The Radio Drama that Spooked a Nation--Part 1

By Kit Hawthorne

Have you ever heard of the science fiction radio play that was so realistic, it made Americans believe an actual alien invasion was taking place? This gripping 1938 audio drama, and its aftermath, have become part of American folklore. According to the popular version of the story, the broadcast was convincing enough to cause mass panic and suicides across the nation.

The truth is both less sensational and far more interesting.

Two major factors contributed to the broadcast’s unique impact. One is the genius of Orson Welles. The other was the listening habits and emotional state of Americans in the late 1930s.

Orson Welles, photographed by Carl Van Vechten

Orson Welles—actor, director, writer, producer, musician, magician—is considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. His career began early. At twenty-one, he was already directing high-profile stage productions in New York City. In 1937, he and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theatre. Its first Broadway season was wildly successful, with productions of Julius Caesar, The Cradle Will Rock, Shoemaker’s Holiday, and Heartbreak House. Welles made the cover of Time Magazine in April of 1938. Two months later, CBS offered him a radio show, The Mercury Theater on the Air. The show would feature classic dramatizations with Welles as master of ceremonies, star, narrator, writer, director, and producer. Welles already had a movie in progress, two plays in rehearsal, and another seven in preparation. At the time of the War of the Worlds broadcast, he was twenty-three years of age.

Houseman’s description of the radio show’s production schedule fills me, a novelist of regular hours who works in solitude, with horror. The weekly broadcasts were never more than a week out in preparation, and sometimes a lot less.

The show aired on Sunday evenings at 8 p.m. In the preceding week, Houseman and Welles would choose the shows and lay them out. Most of the actual writing was done by Howard Koch, who typically took five fifteen-hour days to produce the first draft of an hour’s radio script. The associate producer, Paul Stewart, would then hold preliminary rehearsals, with rudimentary sound effects. On Thursday, a wax record of the show was cut, and later that night Welles would listen to the record and give his revisions. Over the next thirty-six hours, the script would be rewritten. Another rehearsal took place on Saturday afternoon, with sound.

The next day, Welles took over. According to Houseman, by early Sunday afternoon,

…two simultaneous dramas were regularly unfolded in the stale, tense air of Studio Number One: the minor drama of the current show and the major drama of Orson’s gargantuan struggle to get it on. Sweating, howling, disheveled, and single-handed he wrestled with Chaos and Time—always conveying an effect of being alone, traduced by his collaborators, surrounded by treachery, ignorance, sloth, indifference, incompetence and—more often than not—downright sabotage! Every Sunday it was touch and go. As the hands of the clock moved relentlessly toward air time the crisis grew more extreme, the peril more desperate. Often violence broke out. Scripts flew through the air, doors were slammed, batons smashed. Scheduled for six—but usually nearer seven—there was a dress rehearsal, a thing of wild improvisations and irrevocable disaster. (John Houseman, “The Men from Mars,” Harper’s Magazine, December 1948.)

Illustration by By Henrique Alvim Corrêa

This particular production was based on the 1898 novel by H.G. Wells (no relation to Orson Welles, and still alive at the time of the broadcast, which he vehemently repudiated). Howard Koch, the writer, spent three days trying to wrest a script out of the novel before calling Houseman in despair, claiming that the story could not “be made interesting or in any way credible to modern American ears.” This was Tuesday afternoon, five days before the show was scheduled to air. Unable to reach Welles, who was then in his thirty-sixth hour of dress rehearsals for a play to be performed at the Mercury Theater, Houseman told Koch to buck up. By the wee small hours of Wednesday morning, Koch had overcome his panic and gotten the script under control, finally finishing at sunset. Thursday, as usual, associate producer Paul Stewart rehearsed the show and made a record.

Listening to the record, the team was underwhelmed. They all agreed the show was dull. The only way they saw to liven it up was to play up the newscast angle with its chaotic, real-time, on-the-scene quality. They did their best to spice up the story and held another rehearsal Saturday afternoon. Even with the alterations to the script, the show felt flat. One of the CBS sound men confided that the show “just didn’t come off.”

Come back next month to find out just how wrong that sound man turned out to be!

Kit Hawthorne makes her home in south central Texas on her husband’s ancestral farm, which has been in the family for seven generations. When not writing, she can be found reading, drawing, sewing, quilting, reupholstering furniture, playing Irish pennywhistle, refinishing old wood, cooking huge amounts of food for the pressure canner, or wrangling various dogs, cats, horses, and people. Visit her at https://kithawthorne.com/.

