HG Wells War of the Worlds Original air 1938 was the 17th Episode of the CBS Radio Series The Movie 1953 This film had a budget of $2,000,000. Of that sum, $600,000 (30%) was spent on the live action scenes while $1,400,000 (70%) was spent on the extensive and elaborate special effects. The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialized in 1897 by Pearson's Magazine in the UK The novel's first appearance in hardcover was in 1898 from publisher William Heinemann of London. Written between 1895 and 1897,[2] it is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. The War of the Worlds has been both popular (having never been out of print) and influential, spawning half a dozen feature films, radio dramas, a record album, various comic book adaptations, a television series, and sequels or parallel stories by other authors. It was most memorably dramatized in a 1938 radio program that allegedly caused public panic among listeners who did not know the Martian invasion was fictional. The novel has even influenced the work of scientists, notably Robert H. Goddard, who, inspired by the book, invented both the liquid fuelled rocket and multistage rocket, which resulted in the Apollo 11 Moon landing 71 years later In 1895 Wells was an established writer and he married his second wife, Catherine Robbins, moving with her to the town of Woking in Surrey. Here he spent his mornings walking or cycling in the surrounding countryside, and his afternoons writing. The original idea for The War of the Worlds came from his brother during one of these walks, pondering on what it might be like if alien beings were suddenly to descend on the scene and start attacking its inhabitants ***The Broadcast**** The broadcast tapped into the anxiety of the time. Just ahead of World War II, much of the world was nearly -- or already -- at war when the program aired. The Munich summit -- at which Western powers allowed Germany to take over German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia -- had concluded a month before, and the tension was still palpable. Japan, controlled by militarists, was plundering China. And fascist Italy had overrun Ethiopia. Radio and newspapers were slugging it out for market share throughout the 1930s. They had plenty of news fodder, including stories on the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and the Hindenburg disaster. Schwartz said that by 1938, radio and the print media had reached a detente, particularly by the time of the Munich diplomatic crisis a month earlier. "Newspapers had started affiliating with radio stations," he said. "They realized they couldn't outrun this new competitor, so they figured if you can't beat them, join them. If you read the editorials after the broadcast, they are more critical of the listeners than radio." FDR's stamp of approval By 1938, radio had created for itself an aura of authority. President Franklin Roosevelt was using the medium for his "Fireside Chats," in which he would talk to the American people about the issues of the day. Roosevelt recognized the power of the medium to engage the listener. "People treated those 'Fireside Chats' as a visit from the president into their living room," said Schwartz. "They perceived this as a direct personal relationship with the president." A radio in every home In 1935, there were twice as many radios in American households as telephones. By 1939, there were 63,794 radio stations operating in the United States, broadcasting to about 27 million families who owned radio sets. The landing spot As writer Howard Koch was working on the script, it occurred to him that the story was going to include a pitched battle between Martians and the people of Earth. While traveling through New Jersey, he stopped at a gasoline station and bought a map. When he got home in Manhattan, he laid out the map, closed his eyes, and placed his pencil where the battle would take place -- Grover's Mill in central New Jersey. Why New Jersey? Schwartz believes New Jersey was "invaded" because that part of the country was where a great deal of the population and media were at that time. "So much of the show centered in and around New York City, and New Jersey was the outlying place for that," he said. "That's why the Hindenburg was landing where it was (Lakehurst, New Jersey) -- because that was the closest airstrip to New York City." Fearing the possibility of panic,The Mercury Theatre on the Air troupe began the program with a statement that said the following program was fiction. The disclaimer was repeated at the 40- and 55-minute mark of the program, and at the end of the broadcast. Even so, the radio station was flooded with phone calls during and after the broadcast. There was no commercial interruption during the broadcast, adding to the authenticity of breaking news. There was no commercial interruption because the program did not have a sponsor. A sponsored broadcast would have had a commercial break a half-hour into the program. Welles also had longer intervals of music added to the broadcast to raise the suspense. At the beginning of the broadcast, during Welles' narration, he says, "In the 39th year of the 20th century came the great disillusionment. It was near the end of October. Business was better. The war scare was over. More men were back at work." This was an indication that the show, broadcast in 1938, was not occurring in real time. The voice of the secretary, who describes efforts to combat the Martians, is that of Kenneth Delmar, an actor who did a spot-on