On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre company aired a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds that simulated news bulletins of an alien invasion. The broadcast, which blurred the line between entertainment and breaking news, allegedly caused panic among some listeners. Eighty-eight years later, national bestselling author William Elliott Hazelgrove is revisiting that night to examine what it reveals about fear and the media today.
Hazelgrove’s forthcoming op-ed in The Hill, scheduled for October 30, will explore the central themes of his book Dead Air: The Night That Orson Welles Terrified America. The book, published by Rowman & Littlefield, now part of Bloomsbury, delves into how the authority of a trusted medium, the anxious atmosphere of a nation, and the power of dramatic storytelling made an imaginary invasion feel real. The Wall Street Journal described Dead Air as a “granular history and richly anecdotal,” and it received a starred review from Booklist.
In 1938, Americans were accustomed to urgent radio bulletins about the threat of war in Europe. Welles’s simulated news reports brought an alien invasion into listeners’ living rooms, and contemporary accounts describe frightened listeners who believed catastrophe was unfolding. The scale of the panic remains debated, but Hazelgrove argues that the reaction went beyond isolated confusion, drawing on newspaper accounts to give readers a view inside the CBS studio and outside it.
The broadcast’s legacy is particularly relevant today, as audiences grapple with misinformation and declining trust in media. Hazelgrove’s work raises questions that resonate in the digital age: How do audiences distinguish reporting from performance? What happens when fear overtakes skepticism? And why does the format of a message sometimes carry as much authority as its evidence? These questions are central to his Hill op-ed and to Dead Air.
Hazelgrove’s October media lineup includes interviews on WGN Radio with John Landecker on October 28, WCPT 820 with Richard Chew on October 30, and WDCB with Gary Zidek on October 20. He will also give a War of the Worlds presentation at Wheaton Library on October 28 at 7 p.m. The author is available for television, radio, podcast, and print interviews about Welles, the panic debate, the making of the broadcast, and its relevance to contemporary questions about misinformation and trust.
William Elliott Hazelgrove is a national bestselling author of fiction and narrative nonfiction whose work has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist. He served as the Ernest Hemingway Writer in Residence, writing for ten years in the attic of Hemingway’s birthplace. His book Dead Air offers a timely reminder of how easily fear can trump facts and why media literacy remains crucial.
