Orson Wells terrified all of America in 1938 with his Halloween radio play of War Of The Worlds.
In honor of the 70th anniversary of the classic Orson Welles radio play about martians invading New Jersey, Radio Lab asks: why did people believe it was really happening? And why has this stunt continued to fool people since?

Orson Wells was all innocent at the time, but 20 years later he admitted it actually was done to scare people, because

he didn't like the fact that people believed everything that came out of this 'new magic box' called the radio

see also:One of my favorite -The War of the Worlds stars Richard Burton written by Elton John

http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/9E41E1B2-C28F-442B-AAFA-3EA192FCEB87/

Sure they could do it again if they made it sound real. They were talking on the news last night about how China had the capability to shut down our power grids. Then later in the evening, my brother and I were talking about it because we had both seen the same show. Would you believe that shortly after I went to bed last night, our power went out? I laid there for two hours with my eyes wide open until it came back on. Of course it was only 12 degrees out and I hate waking up cold.