MARTIAN INVASION: Clayton Vecellio of Lewis Run offered a colorful description of one Halloween Eve on Oct. 30, 1938.

He writes, “People were crying and praying, fleeing with bundled belongings to escape death from invading Martians intent on destroying the Earth. Church services were interrupted by hysterics, traffic was jammed and communications were clogged. Dance music was interrupted by announcers reporting a gas explosion on Mars. More music, more bulletins: a flaming object, possibly a meteor, falling outside of Trenton, New Jersey.

“Thirty yards in diameter….a humming sound….something wriggling out….’large as a bear and glistening like wet leather. Eyes….gleaming like a serpent….a V-shaped mouth with saliva dripping from rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate.’

“Things got worse. ‘Poisonous black smoke….death rays….Army wiped out…and people dropping like flies. Monstrous Martians landing all over the country…people lying dead in the streets…’ Until the Martians themselves began to die, succumbing rapidly to disease germs…

“All due to a one-hour CBS broadcast in which Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater players let loose in Howard Koch’s version of H.G. Wells novel, “War of the Worlds.” Welles says he had intended to entertain his audience with an incredible story appropriate for Halloween.

“But of six millions listeners, more than one million were frightened by the too-realistic drama, starting with Welles’ magnificent voice speaking: across an immense ethereal gulf, minds with vast intellects regarded this Earth with envious eyes….

“Although there were four announcements over the hour that this was pure fiction, a tidal wave of panic swept the nation, as the rumor spread to those who did not have the radio on. At the end, Welles, now as himself, finished the make-believe……

“And if your doorbell rings and nobody’s there, it was no martian….It’s Halloween.”