Maremoto: a radio play (1924)

Summary: Radio drama first rocked the English-speaking world in 1938 when Orson Welles's The War of the Worlds panicked many American listeners into believing that Martians had really invaded... But well before then, in 1924, a French spoof dramatisation of a shipwreck drew wails of anguish - and appreciative chuckles - from listeners to the primitive medium. Maremoto, with its original mix of borrowings from the theatre and the cinema, plus creative studio sound effects, blazed the trail for those who later made the radio play a wild success in the inter-war period.