[NJARC] DAVID SARNOFF LIBRARY TO HOST LIVE "WAR OF THE WORLDS" RADIO THEATRE

[amagoun]

Full-Scale Performances Will Mark the 68th Anniversary of Welles’s Radio
Broadcast

GROVER’S MILL, NJ: October 17, 2006—Returning to one of the most famous
events in American radio, the David Sarnoff Library, in ooperation with
the Hunterdon Radio Theatre and New Jersey Antique Radio Club, reprises
its live re-enactment of Orson Welles’s 68-year-old broadcast, “War of
the Worlds,” based on H.G. Wells’s classic story. This family-friendly
event, which will benefit the Library’s renovation, is scheduled for
Saturday, October 28, in Sarnoff Corporation’s auditorium in Princeton
Junction, N.J.; there will be matinee and evening performances, with a
special benefit reception after the evening show.

On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater On the Air
captivated the nation and set off widespread panic—especially in New
Jersey and New York—with a dramatization of H.G. Wells’s 19th-century
fantasy. Thousands of listeners across the country mistook the broadcast
for news reports of an actual Martian invasion that detailed meteor
landings in nearby Grover’s Mill, N.J., and aliens killing earthlings
with death-rays. What resulted was mass hysteria, with residents fleeing
their homes or joining to combat the “Martians.”

“David Sarnoff predicted and innovated the power of network
broadcasting,” says Dr. Alex Magoun, executive director of the David
Sarnoff Library. “Welles’s broadcast showed how the media could
instantly encourage national hysteria as well as national unity. We
think that’s a powerful lesson worth revisiting. Moreover, the Princeton
Observatory and Grover’s Mill, where the Martian launches and landing
were reported, are only a mile away from us, at Princeton University and
in West Windsor Township.”

The “War of the Worlds” broadcast, which was written by Howard Koch and
made famous by Welles is “arguably one of the best radio dramas of all
time,” says William Spear, founder and president of the Hunterdon Radio
Theatre. The group, which will stage the re-enactment with more than 20
actors, is “excited about the opportunity to work with the David Sarnoff
Library and present its version of the broadcast.”

The sound effects and actors’ voices will be transmitted through 1930s
microphones to 1930s radios, provided by members of the New Jersey
Antique Radio Club. “Listening to radio theatre is an experience unlike
anything two generations raised on television and the internet have ever
felt,” says NJARC president Phil Vourtsis. “And to listen to the sounds
of a Martian invasion through the radios of the time makes you
appreciate how much the world has changed since the original broadcast.”

Performances will begin at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The doors will open
one hour prior to the shows, allowing visitors to tour the Library’s new
exhibits on David Sarnoff and the Innovative Spirit and Six Innovations
that Changed the World. All tickets for the matinee performance are $10
in advance ($15 at the door). Ticket prices for the evening performance,
which will be followed by a dessert reception, are as follows: adults
13-64 are $20 in advance ($25 at the door); all others are $10 in
advance ($15 at the door). Tickets are limited and advance reservations
are strongly recommended.

All funds raised from this event will support the David Sarnoff Library,
a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization housed within Sarnoff Corporation at
201 Washington Road, Princeton. The Library contains a museum and
archives with the state’s largest holdings of RCA historical materials,
and is dedicated to the understanding and promotion of electronic
innovation for the benefit of humanity. The Library is open by
appointment for tours and field trips. For more information, visit
davidsarnoff.org on the Web.

The “War of the Worlds” re-enactment is made possible, in part, by the
kind support of Sarnoff Corporation; the Howard Koch Estate; Hunterdon
Radio Theatre; New Jersey Antique Radio Club; Kip Rosser; Grover’s Mill
Coffee Company; and suite6design.

Additional assistance and funding has been provided by the Board of
Directors of the David Sarnoff Collection and an operating support grant
from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department
of State.

For more information about the event or advance ticket reservations,
send an email to waroftheworlds at davidsarnoff.org, or call (215) 885-2195
or 866-204-5798, pin# 7988 (toll free).

--
Alexander B. Magoun, Ph.D.
Executive Director
David Sarnoff Library
201 Washington Road, CN 5300
Princeton, NJ 08543-5300

609-734-2636
amagoun at davidsarnoff.org
(f) 609-734-2339
www.davidsarnoff.org
www.davidsarnoff.blogspot.com