On Day of Election New Book Reveals the Carnage of the First Fake News Broadcast

    CHICAGO, IL, November 05, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ -- It is election day and the American public will have to decipher fact from fiction when they go to the polls and place their votes for the next President of the United States. The same deciphering of fact and fiction occurred on the night of October 30 1938 when Orson Welles fooled the nation into thinking Martians had landed and were incinerating the human race with heat rays and poison gas. The mass panic that produced heart attacks, suicides, accidents, massive displacement, and created a wave of terror from coast to coast has been hidden from history. Bestselling author William Hazelgroves new book Dead Air The Night Orson Welles Terrified America (Rowman and Littlefield) sheds light on this warm Halloween night after researching thousands of newspaper accounts and for the first time reveals the true carnage of the biggest fake news story in the nations history

On a warm Halloween Eve, October 30, 1938, during a broadcast of H G. Wells' War of the Worlds, a twenty-three-year-old Orson Welles held his hands up for radio silence in the CBS studio in New York City while millions of people ran out into the night screaming, grabbed shotguns, drove off in cars, and hid in basements, attics, or anywhere they could find to get away from Martians intent on exterminating the human race. Willliam Elliot Hazelgrove illustrates how Orson Welles' broadcast caused massive panic in the United States, convincing listeners across the nation that the end of the World had arrived and even leading military and government officials to become involved.

The reason for the long deception that has lasted up to the current day with later books playing down the impact of the broadcast is that Orson Welles and CBS had a lot to lose from the millions of people who were decieved into thinkiing it was their last night on earth. The lawsuits and criminal charges could have bankrupted CBS and destroyed Orson Welles career. So from the first new conference put together by CBS to quell any backlash to the latest books on the broadcast there has been an effort to say most people did not believe that Martians had landed and those that did were in New York and New Jersey.

In a time when news stories are being accused of being fake, the biggest fake news story of the last century created a panic in the United States that has never been matched.
So far.

William Elliott Hazelgrove is the National Bestselling author of ten novels and twelve narrative nonfiction titles. His books have received starred reviews in Publisher Weekly Kirkus, Booklist, Book of the Month Selections, ALA Editors Choice Awards Junior Library Guild Selections, Literary Guild Selections, History Book Club Selections and optioned for the movies. He was the Ernest Hemingway Writer in Residence where he wrote in the attic of Ernest Hemingway's birthplace. He has written articles and reviews for USA Today, The Smithsonian Magazine, and other publications and has been featured on NPR All Things Considered. The New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, CSPAN, USA Today have all covered his books with features. His books Tobacco Sticks, The Pitcher, Real Santa, and Madam President have been optioned for screen and television rights. His book Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson is currently in development with Starthrower Entertainment. The option on The Pitcher was fully executed when the script was approved. Henry Knox's Noble Train was awarded the Distinguished Book Award by The Colonial Society of America. His latest publications include Morristown The Kidnapping of George Washington. The Brilliant Con of Cassie Chadwick. One Hundred and Sixty Minutes, the Race to Save the Titanic. He has two forthcoming books, The Last Charge of the Rough Rider The Last Days of Teddy Roosevelt and Hemingways Attic, Hell and Glory in Cuba.

Website: http://www.williamhazelgrove.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wehazelgrove
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hazelgrove/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rocketman46
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daRWGT1ySLw

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