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in the news 1952


PART EIGHTEEN


Saucers

Above: From the Waukesha Daily Freeman, Wisconsin, August 2, 1952.


NINETEEN FIFTY-TWO might be remembered for many things, large and small. The election of Dwight Eisenhower as President of the United States. Fifty thousand American families afflicted by Polio. The British A-bomb. The first issue of Mad magazine. The theory of the Big Bang.

But for those of a certain bent, 1952 will also be remembered for the second great 'flying saucer flap' which climaxed with the reports of radar and visual sightings over the nation's capital in late July.

Part of the story of that event-filled year is now available in declassified government files. But for the public back then -- at a time when only one in three families in America had a television set -- the story was mostly found in the newspapers and magazines.

This then is a look back at those stories, as they first appeared in print...




AUGUST 2, 1952:


Galveston, Texas Daily News - 2 Aug 52



Russia Will Hit Nation Before Elections, If At All

DALLAS, Aug 1 -- The head of the nation's civil defense predicted today that if Russia is planning a full-scale air attack on America, it probably will be launched before the November elections.

The defense expert, Millard Caldwell, made his prediction, he said on the basis of information reported at a meeting of federal and state civil defense directors and Air Force civil defense coordinators in June.

Caldwell stopped here briefly today. He was to be flown to Waco to attend dedication of the Central Texas Civil Defense Communications Center today.

Caldwell said no one questions that Russia has a large stockpile of atomic bombs and an adequate air force with which to transport the bombs.

"No one questions the fact that a Russian air armada could fly non-stop to America or any other place in the world by refueling in the air.

"No one questions that fact that U.S. radar screens coupled with a 48-state ground observer corps could not detect every plane in a 400-plane air group.

"No one presumes to think that our air defense could stop such an air force. The best estimate would be that three out of 10 Russian planes could get through our defenses," Caldwell said.

Caldwell added that none of this information was classified or secret.

"Everyone seems to know about the Russian threat except the congress.

"The people have the perception to realize what the threat is, maybe Congress will catch on one of these days," Caldwell stated.

He said the national civil defense effort was badly hampered by a cut in appropriations for air defense projects by congress.

Caldwell said of flying saucers that the air force was investigating numerous reports about mysterious objects in the sky.

"We're just as mystified as anybody," he said.


Blytheville, Arkansas Courier - 2 Aug 52



Air Defense Checks On 'Flying Saucers'

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The nerve center of the nation's air defense admits today to being involved in the flying saucer situation. Headquarters of the Air Force Air Defense Command, located at Ent Air Force Base here reported that there has been a flurry of reports of saucers and other unidentified objects for the past two weeks.

And so seriously are the reports viewed that fast interceptor planes are kept on the ready to jet aloft to find out what goes on possible.

"We've really been scrambling." an ADC spokesman said. "Those planes are kept loaded and ready to go and their pilots are never more than a few feet away.

In The Air Fast

They're in the air within seconds of a report that seems definite enough."

The thing is not geared up just for saucers, though. The system is the same as that worked out to meet any enemy attack.

Furthermore, the ADC isn't saying what might have been found. The results of the scrambles aren't for it to announce. Findings are turned over to technical experts at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Dayton, O.

Radar Finds Blips

The ADC, which commands and co-ordinates the three regional, air defense commands in New York Missouri and California, did say that its radar equipment has been picking up a lot of unexplained blips.

"For the past two weeks," the ADC reported, "Headquarters has received a number of reports of unidentifide [sic] airborne objects in its area through the normal detection channels of the ADC.

"In the normal performance of its assignment, it has sent fighter interceptor aircraft aloft whenever objects are detected in the area with sufficient definiteness to warrant an interception.

"It should be pointed out that radar in many instances picks up certain natural phenomena, such as ionized clouds, which may give the appearance of solid objects on the scope.

"Other manmade objects, such as flares, weather balloons and so on may also register on the scope, and some interceptions have revealed that these are often what the unknowns turn out to be."


