These days, when you hear stories about a caravan of Central American migrants making their way to the US border, it’s worth remembering that Americans have been pranked about another invasion, once before.
On October 30,1938, millions of listeners tuned into the popular radio show, “Mercury Theatre on the Air” starring Orson Welles and they were scared out of their wits by what they heard.
The show began with popular music, broadcast live from a hotel ballroom in New York City, but it was soon interrupted by news reports about a strange event, possibly a meteor impact, at Grover’s Mill, New Jersey.
In the space of an hour, a series of increasingly urgent bulletins convinced listeners that the US was under attack by invaders from Mars.
The show was meant as fictional entertainment but, somehow, listeners thought it was real. The next day, the New York Times carried a front-page story about the panic it created.
Of course, it was a simpler time, then, and Americans would never fall for such an obvious trolling, today. Would they?