The War of the Worlds (radio drama) leading to an outcry against the broadcasters and calls for regulation by the Federal Communications Commission. Nevertheless, the episode secured Welles's fame as a dramatist. "The War of the Worlds" was the 17th episode of the CBS Radio series "The Mercury Theatre on the Air," which was broadcast at 8 pm ET on Sunday, October 30, 1938. H. G. Wells' original novel tells the story of a Martian invasion of Earth. The novel was adapted for radio by Howard Koch, who changed the primary setting from 19th-century England to the contemporary United States, with the landing point of the first
Orson Welles about Welles—"Cartoonist, Actor, Poet and only 10"—in the February 19, 1926, issue of "The Capital Times". The article falsely states that he was descended from "Gideon Welles, who was a member of President Lincoln's cabinet". As presented by Charles Higham in a genealogical chart that introduces his 1985 biography of Welles, Orson Welles's father was Richard Head Welles (born Wells), son of Richard Jones Wells, son of Henry Hill Wells (who had an uncle named Gideon "Wells"), son of William Hill Wells, son of Richard Wells (1734–1801). Peter Noble's 1956 biography describes Welles as "a magnificent figure of a man,