Re: Spring 2016 | Page 83

The Killing Joke - 1896 John Ahrens, a farmer from Nashville, played an April Fool’s joke on his new wife with disastrous results. He disguised himself as a tramp, covered his face with a white mask and knocked at the door. When she answered he ordered her to get dinner for him. To his horror his wife fell to the floor in a faint and died an hour later. They had only been married only a few months and her death crazed him with grief and remorse, and he threatened to take his own life. End of the World Joke - 1940 On 31st March Philadelphia radio station KYW broadcast the following message: “Your worst fears that the world will end are confirmed by astronomers of Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. Scientists predict that the world will end at 3 P.M. Eastern Standard Time tomorrow. This is no April Fool’s joke. Confirmation can be obtained from Wagner Schlesinger, Director of the Fels Planetarium of this city”. The announcement came after a radio program by Jack Benny that had been devoted to a discussion of how the world might end. The program had mentioned the name of Orson Welles, who had been responsible for the notorious War of the Worlds Panic Broadcast of 1938. The public reaction to KYW’s announcement was dramatic. Newspapers, police stations and the city’s information bureau received hundreds of calls from frightened citizens. KYW later issued an apology and an explanation. The announcement was, of course, false, but the station denied responsibility for it. It said that it had received the announcement from William Castellini, press agent for the Franklin Institute and had read it in good faith, believing it to be genuine. However, Castellini had intended it as a publicity stunt to publicise an April 1st lecture at the planetarium titled “How Will the World End?” Castellini later explained that he came up with the idea for the stunt after hearing Benny’s program and thinking it a good chance to get some publicity for the planetarium. He claimed, in his own defense, that he had told “some of the people” at the radio station about the announcement and “thought they would know it was a stunt.” Soon afterwards, the Franklin Institute dismissed Castellini. The Atomic Mist Joke – 1947 Less than two years after the catastrophic atom bombings of Hroshima and Nagasaki, The Eindhoven Dagblad newspaper reported that the Dutch town of Eindhoven would be destroyed the next day by an “atomic mist” blowing into the town. Panic resulted. Town residents made frantic plans to leave, especially those living near the Philips Incandescent Lamp Company’s factories and laboratories, Eindhoven’s main industry. Numerous radio announcements were made to calm residents and assure them that the story was false. Municipal authorities considered legal action against the 83