The War of the Worlds (radio drama) relatively few listeners. The one-hour program began with the theme music for the "Mercury Theatre on the Air" and an announcement that the evening's show was an adaption of "The War of the Worlds". This was followed by a prologue read by Orson Welles which was closely based on the opening of H.G. Wells' novel. The next half hour of the broadcast was presented as typical evening of radio programming which was interrupted by a series of news bulletins. The first few bulletins interrupt a program of dance music and describe a series of odd explosions observed on Mars. This
Orson Welles be out of town and sent John Huston to claim the award, thanking the Academy on film. Huston criticized the Academy for awarding Welles, even while they refused to give Welles any work. In 1972, Welles acted as on-screen narrator for the film documentary version of Alvin Toffler's 1970 book "Future Shock". Working again for a British producer, Welles played Long John Silver in director John Hough's "Treasure Island" (1972), an adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, which had been the second story broadcast by "The Mercury Theatre on the Air" in 1938. This was the last time he