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Fantascience Digest, v. 2, issue 1, Novermber-December 1938
Page 27
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FANTASCIENCE DIGEST Page 27 LOOKING AROUND With Allis Conover Take equal parts of Wells, H.G., and Welles, Orson; add a dash of first-rate acting; season with realism; and mix well. Serve through a microphone, and what is the result? Nation-wide panic, a Federal Investigation, and a distinct increase in the popular appeal of fantasy. Without a doubt the Mars broadcast of a few weeks ago has done more to promote interest in weird and science fiction than any other single event in our history. Orson Welles, guiding genius behind the broadcast, is the new hero of the fantasy world. To him we owe great and sincere thanks. For days after the dramatization of H.G. Wells' forty-year-old "War of the Worlds" created such a sensational scare among the self-assured, down-to-earth, practical-minded scoffers who dialed in that memorable Sunday evening the newspapers and magazines devotes page after page to editorial discussion of Wells Welles, American gullibility, European scorn, and psychology of the radio audience. Cartoonist Yardley of the Baltimore Sun found political significance in the imaginary Martian invasion devoted an entire cartoon block to mock-serious treatment of a possible tie-up between the Martians and Maryland politics, signed his cartoon "Buck Yardley, 2438" At Princeton University, a group of students formed the League for Interplanetary Defense to "arouse the world to the threat of invasions from Mars", wrote and asked Orson Welles to become their leader. In Buffalo N.Y., publicity was given a "Mars Express" --- a land vehicle propelled by rocket blast, costing $16,000 to make. Wide-awake publishers saw a chance to turn the current interest in "super-science" toward profitable lines and began issuing new and often hastily constructed magazines printing various types of science-fiction and weird fantasy. This column predicted in last month's Fantascience Digest an eventual multiplicity of fantasy magazines, but we could not foresee that the bombshell would burst so soon. Today, the original Big Four lead a group consisting of Astounding Science-Fiction Weird Tales Thrilling wonder Stories, Amazing Stories, Dynamic Science-Fiction, Marvel Science Stories Fantastic Adventures Strange Stories and True Mystic Science. The movies have not been slow in either seizing upon the new opportunity. Already man of the older films have been issued in most large cities --- "Frankenstein," "Dracula," "Th Ghost Goes West," "King Kong" "things to Come" etc etc A new York theatre advertized the showing of "Mars Attacks the World" --- "The greatest thrill picture ever produced" --- which was actually a hurriedly edited series of episodes from the exceedingly hammy "Flash Gordon" serial of last seas-
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FANTASCIENCE DIGEST Page 27 LOOKING AROUND With Allis Conover Take equal parts of Wells, H.G., and Welles, Orson; add a dash of first-rate acting; season with realism; and mix well. Serve through a microphone, and what is the result? Nation-wide panic, a Federal Investigation, and a distinct increase in the popular appeal of fantasy. Without a doubt the Mars broadcast of a few weeks ago has done more to promote interest in weird and science fiction than any other single event in our history. Orson Welles, guiding genius behind the broadcast, is the new hero of the fantasy world. To him we owe great and sincere thanks. For days after the dramatization of H.G. Wells' forty-year-old "War of the Worlds" created such a sensational scare among the self-assured, down-to-earth, practical-minded scoffers who dialed in that memorable Sunday evening the newspapers and magazines devotes page after page to editorial discussion of Wells Welles, American gullibility, European scorn, and psychology of the radio audience. Cartoonist Yardley of the Baltimore Sun found political significance in the imaginary Martian invasion devoted an entire cartoon block to mock-serious treatment of a possible tie-up between the Martians and Maryland politics, signed his cartoon "Buck Yardley, 2438" At Princeton University, a group of students formed the League for Interplanetary Defense to "arouse the world to the threat of invasions from Mars", wrote and asked Orson Welles to become their leader. In Buffalo N.Y., publicity was given a "Mars Express" --- a land vehicle propelled by rocket blast, costing $16,000 to make. Wide-awake publishers saw a chance to turn the current interest in "super-science" toward profitable lines and began issuing new and often hastily constructed magazines printing various types of science-fiction and weird fantasy. This column predicted in last month's Fantascience Digest an eventual multiplicity of fantasy magazines, but we could not foresee that the bombshell would burst so soon. Today, the original Big Four lead a group consisting of Astounding Science-Fiction Weird Tales Thrilling wonder Stories, Amazing Stories, Dynamic Science-Fiction, Marvel Science Stories Fantastic Adventures Strange Stories and True Mystic Science. The movies have not been slow in either seizing upon the new opportunity. Already man of the older films have been issued in most large cities --- "Frankenstein," "Dracula," "Th Ghost Goes West," "King Kong" "things to Come" etc etc A new York theatre advertized the showing of "Mars Attacks the World" --- "The greatest thrill picture ever produced" --- which was actually a hurriedly edited series of episodes from the exceedingly hammy "Flash Gordon" serial of last seas-
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