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American Experience
The Mic Went Dead
The War of the Worlds has become the one most legendary radio broadcasts in history. Twenty-three year old Orson Welles directed the famous radio drama on October 30, 1938, the night before Halloween referred to as "Mischief Night." Throughout the program, which would come to be known as "The Panic Broadcast," ten actors and a 27 piece orchestra eagerly awaited his direction.
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In the 1950's a Polio outbreak swept the U.S., devastating communities nationwide.
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The man behind the atomic bomb is put on trial for suspected communist ties in 1954.
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The final months of WWII from the vantage points of both the Japanese and the Americans.
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