On the night of October 30, 1938, the day before Halloween, millions of Americans tuned into CBS Radio and heard terrifying news: Martians had landed in Grover's Mill, New Jersey. Alien war machines were incinerating the countryside with heat rays. The military was being destroyed. Poisonous gas was spreading toward New York City. Panic erupted across the country. People fled their homes, clogged highways, wrapped their faces in wet towels against the gas, and prepared for the end of the world. Except none of it was real. It was Orson Welles' radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds," and it became the most famous media hoax in American history.

Or did it? For decades, the story of mass hysteria and nationwide panic has been told and retold. But historians now question whether the panic was real or largely invented by newspapers eager to discredit radio, their new competitor. Did millions actually believe Martians were invading, or did a few confused listeners get blown into a mythical mass panic by sensational newspaper headlines the next morning? The truth is more complicated and more interesting than the legend.

Join us as we separate fact from fiction in the "War of the Worlds" broadcast, explore how Orson Welles became famous overnight, examine the actual listener response versus the newspaper-created myth, and discover why this 1938 event still matters in our age of misinformation and media manipulation. It's a story about truth, panic, and how easily a hoax becomes history.

Keywords: War of the Worlds 1938, Orson Welles, radio hoax, War of the Worlds panic, Martian invasion hoax, CBS Radio 1938, mass hysteria, Grover's Mill New Jersey, fake news history, radio broadcast hoax, Orson Welles radio, media panic, Halloween 1938, War of the Worlds broadcast, HG Wells adaptation, radio history