do not believe the method is original with me or peculiar to the Mercury Theatre's presentation.
HOST
Was Welles saying that other radio programs used unusual approaches to propel their narratives? Could Welles have been influenced by other programs as he prepared HIS radio performance?
We'll explore answers in this episode of Re-Imagined Radio, "The War of the Worlds: Possible Influences."
MUSIC: CINEMATIC TRANSITION

ACT 1: THE BREAK IN
HOST
"The War of the Worlds," directed by and starring Orson Welles, was heard live across the country on Halloween Eve, 1938. Thousands of listeners believed they were hearing events as they unfolded . . .
SFX: WOW #5, LENGTH: 2:21. NEWS REPORTS COLLAGE FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY.
HOST
Why did so many people believe what they heard on the radio was real?
In making his radio adaptation, Welles used radio's ability to engage listeners through sounds. If the voices and sounds were believable, then the story would be "real." Listeners would consider themselves present in the story. On location. At the time of its happening.
HOST
To increase this sense of "immediacy," Welles changed the location from England to New Jersey and surrounding areas. And used the ability of radio to bring sounds from different, distant locations to tell the story from different perspectives using different voices.
For example, the first location change happens as the story begins . . .
SFX: WOW #6, LENGTH: 00:30. SWITCH TO MERIDIAN ROOM.
ANNOUNCER
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. From the Meridian Room in the Park Plaza Hotel in New York City, we bring you the music of Ramón Raquello and his orchestra. With a touch of the Spanish, Ramón Raquello leads off with "La Cumparsita."
HOST
In that excerpt, the change of location to The Meridian Room sounds realistic and listeners could easily believe they were being transported through space and time to another location. But the music of Rámone Raquello and His Orchestra was actually performed, live, by the CBS studio orchestra under the direction of Bernard Herrmann.
Another news announcement interrupted the performance of Rámone Raquello and took listeners back to the broadcast studio for additional information . . .
SFX: WOW #7, LENGTH: 00:40. REPORT OF EXPLOSIONS ON THE PLANET MARS.
ANNOUNCER
Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News.
At twenty minutes before eight, central time, Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas, occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars. The spectroscope indicates the gas to be hydrogen and moving towards the earth with enormous velocity.
Professor Pierson of the Observatory at Princeton confirms Farrell's observation, and describes the phenomenon as, quote, "like a jet of blue flame shot from a gun," unquote.
We now return you to the music of Ramón Raquello, playing for you in the Meridian Room of the Park Plaza Hotel, situated in downtown New York.
MUSIC: CINEMATIC MUSIC TRANSITION
HOST
Throughout September 1938, American radio had used news announcements to update listeners about ominous events in Nazi Germany. Adolph Hitler was calling for the annexation of Austria, and the autonomy of the Sudetenland, an area along the Czechoslovakia border. Primarily through the efforts of radio announcer H. V. Kaltenborn, listeners were kept up-to-date on each new negotiation between Hitler and other world leaders. On October 3, Nazi troops had occupied the entire Sudetenland. The shadow of world war was in the air and on the air.
Welles knew that such break-in news announcements provided opportunities to introduce different perspectives and narrators, not just radio announcers but also eye witnesses. As result, the story could become more engaging. More immersive. More believable. Especially if the listening audience was already feeling uncomfortable, uncertain.
And so, more news bulletins followed. 
One asked observatories around the country to keep watch for unusual activity on the surface of the planet Mars.
Another teased an upcoming interview with Professor Pearson at the Princeton Observatory.
That interview itself was interrupted by a news bulletin read to the audience by reporter Carl Phillips . . .
SFX: WOW #8, LENGTH: 00:36. HUGE FLAMING OBJECT FALLS. 
CARL PHILLIPS
Ladies and gentlemen, I shall read you a wire addressed to Professor Pierson from Dr. Gray of the National History Museum, New York.
Quote, "9:15 P. M. eastern standard time. Seismograph registered shock of almost earthquake intensity occurring within a radius of twenty miles of Princeton. Please investigate. Signed, Lloyd Gray, Chief of Astronomical Division," unquote.
From this point the story proceeds as a series of on-location reports . . . Grover's Mill, New Jersey, the Wachtung Mountains, the New Jersey State Capital in Trenton, the nation's capital in Washington, DC, for an address by The Secretary of the Interior, and finally, to New York City, where humankind is defeated by the Martian fighting machines.
As result of all this movement, not only in location but also narration, the story becomes many-faceted, multi-layered. Complex and compelling, the different voices, sounds, and locations sparking our imaginations. The ending of the first part of "The War of the Worlds" . . . a lone voice calling out on the radio waves . . . offers hope of finding another voice. And starting anew.
SFX: WOW #9, LENGTH: 00:28. "2X2L CALLING CQ"
MUSIC: CINEMATIC TRANSITION BETWEEN SCENES
HOST 
We know that Welles' use of news bulletins was purposeful, part of his narrative technique. Frank Brady, a Welles biographer and author of Citizen Welles, says Welles told Howard E. COKE (Koch), just SIX days before broadcast to [quote]modernize the language and dialogue [of the current working script], to localize the action, and to dramatize the story in the form of radio news bulletins.[end quote]
(Backstory) The reason for giving Koch such a short amount of time to compile a script for The War of the Worlds was that Welles and John Houseman had shelved their plans to offer Lorna Doone as the seventeenth episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air just a week before October 30, 1938. For Koch, this would be his third project for The Mercury Theatre on the Air, having been hired only recently (John Gosling. Waging the War of the Worlds. McFarland, 2009, p. 33).
A possible inspiration for this approach may have come from Archibald MacLeish who used radio announcers as narrators in his two radio plays. Welles was involved with both productions as we will hear in a moment.

MUSIC: TRANSITION, RIR THEME, OR SOMETHING ORIGINAL?

