dwasson
11-06-2005, 11:19 PM
“War of the Worlds”
Aladdin Radio Theater of the Air
CBS, Sunday October 30, 1938
Radioplay First Draft
ANNOUNCER
The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Aladdin Theatre on the Air in "The War of the Worlds" by H. G. Wells. Brought to you Aladdin long-leaf Persian cigarettes, for that rich long-lasting poppy flavor of the Casbah.
(MUSIC: ALADDIN THEATRE MUSICAL THEME, "THE SNAKE CHARMER")
ANNOUNCER
Ladies and gentlemen, the director of the Aladdin Theatre and star of these broadcasts, Orson Welles.
ORSON WELLES
We know now that in the early years of the twentieth century this world was being watched closely by brains much greater than man's, and yet as mortal as his own. We know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns, enjoying the rich, long-lasting poppy flavor of Aladdin, now in a crush-proof box, they were scrutinized and studied -- perhaps as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm in a drop of water, or as a man with a telescope might hungrily study a lovely silhouette disrobe in a nearby apartment.
With infinite complacence the people went to and fro over the earth about their little affairs, some in the roomy liqui-cushioned mohair comfort of the all-new 1939 Kokomo Mogul 8, serene in the assurance of their dominion over this small, spinning flake of delicious celestial Oatabix which man has inherited out of the dark mystery of Time and Space.
Yet across an immense ethereal gulf, as wide as the stance on the new Kokomo Mogul 8, minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle, intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us... waiting... watching...
ANNOUNCER
(FADE IN) ...and bringing a forecast of rain, accompanied by light winds. Maximum temperature, 61. This weather report is brought to you by Lux-o-Lad, the man's pomade with the patented Hollywood sheen. We take you now to the Bakelite Room of the Hotel Zephyr in downtown New York, where you'll be entertained by the music of Ramón Raquello and his orchestra.
(MUSIC: SPANISH THEME SONG ["TANGO DE LOS HUEVOS"]... FADES)
ANNOUNCER TWO
Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of syncopated Latin dance rhythms to bring you a special bulletin from Consolidated Radio News.
At twenty minutes before eight, central time, Professor Farrell of the Chicago Scientific Observatory reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas on the planet Mars. Space-o-scope readings indicate the gas to be methane escaping from a subterranean Martian bowel and moving towards the earth with enormous velocity. Professor Pierson of the Observatory at Princeton confirms Farrell's observation, and describes the phenomenon as, quote, "like a jet of blue flame from milady's favorite, the all-new streamlined Flashpoint brand kitchen range," unquote.
We now return you to the music of Ramón Raquello, playing for you in the Bakelite Room of the Hotel Zephyr in downtown New York.
(MUSIC PLAYS FOR A FEW MOMENTS UNTIL PIECE ENDS... SOUND OF APPLAUSE)
ANNOUNCER THREE
And now a tune that never loses favor, the ever-popular "Cerveza Mi Amor." Ramón Raquello and his orchestra...
(MUSIC)
ANNOUNCER TWO
Ladies and gentlemen, the Government Meteorological Bureau has requested scientists of the country to keep an astronomical watch on any further disturbances occurring on the planet Mars. We are ready now to take you to the Princeton Observatory where Carl Phillips, our commentator, will interview Professor Barbara Pierson, famous astronomer. We take you now to Princeton, New Jersey.
CARL PHILLIPS
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Carl Phillips, speaking to you from the observatory of Princeton. Professor Barbara Pierson stands directly above me on a small grated platform. She is gently grasping and twisting the giant lens, her... her shapely legs... reaching slowly heavenwards...
PROF. PIERSON
May I help you, Mr. Phillips?
CARL PHILLIPS
I'm sorry, Professor, would you please tell our radio audience exactly what you make of the strange happenings on planet Mars?
PROF. PIERSON
I am not sure, Mr. Phillips. We have observed Martian gas eruptions pointed toward Venus for many years, but this is the first we have seen them shooting towards Earth. They are probably a consequence of corporatist destruction projects in the west, like the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge.
CARL PHILLIPS
By the way, Professor, for the benefit of our listeners, where did you buy your lovely hosiery?
