In 1938, Orson Welles unwittingly panicked the American nation when he convinced millions of listeners on national radio that aliens had landed on Earth and that the end of the world had come.
Two of the most famous April Fool’s pranks that convinced millions of people were performed by Orson Welles in 1938 and the BBC in 1957.
The macaroni trees of Switzerland
On April 1, 1957, the BBC’s Panorama program – with 8 million TV viewers – presented a video of the spring spaghetti harvest in Italy, in a completely believable way.
The three-minute video showed a family in southern Switzerland working in the fields at harvest time and picking… spaghetti from the trees.
In fact, the trees were the familiar ones… spaghetti tree (spaghetti trees) of Italy, which the Swiss farmers had imported and cultivated in their fields.
Spaghetti wasn’t common in Britain at the time, so viewers were led to believe that – for the BBC to show – it was true. For days the BBC’s call center was inundated with calls from viewers asking for advice on how to grow spaghetti!
Martian invasion of Earth
On Halloween night in 1938, Orson Welles (Orson Welles) sowed panic – unwittingly – in the American nation when he convinced millions of listeners on national radio that aliens had landed on Earth and that the end of the world had come.
In fact, Wells was dramatically reading the 19th century science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds. But the way it was presented was so realistic from the production – with extraordinary updates and effects such as sounds of sirens, explosions and screams – that Americans were convinced that Martians had descended on Earth and were destroying the planet.
In fact, a reporter described “live” from the point of impact, a Martian emerging from a large metal cylinder.
“My God, something creeps out of the shadows, like a gray snake. Yes, another one, and another, and another. They look like tentacles …I can make out the body now. It’s big, it’s big like a bear. It glides on like wet skin. But his face, it is…it is…ladies and gentlemen, it is indescribable. I force myself to keep looking at it, it’s awful. The eyes are black and shiny like a snake. The mouth is V-shaped and saliva is dripping from his lips, which seem to tremble and pulsate” he said in a fearful voice.
There was a national panic, with Americans crying and saying goodbye to each other. Unconfirmed information even states that suicides were also recorded that night.
When executives at CBS studios realized what had happened, they told Welles to stop the program and tell listeners that what they had heard was lies, and an excerpt from a science fiction book
Source :Skai
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