Toledo, Ohio Blade - 2 Aug 52



Psychologist Says Jitters Keyed To Flying Saucers
U Of M Panel Also Blames Reports On Optical Illusion, Atmospherics

DETROIT, Aug. 2 -- Reports of flying saucers may reflect a jittery world.

That was an opinion given by a University of Michigan psychologist in a panel discussion of saucers here last night.

Fred Wyatt, director of the university's psychology clinic, said:

"Everyone wants to see a flying saucer because someone else has said he saw one."

John Taylor of the university's vision research laboratory said the saucer may be an optical illusion caused by an eye defect.

"Tiredness," he said, "may have a direct bearing on what people think they see. During World War II in England air spotters turned in many more false reports of aircraft after long periods of watching."

Stanley Wyatt of the university's astronomy department gave the astronomer's viewpoint. Said Mr. Wyatt: "The majority of well-founded reports about saucers are optical ghosts caused by atmospheric conditions that react on light and radio waves."

Harry H. Goode, director of the university's aeronautical research center at Willow Run said the saucers are a natural phenomenon. He explained: "For radar to pick up the so-called saucer, there must be a real object present. But this doesn't mean it something more than a meteor."


Lowell, Massachusetts Sun - 2 Aug 52



Says Photograph Will Not Solve The Riddle of Flying Saucers
That Is Opinion of Prof. Menzel, One of Nation's Top-Ranking Astro-Physicists

BOSTON, Aug. 2 -- A Coast Guardsman's photograph probably will not help solve the riddle of flying saucers, one of the nation's ranking astro-physicists said today.

Professor Ronald H. Menzel of Harvard university, who has devoted himself to the "flying saucer" problem for more than six years, expressed doubt about the value of the picture of "four wavering lights" taken at the Salem Coast Guard station by photographer Shell R. Alpert of Denver, Colo. Alpert was filing negatives when he saw a light in the sky and took the picture July 16.

"As I have maintained, reflections and retractions can account for all flying saucers," said Menzel, who has not seen the photograph. He insists it is valueless if not accompanied by scientific data.

The picture shows four egg shaped objects.

"There has been no mention of the temperature distribution, no bearing was taken, there is no estimate of altitude, and other important information is lacking," he said.

Alpert said it was "extremely hot" and the sun was brilliant with a six-mile visibility when he took the picture. He said he did not know what the objects could be.

"Almost Blue White'"

The objects were reported to be "very white, almost blue white." Commenting on this color and the "bright red" hue of objects reportedly seen in the sky yesterday by jet interceptor pilots from Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, O., Menzel commented:

"I distrust estimates of color taken under special conditions. There are certain psychological circumstances which most people do not understand. I can set up a laboratory experiment in which you will swear that red is green and green is red. You don't have to be color blind, either."


Air Force Times - 2 Aug 52



F-94s Called Out To Chase Saucers Over Washington

By Rita Nelson

WASHINGTON. -- The status of the flying saucer following radar sightings over Washington and a Pentagon "saucer" conference this week is just where it was previously -- all up in the air.

Comments of high-ranking Air Force intelligence and "saucer project" officers are on the intangible side, as befits talk about phenomena on which the Air Force says no scientifically useful observations have been made.

In an effort to settle one rumor which declares that the "limitless" power which would be required for saucer propulsion could be obtained from a nuclear power plant generating electricity, The TIMES stated the theory to Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, Air Force director of intelligence.

"That's a pretty strong idea, but wait until it gets a little further along," he replied. Quizzed as to his meaning, he said that the idea is "mentally implausible."

Washington has had a flurry of sightings of unidentified objects. Around midnight on July 19 the Air Route Traffic Control Center (CAA) at Washington National Airport sighted from seven to 10 unidentified aerial objects. The radar operators said that eight were picked up in the vicinity of Andrews AFB, Md., moving at from 100 to 120 mph.

The control center notified the Air Force and also asked planes in the air if they could see anything.

