Orson Welles frightened everybody today in 1938 when he produced and starred in a radio play based on H G Wells' The War of the Worlds. Even though the item was given plenty of publicity as fiction in advance, thousands of New Yorkers panicked and jammed roads and subways trying to leave the cities before the Martians arrived.
The knock-on effect was that when the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, announced that we were at war with Germany ten months later, everybody assumed it was a hoax and did nothing.
In other news ...
The first television personality appeared on the screen today at the workshop of John Logie Baird in 1925. His name was William Taynton and the show was called Britain's Got Taynton.
Showing posts with label Orson Welles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orson Welles. Show all posts
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Sunday, 22 January 2012
23rd January
Wasn't the Cold War great? Anybody under thirty must be totally bewildered by spies coming in from the cold. They've had to create ever more unlikely baddies for James Bond to fight because the 'evil empire' is no more. Today in 1963, Kim Philby, the 'third man' disappeared in Beirut. He was the 'third man' because the 'first man' was Guy Burgess and the 'second man' was Donald Maclean (I hope you're following this because I will be asking questions later). MI5 was full of men, mostly recruited from Cambridge and often leaning to the left.
Personally, I thought Orson Welles' version of Philby was near perfect and what he could do with a zither could make your eyes water. Or have I got that wrong? These spies are very tricky people, as I am sure you know.
In other news ..
There are some things you just shouldn't promise. Especially of you can't deliver; every parent who has ever let their attention wander as Christmas approaches knows this. Sometimes broken promises are bigger than those involving a newbikeanahamsteranatigerarealtigernotatoyonelikelastyearanda ... we've all broken that one or something like it, usually inadvertently, but take as cases in point Marshal Ney, who promised to bring Napoleon back to Paris in a cage; in fact, he defected to him. Adolf Hitler promised not to invade any more countries just before he went into the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia etc etc. But the most spectacular of all was Salvador Dali, the surrealist painter. 'Geniuses don't die,' he said. 'I'm going to live forever.' Except he didn't, dying today in 1989.
Who knew?
Personally, I thought Orson Welles' version of Philby was near perfect and what he could do with a zither could make your eyes water. Or have I got that wrong? These spies are very tricky people, as I am sure you know.
In other news ..
There are some things you just shouldn't promise. Especially of you can't deliver; every parent who has ever let their attention wander as Christmas approaches knows this. Sometimes broken promises are bigger than those involving a newbikeanahamsteranatigerarealtigernotatoyonelikelastyearanda ... we've all broken that one or something like it, usually inadvertently, but take as cases in point Marshal Ney, who promised to bring Napoleon back to Paris in a cage; in fact, he defected to him. Adolf Hitler promised not to invade any more countries just before he went into the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia etc etc. But the most spectacular of all was Salvador Dali, the surrealist painter. 'Geniuses don't die,' he said. 'I'm going to live forever.' Except he didn't, dying today in 1989.
Who knew?
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