A. Brad Schwartz

A. Brad Schwartz

 

A. Brad Schwartz is the author of Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles's War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he cowrote a 2013 episode of the PBS series "American Experience" on the War of the Worlds broadcast. Photo by Gary Shrewsbury.

Ralphie from A Christmas Story gets his decoder ring from Little Orphan Annie.

American Children Faced Great Dangers in the 1930s, None Greater Than “Little Orphan Annie”

Advertisements for Ovaltine were just part of the problem

Orson Welles (arms raised) rehearses his radio depiction of H.G. Wells' classic, The War of the Worlds. The broadcast, which aired on October 30, 1938, and claimed that aliens from Mars had invaded New Jersey, terrified thousands of Americans.

The Infamous "War of the Worlds" Radio Broadcast Was a Magnificent Fluke

Orson Welles and his colleagues scrambled to pull together the show; they ended up writing pop culture history

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