ACT 2: AIR RAID
HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio. In this episode we are celebrating the legendary radio story "The War of the Worlds" by Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on the Air. Rather than re-telling this story we are examining possible influences and presenting some new information.
Orson Welles began his radio career in 1935 with uncredited appearances on The March of Time, a weekly documentary news program sponsored by Time Magazine.
Each episode of The March of Time was structured as a news report, live and at the location of an historical event. Veteran CBS news announcers narrated the episodes. Skilled voice actors mimicked dialects and voice patterns of famous individuals.
HOST
Through The March of Time, Welles met Archibald MacLeish, lawyer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, and Congressional Librarian who was writing radio plays. Through observing productions for The March of Time series MacLeish was inspired to use radio reporters as major narrators. And he was inspired to use Welles for his voice and acting talents.
MacLeish's first radio play "The Fall of the City," was broadcast 11 April 1937 as an episode of the CBS experimental radio storytelling series, The Columbia Workshop. The play was set as a radio broadcast. Welles voiced the role of the announcer who described everything he saw and heard in the central plaza of an unnamed city where thousands of citizens awaited the arrival of an unnamed dictator.
Inspired in part by the growing fascism in Germany and Italy just before the start of World War II, "The Fall of City" was very successful for both MacLeish and Welles. Today, "The Fall of the City" is often cited as the best example of the artistic potential of radio broadcasting in terms of both stylistic innovation and social power.
MacLeish's second radio play was "Air Raid." It was broadcast on The Columbia Workshop, 27 October 1938, just 3 DAYS before "The War of the Worlds."
There are connections with Welles as we will see soon. But first, let's listen to this excerpt from "Air Raid" by Archibald MacLeish . . .
SFX: WOW #10, LENGTH: 3:03 MAX. EXCERPT FROM "AIR RAID"
NOTE: CROSSED THROUGH CONTENT CAN BE DELETED IF TIME IS NEEDED
SFX: ETHERIAL. RADIO STATION TUNING AND STATIC, CUTS OUT: CUTS IN AGAIN.
STUDIO ANNOUNCER
Stand by please: we take you through now. . . . to the town . . . in the mountains . . . you are there . . .
SFX: ETHERIAL. RADIO STATION TUNING  AND STATIC, CONTINUES, THEN LOCKS IN TO REMOTE BROADCAST SIGNAL.
SFX: EXTERIOR. SOUNDSCAPE, EARLY MORNING, SMALL TOWN LOCATED IN THE MOUNTAINS.
LOCATION ANNOUNCER
You are twenty-eight miles from the eastern border:
You are up on top of a town on a kind of tenement:
You are staring out to eastward toward the sun.
The men go out at dawn: return
To evening burning from the chimneys:
SFX: EXTERIOR. WOMEN SPEAKING AND MOVING ABOUT BELOW THE ROOFTOP, IN THE COURTYARD AND STREET. DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING.
The women keep the town between.
They keep it now: the tenement's full of them —
A four-story building of women:
They're filling the court with their quick talk:
They call back and forth from the windows:
They laugh behind the kitchen doors:
LOCATION ANNOUNCER
We have seen nothing and heard nothing.
If they left at dawn we should have heard them.
 We have seen
Nothing at all. We have heard nothing.
The town is very quiet and orderly.
SFX: EXTERIOR. A SIREN SOUNDS AT A DISTANCE, DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING
LOCATION ANNOUNCER
There's the siren: the signal:
They've picked them up at the border!
SFX: EXTERIOR. THE SIREN RISES TO A CRESCENDO.
LOCATION ANNOUNCER
(LOW AND CLOSE)
Listen ...
SFX: EXTERIOR. AIRPLANE MOTORS IN THE DISTANCE, MOVING TOWARD THE TOWN, INCREASING AS THE ANNOUNCER CONTINUES TO SPEAK
(CONTINUES LOW AND CLOSE)
We hear them: we can't see them.
We hear the shearing metal:
We hear the tearing air.
They are many:
Hard to guess how many . . .
(NOW SPEAKING RAPIDLY)
[There they are: they're flying [out of the sun]
Fighting formation in column
Squadron following squadron
Ten . . . fifteen squadrons
Bombing models mostly
Big ones: three motors . . .
Almost over . . .
SFX: EXTERIOR. THE ROAR OF THE PLANES PEAKS AS THE AIRPLANES FLY OVERHEAD. THE SOUND RISES SHARPLY IN PITCH, PASSES ACROSS THE SOUND STAGE, DIMINISHES IN DISTANCE OF OTHER SIDE
LOCATION ANNOUNCER
(SPEAKING RAPIDLY)
Look! Look! They're changing formation they're banking
The whole flight is banking
Front wheeling to flank
Flank anchored and climbing
Climbing bank into line . . .
The line swung like a lariat!
SFX: EXTERIOR. THE ROAR OF THE PLANES INCREASES AS THEY APPROACH OUR POV.
WOMEN'S VOICES
(SHOUTING)
Look! It circles as a hawk would circle hunting!
It's hunting us under the roof: the room: the curtain!
LOCATION ANNOUNCER
(CONTINUES SPEAKING RAPIDLY)
They're wheeling round for the town
They turn like stones on a string:
They swing like steel in a groove:
They move like tools not men:
You'd say there were no men:
You'd say they had no will but the
Will of motor on metal . . .
WOMEN'S VOICES
(SHOUTING, RUNNING)
Show it our skirts in the street: it won't hurt us!
Show it our softness! Show it our weakness!
Into the street all of us!
All of us!
SFX: THE PITCH OF THE ROAR OPENS: THE SOUND IS HUGE, BRUTAL, CLOSE.
LOCATION ANNOUNCER
(VOICE RISING, ANTICIPATING)
They swing: the wing dips:
There's the signal: the dip: they'll
Dive: they're ready to dive:
They're steady: they're heading down:
They're dead on the town: they're nosing:
There they go: there they . . .
SFX: EXTERIOR. A CRAZY STAMMERING OF MACHINE GUNS HAMMERS ABOVE THE RISING ROAR.
A WOMAN'S VOICE
(SHRIEKING, PLEADING)
It's us do you see!
SFX: FOR AN INSTANT THE SHRIEKING VOICES OF THE WOMEN, THE SHATTERING NOISE OF THE GUNS AND THE HUGE SCREAM OF THE PLANES ARE MINGLED.
(BOARD FADE, PAUSE)
HOST
Inspired by the 1937 bombing of Guernica, Spain, by Nazi German airplanes during the Spanish Civil War, Archibald MacLeish worked on "Air Raid" 7 MONTHS prior to its debut.
As he did for "The Fall of the City," MacLeish wanted Orson Welles to read the part of the location reporter. But, Welles declined.
However, a photograph shows Welles talking with writer MacLeish, actor Ray Collins, and director William N. Robson during a rehearsal for "Air Raid."
What does all this mean? Well, we can point to Welles using reporter Carl Phillips as a major narrator for his adaptation of "The War of the Worlds" and suggest Welles drew inspiration from his direct experience with both "The Fall of the City" and "Air Raid" by Archibald MacLeish.
Surely these experiences gave Welles ideas about what was possible with the new medium of radio, then just a decade old. And, possibly they influenced his production of "The War of the Worlds."
MUSIC: RIR BREAK THEME
HOST
You are listening to Re-Imagined Radio. Our episode is "The War of the Worlds: Possible Influences." We are exploring radio stories and storytelling techniques that may have influenced the production of "The War of the Worlds" by Orson Welles in 1938.
BREAK 1--THE FUSEBOX BREAK

