“Dead Air The Night Orson Welles Terrified America” shows A Country in Mass Panic From Orson Welles 1938 Halloween Broadcast with heart attacks, suicides, panic, chaos, jammed phone lines, and motorists driving for the hills to get away from Martians
CHICAGO, IL, October 24, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ — The revisionism lately of Orson Welles War of the Worlds 1938 broadcast is that it did affect many beyond l the East Coast and most people did not believe Martians had invaded and were exterminating the human race with heat ray guns and poisonous gas. William Hazelgroves new book Dead Air The Night Orson Welles Terrified America (Rowman and Littlefield) poiints to a different America thrown into mass panic from the broadcast produced and directed by the twenty-three-year-old Welles.
On a warm Halloween Eve, October 30, 1938, during a broadcast of H G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, Orson Welles held his hands up for radio silence in the CBS studio in New York City while millions of people ran out into the night screaming, grabbed shotguns, drove off in cars, and hid in basements, attics, or anywhere they could find to get away from Martians intent on exterminating the human race. As Welles held up his hands to his fellow actors, musicians, and sound technicians, he turned six seconds of radio silence—dead air—into absolute horror, changing the way the world would view media forever, and making himself one of the most famous men in America.
With the eighty sixth anniversary of the broadcast just around the corner, this new interpretation of Orson Welles opera of panic throws a different light on what has become a point of contention for historians and pop culture aficionado’s. Did people really believe that Martians were exterminating the human race and did mass panic engulf the country? Willliam Hazelgrove makes a convincing case people did believe the broadcast and the ensuing terror and panic was a real time example of what would happen if aliens ever did land on earth.
William Elliott Hazelgrove is the National Bestselling author of ten novels and twelve narrative nonfiction titles. His books have received starred reviews in Publisher Weekly Kirkus, Booklist, Book of the Month Selections, ALA Editor’s Choice Awards Junior Library Guild Selections, Literary Guild Selections, History Book Club Selections and optioned for the movies. He was the Ernest Hemingway Writer in Residence where he wrote in the attic of Ernest Hemingway’s birthplace. He has written articles and reviews for USA Today, The Smithsonian Magazine, and other publications and has been featured on NPR All Things Considered. The New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, CSPAN, USA Today have all covered his books with features. His books Tobacco Sticks, The Pitcher, Real Santa, and Madam President have been optioned for screen and television rights. His book Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson is currently in development with Starthrower Entertainment. The option on The Pitcher was fully executed when the script was approved. Henry Knox’s Noble Train was awarded the Distinguished Book Award by The Colonial Society of America. His latest publications include Morristown The Kidnapping of George Washington. The Brilliant Con of Cassie Chadwick. One Hundred and Sixty Minutes, the Race to Save the Titanic. He has two forthcoming books, The Last Charge of the Rough Rider The Last Days of Teddy Roosevelt and Hemingways Attic, Hell and Glory in Cuba.
Website: http://www.williamhazelgrove.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wehazelgrove
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hazelgrove/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rocketman46
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daRWGT1ySLw
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