Northeastern aristocratic accent that strongly suggested the voice of President Roosevelt. In 1938, the networks prohibited radio programs from impersonating the president so as not to mislead listeners. ***The Movie Props**** The Martian war machines were originally going to be walking tripods as they were depicted in H.G. Wells' novel, but George Pal didn't know how a tripod would walk and instead went with the flying machines. The Martian war machines had about twenty wires running to each one. Some were for suspension and maneuvering, while others carried power to the various lights and mechanisms. This was produced before there were lightweight circuits and sophisticated radio controls. George Pal initially planned to portray the Martians and their fighting machines similarly to how they appear in the original novel. However, after being informed by a United States Army technical adviser that the Tripods, as they are portrayed in the 1897 novel, would pose no real threat to a 1950s era human military, he opted to change the fighting machines. Namely, Pal chose to introduce the atom bomb-resistant deflector shields. None of the original Martian war machines exist today. They were made out of copper, and after production, they were reportedly donated to a Boy Scout copper drive. The sound effects of the Martian war machines' heat ray were created from three electric guitars played backward. The sound of the Martian screaming after Forrester hit it was a mixture of a microphone scraping along dry ice and a woman's scream played backward. The former set of sound effects became widely used stock sound effects after the film was released. They are still in use. *****THE TIME MACHINE****** The Time Machine is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895 and written as a frame narrative Movie made in 1960 Budget $850,000 USD Box Office 2.61 Million When the Time Traveler stops in 1966, in the front window of Filby's Department store there is a very brief shot of a display featuring "the latest tubeless TV". It looks remarkably like a modern flat-panel computer monitor. Alan Young (David Filby/James Filby) is the only actor to appear in both this film and the remake, The Time Machine (2002). The plaque on the control panel of the time machine reads "Manufactured by H. George Wells," that is, H.G. Wells, author of the source novel. The globe in the background when George is listening to the information rings was used in Forbidden Planet (1956) as the navigation sphere. The film takes place on December 31, 1899, on January 5, 1900, on September 13, 1917, on June 19, 1940, on August 19, 1966 and in October 802,701. The shape of the time machine itself was inspired by one of George Pal's favorite types of childhood vehicles--a sled. This is the reason for the sled-like design of the machine, so that it could "slide" into time. The original time machine was sold at the MGM studio auction in 1971, the same auction that originally sold the Ruby Slippers (see trivia for The Wizard of Oz (1939)). The winner of the auction was the owner of a traveling show. Five years later the prop was found in a thrift store in Orange, CA. Film historian Bob Burns purchased it for $1,000. Using blueprints his friend George Pal had given him years earlier, he and a crew of friends restored it. The restoration crew included D.C. Fontana script consultant and writer on Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) and Michael Minor art director on Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Please see When George arrives in the year 802701 his time machine reads the date of October 12th. So George arrives into a "New World" on the anniversary of Columbus' first reaching the "New World" of the Americas. The time machine appears in the inventor's convention scene in Gremlins. The time machine was used on the TV show The Big Bang Theory (2007). There are exactly 365 rivets on the disk of the time machine. It makes sense considering that there's 365 days in a year. *****20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ****** Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus, as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax after he, his servant Conseil, and Canadian whaler Ned Land wash up on their ship. On the Nautilus, the three embark on a journey which has them going all around the world, under the sea. Budget 5 million USD It made 28.2 Million in Box Office 1916 silent film then remade again in 1954 The actual undersea footage was shot in the Bahamas in the same location that was used for the silent 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916). Actors portraying the cannibals chasing Ned Land painted humorous messages on their foreheads (not legible on-screen). In particular, one actor wrote "Eat at Joe's" while another actor behind him wrote "I ate Joe". Peter Lorre claimed that the giant squid got the role that was usually reserved for him. This production was so large that Disney had to use facilities at other studios. This included Universal International (exterior sets redressed for the opening scenes) and 20th Century Fox (large exterior tank for the larger models). This was the first new full-length Disney film released by Buena Vista, Disney's new in-house distributor. Previous Disney films had been released by RKO, and re-releases of old Disney films were handled by Buena Vista from 1954 onwards. Walt Disney originally considered making this film as an animated feature; the detailed pre-production sketches by artist Harper Goff, as well