War of the Worlds Celebrates 75th Aniversary at Music Box Theatre, Sunday matinee 10/27

This year marks the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles' spectacular Halloween radio hoax about Martians invading the earth, based on the H.G. Wells novel. In commemoration, Music Box Theatre presents a special screening of the 1953 film The War of the Worlds. Before the movie, University of Chicago Professor and radio expert Neil Verma will present excerpts of the infamous Halloween broadcast of War of the Worlds that convinced radio listeners the earth was truly under siege in 1938. Welles on the Radio plus War of the Worlds takes place Sunday, Oct 27, 1 p.m. at Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. $10.

When it aired on Halloween in 1938, the hour-long War of the Worlds radio broadcast, created by Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre Company and presented in the format of a news bulletin, drove more than a million panicked Americans from coast to coast to the brink of suicide.

The film adaptation of H.G. Wells story War of the Worlds became an instant science fiction classic, and won the 1953 Academy Award for Best Special Effects, hailed as a work of frightening imagination. As formations of alien ships wreak destruction around the globe, the military is helpless to stop this enemy while scientists race to find an effective weapon.

Neil Verma, Ph.D is a Harper Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts and a Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Humanities at the University of Chicago. The author of Theatre of the Mind: Imagination, Aesthetics and American Radio Drama, Verma will use his radio expertise to discuss the hour-long War of the Worlds radio broadcast created by Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre Company.

Welles on the Radio plus War of the Worlds

Sunday, Oct 27, 1:00 p.m.

Tickets, $10, available in advance at www.musicboxtheatre.com/events/welles-on-the-radio-plus-war-of-the-worlds-2013-oct-27-sun-0100pm or at the door.

About the Music Box Theatre: For 30 years the Music Box Theatre has been the premier venue in Chicago for independent and foreign films, festivals and some of the greatest cinematic events in Chicago. It currently has the largest cinema space operated full time in the city. The Music Box Theatre is independently owned and operated by the Southport Music Box Corporation. SMBC, through its Music Box Films division, also distributes foreign and independent films in the theatrical, DVD and television markets throughout the United States. For additional information please visit www.musicboxtheatre.com .

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