Relying heavily on a skewed report compiled six weeks after the broadcast by the American Institute of Public Opinion, The Invasion From Mars, by PrincetonвЂ™s Hadley Cantril, estimated that about 1 million people were вЂњfrightenedвЂќ by War of the Worlds. In 1940, an esteemed academic solidified the myth in the public mind.

The legend of the panic, however, grew exponentially over the following years. ( Radiolab played the Chase and Sanborn HourвЂ™s musical interlude for its audience, as if the song itself constituted evidence that people of course switched to WellesвЂ™ broadcast.) The data collected was simply not specific enough for us to know how many listeners might have switched over to Welles-just as we canвЂ™t estimate how many people turned their radios off, or switched from Mercury Theatre on the Air over to NBCвЂ™s Chase and Sanborn Hour either. No scholar, however, has ever isolated or extrapolated an actual number of dial twirlers. вЂњJust at that moment thousands, hundreds, we donвЂ™t how many listeners, started to dial-surf, where they landed on the Mercury Theatre on the Air,вЂќ explained Radiolab this weekend. But the documentaryвЂ™s script goes on to claim that вЂњmillions of listeners began twirling the dialвЂќ when the opening comedy routine on the Chase and Sanborn Hour gave way to a musical interlude.

The new PBS documentary allows that, вЂњof the tens of millions of Americans listening to their radios that Sunday evening, few were tuned to the War of the WorldsвЂќ when it began, due to BergenвЂ™s popularity. WellesвЂ™ program was scheduled against one of the most popular national programs at the time-ventriloquist Edgar BergenвЂ™s Chase and Sanborn Hour, a comedy-variety show. In other words, 98 percent of those surveyed were listening to something else, or nothing at all, on Oct. None said a вЂњnews broadcast,вЂќВ according to a summary published in Broadcasting. Only 2 percent answered a radio вЂњplayвЂќ or вЂњthe Orson Welles program,вЂќ or something similar indicating CBS. вЂњTo what program are you listening?вЂќ the service asked respondents. Hooper ratings service telephoned 5,000 households for its national ratings survey. How do we know? The night the program aired, the C.E. But that was hardly the case.ДЇar fewer people heard the broadcast-and fewer still panicked-than most people believe today. As weeks, months, and years passed, the audienceвЂ™s size swelled to such an extent that you might actually believe most of America was tuned to CBS that night. A curious (but predictable) phenomenon occurred: As the show receded in time and became more infamous, more and more people claimed to have heard it. 31, 1938, the apocryphal apocalypse only grew in the retelling.

From these initial newspaper items on Oct.

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