An All-Star cast finely dramatizes the incredible events surrounding and resulting from the 1938 "Mischief Night" Broadcast By Orson Welles & The Mercury Theater On-The-Air of a dramatization of the H.G. Wells novel "The War of the Worlds". Coming upon the heels of the rumors of war that aired from Europe day after day during the Czechoslovakian crisis, this radio drama's tale of an invasion from Mars struck a chord in the consciousness of America that the mood the country resonated with, and it continues to reverberate to this day. It was the first example of what nowadays we call "reality" programming, and is also ironically history's most effective manipulation by a single broadcast of the perception of reality in the consciousness of the masses. The chaos and mayhem which resulted from so many listeners believing the dramatization to be real have become legend, and this docudrama sought to encapsulate that legend within this film with some of the best radio and television people in the business - and if the voice of the announcer sounds distantly familiar to many of you newsreel fans, that's because the grand man cast in that role is none other than Westbrook Van Voorhis, the voice of THE MARCH OF TIME.

This program was originally broadcast on ABC on October 31, 1975.

Run time 92 minutes
Condition: VG-