Allan Hancock College recently staged a series of events to honor the anniversary of the Great Depression. Several departments, students, groups, and staffers got involved. There was a soup line for soup and bread, a slideshow, and photographic and author presentations.
In the science department, Mick Bondello could only think of Orson Welles’ radio presentation of The War of the Worlds.
The show really had little to do with the Great Depression, but it was presented then—and when it was, it made a great impact. For his part in the Great Depression events at Hancock, Bondello wanted to recreate that historic show, but with a modern-day flair, localizing it and taking advantage of today’s available high-tech sound effects.
The War of the Worlds aired as an episode of a radio drama anthology series called Mercury Theater on the Air. For the series’ Halloween episode, which aired Oct. 30, 1938, Welles directed and narrated a special adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel. The 60-minute broadcast began with a series of fake bulletins announcing a Martian invasion. The broadcast became infamous for reports of national panic and confusion. Bondello didn’t want to recreate that panic, but he did want to tap into the nostalgia.
The War of the Worlds has inspired Bondello since he was young. In 1953, he watched the movie version. He was just 4 years old and his brother was 8 when his mother dropped them off to see the show while she did a bit of shopping.
“She said, ‘This might be a scary movie, so you sit with your brother,’ and of course he went up in the balcony and sat with his friends. I watched it with my eyes like this,” Bondello said, prying his eyes wide open.
At the time, Bondello was still in Ontario, and the movie took place around areas familiar to him. At 4 years old, he thought what he was watching was real.
“And when I walked out, I was really surprised there was still a city,” he said.
Later, when in his teens, he was fascinated yet again with the story, this time through a Classic Illustrated’s adaptation.
After years of such impact, it was a natural for him to recreate the show for Allan Hancock College. And as soon as word got out about his project, several other staff members wanted to get involved.
“I knew it would be great, because I know a lot of characters in the science department with great voices, and I though we’d do it around the personalities here,” Bondello said.
Those characters include Bruce Gourley, coordinator of multimedia services. Gourley—who Bondello said has the perfect media voice—narrated the recording. Bondello also wanted to step up the sound effects for his production, so he added some subtle stock noises, like crickets chirping and crackling to mimic a 1930s radio broadcast. Some sound effects, however, took a little more effort. The battle of the Sisquoc River was fought in his home hallway where he could shut all the doors and create the desired noises. And to recreate the sound of a door slamming in the still of the night, Bondello found himself in a vacant parking lot at midnight slamming a car door.
“I really liked the authenticity of the sounds I was using,” he said.
The finished recording was played to Hancock students on Halloween. It was also played on Dave Congalton’s talk radio show, as well as a UCSD radio station, with help from a former Hancock student.
“I just thought it was hilarious, because who in San Diego knows where the Sisquoc River is?” Bondello said.
Although Bondello is limited in what he can do with the broadcast because of copyrights, he’s proud of the result of the staff’s joint efforts.
“We did a better job than Orson Welles,” he boasted. “We destroyed the world in half the time.”
Arts Editor Shelly Cone is happy that the world is still around. Contact her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 12-19, 2009.