Capt. S.C. Pierman, piloting Capital Airlines Flight 807, southbound from National Airport, soon reported seeing seven objects between Washington and Martinsburg, W. Va. He said they changed pace, sometimes moving at tremendous speed, at other times hanging almost motionless. He described them as "like falling stars without tails", and added:

"In all my years of flying I've seen a lot of falling or shooting stars, but these were much faster. They couldn't have been aircraft. They were moving too fast for that. They were about the same size as the brighter stars, and were much higher than our 6000 ft altitude."

Another airliner, Capital National airlines flight 610, also reported seeing a light and following it from Herndon, Va., to within four miles of Washington.

The Air Force did not send up interceptor planes that night because its own radar had not picked up the images and because the round-the-clock observer operation had not sent out warnings, officers said.

The night of July 26 at 9:08 unidentified objects were picked up by radar at National Airport. At various times four to 12 in number, the objects were seen on the radar screen until 3 a.m. Radar at Andrews AFB showed the objects from around 8:30 until midnight, and located them at approximately seven miles south of the base.

At 11:25 p.m., two F-94s from the Air Defense Command at New Castle AFB, Del., took off to investigate. One of the F-94 pilots saw four lights near Andrews, but he could not overtake them and they disappeared in two or three minutes. He also saw a steady white light 10 miles east of Mount Vernon but it faded quickly.

At 1:40 a.m., two more F-94s took off and patrolled the area until 2:20 a.m., but they saw nothing suspicious.


Oshkosh, Wisconsin Daily Northwestern - 2 Aug 52



"Flying Saucers" Sighted in Korea and Japan, Report

SEOUL -- Those "flying saucers" have popped up in Korea And Japan.

A Canadian destroyer recently reported sighting two such objects and recorded them on its radar, it was learned here today.

A Navy report said 40 officers and crew members of the destroyer Crusader saw the "saucers" the night of July 10. All had the familiar qualities of the puzzling flying discs.

The report, addressed to the commanders of the Far East Naval Forces and the Fifth Air Force, said the ship's radar registered "fixes" on the objects. It placed them two miles high and seven miles away.

The report said the objects disappeared before dawn.

A second report a day or two later dismissed the radar find as the planet Jupiter. One officer commented, however: "Jupiter doesn't come in pairs and it is several million miles out of range of our radar."

The only previous report of "flying saucer" sightings in Korea cropped up last February. Crews of the two night-flying bombers said they saw saucer-like objects moving over North Korea.

Tokyo, too, had a saucer report. Kosuke Miyazaki, 27, of the Central Meteorological Observatory said he saw a greenish-white thing with a tail flying through the sky Friday night.


Oneonta, New York Star - 2 Aug 52



Flying Saucers, Or Reasonable Facsimile, Visit Oneonta Area

Well, we knew it would happen.

Flying saucers have arrived over Oneonta, also over Afton, Sidney and Otego.

First reports of the sky-riding-discs came to The Star from Otego shortly after noon yesterday. Walden Snelson of Lincoln Park, N.J., who is visiting his aunt, Mrs. Monroe Hotaling, that village, telephoned The Start that the skies over Otego had suddenly become the object of considerable curiosity.

Mr. Snelson said that a crowd of considerable proportions had been gazing upwards for an hour or so, watching five or six "saucers" which appeared to be moving perpendicularly at an extremely high altitude. He described them as "very bright disks."

The saucers over Sidney were more numerous and they practically disrupted defense work at Scintilla. Hundreds of workers gathered outside Scintilla buildings, peering upwards at what was described as a whole flotilla of very bright, shiny balls, moving rapidly in a northerly direction.

Irving Parsons, 19 Draper St., who works at Scintilla, told The Star last night that he estimated there were 60 to 75 objects shaped like "ping pong" balls, moving very high, Mr. Parsons said they appeared to be traveling in no apparent formation.

His son, Lyon, 12, said that he spotted three of the discs from his Draper Street home about 6 last night and added that they were proceeding easterly.

