Happy Birthday Orson Welles, legendary actor, genius film-maker, and real life mad magician. He masterfully scared the living shit out of most of America into thinking Mars was invading Earth on Oct 30th 1938, as he directed the Mercury Theatre On the Air radio dramatization of H.G. Wells' novel "War of the Worlds.” Born this day in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1915.
WE LISTEN TO THE OLD WAR OF THE WORLD TAPE EVERY HALLOWEEN, IT'S INCREDIBLE.
ReplyDeleteHAPPY BDAY ORSON!!
I'm such a Welles freak that I was torn between posting about him and Jack Pierce's birthdays... ultimately I decided on Welles as surely there would be better tributes for Pierce over at Frankensteinia:
ReplyDeletehttp://frankensteinia.blogspot.com/
also, the Drunken Severed Head blog:
http://drunkenseveredhead.blogspot.com/2008/05/happy-birthday-jack-pierce.html
saw this cool piece of trivia on imdb:
ReplyDeleteH.G. Wells was driving through San Antonio, Texas and stopped to ask the way. The person he happened to ask was none other than Orson Welles who had recently broadcast "The War of the Worlds" on the radio. They got on well and spent the day together.
I actually have a recording of the original broadcast complete with the breaks/commercials,it's amazing how many times the fact that it WAS a fictional broadcast is stated;yet it still fooled everyone.guess that's just a testament to great writing and acting!.Rosebud!.
ReplyDelete>guess that's just a testament to great writing and acting!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think that too, but you know it's more a testament to how stupid most of America was back then...
"I ain't skeered'a no mar'shins..."