On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air broadcast a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’s “The War of the Worlds.” Presented as a series of news bulletins, the show described a fictional Martian invasion. Some listeners reportedly mistook parts of the broadcast for real news, although later studies questioned the scale of the panic. The incident showed both the power and the risks of live mass media. It also made Welles famous and helped launch his career in film and theater. The broadcast remains a classic example of creative storytelling and media influence.
