in the news 1952
PART FORTY
Undated flying saucer newsletter in Project Blue file, date unknown. There was never an actual Blue Book file on the incident itself, only a newsclipping of the "Around A Bend They Saw A Pair Of Glowing Eyes" story included below.
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...
SEPTEMBER 15, 1952:
Hagerstown, Maryland Morning Herald - 15 Sep 52
Lots Of People Refuse To Accept Flaming Object In Sky As Meteor
A lot of people around here aren't satisfied with the meteor explanation of that strange thing that flashed across the sky Friday night.
"When lots of people see something strange, they tell us it's a meteor. if only a few people see something, they tell us it's imagination." That's the way disgruntled observers summed up the situation.
One woman who had called the Herald Friday night to report the flash in the sky phoned a second time, a half-hour later. After thinking it over, she had decided that no meteor could have been so bright without making a crash or landing nearby.
Leroy Mowen, 1336 Fairchild Avenue, gave the Herald the most detailed account of the thing in the sky. he had a perfect view, because he was driving slowly in this direction from Fayetteville, Pa. when the whatchamacallit tore across the sky.
Mowen said that a magazine recently published a new theory of flying saucers which claimed that they are occasionally caused to explode by whoever controls them. The sight Friday night tallied exactly with the magazine's description of an exploded flying saucer, he said.
There's one certain thing. The thing, if it landed at all, didn't come down around here, even though some local observers were sure it must have crashed just beyond the nearest hill. It was also seen in the southern sky as far away as Kingsport, Tenn., Front Royal, Va., and Wheeling, W. Va., which means that it couldn't have landed north of those cities.
Washington, D.C. Daily News - 15 Sep 52
Around a Bend They Saw a Pair of Bulging Eyes
SUTTON, W.Va., Sept. 15. -- A short time after a meteorite -- or something -- blazed across this town last Friday and seemed to land nearby, an evil-smelling, green bodied monster 12 feet tall with bulging eyes and clawy hands sent seven young citizens running for their lives.
A. Lee Stewart, who with his father publishes the Braxton County Democrat, saw mysterious traces of whatever it was, and here's his story:
"It was about 7:15 p.m. when this meteorite, or something, was supposed to have been seen that I wandered down the street and the people told me about having seen it. Then, a little while later, this call comes in from Flatwoods, a town about five miles away.
A PAIR OF EYES
"Mrs. Kathleen May and six boys had gone up the hill to where this thing was supposed to have landed, and they could see flashes of light -- flash, flash, flash, three or four times -- coming from the top of the hill.
"As they kind of eased around a little bend on the road, there in the shadows, they saw a pair of eyes. There was a peculiar odor -- a very sickening, hot, stuffy smelling odor.
"The oldest boy -- he's 17 -- threw a flashlight on it. All the rest of them saw it too. The boy fell over backwards and all the people took for their heels and came running back to town.
"They said it was about 11 or 12 feet high, and had a shiny, metallic kind of face and protruding eyes. Its body was green. It had outstretched hands -- sort of clawy looking hands.
"When they all got back to town, they gave the boy a dose or two of smelling salts, and called police.
TRACKS
"Of course", said Mr. Stewart, "the state police weren't in, but next morning the sheriff and some other people went up, and naturally I went along to investigate. I took my camera with me."
Atop the rugged, tangled hill, there was no trace of a meteorite, but there was an area "all trampled down", Mr. Stewart said. He said that he could still smell traces of the peculiar odor.
There were two tracks. They looked like skid marks, about a foot wide, a car length apart, and about ten yards long, Mr. Stewart said. He said you couldn't get an auto up that hill.
Mr. Stewart and the deputies took Gene Lemon, the 17-year-old, along with them.
SAW SOMETHING
"We had to coax him to go back," Mr. Stewart said. "I had to keep my hand on his shoulder. He just shook and shook like he was scared to death.
"I know all these people," Mr. Stewart said. "And I tried every way to tear this story down. But they all told the same story and they all stuck to it.
"I've never seen people in more fright.
"I don't know what they saw, but they sure saw something on that hill.
"Of course, at twilight, you can see lots of things. They could have seen an owl sitting up there in a tree, and put a body under it.
Traverse City, Michigan Record-Eagle - 15 Sep 52
Glowing Monster Smells Terrible
SUTTON, W. Va., Sept. 15 --Eyewitness accounts of a tall, glowing monster with a blood-red face skulking in the hills divided Braxton county today into two camps -- believers and skeptics.
Seven persons said they saw the unearthly being, described as "worse than Frankenstein," in the hills above Flatwood [sic throughout, should be Flatwoods], W. Va., Friday night.
