1938 War of the Worlds

I am posting this thread on the evening of 10/29/2011, which means it will be the 73rd anniversary of the famous Mercury Theatre broadcast tomorrow night. Many of you have heard this no doubt but I am offering something a bit different here.
first things first - I apologise for the rush job here, I will add it officially to my webpage tomorrow. No time to play with the PHP right now.
Background information - Edgar Bergen had much bigger ratings going into that night (no idea how Orson's stunt changed that) and a significantly larger portion of the radio audience.
Many people started with Edgar & Charlie then checked out Orson's broadcast around the 30 minute mark when Nelson Eddie started to sing Opera with the intention of tuning back for the next comedy bit. Of course the War of the Worlds sucked them in and they stayed.
This is an attempt to recreate what that sounded like; pardon the crude transition which is around the 30 minute.
I will also post both shows in full tomorrow so they can be heard fully in their own rights. Out of time tonight.
direct link for now is right here (Ogg-Vorbis/59 minutes/20.2 MB ) - will give the link to the webpage when it is uploaded.

 

I couldn't get the file open, Speed_Gibson.
It's a shame, I'd've like to have heard it in its entirety.

 

I will look at it and make sure - worked for me on my test try. Opera plays Ogg-Vorbis in the browser and makes those tests quite convenient.

edit: just tried in Firefox which had not seen the link yet and it downloaded damn fast (thanks Time Warner) and played fine.
Uploading the full separate War of the Worlds now and then will do the same for the Edgar Bergen show.

 

I can download the link in Firefox just fine, but Windows Media Player doesn't play it.

 

that would be the ogg-vorbis codec causing you problems. It is not installed by default in that player.
I can personally vouch that this works as I just did it on this machine and WMP played the ogg-vorbis file just fine -
download the direct show filter and install it. No reboot should be needed. My biggest problem with the whole process was finding Windows Media Player in the first place. Took me a good five minutes just to find THAT exe file. I would advise installing this in any event as many sites out there offer Ogg-Vorbis and excluding WMP from playing those files can be a hinderance.
Thank you pointing out that to me and more importantly finally giving me good cause to try installing and testing the filter myself - the website will be updated accordingly.

Finally uploading the full separate shows now and updating the webpage. Other things took priority today. Also get to mention that direct show filter and tell people how to get Ogg-Vorbis working in WMP.

 

Sorry about the delay but all of the files are uploaded and tested (in WMP even).
The page to read my description and get them for anyone interested is here at the usual spot freshly updated.

 

Thanks for posting the codec, Speed_Gibson. Works like a charm now.

A few statements and questions:
That Bergen fella was hilarious. (his daughter was hella hot, too)
"I..I think I love you, Steve." (funny)
I really dig Nelson Eddy's singing.
Orson's voice was awesome.
How widespread was this broadcast?
I can only imagine the suspense people were put through while listening to the original airing.
Even knowing it was coming, it was very suspenseful trying to prepare myself for the exact moment. Really gripping.
Were there any casualties/injuries from panicky people listening to the airing?

How did you get into these old broadcasts, Speed?

I'll check out your site later today. Thanks for posting this, and the link to your site.

 

Edgar Bergen is one of my all-time favourite entertainers. He splits his performances so seamlessly between himself and that piece of wood on his knee that takes on a delightfully roguish personality through him. I have a clip somewhere in my collection (or might have just heard it hard to say now) where he has himself, Charlie, and Mortimer Snerd (the village idiot character) onstage at the same time - he does a damn fine with all three voices and separate lines where he is basically reading the script by himself.

Orson Welles was incredible. There is the story recounted in the book for the CD set from Radio Spirits for the 1937 Les Miserable radio performances about his talent multiple voices and I am quoting here "....but an anecdote from Welles's childhood provides an early an early example of this talent. While attending the Todd School for boys in Woodstock Illinois, he participated in an interscholastic competition of the production of Julius Caesar. His school was disqualified from the competition because the rules prohibited participation by individuals who were not students and the Todd School production had clearly two professionals and one adult. Only after investigation was it determined that the two "professionals" and "adult" were none other than one 13 year old Orson Welles." (Written by Michael Dawson)

Nelson Eddy is better known for his perfomance with Jeanette MacDonald, and yes his voice was something else. Seemed a shame to cut that off in the middle of his Opera piece but I was going for the historical recreation there, as I never have heard such a thing before.

 

I love Welles, and I especially love his radio work. When I was in Campus Radio, inspired by Welles, we wrote and produced a few radio plays. I can also remember finding one his spoken word albums in the stacks. I would bits from it on my over night show.

I first heard War of the Worlds in my grade 7 homeroom. I thought it was the coolest... still do.

 

I wish they would bring back old-timey radio shows. The style of them, I mean.

 

One important element that many recent attempts at recreation fall short is the microphone. Using an monaural microphone gives you better results than a modern stereo microphone. There was no stereo back then and it makes a big difference.
To name just one example why this matters: on Gunsmoke they had soundmen run/trot by the microphone while beating coconuts on vest they were wearing. This did a superb job of making a horse trotting/galloping by the listener. The sound has a very good transition as they approach and pass (could find audio samples if I took the time, I have an extensive collection of Gunsmoke) that stereo would not deliver as well.