George Orson Welles Interviewed By Journalists After The War Of The Worlds Broadcast

Year: 1939, October 31
Director, actor and producer George Orson Welles interviewed by journalists. He talks about his movies and future broadcasts. He apologizes for his broadcast of 'War of the Worlds' on radio, the prior evening, which caused panic among people.

[@zackvanhalen]

This dude knew what he was doing. He just didn't think it would work. Fucking legend.

[@themrproamateur]

For the 1930’s, this is extremely high fidelity

[@JD-jc8gp]

What do you think they were using to film in the 1930s? Potatoes?

[@shut_up_meyer8990]

Orson Welles - the original podcaster...

[@emmageorgia6149]

My type is young Orson Welles

[@MamaGator]

Indeed

[@ameliawagus6248]

Amen

[@crystinamarie1]

I dated a guy that looked like him 🔥

[@richardsiciliano7117]

If you were a farmer somewhere in Iowa, and you turned on the radio about 10 minutes into that program, you would have been pretty freaked out.

[@JokinglySerious]

Astonishing he was only 23/24 here

[@dillantaylor2704]

Not only that but also getting complete creative control when he started Citizen Kane shortly after, which was unheard of at the time. And it was his first film

[@ihk2421]

I’m 18 and people often think I’m 25. I think that hardship to some extent ages people’s faces Orson was orphaned at 15 which probably aged him a great deal. I never went through anything that bad but after a year of great hardship people went from saying I looked young for my age to old. It’s also mannerisms I’d say whereby with older people you pick up their mannerisms yet if you hang out with younger people you pick up their mannerisms.

[@leegreenwood6316]

This man was a very talented man. Broke new ground in every film and broadcast he worked on. Brilliant actor and director.....

[@MacJaxonManOfAction]

Watching this, I find myself strangely wishing that Orson had played Jay Gatsby.

[@garyspence2128]

That's a great call. He would have had to write the script and direct it too. Hollywood might not have gone for that. So poised surrounded by 25 reporters. Just a unique talent...Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil are his masterpieces, and deserve that acclaim.

[@glamellow6296]

anyone else think he's gorgeous?

[@ohaymargsitsyou6515]

OMG YES.

[@michaelknowlesanthony8016]

We are here

[@josephine1465]

He's hella attractive

[@HolgerRuneFan]

He was gorgeous as hell when young. It's a shame he got so enormously fat in his later years.

[@shanellekay8263]

@@HolgerRuneFan why bother to comment just to be rude no need.does it make u feel better insulting someone it cost nothing to be nice

[@doyasteve]

Thanks very much for sharing this.

[@floydfarless8448]

The pause after the Martian question is priceless.

[@AreaCode000]

Whoa! Thanks for putting this on youtube! Where'd you even find this?

[@xDarinGodx]

Love this guy

[@lizriveratoro8729]

He was such an eloquent, ingenious style and intellectual fellow. #GeorgeOrsonWelles a good person. 😊🫶🏼🩷

[@danielhennell3418]

Reporter at 4:30 "Mr. Welles, I was in Europe at the time that Schuschnigg was murdered, and I remember very vividly the time the way that came through the air. I should say that your presentation last night was even more dramatic and more realistic than the way the Vienna radio station did theirs." Not that vividly, evidently. Schuschnigg was not the one who was murdered. It was actually Engelbert Dollfuss who, at the time of his assassination on 25 July 1934, was Chancellor of Austria.

[@Rayoscope]

Upwards of seventy-eight million people heard it. It was shameless, tongue-in-cheek self-promotion. It was manipulative. It was a stroke of pure genius and a huge success!

[@Guitcad1]

He and some of the other people involved also intended it as a wakeup call because they found the credulity of radio audiences more and more disturbing. They wanted to do something to show that "See! We're too eager to believe whatever comes out of these magic boxes!"

[@flannerymonaghan-morris7461]

@@Guitcad1 so he was a troll long before it was a thing…trendsetter in every way.

[@guy_th18]

There were that many radios sold at the time, and they were all tuned in to CBS on that exact 30-min window? I somehow can't believe it.