This is John Barber, producer and host. We'll return to our episode in just a moment. But first I want to tell you about The Fusebox Show . . . It's a different kind of radio storytelling also brought to you by KXRW-FM, Vancouver's community radio station. Here's a sample . . .
SFX: THE FUSEBOX SHOW TEASER  
HOST
As you heard, the cast is colorful . . . The sound design and voice acting shows real talents at work doing things the rest of us mortals dream about. And the way Fusebox responds to the things that supposedly smart people do that are anything but . . . Well, with Fusebox you can feel the indignation coming through your radio. Learn more wherever you get your podcasts, or at The Fusebox Show website, www dot thefuseboxshow dot com.
SFX: ELECTRICAL SHORT CIRCUIT, BUZZING
MUSIC: RIR THEME, CROSSFADE WITH THE FOLLOWING

ACT 3: THE CRIMSON WIZARD
HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio and we are exploring possible influences on the production of "The War of the Worlds" by Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on the Air.
This is John Barber. Producer and host.
Earlier we learned that Orson Welles asked scriptwriter Howard E. COKE (Koch) to make significant changes to the radio adaption of The War of the Worlds, the 1898 novel by H.G. Wells, just SIX days before broadcast.
We also learned of Welles' involvement in two radio plays by Archibald MacLeish, "The Fall of the City" and "Air Raid."

Now, here's something new. Welles worked close to deadlines. In this recording Orson Welles tells film director Peter Bogdanovich about his production schedule for episodes of The Mercury Theatre on the Air.
SFX: WOW #11, LENGTH: 00:50. WELLES-BOGDANOVICH INTERVIEW-WOW REHEARSE 1 DAY." 00:31 IN LENGTH.
WELLES
'Cause I only rehearsed one day for the shows. All the technical stuff was worked out before and then I revised it . . . to everyone's irritation, dramatically and all that . . . put their backs up every week . . . that's no good, let's do it another way, you know, and all of that.
BOGDANOVICH
But that's the way you used to do all the shows. They'd get it ready and you'd come in . . .
WELLES
They did a recording of the show with a skeleton cast of cheap actors and sound effects and the script and I would sometimes listen to it and always read their script and I had four days until airtime to rewrite it or get another writer, everything, and go again. That was the way it went.
BOGDANOVICH
But the actual recording was done and . . .
WELLES
There was never a recording. It was live.
BOGDANOVICH
So preparation took one day.
WELLES
That's right. Short day. About five or six hours.
HOST
That was Orson Welles describing rehearsing performances by The Mercury Theatre only ONCE before they were performed for live broadcast. Welles was familiar with "Air Raid" months earlier. And he heard the broadcast on 27 October 1938, just 3 days before his own broadcast of "The War of the Worlds." Given his production schedule, there would have been time and opportunity to make changes.
MUSIC: DRAMATIC TRANSITION
HOST
With even more time before broadcast, Welles could have incorporated more influences. "The Crimson Wizard" was broadcast weekly beginning in September 1938, a month before Welles' own "The War of the Worlds" broadcast.
SFX: INTERIOR. LOUD CLANGING OF SOLD BRASS ALARM BELL REVERBERATES FROM THE HARD SURFACES OF THE NAVAL ARCHIVES BUILDING, DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING
SFX; INTERIOR, SECRET SERVICE BUREAU. BACKGROUND NOISE INCLUDES TYPEWRITERS, TELEPHONES, SHOUTED CONVERSATIONS, AND RADIO STATIC. IN THE BACKGROUND, FAINTLY, IS HEARD ON A COMMERCIAL RADIO STATION, "PETER QUILL . . . PETER QUILL . . . PETER QUILL . . . REPEATING. CHIEF TYLER'S VOICE IS FILTERED AS HE TALKS OVER THE SHORTWAVE RADIO
CHIEF TYLER
All squads . . . All squads . . . Calling all squads of the Secret Service . . . All squads . . . The naval archives building . . . Robbers! Proceed to the Archives Building and protect priceless naval records . . . Block the roads leading from the city . . . Stop and question suspicious motorists. 
It's the Red Circle . . . communist spies. There's a Red Circle spy in every street.
HOST

Broadcast by WGN, Chicago, Illinois, every Friday beginning 30 September 1938, episodes of "The Crimson Wizard" were extensively transcribed in the color graphics section of The Sunday Tribune.
Episodes featured the brilliant hunchback scientist Peter Quill using his scientific ingenuity to defend America against a Communist spy ring, The Red Circle. 
No recordings of "The Crimson Wizard" are known to exist. We used the transcription of the first episode to create the sample you just heard. Notice that it featured a kind of break in news bulletin.
What does this mean? Perhaps nothing. There is no direct evidence that Welles was influenced in any way by "The Crimson Wizard" radio series in producing his own adaptation of "The War of the Worlds." But, it's possible that he knew of this radio drama series which would have hinted again at the potential for different approaches to radio storytelling.