And over Afton, residents reported seeing groups of mysterious high-flying objects for more than four hours yesterday.

Griffiss Air Force Base at Rome sent jet planes to check the area and an Air Force spokesman said the base had received reports of "unidentified objects" over the Chenango County area.

Capt. Lawrence Browne, public information officer at Griffiss Air Force Base, said that "a number" of jet planes were diverted to the south-central part of the state to investigate, but could not find anything. He said the pilots "thoroughly canvassed" the area twice.


Titusville, Pennsylvania Herald - 2 Aug 52



Disk Whirls Over Titusville

Add local flying object reports. One was spotted hovering high in the sky over Titusville about, two o'clock yesterday afternoon by a couple who prefer to remain anonymous. The man said it looked like a rather small, whirling disk. As they watched it rotated rapidly like a top but seemed to remain stationary in the sky.

They watched for several minutes during which it did not seem to move. It was still in sight when the man lost interest, he said. He added that he had been skeptical about saucers but wasn't anymore.

Another resident said that he saw a white light in the sky which seemed to jerk from place to place about 3 p.m. He watched the light for a while and then decided his eyes were playing him tricks. So he remains a skeptic -- but a not-so-sure one.

A woman who did not identify herself called The Herald to say the uranium story on yesterday's Page One was the clue to what the objects are.


Toledo, Ohio Blade - 2 Aug 52



2 Airmen Report Strange Object Over Toledo Airport

Two Toledoans who have been in aviation many years reported serving a strange object move across the sky about 11 a.m. yesterday.

George Skistimas, general manager of Toledo Air Associates said he and Lloyd Fuller, Electric Auto-Lite pilot, were standing near the TAA hangar at municipal Airport when they sighted the round, dull-white object nearly directly overhead.

The object moved in a westerly direction, Mr. Skistimas said. It disappeared in about 5 or 10 seconds, he added, although it had not gone below the horizon. The object did not give off any light or leave a smoke trail, he said.

The TAA manager said neither he nor Mr. Fuller had previously seen a similar object.


Toledo, Ohio Blade - 2 Aug 52



Woman Reports Seeing Flying Aerial Object

Mrs. B.H. Eisenmann, 6206 South Ave., reported she saw a silvery object moving at a high speed over Toledo about 2:10 p.m. yesterday. The object also was spotted by several other persons with her, she said. She reported the object as being about twice the size of a golf ball.


Lima, Ohio News - 2 Aug 52



Objects Appear in Lima Skies

"Flying saucers" were back over the Lima area again Friday afternoon.

W.M. Stevenson, living about 5½ miles east of Lima on Route 81, told highway patrolmen he spotted what he described as two saucer- shaped objects in the sky above his farm about 2:30 p.m. Friday.

"One was high overhead, going west," Stevenson told patrolman Dwight Carey. "A plane approached and the object changed direction and headed northwest. About that time another object came into view behind the first one. Then they both flew out of sight."

Carey said he relayed the report to District A headquarters, Findlay.


Kokomo, Indiana Tribune - 2 Aug 52



Another Whatsit Is Reported Here

Another "flying saucer'' was reported to The Tribune Friday night by Helen Duke who said she saw one of the weird-looking objects shortly after 8 o'clock as she was coming into Kokomo from Alto in a car with her family.

She described the "saucer" as appearing to be the size of a washtub, about the color of a star, and said it was in the eastern sky and traveling in a north and south direction, going first south and then north before disappearing, leaving a trail of vapor in the sky.


Madison, Wisconsin State Journal - 2 Aug 52



Odd Objects Appear to Three More in City

Three more Madison residents reported seeing strange objects in the sky Friday night.

Earl Zansla and Terry Monson, Westmoreland blvd., said they were standing in a back yard in the 4100 block of Mineral Point rd. when they saw a bright, blue-green streak in the sky.

It appeared to be traveling in a soundless, very fast line from east to west, they said, and it was low in the sky. They saw it between 8:50 and 9 p.m.

