On 30 October 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air triggered nationwide hysteria with their version of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, when listeners mistook the radio play for an actual newscast about a Martian invasion.

“Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air in The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells” is about the men and women who put this show together, how they made it ready for the radio audience, and what happened when a simple Halloween broadcast spread panic and fear across an already restless country.