When the World Went Dark

By Marilyn Turk

For the past two years, I’ve been immersing myself in World War II history while writing The Gilded Curse, which came out in March 2016, and now it’s sequel that comes out next year.

I’ve discovered so many interesting facts about the era – strange to us now, but familiar to our parents or grandparents. One of the things that most impresses me about that period of history is the way the people of the United States (and Great Britain as well) supported the war effort in their everyday lives. Patriotism was at its highest, and everyone – from school children to homemakers to factory workers and farmers – contributed as they could, sacrificing comfort and more to demonstrate their loyalty to their country.

One of the wartime practices that affected many people, especially anyone who lived near the coast, was the requirement for blackouts or dimouts – putting out or covering all lights outside and many inside so the enemy would not see where to strike. 

Here are some facts I discovered about the blackouts.

As early as the day after Pearl Harbor, the city of San Francisco went black after receiving a report of approaching enemy aircraft. Two days later on December 9, 1941, New York City sounded its first alarm.

To begin with, blackouts were ordered during air raid drills. But by March 1942, dimouts were required in coastal areas. An article in the March 12, 1942 East Hampton newspaper stated that "a 'Lights Out' order for Long Island has been issued by the Suffolk County Civilian Defense Council ... the plan is to reduce lights along the Long Island shore so as to eliminate the silhouetting of ships against a lighted background, which would be a very fine set up for enemy submarines operating offshore."

All outdoor advertising lights were shut off, including neon lights around buildings like diners and marquees. New York City dwellers tried to maintain their lifestyles in the dark. An example was written in an article in the New York Times, "The opening night of Ray Bolger’s new musical saw theatergoers completely baffled by the lack of … landmarks, as they felt their way from Sardi's to the Shubert Theater and back by an elaborate system of navigation based on the Braille system and dead reckoning…”

Car owners covered or painted over the upper part of their headlights. 

Automobile drivers failing to dim their lights were subject to one-year jail terms and $5,000 fines.

Unfortunately, car and pedestrian accidents occurred because of the blackout, resulting in authorities reducing the speed limit to 35 mph at night, painting curbs white and in general, warning people to stay off the roads at night.

Blackout shades and curtains were bought or made to cover windows on homes and apartments to keep lights from shining outside. 

Campfires were not allowed on beaches, and even cigarette smoking was not allowed outside at night. Most citizens readily complied, but for those who violated the regulations, they received fines or sometimes, jail sentences. 

Family listening to the radio (box on right)

Jack Benny broadcasting a radio show

Due to the blackouts, Americans entertained themselves at home more than before. Books sold in record numbers as did the sale of playing cards that rose 1000 percent. Radio listening grew by 20 percent as they listened to their favorite big band entertainers like Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller, crooners like Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra, or shows that starred Dinah Shore, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Arthur Godfrey and others.

Do you know anyone who experienced the blackouts in World War II?

Marilyn Turk loves to study history, especially that of lighthouses and the coast of the United States. She is the author of Rebel Light, a Civil War love story set on the coast of Florida, A Gilded Curse, a historical suspense novel set on Jekyll Island, Georgia, in 1942, and Lighthouse Devotions - 52 Inspiring Lighthouse Stories, based on her popular lighthouse blog. (@ http://pathwayheart.com)

SONGS THAT HELPED WIN WWII

ANNE GREENE here: 

During WWII we Americans kept our hopes and spirits high with the new songs that blossomed during those dark years when we were losing the battle to Germany’s Hitler and Japan’s Hirohito. 

World War II was the first conflict to take place in the age when almost ninety percent of American households had radio. Never before had songs been so widely available. Never before had the number of listeners been so high. 

Overseas, American troops had access to radio in all but the most difficult combat situations. Between bouts of combat our troops listened to popular music on Armed Forces Radio. 

The song, They’re Either Too Young or Too Old took a light-hearted look at the men left for the women on the home front while our troops were away fighting the war.

Popular songs like Sentimental Journey, I’ll Be Seeing You, Moonlight Serenade, and I’ll Be Home for Christmas, spoke of women’s longings for loved ones overseas and the troops yearning to be home. Those songs gave society’s blessing that it was okay to miss your man because he fought for the good of all Americans. The many patriotic songs brought smiles to faces and pride to the hearts of Americans on the home front and abroad. 

