Monday, October 30, 2006

1938 Radio Broadcast celebrated

Many groups and origansations have been celebrating the Orson Welles broadcast of The War Of The Worlds, which terrified many thousands of listeners on the Halloween night of October 30th, 1938. Two events of note come from West Windsor, where can of course be found the unassuming little hamlet of Grover's Mill, the original Martian beachhead as selected by Howard Koch, the writer of the 1938 broadcast. On Saturday the 8th, the David Sarnoff Library in Princeton NJ hosted a live re-enactment of the infamous radio broadcast. Rather brilliantly, the broadcast used original vintage radio microphones provided by the New Jersey Antique Radio Club. Tonight, the 30th of October, local artist Donna Clovis and students from High School North will present "Powers From Pluto", which is an updated version of the broadcast which features television and the internet as the conduit for terror. Anyone interested in tickets can find contact details here.

Other celebrations of note:

WTBQ 1110 AM hosted a live open to the public recording on the 28th.
Los Alamos Little Theater is presenting a stage version of the broadcast tonight (Oct 30th) and several other performances in the coming week.
Pauls Valley Arts Council is doing what sounds like a very interesting stage play, that not only re-enacts the broadcast, but tells the behind the scenes story as well. You can catch a performance tonight (the 30th) at the Pauls Valley High School, Oklahoma.