Mass Hysteria

This podcast tells a tale of Mass Hysteria in modern times.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Kitts Myths and Mysteries, listened to in all 50 states and 39 countries, stories from a world you thought you knew. Today we take a look at mass hysteria. Well, mass hysteria is a condition affecting a group of persons characterized by excitement or anxiety, irrational behavior, or beliefs of the inexplicable symptoms of illness. Most will connect mass hysteria with the Salem witch trials, but what about more modern times? I'll start with the state of Washington and the 1954 windshield pitting epidemic. Sound strange? Listen on. It was characterized by the widespread observation of previously unnoticed windshield holes, pits, and dings. This led citizens to believe that a common causative agent was at work, originating in Billingham, Washington during late March. Soon the pitting was reported in Mount Vernon, and by April it had appeared in Anacordas and on Fidalgo Island. Within a week, the news of the pitting epidemic had reached Seattle. It affected car lots, garages, cars, and residential areas. Theories included the million watt radio transmitter at nearby Jim Creek Naval Radio Station and was causing it with its physical oscillations. Some thought they were caused by cosmic rays. By April 15th, 3,000 windshields had been affected. Washington Governor Arthur B. Langley asked President Dwight D. Eisenhower for assistance, but it was when police sergeant Max Allison of Seattle Crime Lab reported that the damage to windshields consisted of 5% hootlumism, as he called it, and 95% public hysteria epidemic came to an end. Although natural windshield pitting had been going on for some time, it was only when the local media called public attention to it that people actually looked at their windshields and saw damage that they hadn't noticed before. But then there is the June bug epidemic. In the month of June 1962, a number of workers in a textile mill became victims of a mysterious sickness. The reported symptoms included nausea, a breaking out over the body of red spots thought to be due to the presence of some strange insect in the workroom. As the matter was investigated by health authorities, it became increasingly apparent that there was no realistic basis for the epidemic, and that the cause was one of a hysterical contagion. The authors were fortunately on hand to exploit the situation and have now been contributed to a unique study of collectic hysteria. But the most widespread example of mass hysteria took place in Portland, Oregon in october nineteen thirty eight, when War of the Worlds was broadcast over radio and the entire city of Portland went dark, not because of the invasion of Martians on the East Coast, but blackout drills that they'd forgotten they'd been warned about as Hitler was approaching Austria. This is Kit Crumb. Be sure to listen tomorrow for another story from a world you thought you knew.