MUSIC: RIR THEME FOR TRANSITION

ACT 4: THE MINISTER IS MURDERED
MUSIC: RIR MUSIC FOR TRANSITION, CROSS FADE TO
SFX: WOW #2. AMBIENCE OF REPORTERS QUESTIONING WELLES IN THE CBS BUILDING. ONE REPORTER ASKS WELLES . . .
SFX: WOW #12, LENGTH: 00:38. REPORTER SAYING HE HEARD A RADIO BROADCAST WHILE IN VIENNA ASKS WELLES IF HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN CONCERNED. WELLES RESPONDS. 00:42 IN LENGTH.
REPORTER
Mr. Welles. I was in Europe at the time Schizneig (?) was murdered and I remember very vividly at the time the way that came through the air. I should say that your presentation last night was even more dramatic and more realistic than the way the Vienna radio station did there's.
WELLES
(Interrupting)
Yes, the intention . . .
REPORTER
(Interrupting)
So in view of that, in view of that, don't you think that somebody here would have been able to gauge the reaction which in fact has occurred throughout the United States?
WELLES
Well every radio program tries to be more dramatic than life as every play tries to be more dramatic than life, and every movie, not less so. I would have been surprised if, and hurt, as anybody would, if they'd been told a presentation was less effective than life.
HOST
The radio show described by the reporter was "The Minister Is Murdered!" by Erich Ebermeyer. Directed by Hans Flesch, the program was broadcast from Berlin, at 8:00 PM, 25 September 1930.
According to newspaper reports, soon after its beginning "The Minister Is Murdered!" was interrupted by a break in news bulletin about the assassination of the German foreign minister, returning from a visit abroad . . .
SFX: THIS NEWS BULLETI IDEALLY SHOULD BE RECORDED IN GERMAN WITH A CROSS FADE TO AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OVERLAY, LIKE NPR. IF THIS PRESENTS A PRODUCTION PROBLEM DON'T WORRY. HAVING IT SPOKEN ENTIRELY IN ENGLISH IS FINE.
GERMAN ANNOUNCER
Achtung! Achtung! Attention! Attention! Berlin and Koenigswusterhausen calling. Just moments ago, the Reich's Foreign Secretary was murdered as he arrived at Friedrichsstrasse [Railroad] Station upon his arrival from the Geneva Conference. We are discontinuing our evening performance.
HOST
Ebermeyer based his fictional radio drama on the real life murder of Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau in 1922 by right-wing extremists shortly after a treaty signing with the Soviet Union.
Listeners were confused. They thought then current Foreign Minister, Julius Curtius, who had attended a conference in Geneva, had just been murdered.
The radio news bulletin seemed credible, especially since Adolph Hitler, testifying that same day before the Supreme Court in Leipzig, promised retribution for sanctions placed on Germany at the end of World War I, November 1918. Was a right wing coup underway?
MUSIC: UP, BRIEF SUSTAIN FOR DRAMATIC TENSION, THEN CROSSFADE TO
SFX: CLATTER OF TELETYPE MACHINES TYPING AT HIGH SPEED IN THE BACKGROUND, DUCK UNDER AS BED FOR THE FOLLOWING
HOST
"The Minister Is Murdered!" was condemned in German newspapers.
GERMAN NEWS 1
Who is responsible for this grotesque nonsense?
GERMAN NEWS 2
Did anyone consider how much greater these risks are in our day and age, which is full of mindlessly distributed rumors about coups and crises?
GERMAN NEWS 3
Leaving aside the terrible lack of taste that rests in embedding these kinds of announcements in a radio play, did anyone actually bother to consider the potential consequences of having fragments of news like this picked up in other countries?
SFX: FADE OUT TELETYPE BACKGROUND
HOST
A story by The Associated Press about "The Minister Is Murdered!" was repeated in several international and American newspapers, including The New York Times.
NYT ANNOUNCER
SFX: SOUND BOOTH FILTER FOR THE FOLLOWING
This is the New York Times reporting . . .
Several thousand radio listeners were recovering this forenoon from hearing what for a time they thought was a radio report that Foreign Minister Julius Curtius had been assassinated. Actually what they heard was only a radio drama entitled "The Minister Is Murdered," in the course of which the radio announcer (the make-believe one in the play) interrupts a concert to announce excitedly that the German Foreign Minister has just been assassinated in the Friedrichstrasse railway station [on his return from Geneva, Switzerland]. In view of the recent Fascist putsch rumors, thousands who tuned in just in time to hear the words of the actor-announcer believed [the story] was a fact.
[This announcement constituted the opening scene of the radio play.]
[The German Foreign Office, other Government Departments, and the principal newspaper offices were unable to cope with the overwhelming number of telephone calls from concerned citizens].
The Minister of the Interior [Joseph Wirth] began an investigation to determine who was responsible for putting such a radio play on the air at a time of political tension in Germany (Sources: New York Times, 1930f, 18 and Amateur Wireless, 11 Oct. 1930, pp, 532, 534)
HOST
Well? How might this information add to our story?
Welles lived and worked in New York City at the time. The broadcast of "The Minister Is Murdered!", and how it was interrupted by a break in news announcement, was reported there. Although there is no record that he knew anything about this broadcast, or that it influenced in any way his narrative technique, Welles COULD have been aware of the broadcast of "The Minister Is Murdered!" and its audience response as he produced his radio adaptation of "The War of the Worlds."
MUSIC: RIR BREAK THEME
BREAK #2--THE RE-IMAGINED RADIO BREAK
HOST
This is John Barber, producer and host of Re-Imagined Radio. With each episode we combine voices, sound effects, and music to spark your imagination . . .
 SFX: RE-IMAGINED RADIO BILLBOARD
Upcoming episodes of Re-Imagined Radio include next month's "Hearing Voices," three oral histories retrieved from the Clark County Historical Museum. In December we are planning a reprise of our traditional holiday offering, "A Radio Christmas Carol." For 2023 we are working on more examples of radio storytelling, each with a common theme of discovery. Each will be brought to you by KXRW-FM, Vancouver's community radio station. Join us each month for MORE interesting radio storytelling.
MUSIC: RIR BREAK THEME

ACT 5: BROADCASTING THE BARRICADES
HOST
You are listening to Re-Imagined Radio. We're exploring possible influences on the production of "The War of the Worlds" by Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on the Air, first broadcast October 1938 and now the most legendary radio story ever told.
I'm John Barber, producer and host. Thanks for listening.
So far we have explored Welles' connection to Archibald MacLeish, author of two radio plays, "The Fall of the City" and "Air Raid."

