Amy Henderson, historian at NPG, discusses Orson welles and the 70th anniversary of War of the Worlds. On Halloween night of 1938, Orson Welles brought to the airwaves the now-classic H. G. Wells's fantasy War of the Worlds (1898). Many tuned in late, missing the announcement that the program was fiction. As viewers listened to aliens taking over Manhattan, panic set in, and Welles had to interrupt the broadcast to assure listeners it was not real. You can see a portrait of Welles in the "Twentieth-Century Americans" exhibition on the museum's third floor. Recorded at NPG, October 31, 2008. Image info: Orson Welles/Unidentified artist, c.1938 / Gelatin silver print / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution