Iowahawk has a real scoop tonight; the first draft of Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast: War of the Worlds: The Lost Version.

“War of the Worlds”
Aladdin Radio Theater of the Air
CBS, Sunday October 30, 1938
Radioplay First Draft

ANNOUNCER
The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Aladdin Theatre on the Air in “The War of the Worlds” by H. G. Wells. Brought to you by Aladdin long-leaf Persian cigarettes, for that rich long-lasting poppy flavor of the Casbah.

(MUSIC: ALADDIN THEATRE MUSICAL THEME, “THE SNAKE CHARMER”)

ANNOUNCER
Ladies and gentlemen, the director of the Aladdin Theatre and star of these broadcasts, Orson Welles.

ORSON WELLES
We know now that in the early years of the twentieth century this world was being watched closely by brains much greater than man’s, and yet as mortal as his own. We know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns, enjoying the rich, long-lasting poppy flavor of Aladdin, now in a crush-proof box, they were scrutinized and studied — perhaps as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm in a drop of water, or as a man with a telescope might hungrily study a lovely silhouette disrobing in a nearby apartment.

With infinite complacence the people went to and fro over the earth about their little affairs, some in the roomy liqui-cushioned mohair comfort of the all-new 1939 Kokomo Mogul 8, serene in the assurance of their dominion over this small, spinning flake of delicious celestial Oatabix which man has inherited out of the dark mystery of Time and Space.

Yet across an immense ethereal gulf, as wide as the stance on the new Kokomo Mogul 8, minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle, intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us… waiting… watching…