Welles had a speaking role in the first, and was involved in the production of the second.

We considered two other radio plays, "The Crimson Wizard" and "The Minister Is Murdered!" and how they might have influenced Welles' production of "The War of the Worlds."
There is one more radio drama we should consider. It was broadcast twelve years prior, on a snowy Saturday night, 16 January 1926, by BBC Radio. 
Listeners throughout Great Britain tuned in a program called "Broadcasting the Barricades" written by Father Ronald Arbuthnott Knox, an English theologian, Catholic priest, and mystery writer. His "Ronald Knox's Ten Commandments," written in 1939 are still used as a reference by contemporary mystery writers.
"Broadcasting the Barricades" originated in Edinburgh, Scotland, from Station 2EH, in a room at the back of a music shop, and was relayed throughout the United Kingdom by Station 2LO, in London. 
Father Knox wrote and announced the  program which consisted of news bulletins about a variety of subjects. Cricket matches. An Unemployed Demonstration in Trafalgar Square led by Mr. Poppleberry, Secretary of the National Movement For Abolishing Theatre Queues. The arrival in Southampton of famous American film actress Miss Joy Gush. The destruction of the Big Ben clock tower. The hanging of Mr. Wotherspoon, the Minister of Traffic. And the destruction by explosion of the Savoy Hotel. 

No recording of the original broadcast was made but the script was reprinted in several newspapers the next day. Father Knox included the script as "A Forgotten Interlude" in his book Essays in Satire, published in 1928.

MUSIC: RIR THEME FOR TRANSITION?
SFX: MANY TELEPHONES RINGING, ONE AFTER ANOTHER. DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING . . .

HOST
Immediately following "Broadcasting the Barricades" telephones rang out at BBC Headquarters, the Savoy Hotel, and the Police Station. Callers wanted to know whether what they had just heard on the radio was true. Were Big Ben and the Savoy Hotel destroyed? How could such a broadcast be allowed in the England? Why wasn't there more explanation that the program was a work of fiction? How could the BBC so grossly misunderstand what its listeners wanted to hear? How could listeners know whether news heard on the radio was genuine or not? Debates continued for months.

*********************************************************

NOTE
The following could be used if time permits.
Father Knox even got involved.
FATHER KNOX
The idea for this skit came to me while I was sitting at home listening to the results of the last election being broadcast. I endeavored to visualize the breathlessness there would be throughout the country during a revolution, and I tried to imagine the news bulletins during such a time of popular excitement. I put my ideas on paper and then attempted to burlesque them. . . . I had no idea that listeners would take what I said seriously. . . . Even now, I cannot quite see how anyone could have misinterpreted my remarks. I am sure that my 'news reports' were so far-fetched that no-one who thought them out could have been alarmed.

*********************************************************
HOST
The controversy passed and Father Knox was heard again on BBC radio, this time parodying a scientific talk . . .
FATHER KNOX
Illustrating the sounds, now made audible to the learned, of vegetables in pain.
MUSIC: RIR THEME FOR TRANSITION

ACT 6: WELLES PROVIDES THE ANSWER
HOST
You are listening to Re-Imagined Radio.
We're celebrating the legendary radio story "The War of the Worlds" by Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on the Air. Rather than re-telling this story we are examining possible influences and presenting some new information.
Let's review.
MUSIC: STINGER OR TRANSITION?
First we considered Welles' use of news bulletins as a major storytelling technique for "The War of the Worlds."
This was purposeful. 
News bulletins provide multiple voices and perspectives. As result the story becomes many-faceted, multi-layered. Complex, and compelling from the different voices, sounds, and locations that spark our imaginations.
MUSIC: STINGER OR TRANSITION?
We explored a possible source for this practice in Welles's involvement with The March of Time, a weekly documentary news program.
Each episode was structured as a news report, live and at the location of an historical event.
MUSIC: STINGER OR TRANSITION?
Through The March of Time, Welles met Archibald MacLeish, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Congressional Librarian who was writing radio plays.
"The Fall of the City" was set as a radio broadcast. Welles, as the announcer, described what he saw and heard in the central plaza of an unnamed city where thousands of citizens awaited the arrival of an unnamed dictator.
MacLeish's second radio play was "Air Raid." Welles was offered the part of the radio reporter witnessing the bombing of a town during the Spanish Civil War by Nazi Germany aircraft but did not accept the offer. He was nonetheless very aware of this radio play.
MUSIC: STINGER OR TRANSITION?
From these sources we can suggest Welles drew potential inspiration for his use of radio reporter Carl Phillips as one narrator for "The War of the Worlds." Other narrators, other voices, other perspectives were provided by several break in news announcements.
MUSIC: STINGER OR TRANSITION?

We also learned of three other radio plays--"The Crimson Wizard," "The Minister Is Murdered!", and "Broadcasting the Barricades"--that could have influenced Orson Welles's adaptation of "The War of the Worlds." Which one do you think is the winner?
MUSIC: TEASER
HOST
Welles provided the answer in a recorded conversation with film director Peter Bogdanovich . . .
SFX: WOW #13, LENGTH: 00:19. WELLES TELLS BOGDANOVICH OF HIS INSPIRATION.
WELLES
I got the idea from a BBC show that had gone on the year before [sic], when a Catholic priest told how some Communists had seized London and a lot of people in London believed it. And I thought that'd be fun to do on a big scale, let's have it from outer space—that's how I got the idea.

Source
Welles, Orson and Peter Bogdanovich. 1992. This is Orson Welles. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-016616-9 Audio book version: HarperAudio, 30 September 1992. ISBN 1559946806 Audiotape 4A 6:25—6:42.

