The acclaimed nonfiction book Dead Air: The Night Orson Welles Terrified America by William Elliott Hazelgrove is now available as an audiobook, offering listeners a new way to experience the story of one of the most infamous broadcasts in American history.
The book revisits October 30, 1938, when a 23-year-old Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre on the Air performed an adaptation of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds. The program was designed to mimic a typical radio show interrupted by urgent news bulletins, reporting that alien invaders had landed in rural New Jersey. The broadcast caused widespread panic, with many listeners believing the fictional reports were real.
Hazelgrove's narrative separates the myths from the facts, capturing the era when radio was the dominant medium, possessing an immediacy and authority that is hard to imagine today. The audiobook format is particularly fitting, as the story is fundamentally about the power of the spoken word and its ability to convince millions of people that something fictitious was true.
“Radio was the internet of 1938,” Hazelgrove said. “It was immediate, intimate, and trusted. Orson Welles understood the power of the medium, and on that October night he demonstrated just how powerful it could be.”
Dead Air has received national attention, with coverage from The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, Air Mail, and WYSO's The Book Nook. The audiobook edition is now available for listeners.
William Elliott Hazelgrove is a national bestselling author of more than 25 books of fiction and narrative nonfiction, focusing on dramatic and often overlooked moments in American history. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, NPR, C-SPAN, and other national media outlets.