Harold Gesme, 3746 Hammersley ave., said he was driving toward Madison on the Mineral Point road when the "saucer" went across the road in front of him, flying only "about 300 feet" high.

He said the object was about 8 feet by 5 feet, was white as a sheet" and streaming white fire.

Gesme said he saw the soundless "saucer" about 10:30.

I've never seen anything like that before in my life," he said.


Madison, Wisconsin State Journal - 2 Aug 52



8 See 'Silver Object' Cross Merrimac Sky

Eight adults reported watching a "long silver object" for 15 minutes Thursday night as it flew across 50 miles of sky near Merrimac.

Walter Imhoff, who lives on the east side of the Wisconsin river near Merrimac, told The State Journal that he and the seven others estimated that the object was several hundred feet long and was about 50,000 feet high.

When they first spotted it, they thought the object was a long white cloud but then it moved toward the southwestern horizon. After a complete circuit of the sky, it ascended rapidly, and headed toward Madison before it disappeared, Imhoff said.

Truax Field officials told him it could not have been a jet plane since it made no noise, Imhoff reported. The object was too high to be seen clearly, but Imhoff said that it was long and narrow, and not like a "conventional saucer."

Among residents of the area who saw the object were Mr. and Mrs. Imhoff, and Mr. And Mrs. Job Collins. The other four were Illinois residents.


Madison, Wisconsin State Journal - 2 Aug 52



State Reservists Seek Solution to 'Saucers'

MILWAUKEE -- The Army Friday approved a plan by a group of Signal Corps reservists to set up "Operation Vortex" to coordinate reports of flying saucers in this area.

Lt. Col. L.J. Harness, executive officer of the Wisconsin Military District, said the Army was not actively participating in the project, but it had given the reservists permission to use Signal Corps equipment.

Maj. Russell Leach, commanding officer of the Signal Company of the 84th Reserve Infantry Division, said he and Capt. James E. Homes of Hillsboro, Tex., would be in charge of the operation which is designed to help solve the mystery of unidentified objects seen in the air recently.

Leach said the unit would measure radio frequencies and light frequencies in the area on the chance that they might be causing radar screens to pick up unidentified signals. He said they also would work with magnetic compasses, and would check their work with reports from Wisconsin citizens who turn in visual reports of unknown objects in the air.

Six men who will work with the three Signal Corps reservists all are either graduate engineers or are experienced electronics men, Leach said.


Blytheville, Arkansas Courier - 2 Aug 52



Illinois Goes All Out; 'Flying River' Spotted By University Radar

CHAMPAIGN, ILL -- You can have your flying saucers. Scientists have spotted "a flying river." No pint-sized saucer, if you please. A man-sized river 100 miles long.

Observers spotted the wayward stream several nights ago on their radar screen at the University of Illinois Airport.

It had them in deep water for a while. They finally figured out it was a reflected radar image of a 100-mile-long section of the Illinois River, which is 80 miles west of the airport.


Phoenix, Arizona Republic - 2 Aug 52



Republic Reporter Says He Saw 'Whatsits' In '47
Glowing Objects Closely Resembled 'Saucer' Photographed By Phoenician W.A. Rhodes

By Orren Beaty
Republic Staff Writer

RISKING the jeers of the multitude and jibes at my sanity, I step forward fearlessly to say:

"I've seen the flying whatsits."

It was the summer of 1947 at Las Cruces, N.M.. and in answer to the inevitable question: "Why didn't you mention it then?" I can say honestly that I did.

A story of the event was duly recorded on the front page of the Las Cruces Sun-News, not only describing what I had seen but listing the names of others who saw the same things at the same time and place. I was awakened at midnight by a telephone call from a man who previously had told of seeing the "Flying Disks," as we called them then.

He and his wife and daughter and a neighbor or two were seeing them again, and if I should be interested --

THEY POINTED out the objects to me, and for at least 20 minutes we watched one or several luminous objects soar back and forth over the town -- going out of sight to the west, then coming back and disappearing to the east.

