'Dead Air The Night Orson Welles Terrified America' challenges the revisionist view of broadcast with evidence of suicides, heart attacks, and nationwide panic after October 30 1938 Halloween broadcast
CHICAGO, IL, October 29, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ -- It is hard for the twentyfirst century mind to wrap itself around the notion that people believed martians had invaded and were incinerating and gassing humans across the country in 1938. But due to a war scare, a prolonged depression, the incredible growth of the new medium radio, Orson Wells managed to create a coast to coast panic that sent people screaming into churches, theatres and churches that the world had come to an end. The advent of the car radio and CBS affiliates took Welles broadcaset outs of the East Coast and sent it flying across the republic to create a the first viral moment of fake news. And this really was fake news.
William Hazelgroves "Dead Air The Night Orson Welles Terrified America' (Rowman and Littlefield) revisionist take on the broadcast is already garnering rave reviews from the Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and a starred review from Booklist. It would seem during an election year where media is under a constant spotlight as to what is real and what is fake, Orson Welles grand hoax has a new relevancy. On a warm Halloween Eve, October 30, 1938, during a broadcast of H G. Wells' War of the Worlds, a twenty-three-year-old Orson Welles held his hands up for radio silence in the CBS studio in New York City while millions of people ran out into the night screaming, grabbed shotguns, drove off in cars, and hid in basements, attics, or anywhere they could find to get away from Martians intent on exterminating the human race. As Welles held up his hands to his fellow actors, musicians, and sound technicians, he turned six seconds of radio silence—dead air—into absolute horror, changing the way the world would view media forever, and making himself one of the most famous men in America.
William Hazelgrove's 'Dead Air' sheds new light on the eighty sixth anniversary of the broadcast with anecdotal tales of people running for their lives coast to coast. The maritains may not have landed but Welles proved that perceptiion was reality in 1938 and we are learning the same thing today.
William Elliott Hazelgrove is the National Bestselling author of ten novels and twelve narrative nonfiction titles. His books have received starred reviews in Publisher Weekly Kirkus, Booklist, Book of the Month Selections, ALA Editors Choice Awards Junior Library Guild Selections, Literary Guild Selections, History Book Club Selections and optioned for the movies. He was the Ernest Hemingway Writer in Residence where he wrote in the attic of Ernest Hemingway's birthplace. He has written articles and reviews for USA Today, The Smithsonian Magazine, and other publications and has been featured on NPR All Things Considered. The New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, CSPAN, USA Today have all covered his books with features. His books Tobacco Sticks, The Pitcher, Real Santa, and Madam President have been optioned for screen and television rights. His book Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson is currently in development with Starthrower Entertainment. The option on The Pitcher was fully executed when the script was approved. Henry Knox's Noble Train was awarded the Distinguished Book Award by The Colonial Society of America. His latest publications include Morristown The Kidnapping of George Washington. The Brilliant Con of Cassie Chadwick. One Hundred and Sixty Minutes, the Race to Save the Titanic. He has two forthcoming books, The Last Charge of the Rough Rider The Last Days of Teddy Roosevelt and Hemingways Attic, Hell and Glory in Cuba.
Website: http://www.williamhazelgrove.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wehazelgrove
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hazelgrove/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rocketman46
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daRWGT1ySLw
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