State police and a number of residents hooted at the reports as a product of mass hysteria. Police said the eyewitnesses' guess as to the monster's height varied from seven to 17 feet.
The excitement began when the two young sons of Mrs. Kathryn [sic, should be Kathleen] May, a Flatwood beautician, said they saw a "flying saucer" land on C.B. Fisher's farm near here.
Mrs. May, National Guardsman Gene Lemon and five boys climbed a hill on the Fisher farm to look for the "saucer." Mrs. May said a "fire-breathing monster, 10 feet tall with a bright green body and a blood red face," bounced and floated toward them.
"It looked worse than Frankenstein," she said. "It couldn't have been human."
Lemon, 17, said he thought he saw a "possum or a coon" until he put his flashlight on "the thing."
It was then that he saw the monster with the blushing face and green body "that seemed to glow." Mrs. May said Lemon stared and then screamed as the monster duckwalked toward them. All of them fled, occasionally looking over their shoulders.
The monster, Mrs. May said, had an overpowering metallic odor that nauseated them. She said they vomited for several hours. A. Lee Stewart, co-publisher of the Braxton County Democrat, received the first report from Mrs. May. The veteran newspaperman organized an armed posse and went to the scene.
"The odor was still there," Stewart said. "It was sort of warm and sickening. And there were two places about six to eight feet in diameter where the brush was trampled down."
Stewart said he did not know what to think. "I hate to say I believe it, but I hate to say I don't believe it," Stewart said. "Those people were scared -- badly scared, and I sure smelled something."
Authorities said they believed the "flying saucer" which Mrs. May's sons saw was a meteorite. The incident occurred during a
meteor shower over a three-state area.
Charleston, West Virginia Gazette - 15 Sep 52
THE MONSTER STOOD right on the spot where Mrs. Kathleen May and these six boys pose for this photographer, according to their stories. Shown are Mrs. May, her two sons, Edward and Theodore, and Eugene Lemon, Ronald Shaver, Theodore Neal and Neal Nunley, all of Flatwoods, Braxton County. They're standing pat on their story that they saw a huge, green monster on this spot Friday night following the flight of a meteorite through West Virginia skies. (Photo for the The Gazette by A. Lee Stewart)
Braxton Monster Left Skid Tracks Where He Landed
(Special to the Gazette)
SUTTON. Sept. 14 -- The phantom of Flatwoods:
Left tracks from six to eight feet apart.
Wore a suit of green armor.
Was 10 feet tall, four feet wide.
Had a blood-red face.
Sported a black, spade-like cowl which extended a foot or more above its head.
It had claw-like "toy" hands, too, and orange-green eyes the size of half-dollars, according to Mrs. Kathleen May, a 32-year old beautician who saw the "thing" Friday night on a hillside near her home in nearby Flatwoods.
Mrs. May's two sons, Edward, 13, and Theodore, 12, saw it, too. So did Eugene Lemon, 17, Ronald Shaver, 10, Theodore Neal, 13, and Neal Nunley, 14, all of Flatwoods.
Today, somewhat recovered from the horror of their discovery Friday night, Mrs. May and the six boys who said they saw the monster, re-told the strange story.
This is the Way it Was
Here's how it happened:
The younger boys were playing football at Flatwoods Friday night while Mrs. May and Lemon looked on. It was almost, but not quite dark. Then, a weird light flashed through the skies of Braxton County like a flaming object of some kind which appeared to the seven witnesses to "land" on a nearby hillside. They set out to investigate.
It was dark when they reached the hillside, and Lemon produced a flashlight. Coming to the top of a ridge, he turned the beam down the slope. He stood, frozen, for a moment, then unloosed a frightened cry and fell backwards to the ground. Mrs. May and the children said they could easily see what had frightened young Lemon. But they all retreated hastily.
According to the beautician, who said "I got a good look at it," a monster was striding up the slope toward them, its orange-green pupil-less eyes glowing.
Well Lit Up
Although Lemon had dropped his flashlight, it didn't matter, for the monster carried its own illuminating system. "It lit up like a Christmas tree," Mrs. May said, with some sort of interior lighting system.
The six other witnesses gave less elaborate descriptions, but swore to state police officers and to Sutton publisher A. Lee Stewart that they, indeed, had seen the "thing." Only Lemon could gather enough courage to accompany a shotgun-armed posse back to the scene Friday night, and he, said Stewart, was visibly frightened.
Mrs. May went back to the scene; today -- and saw the '"footprints." She, as well as Stewart, described them as skid-like depressions in the hillside brush, about six or eight feet apart. The "sickening, piercing" odor, which the witnesses said accompanied the monster's appearance Friday was still slightly in evidence, Mrs. May said. She also pointed out that she had acquired some grease or oil stains on her white beautician's uniform while in the area today. Searchers could find no other evidence of a visit by the phantom.