We never saw more than one at a time -- no formation flying. But they reappeared so soon after slipping from sight that we thought there might be several.

Las Cruces, it might be noted, is less than 30 miles west of the White Sands Proving Ground, a rocket testing base from which have originated many reported sightings of flying saucers.

THESE OBJECTS were sighted on what might have been a hazy night, although clouds normally are as scarce in Southern New Mexico as in the Phoenix area. We stood near a street light which might have helped obscure the stars, but none were visible near the path of the object.

There was no sound of engines, no sign of movement, such as flapping of wings to indicate that it might have been a bird.

The front part was rounded like a saucer, the trailing edge had two or three prongs like a reversed parenthesis or a rounded figure 3.

LATER, AFTER moving to Phoenix, I was startled to see the tremendous likeness between what I had seen and the object photographed about the same time (July 7) by William A. Rhodes, 4333 North 14th St. and published in The Arizona Republic.

Rhodes's photographs and negatives were taken by federal agents and have not been returned.

We were unable, that night in Las Cruces, to estimate the height, size, or speed of the object we saw, but the night flier birds which some disbelievers said we had seen were witnessed at a lower level.

Bring on the cross examination.


El Paso, Texas Herald-Post - 2 Aug 52



Carlsbad Builder Sees Big Saucer

ALBUQUERQUE, Aug 2. – Now it's a saucer 12 feet high and 7 feet across that goes faster than any jet plane, turns sharply without slowing down, and is make of frosted stainless steel.

This report was received today by Dr. Lincoln la Paz, director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico. It came from T.L. Cox [sic, other times referred to as "Fox"], Carlsbad contractor.

Fox related this story:

"One morning last week, about 6:30 a.m. I was standing in my back yard when I noticed an object gliding from the north. I thought it was a balloon and a I figured it would land in the cemetery, so I started for my car to go after it."

Levels Off

Before he could get to his car "the thing had grown many times its size and had leveled off.

"It then, to my astonishment, maneuvered and shot forward with a burst of speed toward the Carlsbad airport."

Fox, who has worked on air bases as a contractor and observed maneuvering jet planes, declared:

"This burst of speed has never been equaled by any jet I know of and no plane with wings attached could have made that sharp a turn." He estimated its speed at more than 1000 miles an hour.

"When it got to the airport it made another sharp turn without diminishing speed and headed south.

"It was the color of stainless steel that seemed to be slightly frosted over, giving it a bluish tint. When it caught the sun on the flat bottom side it gave off an orange glow for a second."

La Paz's comment: "It's another unknown object. However, the report is one of the most detailed we've had.


Redlands, California Daily Facts - 2 Aug 52



Flying Saucers Seen In Lancaster

LANCASTER -- Deputy sheriffs said today they saw two "flying saucers," one of which hovered over the earth for 15 minutes emitting "reddish-while light and swinging like a pendulum.".

Deputy Sheriff Tom Morriesy said the two objects drifted from high in the sky to an altitude of about 1,000 feet late last night. Then, he said, one of them leisurely moved off in a southeasterly direction but the other one "just hovered there swinging like a pendulum."

Officers said the interceptor command at George Air Force Base near Victorville was notified as well as the Civil Aeronautics Administration at Palmdale.

They said at least three interceptor planes were sent up to investigate.

The strange objects first were spotted by state Fish and Game Warden Jack Roof who notified the sheriff's office.

Unconfirmed reports said three more of the objects were spotted at about 1 a.m. today and deputies were dispatched to investigate.


Bakersfield, California Californian - 2 Aug 52



Mysterious Objects Streak in Night Across Desert Area

Scores of persons in the Mojave desert and Los Angeles county reported today that weird mystery objects resembling brilliantly lighted "flying saucers" hovered and streaked over the area during the night.

Reports that the air force sent up three of its fastest jet planes to chase the objects drew a crisp "no comment" from both George Air Force Base near Victorville and Norton Air Force Base at San Bernardino.

