9249. THIS VICE OF ALL THIS IS

THE VICE OF ALL THIS IS

I took tea once, with an ancient

Orson Welles. He was already drunk,

but willing to talk. We said in the

Palm II front, amidst that upper

east-side feeling that such a street

delivers. I asked a few questions  -

about the Mercury Theater and

those Martians at Grover's Mills.

'Was it really such a surprise,

the reaction you garnered? And

did any of you know this was

happening?' He chuckled, that

rolling laughter, 'Of course, yes,

we know but we didn't know at

that very moment. We sensed

that the people who listened

to us would be easy to pull

along. You have to realize, this

is all made up. This mass-panic?

Not going to happen  -  we simply

didn't have that many listeners.

The ones we had  -  yes, yes  -

we knew they'd be dumb enough

to leap if we held the semblance

of a stupid net  -  for them to see,

to think was there. And yet, it all

went on as planned. That was 110

w41st, Houseman and I had just

gotten the place and this was the

first : a big effect, we knew our

listeners were gullible, well, yes,

maybe so. I have to tell you, we

changed our tone quickly once this

happened. Within the hour we had

to act as if we knew it all along, the

hype, the action, all that new radio

noise! It was ours now, all ours!

And we played it for all it was worth

-  you need to remember the times,

the year, nothing like this had ever

occurred before. No, nothing.

The vice of all this is  -  we had

to make it work, for us, by us.

It was all our doing!