In 1938 the Mercury Players, led by Orson Welles, broadcast a radio 
drama based on H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds . The drama purported 
to be a news broadcast from New Jersey, where Martians had begun 
an invasion of earth. But thousands of listeners, mistaking it for a real 
event, were driven to near-panic.

Orson Welles (1915­1985) had a varied career in radio, movies, live 
theatre, and as a writer and director. He is best known for directing 
the movie Citizen Kane  (1941), narrating the March of Time  news 
series (1934), and for forming the Mercury Theatre (1937).