See also "Interviews with Orson Welles." Internet Archive.
Available: https://archive.org/details/InterviewsWithOrsonWelles/OrsonWellesInterview07.mp3

HOST
The "BBC Show" Welles cites was "Broadcasting the Barricades" and as we have heard it was broadcast not "the year before" as Welles claims, but 12 years prior to his adaptation of "The War of the Worlds."
Welles is also confused about "having it from outer space." That plot line comes from the 1898 H.G. Wells novel, The War of the Worlds, that Welles and others adapted for their Mercury Theatre performance. By the way, the novel is one of the earliest to examine conflict between humans and extraterrestrials.
MUSIC: RIR THEME, TRANSITION
HOST
You are listening to Re-Imagined Radio, our "The War of the Worlds: Possible Influences" episode. Concluding remarks are next. But first, this request for your support.
MUSIC: RIR THEME, TRANSITION

BREAK #3 -- THE SUPPORT BREAK
HOST 
Hello everyone. John Barber here, producer and host of Re-Imagined Radio, to encourage your support of KXRW-FM, Vancouver's community radio station.
You might not know it, but KXRW operates entirely on local support. Local support for community radio provides not only local programs but also benefits the local economy and culture in which we LIVE. Support for local community radio BUILDS something that benefits everyone. If you already support community radio thank you for your generosity. If not, please contact KXRW-FM, or your community radio station where ever you listen to this program, and learn how to support their efforts. Thank you for your support.
MUSIC: RIR THEME, RETURN
HOST CONCLUSION
HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio. Our episode is "The War of the Worlds: Possible Influences."
The morning after Orson Welles's radio adaptation of "The War of the Worlds" was broadcast, concern and outrage, along with threats of lawsuits and possible regulations, were building in the national press and government. Reporters and photographers gathered in the CBS building in New York. They wanted answers. Welles portrayed himself as innocent.
SFX: WOW #14, LENGTH: 00:43. WELLES PORTRAYS INNOCENCE.
WELLES
I simply don't know. I can't imagine. You must realize that when I left the broadcast last night I went into dress rehearsal for a play that opens in two days and I have had almost no sleep and I know less about this than you do I haven't even read the papers . . .
REPORTER
Where you aware of terror at the time you were giving this role? Where you aware that terror was going on throughout the nation?
WELLES
Oh, no. Of course not. We did Dracula and it seemed to me that, during Dracula, I had high hopes that people would react as they do in a movie of that kind and I don't know that they did particularly and so I've given up. One doesn't believe in the radio audience much. You don't know whether they are listening or not. You have no idea how many people are listening and what they are thinking. I had every hope that the people would be as excited as they would be at a melodrama.
HOST
Over time, Welles was more forthcoming. For example, on 19 June 1955, during the fifth episode of the Orson Welles' Sketch Book television show, entitled "The War of the Worlds," Welles reflected on [quote] "our little experiment with radio" . . .
SFX: WOW #15, LENGTH 00:48. ORSON WELLES' SKETCH BOOK.
WELLES
I suppose we had it coming to us because in fact we were not as innocent as we meant to be. When we did the Martian broadcast we were fed up with the way in which everything that came over this new magic box, the radio, became swallowed . . . believed. . . . So in a way our broadcast was an assault on the credibility of that machine. We wanted people to understand that they shouldn't take an opinion predigested and they shouldn't swallow everything that came through the tap, whether it was radio or not.
HOST
In another sample from the Welles-Bogdanovich conversations, film director Peter Bogdanovich asked Welles' about the effect of his "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast.
SFX: WOW #16, LENGTH: 00:15.
BOGDANOVICH
Did you know it would have that kind of effect?
WELLES
Only the size was a surprise. My idea was to send a lot of the lunatic fringe out. I just didn't know how widespread the fringe was.
BOGDANOVICH
You mean how little, how it wasn't a fringe.
WELLES
Yea.
HOST
In a 1 May 1975 interview with Thomas James "Tom" Snyder, host of The Tomorrow Show, a late night television talk show on the NBC television network, Welles said . . .
SFX: WOW #17, LENGTH: 00:18. WELLES TOMORROW TV SHOW INTERVIEW
WELLES
There are pictures of me made about three hours after the broadcast looking as much as I could like an early Christian saint. As if I didn't know what I was doing . . . but I'm afraid it was about as hypocritical as anyone could possibly get!
HOST
What motivated Welles? According to one of his biographers, Frank Brady, Orson Welles wanted to draw attention to a problem with radio. Brady quotes Welles saying . . .
Radio in those days, before the tube and the transistor, wasn't just a noise in somebody's pocket—-it was a voice of authority. Too much so. At least, I thought so. . . . [I]t was time for someone to take the starch . . . out of some of that authority: hence my broadcast" (Brady 1989, 164).
Frank Brady. Citizen Welles. London: Coronet, 1991, p. 175.

MUSIC: TRANSITION
HOST

Creative work draws from and extends earlier efforts by others, sometimes without conscious knowledge or direction. Following an exploration of possible influences, we can hear that in Welles' production of "The War of the Worlds."
So if this episode of Re-Imagined Radio fails to uncover any great mystery, I hope instead it provides many new insights into the making of the most legendary radio story ever told.
For example, again from the Bogdanovich-Welles conversations, we have this interesting remark by Welles about a good moment in his production of "The War of the Worlds" . . .
SFX: WOW #18, LENGTH: 00:22. WELLES GOOD THINGS.
WELLES
It did have good things . . . The technical use of silence I think was very effective when we said in the middle of it . . . You know . . . "Is there anybody on the air. Is there anybody on the air. Is there any" . . .  Big pause. And just left it. That was all right, you know.
MUSIC: BED UNDER THE FOLLOWING?

Four times now, on the anniversary of its first broadcast in 1938, we have re-imagined how to re-tell "The War of the Worlds" radio story. 
For example in 2021 we added new storylines. New perspectives. We localized the story. We changed some character roles. We introduced new music. And cinematic sound effects.
We hope you won't mind . . . And in fact will enjoy . . . Hearing again what we consider the best part of this story . . . The final confrontation between humans and Martians. The lead up to the moment Welles thought was good . . . the last cry of humanity seeking another survivor. Enjoy as you listen now to this sample from our 2021 Re-Imagined Radio version of "The War of the Worlds" . . .
MUSIC: FADE OUT BED?
SFX: WOW #19. THE FINAL BATTLE. SLOWLY FADE UP BELLS RINGING OVER CITY, DUCK UNDER
PHILLIPS
This is Carl Phillips, still atop the Smith Tower in downtown Vancouver.
The bells you hear are warning people to evacuate the city as the Martians approach. No more defenses. Our army wiped out . . . artillery, air force, everything wiped out. People are holding service below . . . in the cathedral.
SFX: VOICES SINGING HYMN IN DISTANCE.
PHILLIPS
As I look along the waterfront I see all manner of boats, overloaded with fleeing population, pulling out from docks and the shore.
SFX: SOUND OF BOAT WHISTLES (IN BACKGROUND, AND BELOW), CROWD NOISE IN STREETS BELOW
PHILLIPS
The streets are full of people like New Year's Eve.
Now a fighting machine approaches the waterfront. It straddles the Interstate Bridge, watching, looking over the city. Its steel, cowlish head is even with the buildings along the waterfront. It waits for the others. They rise like a line of new towers along the city's waterfront.
SFX: UULATING FROM FIVE MARTIAN FIGHTING MACHINES

PHILLIPS
They cry out wildly . . . what . . . celebrating victory?
MARTIAN
We cry . . . each other. Comrades. Victory success. Mission complete. Humans destroyed.
We die also. Unknown cause. Bodies pain. Hot . . . Cold . . . Weak . . . Movement heavy . . . Slow. Unable continue. Find place  . . . rest. Recover . . .
SFX: FADE UP
PHILLIPS
Now they're lifting their metal hands . . .
SFX: SMOKE AND HISSING SOUNDS
PHILLIPS
Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it! This is the end now. Smoke comes out . . . black smoke, drifting over the city. People in the streets see it now. People trying to run away from it, but it's no use. They're falling like flies. Now the smoke's surrounding the base of Smith Tower . . . rising . . .
(having difficulty breathing)
one hundred yards away . . .
(struggling to breathe)
it's fifty feet . . .
SFX: BODY FALLS TO ROOFTOP, MICROPHONE HITS ROOFTOP AS WELL, CONTINUES TO PICK UP SOUNDS
SFX: EXTERIOR, FROM A DISTANCE, BOAT WHISTLES, WIND, ETC. BACKGROUND AND BELOW, SUSTAIN
SFX: FADE IN RADIO STATIC, VOICE FILTERED TO SOUND LIKE A HAM RADIO
HAM RADIO 1
2X2L . . . calling CQ . . . 2X2L . . . calling CQ . . . 2X2L . . . Come in, please . . .
SFX: QUNIDAR TONES
HAM RADIO 1
2X2L calling CQ . . . Is there anyone on the air?
(PAUSE)
Is there anyone on the air?
(PAUSE)
Is there . . . anyone . . . 
SFX: BOAT WHISTLES, CHURCH BELLS, SOME TRAFFIC NOISE, ALL FADE SLOWLY OUT
(BOARD FADE. PAUSE.)
MUSIC: RIR THEME, FADE UP, ESTABLISH, THEN DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING
HOST
Re-Imagined Radio is produced with support from KXRW-FM, Vancouver, Washington's community radio station.
Content curation and script by John Barber.
Music composition and post-production by Marc Rose.
Graphic design by Kathryn Kl-ous (Klaus) Design.
Our announcer is Jack Armstrong.
This is John Barber, producer and host. Thanks again for listening. Now, before closing, we promised you the chance to hear the H.G. Wells and Orson Welles conversation we introduced at the beginning of our program. Here is is now . . .
SFX: SAMPLE FROM WELLS-WELLES INTERVIEW, KTSA RADIO, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
MUSIC: RIR THEME UP, THEN DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING
ANNOUNCER
This is a production of Re-Imagined Radio. Our radio broadcasts are heard on local, regional, and international community radio stations.
For on demand streaming, point your browsers to our website, reimaginedradio (all one word, no punctuation) DOT net.
Thank you so much for listening, and please, join us again for another episode of Re-Imagined Radio where we will continue our exploration of radio storytelling.
MUSIC: RIR THEME UP, AND TO END.

NOTE
The following quote was provided me by Robert J. Hand (r.hand@uea.ac.uk), author of The Radio Drama Handbook regarding his mention and citation of Orson Welles talking about The War of the World on The Dean Martin Show, sometime [early] 1970. Details remain unconfirmed . . .
In a 1970 television interview on The Dean Martin Show, Welles, appearing confident and assured, smoking a cigar, said . . .
WELLES
Back then radio was really big you know it was a big piece of furniture in our living rooms like TV today and it occupied a big piece of our lives. Radio in those days before the tube and transistor wasn't just a noise in somebody's pocket it was a voice of authority. Too much so, or at least I thought so. I figured it was time to take the Mickey out of some of that authority; hence my broadcast "War of the Worlds," which informed the public that Martians had landed in New Jersey and had taken over the country. This was Halloween remember and in my middle Western childhood that was the season for pranks (...) In that notorious broadcast I said "boo" to several million people over a full network and the pumpkin head was a flying saucer from Mars. Trouble was an awful lot of listeners forgot what day it was.
Now it's been pointed out that various flying saucers scares all over the world have taken place since that broadcast.   Not everyone laughs at them.  There are a lot of well attested sightings by highly reliable witnesses.  Not everyone laughs any more, but most people do, and there’s a theory that this is my doing.  That my job was to soften you up.  To sell you all on the notion that creatures from outer space landing in our midst is just a hoax.  That way as more and more of these unidentified objects make contact with our unsuspecting planet there’ll still be a tendency to laugh.  Ladies and gentlemen, go on laughing.  You’ll be happier that way.  Stay happy just as long as you can and ‘till our new masters announce that the conquest of the earth is completed [I remain as always, obediently yours.}
(Welles. Interview, Dean Martin Show, NBC Television, 1970).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKIDduxrIFg Orson Welles on War of the Worlds on the Dean Martin Show (1970)
***NOTE: This video has been removed.

This same quote, dated "early 1970s," appears in
Simon Callow. Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu. London: Jonathan Cape, 1995, p. 407.
and
Frank Brady. Citizen Welles. London: Coronet, 1991, p. 164.