[@hyperloopbeats]

I am 99% sure it was deliberate and he is acting concerned and worried here but he's not.

[@DavidWilliams-yh2ml]

It wasn't deliberate and it wasn't totally his idea. And they had an intro that explained it was a radio play. Of all Welles' talents, the ability to soak up the spotlight and make a drama out of a crisis was the most public and yet not the most recognized.

[@Guitcad1]

Wow! Suddenly I want to try to begin an English sentence with *_"In_* July... ."

[@DavidWilliams-yh2ml]

Surely you mean 'each July'. C'mon fellas, I wouldn't direct any living actor in Shakespeare this way!

[@acquaintancean1514]

why is he kinda fine

[@CFKane-gf2jf]

He looks so fucking tired aha

[@JohnRyan1776]

It was October 31, 1938, not 1939.

[@IAmIntelligence]

He's pretty cool:-)

[@michaelcharlesthearchangel]

If you like Orson Welles and want to see him back from the dead, check out Reviewbrah and Report of the Week on KZbin.

[@Paul-dw2cl]

@@michaelcharlesthearchangel Hahahaa

[@michaelcharlesthearchangel]

@@Paul-dw2cl 👉 kzbin.info

[@rockabillylaker]

He was 24 in this interview. Why aren't 24 year olds nowadays this articulate?

[@rodrigodelaparra4737]

I doubt you were that articulate at that age, this is Orson Welles we are talking about. He was not then and probably will never be the common denominator of youth. By the way, I'm 27, I don't know if that "aids" to lighten up your bleak view of my generation.

[@rodrigodelaparra4737]

You shouldn't be so quick as to reduce an entire generation under a set of adjetives that probably could only fit a very small fraction of a much larger entity.

[@davidmcginness6718]

Orson Welles was privately educated in an upper class family and was accepted to Harvard and Cornell. If you talk to Harvard kids today they're still extremely eloquent and intelligent. Not to mention back then you needed to be eloquent and a talented orator to make it in radio so it's really not fair to hold him up as the standard. You're basically saying ''why isn't today's generation in general as intelligent as this Harvard calibre person who was a talented enough orator to make it into an extremely competitive field''.

[@maxkraus9614]

Welles was an aristocrat who had been acting in the classical theater since age 10. He wasn't the common man and one cannot hold the common man to his standard of literacy. Furthermore he was a practiced entertainer and radio actor and producer. That sort of role is one that not only demands but requires a powerful and practiced voice.

[@misterwhitman4368]

because they are to busy texting.

[@joshwiddowson1761]

Where did you get this newsreel footage?

[@MarkSeibold]

Doesn't the guy at the right of Welles, [or to Welles immediate left,] appear a lot like George Orwell...? And who also just released his 1984 novel about this time in 1938.

[@MarkSeibold]

Sorry I can't edit here today at this moment. My typo in my first sentence 'tight' s/b 'right'.

[@11Kralle]

@@MarkSeibold 1984 wasn't 'released' in 1938 but (a.f.a.i.k.) in 1948.

[@Guitcad1]

@@MarkSeibold Editing is not the big problem with your comment.

[@Sugarplum2025]

I really think Tom Burke, who played him in Mank, resembles Welles a lot as a younger man.

[@el_barbaroja]

Genio

[@Joshua-mv3mv]

very intresting

[@gladecornelius]

Oh my god!!! I know what review of the week reviewbrah got his influence.

[@gterrymed]

Surrounded by Scribes and Pharisees. 😆 🤣 😂 😹 My grandparents were living in East Orange, New Jersey and playing cards listening to another station when this was going on and woke up to read the headlines the following morning; definitely my mom's parents, Mom was the same way; half the world could blow-up and Mom would be listening to another station and doing dashes metaphorically speaking; God rest their souls, including all the souls in this newsreel. Orson Welles' Genius.

[@MamaGator]

*SWOON*

[@lizziew4741]

not me thinking he’s cute

[@johngraves6878]

Problem: This footage is definitely sped up. Orson's voice is higher and the scribbling is obviously too fast.