Stewart, co-publisher of the Braxton Democrat at Sutton has promised, however, to keep himself informed of any new developments in the case -- unless a strange, green claw-like hand mysteriously lifts his notes from his desk.
Titusville, Pennsylvania Herald - 15 Sep 52
Reappearing Lights Glide About Area Night Skies
Objects in the night sky, absent from Crawford County's heavens for a couple of weeks, broke out again over the week-end with at least three sightings.
Six unidentified objects were reported near Titusville shortly after midnight Saturday, one was said to have landed in Centerville in the afternoon, and last evening "a big red object" was seen first in the Guys Mills area and a few minutes later over Cochranton in the latest manifestation of "flying saucers."
A Titusville man who prefers to remain anonymous said he watched six "lights" from a vantage point on the North Perry Street hill just after midnight Saturday, three of them in the valley and the others over the Brook Street hill.
The three in the valley seemed suspended, he said, and occasionally would blink out. The three over the Brook Street hill, however, moved in arcs, going up and then fluttering down, like skyrockets.
These three, he said, appeared to cast a "bluish-white, ethereal glow" which could sometimes be seen just over the trees when the lights themselves were below the skyline.
All six of them were quite small, he added. The man drove down into the valley, and could not see any of the lights there. He then went out on the Pleasantville Road, but they weren't visible from there either. When he returned to the Perry Street hill, there were the six eerie lights again, three of them cavorting at the top of Brook Street.
"The lights in the valley were definitely not street lights," the man said. "At first I thought all six might be the work of pranksters, but it would be a pretty expensive prank to create six lights, three of them moving."
Also on Saturday, but in the afternoon, a "flying saucer" was reported to have landed in or near Centerville. The Titusville News Company said it had a number of calls asking about it, and local police reported one caller who asked whether it was true.
Neither the news company nor the police were able to enlighten the callers, and no one seemed to know how the story started.
Last night about 7:30, Richard Schwab of Meadville, Star Route (Guys Mills area), said he saw a "big, red object" in the sky traveling toward Cochranton. There was no sound of a motor, Mr. Schwab said.
Some ten minutes later, Mrs. Ralph McEwen of Cochranton, Route 3, saw a red light, "flickering like a railroad flare," moving slowly towards Pittsburgh. Both sighters said the object seemed to be pretty high in the sky.
Mount Pleasant, Iowa News - 15 Sep 52
Another Flying Saucer Story Reported In Iowa
Maloy, Ia. -- More "flying saucer" stories have come to light today in Iowa.
A silver oval-shaped object was reported in the sky yesterday afternoon near Maloy. It was first spotted by 12-year-old Monica Parks and Rita and Jim Monahan, ages 13 and ten respectively.
They summoned Mr. And Mrs. Monahan, the parents of two of the children, who reported that the object traveled west, then turned south out of sight. In all, the object was seen for about one minute.
The witnesses said the object made no sound.
Albuquerque, New Mexico Journal - 15 Sep 52
Couple Reports Sighting 'Saucer' in Western Sky
A "flying saucer" was sighted in the western sky Sunday evening by Dr. and Mrs. Paul Shellenberger, 301 Tulane Dr. SE.
"It looked like a large star, but it moved," Dr. Shellenberger said. "Its movements were like a luminous kite," he added.
They saw the mysterious light while driving to Albuquerque from Los Lunas. The doctor said they stopped about five miles from Los Lunas and watched the light along with other motorists for more than 10 minutes.
New York, New York Herald Tribune - 15 Sep 52
[No Headline]
COPENHAGEN, Sept. 14 -- Lt. Comdr. Smidt-Jensen [sic, should be Schmidt-Jensen], second in command of the Danish Coastal destroyer Willemoes, said today he observed a mysterious glowing object moving across the sky at great speed north of Bornholm last night, heading southeast.
He described it as a bluish glowing triangle and estimated its speed at 1500 kilometers (937 miles) an hour.
Newswire Report Agence France Presse - 15 Sep 52
Taipeh, Sept 15 -- According to an expert radio-telegrapher and meteorology student, fifteen flying saucers appeared in the sky of Hong Kong during Fri. night (Sept. 12-13). They were flying in a triangular formation, each one three times as brilliant as a star of the first magnitude, and traversed the sky in a southeasterly direction. The witness did not wish to reveal his identity until he had consulted the Hong Kong Observatory.
The director of the observatory declared today that nothing of the sort was recorded by his instruments, and the Hong Kong press seemed to know nothing of the matter.