Some of the more popular was songs were: 

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy by the Andrew Sisters – 1941 

Kiss The Boys Goodbye by Frank Loesser 1941 

There’ll Be Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs of Dover by Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra. 1942 

Be Careful It’s My Heart by Irving Berlin. 1942 

Comin’ In On A Wing and A Prayer by The Song Spinners 

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore by Duke Ellington & His Orchestra 

Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me by Stept, Brown, and Tobias – 1942 

GI Jive by Johnny Mercer 

I Don’t Want To Walk Without You by Harry James & His Orchestra 1942  

I’ll Be Seeing You by Bind Crosby 

It’s Been A Long Long Time by Harry James 

I’ll Get By As Long As I Have You by Harry James & His Orchestra 

Praise The Lord and Pass The Ammunition by Frank Loesser 1942

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Cole Porter - 1944

Americans held the same desires as their leaders, and the government counted on popular music to reflect the same war aims that Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted. Everyone hoped for a quick victory over the Axis, and the songs about a world after the war with the boys coming home met those wishes. 

This unity gave the USA enormous energy that allowed the nation to accomplish far more, at less human cost, than the other major powers in the war. So, during the dark years of the war where almost every citizen lost a loved one, music kept spirits high. 

Have you heard any of these WWII favorites? If so, which is your favorite? 

Leave a comment and one lucky winner will win my WWII book, Angel With Steel Wings. Buy any one or all seven of Anne’s book on http://www.Amazon.com. 

Ace Collins, bestselling author of numerous books, including the WW II series, In the President’s Service, says of ANGEL WITH STEEL WINGS: 

A story of a woman in a man’s domain set against the dynamics of World War II is a can’t-miss scenario. Angel With Steel Wings paints a vivid picture of courageous pilots facing death in the air while struggling with love on the ground, and wraps it up in a unique twist that will challenge all you knew about the “Greatest Generation.” Steeped in history and framed by faith, this is a tale that takes readers into a world now all but forgotten, and lands in a place that touches the heart in a special way. To know how far we have come, we must understand where we started, and Angels With Steel Wings takes us back on a thrilling trip in time that informs as it entertains. I think this is one flight you won’t want to miss. 

ANNE GREENE delights in writing about alpha heroes who aren’t afraid to fall on their knees in prayer, and about gutsy heroines. Her novellas, A CHRISTMAS BELLE, and A GROOM FOR CHRISTMAS are now available. Her Women of Courage Series spotlights heroic women of World War II, with the first book ANGEL WITH STEEL WINGS available. Enjoy her private investigating series, Handcuffed In Texas by reading the first book, Holly Garden, PI, RED IS FOR ROOKIE. Try her award-winning Scottish historical romances, MASQUERADE MARRIAGE and MARRIAE BY ARRANGEMENT. Anne’s highest hope is that her stories transport the reader to an awesome new world and touch hearts to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. Buy Anne’s books on http://www.Amazon.com. Type in Anne Greene. Visit Anne at AnneGreeneAuthor.com. and at @TheAnneGreene.  

 

WACs SERVE IN WORLD WAR II

ANNE GREENE here:

World War II initiated vast economic and social changes, and altered the role of women in American society.

Over 150,000 American women served in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) during World War 11. WACs were the first women other than nurses to serve in the United States Army. Both the Army and the American public initially had difficulty accepting the concept of women in uniform. However, military leaders, faced with fighting a two-front war and supplying men for that war, realized women were desperately needed. Women seized the opportunity to make a major contribution to the national war effort.

In the beginning WACs were called WAACs, Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. The WAAC bill permitted women to serve overseas, but failed to provide them with the overseas pay, government life insurance, veterans medical coverage, and death benefits granted Regular Army soldiers. If WAACs were captured, they had no protection under existing international agreements covering prisoners of war.

The day the bill became law, Oveta Culp Hobby was appointed Director of the WAAC. Oveta Culp Hobby believed strongly in the idea behind the Corps. Every woman enlisted would be trained in a noncombatant military job and "free a man for combat." Hobby explained, "The gaps women will fill are those noncombatant jobs where women's hands and women's hearts fit naturally. WAACs will do the same type of work which women do in civilian life. They will bear the same relation to men of the Army that they bear to the men of the civilian organizations in which they work." WAACs were to help the Army win the war, just as women had always helped men achieve success.

On 20 July the first officer candidate training class of 440 women started a six-week course at Fort Des Moines. The average officer candidate was 25 years old, had attended college, and worked as an office administrator, executive secretary, or teacher. One out of every five enlisted because a male member of her family was in the armed forces and she wanted to help him get home sooner. Several were combat widows of Pearl Harbor and Bataan. One woman enlisted because her son, of fighting age, had been injured in an automobile accident and was unable to serve. Another joined because there were no men of fighting age in her family. All of the women desired to aid their country in time of need by "releasing a man for combat duty."

