Something From Another World

Eduardo Angel Cupich Rodriguez

The alleged arrival of Martians to our planet was a "fever" that included legends, movies, news, and much more. In that context, on October 30, 1938, a young man named George Orson Welles narrated a kind of fake news radio broadcast about the supposed arrival of extraterrestrials to the United States. However, he made it so real that it terrorized thousands of citizens who believed the broadcast was true.

Orson Welles said through the microphone: "Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our dance music program to bring you a breaking news story from the Intercontinental Radio Agency. Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory in Chicago reports observing, on the planet Mars, several explosions moving towards the Earth with enormous speed... We will continue informing..."

Welles, who would later become a famous actor, director, writer, and movie producer, commented that an astronomer had seen a glowing blue light coming out of Mars. This paved the way for the adaptation of a script based on the book The War of the Worlds by English writer Herbert George Wells.

Ilustraciones:

• Un locutor con audífonos frente a un micrófono con el logo CBS.
• Una ciudad siendo atacada por máquinas extraterrestres con tentáculos, inspiradas en La guerra de los mundos.