Mr. Welles is using an RCA Type SK-50 Varacoustic Ribbon Microphone. On October 30, 1938, he directed the Mercury Theatre on the Air in
a dramatization of “War of the Worlds,” based on the H. G. Wells novel.
Welles set the events in then-contemporary locations (the landing spot
for the Martian invasion, Grover’s Mill, New Jersey, was chosen at
random with a New Jersey road map) and dramatized it in the style of a
musical program interrupted by news bulletins, complete with eye-witness
accounts.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to
bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News. At
twenty minutes before eight, central time, Professor Farrell of the
Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several
explosions of incandescent gas, occurring at regular intervals on the
planet Mars…”