Women were assigned as weather observers and forecasters, cryptographers, radio operators and repairmen, sheet metal

workers, parachute riggers, link trainer instructors, bombsight maintenance specialists, aerial photograph analysts, and control tower operators. Over 1,000 WAACs ran the statistical control tabulating machines (the precursors of modern-day computers).  By January 1945 only 50 percent of AAF WACs held traditional assignments such as file clerk, typist, and stenographer.

Some WACS computed the velocity of bullets, measured bomb fragments, mixed gunpowder, and loaded shells. Others worked as draftsmen, mechanics, and electricians.

Many processed men for assignment overseas, handling personnel files and issuing weapons. In the words of one WAAC, "Soldiers come in here unarmed and leave with a gun. It gives me a pretty good feeling." WAACs served as boat dispatchers and classification specialists.

Near the end of 1944, women replaced men as radio operators on U.S. Army hospital ships. Female secretaries and clerical workers were assigned to hospital ships soon after.

WAACs assigned to the Chemical Warfare Service worked in laboratories as glass blowers and made test tubes for the Army's chemical laboratories. Others field tested equipment such as walkie-talkies and surveying and meteorology instruments.

Over 1,200 WAACs worked as telephone switchboard operators, radio operators, telegraph operators, cryptologists, and photograph and map analysts.

WAACs were used as laboratory, surgical, X-ray, and dental technicians freeing Army nurses for other duties.

WACs served in North Africa, the Mediterranean, Europe, the Southwest Pacific, China, India, Burma, and the Middle East. They coveted overseas assignments, even though the majority consisted of the clerical and communications jobs. Only the most highly qualified women received overseas assignments.

The first WAAC unit overseas reported on 27 January 1943 to General Eisenhower's headquarters in Algiers. They served as postal workers, clerks, typists, and switchboard operators. Nightly bombings and antiaircraft fire made sleep difficult, but the women acclimated. A WAAC signal company arrived in November to take jobs as high-speed radio operators, tele-typists, cryptographic code clerks, and tape cutters in radio rooms.

The American press reported favorably on the WAAC, sympathetic to their adjustments to military life and the job and travel opportunities for those who enlisted.

Unfortunately, a variety of social factors combined to produce a negative public image of the female soldier. Eighty four percent of letters home from enlisted men contained criticism of female soldiers.

Anti-WAAC feelings originated with enlisted soldiers who did not want to be "freed" for combat. The mothers, wives, sisters, and fiancées of these men were also not anxious to see them sent into combat. They blamed the WAACs and believed the worst rumors about them and repeated such gossip to their friends and neighbors. Thus WACs got a bad reputation.

Many of these soldiers had never seen a WAAC. But they were away from home and facing dangers. Many kept up their spirits by imagining their return to family and community. Which they wanted unchanged! Women in the military represented change.

Rumors said ninety percent of WAACs were prostitutes and forty percent were pregnant.  

Americans of the 1940s found the concept of women in uniform difficult to accept. They couldn’t believe the highly skilled office jobs which the WACs held, because such positions carried significant responsibility and people doubted women could handle such jobs.

Women in the Army broke the stereotypes which restricted them, moving into positions outside traditional roles. Overcoming slander and conservative reaction by many Americans, women contributed to the war effort. The 1943 transition from WAAC status to WAC recognized their valuable service.

---

General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Allied Commander, praised the WACs calling them “my best soldiers.” He alleged they worked harder than men, complained less and were better disciplined. . .he would take any number of the WACs the War Department would give him in any future command he might ever have.

Did any female member of your family serve during World War II? Please leave a comment and Anne will love visiting with you.

ANNE GREENE delights in writing about wounded heroes and gutsy heroines. ANGEL WITH STEEL WINGS, Anne’s WWII WASP romance about a Women’s Air Force Service Pilot, releases soon. Look for it on Amazon. Anne’s highest hope is that her stories transport the reader to awesome new worlds and touch hearts to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. Anne makes her home in McKinney, Texas. She loves to talk with her readers. Buy Anne’s books at http://www.Amazon.com. Talk with Anne on twitter at @TheAnneGreene. View Anne’s books, travel pictures and art work at http://www.AnneGreeneAuthor.com.

Learn more about Anne as well as get tips on writing award-winning books at http://www.anneswritingupdates.blogspot.com.

