Reports of a gas attack spread so quickly in New Jersey because of the broadcast that doctors and nurses offered their services and hospitals treated many people for ╥shock.╙
A man burst into a cinema at Orange, New Jersey, shouting warnings. The entire audience leapt to its feet and the cinema emptied within a few minutes. Panic evacuations were also reported in some sections around the New York area. In some cases people told the police and newspapers that they had seen the ╥invasion.╙
In parts of Atlanta, Georgia, the inhabitants thought the end of the world had arrived. A man ran into an Indianapolis church screaming, ╥New York is destroyed. It╒s the end of the world. We might as well go home to die. I╒ve just heard it on the radio.╙ The service was immediately stopped and the congregation dismissed.
Mr. Jacques Chambrun, Mr. H. G. Wells╒s representative here, stated to-day that Mr. Wells was ╥deeply concerned╙ that last night╒s wireless dramatisation of his book should have caused such alarm.
Mr. Chambrun said that Mr. Wells had cabled to him declaring that the ╥Columbia Broadcasting System and Mr. Orson Welles have far overstepped their rights in the matter╔ and should make a full retraction.╙ Mr. Wells added that the dramatisation was made ╥with a liberty that amounts to complete rewriting and made the novel an entirely different story.╙ The author considered this ╥totally unwarranted,╙ Mr. Chambrun said.
To-day nerves are steadier and it is recalled that in England some years ago there was a similar reaction, though not such a violent one, to the famous ╥spoof broadcast╙ by Father Ronald Knox. Many listeners took his parodied description of a riot in London seriously.
