Early in June, 1970 Orson Welles appeared as a guest on The David Frost Show and gave the comments below to Sir David about his 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast.
Later that same month, Welles was a guest host on the Frost Show and talked to (among others) these famous luminaries: Duke ELLINGTON, Louis ARMSTRONG, Norman MAILER and Darryl F. ZANUCK.
Now, it seems to me, Ron Howard’s upcoming FROST/NIXON movie should have a sequel. Michael Sheen should play David Frost and Vincent D’ Onofrio could play Orson Welles. But wouldn’t you think a FROST/WELLES movie would make a far better story than a FROST/NIXON film?
Meanwhile, here is a link to the excellent 1988 radio documentary with comments from both John Houseman and Howard Koch about their memories of The War of the Worlds broadcast:
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The Making of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
Featuring John Houseman and Howard Koch
http://www.prx.org/pieces/28807
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Orson Welles’ Sketchbook
Episode 5: The Martian Invasion – May 21, 1955
Hear online here: Orson Welles’ Sketchbook
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ORSON WELLES on DAVID FROST (1970)
DAVID FROST: What memories do you have of that radio program that had such a great impact?
ORSON WELLES: You mean the scandal?
DAVID FROST: Yes. The War of the Worlds. That was in what year?
ORSON WELLES: I know no dates. Just after the invention of the electric light, I know that. I have memories of it. The thing that confuses it in my mind is that we had our own radio show with actors and at the same time we had our own theater, the Mercury Theater. And the night after the program I had an opening on Broadway. So when the police came into the control room and traffic stopped and the world came to an end, we were all saying, “Yes, but have you got the light cue for the second act right?” It didn’t quite penetrate until the play had opened that I’d replaced Benedict Arnold as an American villain, and that was because the newspapers, who’d been griping about radio taking away the advertising, finally found somebody to blame. Then they found out that everybody was laughing and thought it was a joke, so in a few days I was suddenly a great fellow, and that’s how I got a sponsor.
DAVID FROST: What was the part of The War of the Worlds that really terrified people?
ORSON WELLES: I don’t know. Many things, probably. We had an actor who did Roosevelt’s voice terribly well, and we brought him on to assure everybody that there was no cause for alarm. I think that’s when they really ran out on the streets. We also had a ham radio voice that would come in, identifying himself and trying to talk to other people while this awful thing was happening. We established him, and then we went to a CBS announcer who was describing the arrival of the Martians. And then the announcer began to cough; he couldn’t go on and stopped, and then this dead silence. The real trick we did was to hold dead silence on a full network, with no sound at all, and then you’d hear the microphone drop, and then more silence, and then this one little voice, the amateur radio operator, saying, “This is so-and-so. Isn’t there anybody out there—” And that is, I guess, when they put the towels on their heads and ran out of the house. I don’t know why they put towels on their heads, but they did. I don’t know what they thought that was going to do. A sort of anti-Martian thing. Then there were all these traffic cops. It was Sunday night and all these guys out in Jersey on their motorcycles waiting, and the people in the cars, driving, had the radio, but the cops didn’t. Suddenly everybody started driving at 125 miles an hour. “Pull over!” “No, I’m going to the hills!”
DAVID FROST: And if you wanted to terrify people today, how would you do it?
ORSON WELLES: I don’t. I didn’t want to then.
DAVID FROST: No, of course. But if somebody wanted to terrify people today, how should they do it?
ORSON WELLES: Well, I would say unlimited air-time to Spiro Agnew.
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