PROF. PIERSON
I’m sorry, Mr. Phillips, would you please move over? I can’t see you when you are directly under my platform.
CARL PHILLIPS
(OFF-MIC) what's that? I see. Excuse me Professor. Ladies and gentlemen, Consolidated Radio News has receive a wire flash bulletin that a series of meteors have landed outside nearby Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Professor Pierson will be en route and we now return you to the Bakelite Room for the music of Ramon Raquello.
(MUSIC “SAMBA DO LOS BANOS”)
CBS ANNOUNCER
This performance of H.G. Welles’ War of the Worlds will continue after a brief intermission. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.
ANNOUNCER
Star announcer Dennis O’Kelly for Aladdin cigarettes.
DENNIS O’KELLY
Hello folks. As a CBS radio announcer, I have to keep my voice box in tiptop condition in case of breaking bulletins. That’s why when I need a smoke, I reach for a pack of Aladdin, the cigarette with the intriguing poppy flavor of the Orient. That rich tobacco taste picks me up and helps me keep my velvet Irish baritone. And don’t forget to try UST&N’s other fine brands of like Fez, Sphinx, Lucky Kentucky, Lady Tarboro, and Okie – the budget brand with a full nickel’s taste in a two-cent pack.
CBS ANNOUNCER
We now return to Orson Welles in Aladdin Radio Theater’s adaption of War of the Worlds.
(MUSIC: FADES)
ANNOUNCER
...what’s that? Just a minute, I… ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt this broadcast and take you now to reporter Carl Phillips, who is on the scene in the small farm town of Grovers Mill, New Jersey, where witnesses have reported several meteors strikes. Ladies and gentlemen, Carl Phillips.
(PAUSE. THEN CROWD NOISES, POLICE SIRENS...)
CARL PHILLIPS
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Carl Phillips again, out of the Wilmuth farm, Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Professor Pierson and myself made the eleven miles from Princeton in ten minutes. Well, I... hardly know where to begin, to paint for you a word picture of the incredible scene before my eyes, as it appears that a button has burst on Professor Pierson’s blouse, revealing… a tantalizing glimpse… of --
(SOUND EFFECTS: SLAP)
CARL PHILLIPS
Ow! Oh, there… yes, over there, I see it. I haven't had a chance to look around yet. I guess that's it. Yes, I guess that's the meteor, directly in front of me, half buried in a vast pit, 30 yards across. With me now is Mr. Elmer Wilmuth, owner of the farm here. Mr. Wilmuth, would you please tell the radio audience as much as you remember of this rather unusual visitor that dropped in your backyard?
MR. WILMUTH
Well, Maw and I was listenin' to the radio on the porch, enjoyin’ the rich country taste of an Okie cigarette, when zingo! The sky just lit up, and blango! I wast plumb knocked clean out of my seat.
(FAINT HUMMING SOUND)
CARL PHILLIPS
Professor Pierson, the object itself doesn't look very much like a meteor, at least not the meteors I've seen. It looks more like a huge cylinder -- long and rigid and throbbing. In your scientific opinion, do feel the urge to touch the cylinder, Professor?
PROF. PIERSON
I’m not sure what you’re driving at Mr. Phillips.
CARL PHILLIPS
Closer to the microphone please.
(CROWD NOISES, SCREAMS, GUNFIRE...)
CARL PHILLIPS
Just a minute! Something's happening! Ladies and gentlemen, this is terrific! This end of the thing is beginning to flake off! It’s glowing red-hot! Mr. Wilmuth is lighting a cigarette on the hull!
VOICES
She's movin'! Look, the darn thing's unscrewing!
(CLANKING SOUND, SHOUT OF AWE FROM THE CROWD)
CARL PHILLIPS
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most terrifying thing I have ever witnessed... Wait a minute! Someone or... something crawling out of the hollow top. I can see two luminous disks . . are they eyes? It might be a face. It might be... Good heavens, something's wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now it's another one, and another one, and another one! They look like tentacles to me…
(CROWD SCREAMS)
CARL PHILLIPS
Oh my word, ladies and gentlemen, some kind of horrible mechano-beasts are rising from the pit, and, and there … it looks as if… two have begun levitating! Spinning like tops in the air and –
(LOUD HUMMING AND SWOOSH)
End of Part one
Aladdin Radio Theater of the Air
CBS, Sunday October 30, 1938
Radioplay First Draft
ANNOUNCER
The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Aladdin Theatre on the Air in "The War of the Worlds" by H. G. Wells. Brought to you Aladdin long-leaf Persian cigarettes, for that rich long-lasting poppy flavor of the Casbah.
(MUSIC: ALADDIN THEATRE MUSICAL THEME, "THE SNAKE CHARMER")
ANNOUNCER
Ladies and gentlemen, the director of the Aladdin Theatre and star of these broadcasts, Orson Welles.
ORSON WELLES
We know now that in the early years of the twentieth century this world was being watched closely by brains much greater than man's, and yet as mortal as his own. We know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns, enjoying the rich, long-lasting poppy flavor of Aladdin, now in a crush-proof box, they were scrutinized and studied -- perhaps as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm in a drop of water, or as a man with a telescope might hungrily study a lovely silhouette disrobe in a nearby apartment.
With infinite complacence the people went to and fro over the earth about their little affairs, some in the roomy liqui-cushioned mohair comfort of the all-new 1939 Kokomo Mogul 8, serene in the assurance of their dominion over this small, spinning flake of delicious celestial Oatabix which man has inherited out of the dark mystery of Time and Space.
Yet across an immense ethereal gulf, as wide as the stance on the new Kokomo Mogul 8, minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle, intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us... waiting... watching...
ANNOUNCER
(FADE IN) ...and bringing a forecast of rain, accompanied by light winds. Maximum temperature, 61. This weather report is brought to you by Lux-o-Lad, the man's pomade with the patented Hollywood sheen. We take you now to the Bakelite Room of the Hotel Zephyr in downtown New York, where you'll be entertained by the music of Ramón Raquello and his orchestra.
(MUSIC: SPANISH THEME SONG ["TANGO DE LOS HUEVOS"]... FADES)
ANNOUNCER TWO
Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of syncopated Latin dance rhythms to bring you a special bulletin from Consolidated Radio News.
At twenty minutes before eight, central time, Professor Farrell of the Chicago Scientific Observatory reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas on the planet Mars. Space-o-scope readings indicate the gas to be methane escaping from a subterranean Martian bowel and moving towards the earth with enormous velocity. Professor Pierson of the Observatory at Princeton confirms Farrell's observation, and describes the phenomenon as, quote, "like a jet of blue flame from milady's favorite, the all-new streamlined Flashpoint brand kitchen range," unquote.
We now return you to the music of Ramón Raquello, playing for you in the Bakelite Room of the Hotel Zephyr in downtown New York.
(MUSIC PLAYS FOR A FEW MOMENTS UNTIL PIECE ENDS... SOUND OF APPLAUSE)
ANNOUNCER THREE
And now a tune that never loses favor, the ever-popular "Cerveza Mi Amor." Ramón Raquello and his orchestra...
(MUSIC)
ANNOUNCER TWO
Ladies and gentlemen, the Government Meteorological Bureau has requested scientists of the country to keep an astronomical watch on any further disturbances occurring on the planet Mars. We are ready now to take you to the Princeton Observatory where Carl Phillips, our commentator, will interview Professor Barbara Pierson, famous astronomer. We take you now to Princeton, New Jersey.
CARL PHILLIPS
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Carl Phillips, speaking to you from the observatory of Princeton. Professor Barbara Pierson stands directly above me on a small grated platform. She is gently grasping and twisting the giant lens, her... her shapely legs... reaching slowly heavenwards...
PROF. PIERSON
May I help you, Mr. Phillips?
CARL PHILLIPS
I'm sorry, Professor, would you please tell our radio audience exactly what you make of the strange happenings on planet Mars?
PROF. PIERSON
I am not sure, Mr. Phillips. We have observed Martian gas eruptions pointed toward Venus for many years, but this is the first we have seen them shooting towards Earth. They are probably a consequence of corporatist destruction projects in the west, like the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge.
CARL PHILLIPS
By the way, Professor, for the benefit of our listeners, where did you buy your lovely hosiery?
PROF. PIERSON
I’m sorry, Mr. Phillips, would you please move over? I can’t see you when you are directly under my platform.
