Tales of the Night

The evening begins with Lucille Fletcher’s Sorry Wrong Number and The Hitch-Hiker.

Sorry, Wrong Number is the tale of a neurotic invalid, whose only contact with the outside world is her phone. Over this, one night, because of a crossed wire, she hears plans for a murder, which turns out to be her own. Her frantic efforts to enlist help through the only means at her disposal, her growing terror and realization of the truth, and (along the way) the hints about her own life and personality she lets drop, make this a full character portrait not only of herself but of the unseen murderer, whose identity and motivations are surmised but never revealed.

In The Hitch-Hiker Ronald Adams, an average motorist, sets out to drive from Brooklyn to California, and early on his journey encounters a strange and inexplicable hitch-hiker. His efforts to explain, then avoid, and finally destroy the constantly appearing figure along the highway carry him through several episodes and many states until the adventure finally culminates in an amazing and terrifying climax.

The evening concludes with the radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, presented as a series of news bulletins, which suggest that an actual Martian invasion is in progress. "The War of the Worlds" was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air directed and narrated by Orson Welles. It was performed as a Halloween special on October 30, 1938 and aired over the CBS Radio network. The broadcast terrified listeners causing many to flee their homes.