as Goff's enthusiastic suggestion that it be done as live action feature, convinced him otherwise. When the "Nautilus" rams a ship and we see how it sinks down through the water, some of the bubble-streams are animated to hide the wires that support the ship-model. One of the models of the Nautilus created by Harper Goff was a "squeezed" version which could be filmed with a standard lens and still look normal when projected in Cinemascope. In addition to his many contributions as the production designer, Harper Goff also taught Kirk Douglas to play the guitar for the "Whale of a Tale" number. Sections of the film were photographed on location in Jamaica and the Bahamas, by director Richard Fleischer and a crew of over 400 technicians. No fishing boat would (or will) carry bananas, considered bad luck by deep water fishermen. Gregory Peck auditioned for the role of Captain Nemo. Kirk Douglas's salary was $175,000., the most that Walt Disney had paid to any actor at that stage. Rura Penthe is also the name of the prison planet in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). Although Nemo dies in this movie, his fate was left unknown in the original Jules Verne novel, and he reappeared in the sequel, Mysterious Island. *****The forbidden planet Pictures ****** 1956 Budget, $1,968,000. Box office, $2,765,000. FORBIDDEN PLANET WAS HOLLYWOOD'S FIRST TIME GOING COMPLETELY OUT OF THIS WORLD. While plenty of previous science fiction films had earthlings exploring other worlds, Forbidden Planet was the first film to be set entirely on a foreign planet THE SOUNDTRACK WAS GROUNDBREAKING. Forbidden Planet was the first movie to have an entirely electronic score; it was composed by Bebe and Louis Barron, who were pioneers in the field of electronic music ROBBY THE ROBOT WAS RELATED TO WASHING MACHINES. ROBERT KINOSHITA DESIGNED ANOTHER ICONIC ROBOT. That electronic entity being, of course, The Robot from the '60s sci-fi series Lost In Space. While their design was somewhat different, the two cybernetic companions shared a similar "talk box," a display that lit up in tandem with the rhythm of their speech. Robby actually guest starred on three episodes of Lost In Space. SIGMUND FREUD WAS AN INSPIRATION FOR THE STORY. SPOILER ALERT for this fact: There is a reference to one third of Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche, the Id, the part of the unconscious mind that represents our primal needs and desires. THE NARRATOR MENTORED CAPTAIN MARVEL. FORBIDDEN PLANET REFLECTED THE SEXISM OF THE TIME. DISNEY PLAYED A PART IN FORBIDDEN PLANET’S VISUAL EFFECTS. THE FILM INFLUENCED SEVERAL ICONIC SCI-FI FRANCHISES.- some influence on Star Trek, particularly the transporter room effect that was likely inspired by the statis chambers used for light jumps in the film. --The movie also inspired the four-part Doctor Who tale "Planet of Evil" from 1975, --tractor beam generator in Star Wars looks like part of the Krell machine network, while a hologram sequence is reminiscent of the message Princess Leia sends to Obi-Wan Kenobi via R2-D2. Star Wars ******The Day The Earth Stood Still Pictures ***** 1951 Budget 995,000 Box Office 1.85 Million To give the appearance of seamlessness to the space ship, the crack around the door was filled with putty, then painted over. When the door opened the putty was torn apart, making the door seem to simply appear. In the original short story on which the screenplay is loosely based, the robot, Gort, was the master. Klaatu was merely one of a series of doubles, or maybe clones, that died after a short time. The phrase "Klaatu barada nikto" has become a popular phrase among sci-fi fans over the years and has been featured in other movies, such as Army of Darkness (1992). The line was also used in an episode of "The Rockford Files". Jim Rockford says it to a huge henchman of the episode's "bad guy". The Army refused to cooperate after reading the script. The studio then approached the National Guard, which had no qualms about seeing the Army depicted in a less-than-flattering light, and gladly offered their cooperation. The spaceship was made of wood, wire and plaster of Paris. The screenplay was based on the story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates. It was originally published in the pulp magazine "Astounding Science-Fiction." To depict the seamless closing of the ship and its ramp, they just reversed the film of the shot of the ship's ramp and door appearing. Harry Bates was paid a mere $500 by 20th Century-Fox for the rights to his short story "Farewell to the Master". This was the second big budget science fiction feature film to be released by a major American studio since Just Imagine (1930). The first was RKO's The Thing from Another World, which was released about three months earlier. Robert Wise was attracted to the project because of its overt anti-military stance and also because he believed in UFOs. In the original story, "Farewell to the Master", the robot's name was Gnut, not Gort. The crowds were made up of local government employees, including some from the FBI offices, who were asked to participate in the film. No releases were required of employees. The film takes place in July 1951. The cover of Ringo Starr's 1974 album "Goodnight Vienna" features Ringo and Gort. The drawbridge shown in the up position when the electricity has been neutralized is a photo of the 1929-1980's Greenpoint Avenue Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens, NY. Human fatalities: Two (the soldiers guarding Gort).