War of the worlds in the theatre of the mind
Orson Welles presented The War of the Worlds on radio in such a way that the listeners believed that what was being described in the programme was really happening.
We are all eagerly following the journey of ISRO’s Mars
Orbiter Mission which would give India the pride of joining an elite
group of nations, with the U.S. in the lead, that probed our planetary
neighbour in close quarters. But can we believe that around the same
time 75 years ago many parts of the U.S. were plunged into turmoil when
news spread that alien species from Mars had landed on American soil
and launched a deadly offensive on human beings? Yes, a radio drama
broadcast on October 30, 1938 created this scare.
The
American comedian and television personality Steve Allen described
radio as ‘the theatre of the mind’. Radio has the unique power of
influencing listeners into visualising events which even the visual
media, sometimes, may not be able to portray effectively. Even during
the early days of radio broadcasting, when everything was done live,
there were highly talented producers who used the full potential of the
audio medium and created immortal radio dramas. Our reminiscences now
are about one such radio drama based on H.G.Wells’s famous science
fiction,
The War of the worlds
broadcast over Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in the U.S.
Read full story on the The Hindu link
(
The author is a retired Deputy Director-General of AIR and former Station Director of AIR, Chennai. His email:
sragavan4@gmail.com
)