The Search for Orson Welles Interview on The Dean Martin Show
X January 25, 1968, Season 3, episode 20
? September 26, 1968, Season 4, episode 2

January 9, 1969, Season 4, episode 16
March 27, 1969, Season 4, episode 26
December 18, 1969, Season 5, episode 15

January 22, 1970: Season 5, episode 17
September 17, 1970, Season 6, episode 1

January 14, 1971, Season 6, episode 17
March 11, 1971, Season 6, episode 25

X Greg Garrison Presents The Best Of The Dean Martin Show

References
Orson Welles' War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast
https://thonajon.tripod.com/gp6a.html

Orson Welles and H.G. Wells Full Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIelwmldAdQ

1n 1978 appearance on the Today show, asked "Did you get a laugh out of it, Orson?" Welles responded, "Huge, huge, yes a huge laugh. I never thought it was anything but funny."
Frank Brady. Citizen Welles. London: Coronet, 1991, p. 175.

NOTE
The following are outtakes from the "Crimson Wizard" section. If more content is needed, some portion of this could be recorded and used. It would follow immediately after  . . .

Chief Tyler saying . . .
It's the Red Circle . . . communist spies. There's a Red Circle spy in every street.
AGENT HENDERSON
(SPEAKING FROM INTERIOR OF SQUAD CAR. HIS VOICE FILTERED BY SHORTWAVE RADIO TRANSMISSION, EXTERIOR BACKGROUND NOISE INCLUDES SIRENS, FIRE ENGINES, SHOUTED INSTRUCTION, ETC.)
This is Henderson. Agent Henderson. CQ Headquarters. CQ Headquarters. Can you hear me? Come in Headquarters.
SFX: INTERIOR. SPEAKING INTO RADIO, SQUAD ROOM BACKGROUND NOISE, INCLUDING IN THE BACKGROUND, FAINTLY, IS HEARD ON A COMMERCIAL RADIO STATION, "PETER QUILL . . . PETER QUILL . . . PETER QUILL . . . REPEATING
CHIEF TYLER
Headquarters. This is Chief Tyler. Go ahead Henderson. What have you got?
HENDERSON
SFX: VOICE FILTERED BY RADIO. IN THE BACKGROUND, SIRENS, FIRE ENGINES, DISTANT SHOUTING, CAR HORNS.
I'm at the Naval Archives building. Witnesses here report seeing a trio of gypsy musicians. Two men and a woman. One man carried a violin. The other carried a guitar. The woman nothing. Perhaps she sang. They were seen stopping in the shade of some heavy shrubbery about the building. No one heard them play music. They were seen to stroll away. No one noticed their direction.
(PERSPECTIVE CHANGES TO TIME OF INCIDENT, IN THE PAST)
SFX: A MUFFLED EXPLOSION, BREAKING GLASS, A FIRE RUMBLES OUT OF THE BROKEN WINDOWS AND INTO THE STREET, SHOUTS OF PASSING PEDESTRIANS, THEN FIRE ALARMS. IN THE DISTANCE, APPROACHING, RISING POLICE CARS AND FIRE ENGINES, THEIR SIRENS WILDLY SCREAMING, FINALLY SCREECHING OF BRAKES AS THEY ARRIVE AT OUR POV
Shortly after . . . an explosion. Windows blown into the street.  Fire and smoke billowing. Police and Fire personnel are here now. Chance to investigate inside. Situation unknown. Henderson out.
CHIEF TYLER
SFX: INTERIOR. SQUAD ROOM, SPEAKS INTO RADIO, BACKGROUND NOISES INCLUDING IN THE BACKGROUND, FAINTLY, IS HEARD ON A COMMERCIAL RADIO STATION, "PETER QUILL . . . PETER QUILL . . . PETER QUILL . . . REPEATING
Good job, Henderson. Keep me posted as soon as you learn more. Headquarters out.
SFX: INTERIOR, SQUAD ROOM. DUCK UP BACKGROUND NOISES MOMENTARILY. BRIEFLY IS HEARD "PETER QUILL . . . PETER QUILL . . . PETER QUILL . . . REPEATING. ONE TELEPHONE RINGS CLOSER, MORE LOUDLY THAN ANY OTHERS.
SFX: INTERIOR. 1938 DESK TELEPHONE PICKED UP
CHIEF TYLER
Secret Service Bureau. Tyler here.
SFX: THE FOLLOWING CONVERSATION IS HEARD FROM TYLER'S POV. LAMBERT'S VOICE IS FILTERED BY TELEPHONE. BACKGROUND SOUNDS OF OFFICE REMAIN, INCLUDING IN THE BACKGROUND, FAINTLY, IS HEARD ON A COMMERCIAL RADIO STATION, "PETER QUILL . . . PETER QUILL . . . PETER QUILL . . . REPEATING
LAMBERT
Chief Tyler . . . This is Eric Lambert. I was just speaking over WGN on the plans I have drawn for the super battleship I am designing. I heard your call to squad cars . . .
CHIEF TYLER
(JUMPING IN)
Squad cars and fire engines. There's been a robbery and the building is burning.
LAMBERT
I was afraid of that. What are you doing, Chief Tyler.
CHIEF TYLER
We're covering the city, Mr. Lambert. Have you a special concern?
LAMBERT
My plans for the super battleships were in those vaults! I say they were. Were! Were! Do you hear? They can't be there now. The Red Circle spies have got them.
CHIEF TYLER
(WITH RESIGNATION)
Then you know.
LAMBERT
Yes, I know. And before long, Peter Quill will know. Goodbye, Mr. Tyler.
SFX: LAMBERT HANGS UP TELEPHONE
SFX: TYLER HANGS UP TELEPHONE
CHIEF TYLER
(ALOUD, BUT TO HIMSELF)
Hmmm . . . The Red Circle . . . Eric Lambert . . . And now Peter Quill . . . What to do? What to do? Publicity! Yes, lots of publicity. Right now!
(SUDDENLY SPEAKING TO THE CROWD IN THE ROOM)
Alright everyone! Listen up! Publicity! That's the thing. Every small detail of this robbery and fire must be broadcast to the public. Share everything. Nothing left out! If we can generate an explosion of public interest on this case we can focus attention on identifying the cunning spies from the Red Circle who are, I am sure, closing in on Peter Quill.