NEW YORK, Oct. 30, 1938 (UP) -- Residents of New Jersey fled their homes tonight, squad cars and ambulances roared through Newark and newspaper and press association offices throughout the country were besieged with telephone calls demanding to know about "a meteor which fell in New Jersey."
The uproar resulted from a radio dramatization of H.G. Wells' novel, "The War of the Worlds," in which the arrival of men from Mars upon earth at first is believed to be a meteor shower. In the radio rendition the report of a meteor falling near Trenton, N.J., was made so realistic that persons who tuned in after the introductory remarks had been made believed the statement to be fact.
There was similar excitement in other cities from coast to coast. Tulsa, Okla., reported two heart attacks and a stroke resulting from the dramatization. Dallas, Kansas City and Omaha reported hundreds of telephone calls to authorities and newspaper offices, some from persons who had relatives in New Jersey and feared for their safety.
It was, you might say, a "killer performance". Director Orson Wells was amazed by the reactions; at the time, he'd been doing similar, quasi-realistic broadcast performances without ever having generated such widespread alarm.
Of course, radio plays were common at the time, as television had yet to appear. Radio was the means for dissemination of news and entertainment. Many couldn't differentiate between the two during the infamous "War of the Worlds" radio play.