by Grania
Good morning, and Happy Halloween if you’re gearing up for a Trick or Treat session today or tomorrow. Wikipedia informs us it is also called Mischief Night in some places, or Angel’s Night in other parts where they don’t approve of mischief so much.
It’s also the anniversary of Orson Welles’s 1938 broadcast of the radio drama adaptation of H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds that ended up causing panic amongst the more impressionable of New York’s denizens, some of whom believed it was real. [JAC: Not just in New York. My father heard the broadcast in Uniontown, Pennsylvania and remembers people running out in the streets, screaming that aliens had invaded America. This panic happened throughout the U.S.] Given that a percentage of the world’s TV-watching population also believes that Discovery Channel’s ill-conceived Mermaids “docu-drama” is real, the only difference between people now and then is that today people have Twitter and Facebook so that they can document their gullibility for all the world to see.
Google has outdone itself this year with their Halloween Google Doodle which comes in the form of a mini game starring a little black cat.
Click through on the picture to play the game and read the background details. The goal is for you to draw the marks over the approaching ghosts with your mouse or trackpad, in order, to make the ghosts disappear. Jerry got to level 3 before the cat epired.
Over in Poland there is more Serious Philosophy Thoughts from the feline Princess. Alas, her staff appear to be lacking in appropriate deference for her ruminations.
Hili: So many thoughts on the steps and just one cat to think them all.
A: Think faster so that we can go inside.
In Polish:
Hili: Tyle myśli na przyzbie i tylko jeden kot do ich przemyślenia.
Ja: Myśl szybciej i wracamy do domu.
We also have news of Gus:
Here’s a picture of Gus helping with Spring cleaning (I know, I’m a procrastinator.) Also a pic of Fred [a squirrel, so named because he “tap dances” on the fence like Fred Astaire]. Note peanuts on top of fence post. he now sits on this post all the time waiting for the peanuts to be delivered.
And Steve Plegge sends us this hypnotic ocelot stare.
And the original:
Hili is having that conundrum – so little time and so much to do.
The word that comes to mind looking at that ocelot is exotic.
I never thought about that – I knew it’s an HG Wells story, but I also knew Orson Welles made the broadcast.. and suffered a moment of cognitive dissonance after just reading it above – that must have been Orson Welle’s breakthrough moment?
Is it just a coincidence that their last names are so similar?
I have more thoughts to share before coffee – but let me get some coffee first…
H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds was first published about 40 years prior to the radio broadcast and he was still very much alive when it was made, although I’ve never read anything about his reaction to the panic brought about by Orson Welles’ (just 23 years old at the time) radio dramatization of the story, about two and a half years prior to the release of his cinematic directing and acting debut on Citizen Kane. Seems the furor over the radio production made Welles nationally famous and the release of Citizen Kane just increased his stature, long before he became a regular on tv ads, promising to sell us no wine before its time. He’d be 101 now.
From the Wikipedia page:
Wells expressed good-natured skepticism about the actual extent of the panic caused by “this sensational Halloween spree. Are you sure there was such a panic in America or wasn’t it your Halloween fun?”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio_drama)
see the paragraph “Meeting of Welles and Wells”
cr
I recall reading a comment – can’t recall who it was by – that the most entertaining thing to arise from War of the Worlds was Orson Welles apologising to the people of America and ‘trying to look repentant’.
Sadly, the Wikipedia page suggests that the reports of panic were greatly exaggerated.
cr
I recall reading that there were breaks or commercials during the broadcast that made it clear it was fictional. But, timing is everything. “If you’re just joining us, I’m Orson Welles, and what you are hearing is completely true…But, before we get back to the invasion of our planet, here’s a word from our sponsor, Ivory Soap. Don’t go away.”
I think I’ve just remembered where that ‘trying to look repentant’ comment came from. I think it was Welles himself, in his last movie ‘F for Fake’, which included some footage on his War of the Worlds production.
Quite an entertaining movie, by the way, but – WARNING – the Wikipedia page includes a huge spoiler.
By the way, my quote was probably a misquote, but it would fit right in with the theme of that movie…
cr
My dad said that when he heard it, he figured that if it was real, other radio stations would be covering it. They weren’t.
Love Compelling Cat Puss! Ocelot’s are up there among most beautiful cats, in my opinion of course.
So do we get nine lives in the day-after-caturday game? Off I go…
Oops, ocelots.
I hope I do better at gaming today…
“Orson Welles’ Mars Invasion Broadcast Panics Millions”
Yet another urban legend: http://tinyurl.com/zdu63z3
There is a lot of back and forth about the War of the Worlds broadcast. Did people panic, no they didn’t, yes they did… It’s too bad we didn’t have proper documentation about the reaction but if Wells was required to apologize, it’s a safe bet that some of the people were fooled. I ask those of you who are insistent that the whole thing was a hoax to explain exactly why is that so hard to believe, that people would be fooled by a radio program back then? To this day we still have people ignorant enough, gullible enough, to claim to be abducted by aliens, to claim to see bigfoot, Nessie, or any variety of mythical beasts, or think that the govt. has built some sort of death machine that will destroy the planet. Just visit sites for groups like the North American Wood Ape Conservancy, doomsdayprep.org, or Infowars. Are you seriously going to tell me these people can’t easily be fooled by decent radio dramatics? These are people that have trouble understanding that cows seen far away are not, in fact, miniature cows! The question isn’t “did people think we were invaded by martians” but “HOW MANY people thought we were invaded”, and that, I guess, we’ll never know.
*some* people panicked, though not as many as the press liked to make out.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio_drama)
for a lengthy discussion.
cr
Spoiler Alert Halloween Game
In level 5 the cat rides a broomstick and after successfully fighting off the ghosts, you get its book back.
Show off!
Omg, I need an ocelot!