On the night of the 30th of October, 1938, the nation went into an unprecedented state of panic. Cars jammed highways, phones ceased working when switchboards got overloaded, and people grasped at whatever they could to run for safety. Priests were leading people in prayer on the streets. Others

Reasonable people, average Americans who could normally discern reality from fiction, had been driven to absolute panic by a cleverly produced and exceptionally realistic dramatization of a 40-year-old science fiction story. They literally believed that the earth had been invaded by Martians.

Among those who reacted in hysteria were listeners who heard and paid attention to the opening of the radio theater in which it was clearly stated that the program was an adaptation of a novel written 40 years earlier by H. G. Wells called "War of the Worlds." It was drama, in other words, a story, presented for your entertainment. That's all.

It began with the listeners hearing some rather unremarkable big band music which was being broadcast, the actors said, from some ballroom in New York. After several minutes, an actor playing a newscaster, interrupted the program with some rather alarming news about gas-like explosions on the planet Mars. Further updates were promised. And it was back to the music.

This was at a time when war in Europe was pending, the effects of the great depression were still felt, and radio listeners were used to hearing broadcast interruptions, usually with bad news. The Hindenburg disaster had happened just a year and a half earlier.

As the program progressed, the news bulletins became more frequent and more urgent. There was an interview with a "famous astronomer" from Princeton. His dramatic description of strange lights and shapes was mystifying.

Before long, the professor was given a message asking him to look into the possibility that some object, perhaps a meteorite, had just hit the surface of the earth. Nothing to worry about, the professor assured the audience.

But then came still more bulletins, accompanied by sound effects that made the "news flash" interludes sound realistically like a live broadcast from outdoors. Witnesses were interviewed who told of fearsome things like fires and falling buildings, with excited voices talking over each other, leaving the impression that something huge was happening in a small New Jersey town but none of it was distinct or clear. The locations were specific, the breathless announcements often contradictory, just like real life.

Soon there were dead bodies, burned and lying in a field. A "military officer" made an appearance to declare martial law. The whole situation was gradually ramped up. And then suddenly, in the middle of a near hysterical commentary on the catastrophic events, the radio cut off mid-sentence. Then there was silence. And more silence. As if the radio had gone off the air.

With this alarming interruption of the news, the audience was left to their own imaginations - the sense of doom escalated quickly.

While the program was in progress, network officials, worried about the realism of the show, asked that the producer pause and remind listeners that it was drama, not real news. But director Orson Welles refused. That would defeat the purpose. This was supposed to be scary Halloween stuff, after all.

Before long, people were fleeing their homes, convinced that the nation was under attack from "enemy tripod machines" that were destroying everything in sight with "heat rays" while strange black smoke poured out of towns and farms.

Why did people react this way? Some hadn't heard the introduction that described the program as a dramatization. Others barely noticed. But even those who got the message succumbed to the terror and hysteria of the moment.

When confronted with a confusing situation, people simply don't know what to believe.

Even those not inclined to take the drama seriously, when seeing all their neighbors running for their lives, were not about to take chances.

"The War of the Worlds" was not intended as propaganda. It was not an experiment in mass panic incitement. But it's a brilliant example of what can happen when people can be persuaded that a real amergency exists.

You can hear the entire 1938 broadcast below: