Class Notes

The Oct. 27, 2013, issue of Parade magazine asked if Orson Welles’ 1938 radio drama The War of the Worlds really created panic. Well, it certainly did on the campus of Mary Washington College! I was a sophomore that year. Several of us had been invited to the home of a classmate near New Hope, Va., for the weekend. On Sunday evening, a family member drove us back to school. If there was a radio in the car, it was not turned on. The young man drove as if he had “road rage” in his heart. We were very much relieved to get to Fredericksburg in one piece! Suddenly we were overcome with a very weird feeling. There were no students on the campus! It seems that when they heard the broadcast, they believed that it was all true and quickly packed up and headed for home! Yes, the 23-year-old Orson Welles did indeed create panic all those 75 years ago. And it is still vivid in the memory of this graduate, who did not hear the broadcast but saw its result.