Just after eight P.M. on the East Coast on Sunday, October 30, 1938, millions of American families tuned into CBS Radio had heard just 17 seconds of Ramón Raquello’s orchestra playing the tango “La Cumparsita,” live from the Meridian Room of the Park Plaza Hotel in New York, when a voice interrupted: “Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News. At 20 minutes before eight, central time, Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas, occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars.”
After a note about spectroscope readings and a confirmation by a Professor Pierson at the Princeton Observatory that Farrell’s reports were indeed correct, Raquello’s orchestra returned to the air.