The eyewitnesses to the eerie sky goings-on included two deputy sheriffs, two experienced civil aeronautics observers, a game warden, a minister and numerous ranchers and residents.

The sheriffs substation at Lancaster said that the interceptor command at George Air Force Base had been immediately alerted to the phenomenon.

Air force officials at Victorville flatly refused to comment on any activity in connection with the saucer reports. They referred all inquiries to Norton A. F. Base near San Bernardino.

From San Bernardino officials, however, came the comment:

"There is no information we can give. There is no story."

Observers reported that the objects were bright yellow, red or copper colored.

The "formation of weird things" was first reported over Los Angeles shortly before midnight when the Reverend Louis Gardner of Highland Park said he observed a circular object "about the color of the moon, appearing very plainly just at the right side of the moon."

He said that the object faded out of sight after a brief time. The minister declared:

"I had just been saying I wished I could see one of those flying saucers when my companion and I looked up and there was the beautifully brilliant ball. It passed south of the moon and faded out".

Desert observers said that at midnight objects appeared in the sky and gleamed brightly .in the moonlight. One sky watcher said that one of the objects remained stationary for a full 10 minutes before disappearing.

Deputy Sheriffs Tom Morrissey and William D. Mallette said they observed the phenomenon while, cruising in a patrol car near Lancaster.

The law officials said that they stopped a passing car whose passengers -- Mr. and Mrs. Dale Taylor of Newhall -- observed the objects also. Said Mallette:

"We could not believe our eyes and we wanted witnesses to back us up."

The last report came from the C.A.A. office at Palmdale airport when Don Benson and Ray Hollingsworth declared that at 12:14 a.m. (P.D.T.) they saw what appeared to be a "saucer" west-northwest of the airport over the desert. Benson reported:

"It hovered over the mountains in one spot for about three minutes. It was bright and shining."


El Paso, Texas Herald-Post - 2 Aug 52



[No Headline]

Public Relations Man Bob Denton of Phoenix today offered $10,000 reward for exclusive rights to the first picture of a flying saucer and its occupant -- "whether friend or foe, human or interplanetary."


Burlington, Iowa Hawkeye Gazette - 2 Aug 52



this 'n that by j.p.h.

Flying saucers, of course, are all imagination, but they now have become vivid enough imagination to show up on radar screens. The secret of them is yet to be broken, but once it is, the flying saucers will become as commonplace as atomic bombs and no more to be feared than the bubonic plague, rattlesnakes, or Communism. Flying saucers should be taken In stride. After all, it was less than two centuries ago when everyone agreed a steamboat was something that simply could not happen.


Blytheville, Arkansas Courier - 2 Aug 52



NBC Saucer Hunt For TV Program Proves Fruitless

WASHINGTON -- A bunch of news reporters went hunting flying saucers last night.

They zoomed and banked over the capital city for more than an hour to a chartered airliner, looking for anything strange in the sky.

And not a thing suspicious did they see.

It was the National Broadcasting Company's idea. Someone there had a hunch a saucer other two might show up, just in time to be televised on last night's "We the People" program.

After all, airport radar had picked up strange unidentified objects over Washington three nights within the past two weeks.

So the broadcasters hired a plane, invited newspapermen and photographers to come along, and assigned announcer George Skinner to radio back reports.

And to the persons at the program's opening in the radar control center at Washington national Airport, they announced hopefully that "you may be the first television audience to see a flying saucer."

They did not.


Madison, Wisconsin Capital Times - 2 Aug 52



Letters to the Editor

KEEPING INFORMATION FROM THE AMERICAN PUBLIC

[1726 Hoyt St., Madison, July 30] -- The radio reported this morning that a disc jockey in Racine had started a mild panic by reporting that a flying saucer had dash landed on a golf course there. According to this merry guy, a little man two feet tall had stepped out of the saucer but all that he could say was "Hy ya" "Hy ya" "Hy ya."

