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Today In History (October 31 1939)

Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2024 3:31 pm
by AustrianPainter
TODAY IN HISTORY
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1938: Proving that the mob can easily be mesmerized into a fever pitch of madness by mass media, even accidentally, Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, causing large numbers of listeners to believe that Martians are invading the United States.

Re: Today In History (October 31 1939)

Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2024 12:49 am
by Volker Zorn
On November 8, 1938 - little more than a week after the War of the Worlds broadcast - Adolf Hitler gave a speech in Munich, marking the 15th anniversary of the 1923 National Socialist revolt in that city.

He mentioned the Welles’ broadcast in passing, saying that the hysterical reaction to it on the part of some Americans was the result of the war psychosis being fostered on the American public by the mass media and the Roosevelt regime.

Notes Wikipedia:
Welles later remarked that Hitler cited the effect of the broadcast on the American public as evidence of "the corrupt condition and decadent state of affairs in democracy." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_o ... dio_drama)