SINGING IN THE RAIN---AND BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS GIVAWAY

 

ANNE GREENE here. HOORAY, hooray, hooray! We launched our brand new web site! To CELEBRATE we have a series of GIVEAWAYS by our fantastic authors. MANY books will be given away by the end of the month. YOUR PART: Leave a comment every day on every post. The more comments you leave, the greater your chances to win!

I’m giving an autographed copy of my latest Scottish historical romance, MARRIAGE BY ARRANGEMENT. So be certain to comment at the end of this post for your chance to win! And I’ll chat with you as well.

I’m writing today about events during World War II. You’ll discover so much more in my book Angel With Steel Wings which will release soon. Angel is the first in my Women of Courage series. Angel is about women test pilots. You didn’t know America had women test pilots in 1944? You’re not alone, most people didn’t. But those were exciting, innovative years.

During World War II the American people kept their spirits and hopes high with the many new songs that blossomed during the first dark years of the war when America was losing the battle to Hitler’s Germany and Japan’s Hirohito.

World War II was the first conflict to take place in the age when almost ninety percent of American households had radio. Never before had it been possible for songs to be so widely available to the population. Never before had the number of listeners been so high.

And overseas, American troops had regular access to radio in all but the most difficult combat situations. American troops listened to popular music between bouts of combat on Armed Forces Radio.

The song, They’re Either Too Young or Too Old took a light-hearted look at the men left for the women on the home front while American Troops were off fighting the war.

Popular songs like Sentimental Journey, I’ll be Seeing You, Moonlight Serenade, and I’ll be Home for Christmas, all spoke of women’s longings for loved ones overseas and the troops longing to be home. Those songs gave society’s blessing that it was okay to miss your man because he was fighting for the good of Americans everywhere. And the many patriotic songs brought smiles to faces and pride to the hearts of Americans on the home front and abroad.

Earlier in the century big band music had become wildly popular and still was in the 1940s. Some of the more popular songs were:

There’ll Be Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs of Dover by Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra.

Be Careful It’s My Heart by Irving Berlin. 1942

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy by the Andrews Sisters 1941

Comin’ In On A Wing and A Prayer by The Song Spinners

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore by Duke Ellington & His Orchestra

Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me by 1942 by Stept, Brown, and Tobias.

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Cole Porter 1944

GI Jive by Johnny Mercer

I Don’t Want To Walk Without You by Harry James & His Orchestra 1942

I’ll Be Seeing You by Bing Crosby

It’s Been A Long Long Time by Harry James

I’ll Get By As Long As I Have You by Harry James & His Orchestra

Kiss The Boys Goodbye by Frank Loesser 1941

Praise The Lord and Pass The Ammunition by Frank Loesser 1942. I understand many people sang this song during church services.

People in the USA held the same desires as their leaders, and the government counted on popular music to reflect the same war aims that Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted. Everyone hoped for a quick final victory over the Axis, and the songs about a world after the war with the boys coming home met those wishes.

This unity gave the USA an enormous energy that allowed the nation to accomplish far more at less human cost than the other major powers in the war. So in the driving rain of war where almost every citizen lost a loved one, music kept spirits high.

Have you heard any of these popular songs, and if so, which is your favorite?

COMMENT: Leave a comment and one lucky winner will win an autographed copy of my book, Marriage By Arrangement. Please leave your email address so I can contact you for your address. Don't forget to comment on all posts for more chances to win.

BIO: ANNE GREENE delights in writing about wounded heroes and gutsy heroines. Her second novel, a Scottish historical, Masquerade Marriage, won the New England Reader Choice award, the Laurel Wreath Award, and the Heart of Excellence Award. The sequel Marriage By Arrangement recently released.  A Texas Christmas Mystery also won several awards. Her World War II novel, Angel With Steel Wings, about WASPs, women test pilots releases soon. Be sure to look for it on Amazon. Anne makes her home in McKinney, Texas. She graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Literary Studies from the University of Texas. Tim LaHaye led her to the Lord when she was twenty-one, and Chuck Swindoll is her Pastor. View Anne’s other books, her blog, travel pictures, and art work at http://www.AnneGreeneAuthor.com. Her highest hope is that her stories transport the reader to an awesome new world and touch hearts to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. Buy Anne’s books at http://www.PelicanBookGroup.com. Or at http://www.Amazon.com. Learn to write award-winning books by visiting Anne’s blog at http://www.anneswritingupdates.blogspot.com.

Don’t forget to leave a comment. Anne loves to talk with her fans.

a Rafflecopter giveaway