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 28, 1941 – January 22, 1942. Throughout the shooting of the film Welles was also producing a weekly half-hour radio series, "The Orson Welles Show". Many of the "Ambersons" cast participated in the CBS Radio series, which ran September 15, 1941 – February 2, 1942. At RKO's request, Welles worked on an adaptation of Eric Ambler's spy thriller, "Journey into Fear", co-written with Joseph Cotten. In addition to acting in the film, Welles was the producer. Direction was credited to Norman Foster. Welles later said that they were in such a rush that the director of each scene was determined