CARL PHILLIPS
(OFF-MIC) what's that? I see. Excuse me Professor. Ladies and gentlemen, Consolidated Radio News has receive a wire flash bulletin that a series of meteors have landed outside nearby Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Professor Pierson will be en route and we now return you to the Bakelite Room for the music of Ramon Raquello.
(MUSIC “SAMBA DO LOS BANOS”)
CBS ANNOUNCER
This performance of H.G. Welles’ War of the Worlds will continue after a brief intermission. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.
ANNOUNCER
Star announcer Dennis O’Kelly for Aladdin cigarettes.
DENNIS O’KELLY
Hello folks. As a CBS radio announcer, I have to keep my voice box in tiptop condition in case of breaking bulletins. That’s why when I need a smoke, I reach for a pack of Aladdin, the cigarette with the intriguing poppy flavor of the Orient. That rich tobacco taste picks me up and helps me keep my velvet Irish baritone. And don’t forget to try UST&N’s other fine brands of like Fez, Sphinx, Lucky Kentucky, Lady Tarboro, and Okie – the budget brand with a full nickel’s taste in a two-cent pack.
CBS ANNOUNCER
We now return to Orson Welles in Aladdin Radio Theater’s adaption of War of the Worlds.
(MUSIC: FADES)
ANNOUNCER
...what’s that? Just a minute, I… ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt this broadcast and take you now to reporter Carl Phillips, who is on the scene in the small farm town of Grovers Mill, New Jersey, where witnesses have reported several meteors strikes. Ladies and gentlemen, Carl Phillips.
(PAUSE. THEN CROWD NOISES, POLICE SIRENS...)
CARL PHILLIPS
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Carl Phillips again, out of the Wilmuth farm, Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Professor Pierson and myself made the eleven miles from Princeton in ten minutes. Well, I... hardly know where to begin, to paint for you a word picture of the incredible scene before my eyes, as it appears that a button has burst on Professor Pierson’s blouse, revealing… a tantalizing glimpse… of --
(SOUND EFFECTS: SLAP)
CARL PHILLIPS
Ow! Oh, there… yes, over there, I see it. I haven't had a chance to look around yet. I guess that's it. Yes, I guess that's the meteor, directly in front of me, half buried in a vast pit, 30 yards across. With me now is Mr. Elmer Wilmuth, owner of the farm here. Mr. Wilmuth, would you please tell the radio audience as much as you remember of this rather unusual visitor that dropped in your backyard?
MR. WILMUTH
Well, Maw and I was listenin' to the radio on the porch, enjoyin’ the rich country taste of an Okie cigarette, when zingo! The sky just lit up, and blango! I wast plumb knocked clean out of my seat.
(FAINT HUMMING SOUND)
CARL PHILLIPS
Professor Pierson, the object itself doesn't look very much like a meteor, at least not the meteors I've seen. It looks more like a huge cylinder -- long and rigid and throbbing. In your scientific opinion, do feel the urge to touch the cylinder, Professor?
PROF. PIERSON
I’m not sure what you’re driving at Mr. Phillips.
CARL PHILLIPS
Closer to the microphone please.
(CROWD NOISES, SCREAMS, GUNFIRE...)
CARL PHILLIPS
Just a minute! Something's happening! Ladies and gentlemen, this is terrific! This end of the thing is beginning to flake off! It’s glowing red-hot! Mr. Wilmuth is lighting a cigarette on the hull!
VOICES
She's movin'! Look, the darn thing's unscrewing!
(CLANKING SOUND, SHOUT OF AWE FROM THE CROWD)
CARL PHILLIPS
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most terrifying thing I have ever witnessed... Wait a minute! Someone or... something crawling out of the hollow top. I can see two luminous disks . . are they eyes? It might be a face. It might be... Good heavens, something's wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now it's another one, and another one, and another one! They look like tentacles to me…
(CROWD SCREAMS)
CARL PHILLIPS
Oh my word, ladies and gentlemen, some kind of horrible mechano-beasts are rising from the pit, and, and there … it looks as if… two have begun levitating! Spinning like tops in the air and –
(LOUD HUMMING AND SWOOSH)
End of Part one