War of the Worlds reenactment on AboveTopSecret.com: Halloween, 2004.

This is SkepticOverlord, ladies and gentlemen, to assure you that "The War of The Worlds" has no further significance than as the holiday offering it was intended to be. AboveTopSecret.com's own digital version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying Boo! Starting now, we couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tonight... so we did the best next thing. We launched the annihilation the world before your very eyes. You will be relieved, I hope, to learn that we didn't mean it, and that effected areas are open for business. What many have witnessed in chat and several threads, is a homage to one of the most brilliant minds to ever step behind microphone or sit in a director's chair, the esteemed Mr. Orson Wells. Way back in 1938 his Mercury Theater Group radio play shocked the world, even though the event was broadcast in the typical time slot and lasted the typical length of a weekly scheduled entertainment show. Imagine what it may have been like in that era where only the radio and newspaper was your link to the external world. And imagine what a brilliant mind like that of Mr. Wells might accomplish with a communication tool such as the Internet. We can only hope such minds are waiting in the wings to inspire us all. While many may be upset at this "hoax", we've been obviously careful to make it easy to discover, and stopped short of the death and destruction of the original script. A sampling of some of the board threads involved: Police Radio Transmission Fireball Seen Over Andrews AFB Unknown Material (reporter Lansing) Could this be a reason for the flurry of Military? And get Your Camera's out! Clicking time! Unusual activity in Ohio WHAT'S GOING ON?! Choppers in Canada heading south! NEWS SUPRESSED Orionids and Leonids Behind Strange Activity? What is going on? 21 Space Command at Onizuka AFB On Alert? Choppers In the Sky! I doubt we'll make any headlines. Many of our staff can be thanked for this event, I was merely a ring-leader (if that), as several other members and staff stepped in to make this a memorable event. Dozens of members discovered our plan early, and stood back with wry grin as our attempt at a "digital play" took shape on the board and in chat. So goodbye everybody, and remember please, for the next day or so, the terrible lesson you learned today. That grinning, glowing, digital invader of your home is today an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody's there, that was no alien invader... it's Halloween. [edit on 31-10-2004 by SkepticOverlord]

knew it. Too many coincidences.

Booo!

Fun line of events, and




You totally busted the chat record!

[edit on 10/31/2004 by QuietSoul]

dam, it was good!

I'm a little ashamed I did not play along when I understood the hoax.

greate...nice reading...screenwriters?

*stands up and slowly starts clapping* I must say you really took me. It was one of my best nights on ATS last night. Everyone in chat trying to figure this outm, talking about it, etc.


Again I am not to glad that you would do something like this. But you did if for Orson Wells and that my friends is a good thing!

nice one

It funny the mention of some slight proof can send us all into madness

Look forward to the next one

Just one question, where did the pictures come from?

Applause all around for the players!

I noted in Mainer's thread that I had always wondered what it would have been like to have heard the actual "War of Worlds" broadcast. Would I believe it - what would I have done?

Well to be honest - I speculated, I believed, I doubted, but most of all, I wanted to know more - all in the course of a couple of days. What a ride!

Kudos to all of you involved.

That was good. And if we learned anything its that the ATS servers have a limit.

Damn! I just finished laying mines in my front yard

Excellent, cant wait for the disclaimers!

I was just about to ask someone who the ATSNN Editor-in-Chief was.
So I could ask that person why this was not a Breaking News story on ATSNN.

I knew it! Good job people. You really had a lot of people going. Hope nobody got too upset.

After all mods are people too. And they can't in any way be responsible for our reactions to an anonymous internet source on halloween!

We all WANT to believe. Its why were here at ATS, but we should be careful about being too gullible.



fixed link

[edit on 10/31/2004 by Gools]

I'll be expecting an Oscar nomination for my role in this play!

It was all done in the name of fun and to honor the historic broadcast of the original War Of the Worlds... and to capture the feelings that so many felt back in 1938!

Kudos to all involved!!

Now where is my Oscar?

Gazz

[edit on 31-10-2004 by UM_Gazz]

Originally posted by flashburn
Damn! I just finished laying mines in my front yard

ROFL!!!

It was fun... it really was. It was even more fun when someone would say "awww.. that's a hoax!" and the rest of us would run in and yell "No! Black Helicopters are landing on our lawns!!!"

I'm sure something equally silly will happen on April Fool's... and who knows WHAT will happen with the Santa Claus watch..,

Martians, anybody?

Originally posted by A Random Person
Just one question, where did the pictures come from?

Well, Orsons were apparently Photoshopped, and I got mine on Google, which was a mistake since somebody found one of them.

Very interesting "experiment" it was indeed!

great!!!
thanks a lot for top entertainment evening!
by the way -it so easy to fall into this kind of trap- is'n it the same what our media are doing right now with the terrorist threats???

My favorite part was when Willmuth would talk about the helechoppers...

LMAO...I almost wet myself everytime he said that.

pfffffft

Removed my post because all the o's went missing and I dont feel like editing it.

[edit on 10/31/2004 by QuietSoul]

[qute]riginally psted by Quietul
knew it. T many cincidences.

B!

Fun line f events, and




Yu ttally busted the chat recrd!

[edit n 10/31/2004 by Quietul] [/qute]

I feel special because my name is n the list in the screencap. *warm fuzzies*

...Is it just me, r are vwels disappearing?