Two years ago, the editor of U.S. News decided that the imposition on the American People in regard to flying saucers had passed the bounds of all decency. In the issue of April 7, 1950, the lead article was devoted to giving the readers as much information about the flying saucers as military regulations would seem to permit. In part it reads:

"FLYING SAUCERS -- THE REAL STORY; U.S. BUILT FIRST ONE IN 1942"

"What they look like is described in well documented accounts. Those accounts show the saucers to be exactly 105 feet in diameter, circular in shape, they have what appear to be jet nozzles arranged all around the outer rim, just below the center of gravity. They are made of metal alloy, with a dull whitish color. There are no rudders, ailerons or other protruding surfaces. From the side the saucers appear about 10 feet thick. They are built in three layers, with the center layer slightly larger in diameter than the other two.

It (this account) is backed by exact measurements made by a group of scientists last April (1949) near White Sands Proving Ground base, with instruments set up to observe high altitude balloons, who suddenly observed a saucer and tracked it for several minutes, thereby getting reliable data on its size, altitude and maneuverability."

The editors of U.S. News were promptly given the "razzberry" treatment by LIFE, TIME and other papers taking their orders from the Pentagon. Since that time all factual information has been kept out of the nation's press and instead the people have been given a straight diet of hokum.

The thing that most forcibly impressed the older GIs in World War II was the fact that the officers had no respect for them. As we move rapidly into a "garrison state" it would be well for people to remember that no military clique ever came to power in the history of the world that had any respect for the people.

At army day maneuvers in Moscow a year ago, American military observers reported that some of the Russian planes passed the reviewing stand at such a speed that it was not possible to determine their shape. The notion that the Russians do not have pretty full information about our planes or we about theirs, is quite absurd.

It would be quite superfluous to note that the purpose of our policy is not to keep information from a possible enemy but rather to keep the American people misinformed and befuddled. -- Thomas R. Amlie.







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The Arrival

Whether you need some serious styling for your walls at home or work or are on the lookout to give someone a special gift they'll treasure forever, you support the work of Saturday Night Uforia whenever you shop for great posters from AllPosters.com from any link at this site -- any, each, and every time you start your shopping from here. You still get the same great deal as your friends and family, but a little will be sent back our way as a thank you from AllPosters.com. And you'll have the extra satisfaction of directly supporting the work of Saturday Night Uforia while treating yourself or friends to something special... like any of these great sci-fi movie posters (you can even have them mounted, laminated, or framed). Just click on the pic for a larger version...

Cowboys and Aliens

Apollo 18

Skyline

Aliens, 1986

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Moon

Communion

Avatar

Giger's Alien

2012

The X Files

Transformers 2- Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers

Critters, 1985

War of the Worlds

Transformers 2 - Bumblebee

Terminator Salvation

Star Trek

Men In Black II

Alien vs Predator

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Quiet Earth, 1986

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977

E.T.

Termination Salvation -X

Independence Day

Men In Black

Alien, Italian Movie Poster, 1979

Blade Runner Japanese Style

Star Wars - Saga Collage

Star Wars- Return Of The Jedi

Star Wars

Forbidden Planet, Robby the Robot

Star Wars- The Empire Strikes Back

Invasion of the Saucer Men, 1957

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, 1956

The Day The Earth Stood Still, 1951

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, Swedish Movie Poster, 1956

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, French Movie Poster, 1956

Teenagers From Outer Space, 1959

Robinson Crusoe on Mars, 1964

2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968

Devil Girl From Mars, 1955

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, German Movie Poster, 1956

This Island Earth, 1954

Robinson Crusoe on Mars, 1964

Invasion of the Saucer Men, 1957

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, 1956

The War of the Worlds, 1953

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978

The Day of the Triffids, 1963

The Phantom Planet, 1962

The Day The Earth Stood Still

Invasion of The Body Snatchers, 1956

It Came from Outer Space, 1953

Queen of Outer Space, 1958

2001: A Space Odyssey

2011


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