[@michaelpowell6805]

Proper troll...naughty but awesome...

[@flannerymonaghan-morris7461]

He looks like Sebastian Stan.

[@crystinamarie1]

😍

[@VerisimilitudeFilms1]

Why is the speed of his voice sped up to sound so high? This is annoying!!!

[@mrhallman64]

Wow the reporter asked about making a law to stop a radio show from making a fiction like War of The Worlds, the listeners must have been so naive.

[@vb8428]

You do realize it's the usual journalist exaggeration to get more news?

[@breto7131]

He has an amazing way with words. Our American Churchill

[@encricoftripp3760]

his name was orson i was him

[@Viewer-ld5rc]

Very high pitched voice.

[@steelyd2]

The tape is sped up. He had a very deep voice, you can hear him in tv interviews later on, you can hear how deep his voice was compared to the reporters asking questions because the tape speeds up a little and causes a chipmunk effect

[@justaguy4real]

Perhaps the public would'nt have acted so freaked out if he didn't radio broadcast it so dramatically, but rather a different story in a calm fashion. This likely was a huge inaccurate consideration when debating public disclosure for the Brookings report. So aggrevating.

[@SFGal9]

This is so fascinating. I just listened/watched the rebroadcast: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYGUg3Z4i5yUrs0si=kMAtAfxxo4nGJxND What would I have done/thought if I were there that night? I just watched this, too: AT&T phone operators who worked that night: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iGOcc4eppK57prMsi=889CwcTmQXmD2Mwd

[@freddylubin]

What's the problem with his voice?

[@MrDanamp]

Yes, it seems like Orson Welles sounds like a very young guy with a higher voice, then he slips into his "theatrical voice" - back and forth.

[@RockPDX]

The mid atlantic accent was popular in radio and tv until just after wwii. Almost anyone will know it immediately when watching some of the popular films from the era, even the radio broadcaster in the war of the worlds uses it. It was an engineered accent made to sound something between british and american. Anyway, i hear a bit of it in his voice, maybe it rubbed off after spending so much time with actors and radio personalities. It was also taught in some colleges and prep schools..en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent

[@turbo6732]

Good call! I've seen/heard this clip before and his voice was not this distorted. It has nothing to do with his youthful age. Listen to an older broadcast of The Shadow. This recording was tampered with, in some way...no doubt.

[@stiffyvokes2404]

Yeah, it's definitely pitched up for part of it, at least.

[@degsbabe]

Hes sounding very contrite, shocked & humble about it all. Deep down I'm sure he was glowing with artistic pride & satisfaction. Showed the true power of radio at the time. Also these were paranoid pre ww2 days.

[@boncawillywonka8626]

3:25 3:33

[@kroosgiro]

He looks like Joshua Jackson

[@michaelknowlesanthony8016]

Professor

[@mahounoahohale-bopp6285]

Is it bad if I say he was kinda cute? 😅

[@makaelaischillin]

Ok but why does he look and kinda sound just like Kyle Rittenhouse. They’re both from Kenosha Wisconsin too.

[@royrowland5763]

Widespread panic was a complete myth, led by yellow journalism in certain papers at the time, and the Mandela effect (false memory after years of being removed from an event) in the aftermath. A ratings survey found that night that only 2% of radio listeners were tuned in to War of the Worlds, while 98% were listening to something else or nothing at all. There was not one, single verified suicide that night that was tied to the radio program. Six NYC hospitals were surveyed six weeks after it aired, and not one of them had a patient brought in for reasons related to the broadcast. Four days after it aired, The Washington Post printed a letter from a reader who was walking the streets of DC and passing by shops with radios playing, and no panic. Chicago Tribune also mentioned nothing about panic in their streets. There were people who probably did freak out, but nowhere to the point of taking lives and on a large scale. It's a myth.

[@ms-tl2io]

one dislike, i will make it two!

[@shavoshaco2402]

The warowl must be his great illegitimate grandson that just be the only explanation...