SEPTEMBER 16, 1952:
Dunkirk-Fredonia, New York Observer - 16 Sep 52
Washington With Nichols
By BARMAN W. NICHOLS
WASHINGTON -- The Polycultural Institution of America, where each student gets private instruction in higher learning, is getting too big for its quarters.
The school was founded in 1948 Anatol Schneiderov on $70. It was incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia as an institution teaching languages and cultures from many lands.
The idea caught on, and now the school is moving into larger quarters. These will provide 19 classrooms in contrast to six in the beginning.
Three new languages are being added -- Frisian, Cambodian and Flemish. Their addition brings the total of different languages and cultures taught to 71. Not to mention a course in "flying saucers."
The institution is unique in that only five or six students are in a class. As a result no more than 300 students will be enrolled for the term starting Oct. 1.
Schneiderov will be the headmaster in the course on "flying saucers" and will use as his textbook "Flying Saucers Are Real," by Major Donald Keyhoe.
"The object." Schneiderov told me, "will be to sort out the hoaxes from real evidence and to publish a report on the class findings.
"The class will meet once a week for 17 weeks and will be something like a congressional committee hearing, with witnesses being queried to describe what they saw, or thought they saw. When the report comes out, maybe we'll all learn something."
Schneiderov has done some research on his own He says that in 1111 A.D. metalic [sic] spheres were reported over the Himalayas. These were reported again in the 18th century by travelers in Tibet and Mongolia.
"Actually," the professor says, "I believe we could build some flying saucers of our own right here in America through sound engineering. The main point is to find out whether the saucers are earthly things or from some other planet. We hope to examine all of the evidence and come up with something concrete."
Schneiderov is a Russian. For 19 years before World War II came along, he worked as a scientist in Shanghai.
Lima, Ohio News - 16 Sep 52
Churchman Says Saucers May Be Real
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Dr. Gerald Heard, Santa Monica, Calif., scientist and religious leader, believes "flying saucers" may not be imaginary objects . . . but visitors from Mars or some other planet.
Writing in the October issue of Motive, official magazine of the Methodist Student movement, Dr. Heard says the reported objects may be robot instruments or inhabited space ships gathering data about this planet.
Dr. Heard hopes contact can be made with these weird visitors before they go away -- or seek to conquer us.
Tracing the sightings back prior to 1947, Dr. Heard says: "Our present predicament is unique because we seem to be confronting an intelligence which is not only our superior in mechanical skill but also in detachment and restraint."
THE ARTICLE also includes a discussion of the social and religious implications of "flying saucers," assuming they are interplanetary visitors.
Dr. Heard is asking all college students to report "saucer" sightings to the "Civilian Saucer Investigation" in Los Angeles, promising not to publish names if the students fear publicity.
(Officials at Ohio Northern university at Ada said there is no connection between Dr. Heard's investigation and ONU's Project A, which is also gathering and studying "saucer's" reports.)
Frederick, Maryland News - 16 Sep 52
Saw Flying Saucers
While seated at dinner on the screened porch with guests on Friday night in the mountains near Myersville, Mrs. Sterling W. Edwards saw what appeared to be a flying saucer at about 8 p.m. daylight saving time.
This round, luminous object seemed to shed a distinct glow in the area through which it was passing at very high speed, over a wooded ridge to the south, and of itself was a huge, brilliantly lighted object. It appeared as huge as though it was the full moon itself laying on its flat side. One of the guests also caught a glimpse of this object, which did not appear to either observer as any type of "meteor" as described Saturday in the general press.
Mrs. Edwards said, "This was no optical illusion, you can be sure. This huge, brilliant object was in every sense a material object to me. And I was very glad to have it verified by one of my guests. Its path of flight was parallel to the earth as I observed it."
Connellsville, Pennsylvania Daily Courier - 16 Sep 52
Human Interest
Sidelights and Comments on Happenings Out of the Ordinary
Youngsters On West Side See Strange "Object" In Sky
"I was just reading The Courier this afternoon (Saturday) and saw that story about flying saucers," said Mrs. Edward Wandel of 109 South Fourth street to a member of the newspaper's reportorial staff in a telephone conversation. Then she went on: "My daughter saw that object too. But we thought she must have seen a falling star or a meteor and gave it no more thought. Now that I am reading the paper I guess she saw the same thing these other people did."
Mrs. Wandel explained:
"The children and I were sitting on the front porch. Suddenly my daughter Margie, she's nine years old, said, 'O-o-h look, Mommy', but I paid no particular attention. Then she said she had seen some 'large' object traveling through the sky and I just guessed maybe it was a shooting star. She replied, 'no it wasn't Mommy, I know what they look like and this wasn't one of them'. Another youngster, Catherine Ann Lipovsky, who lives on Third street, was also with us and she also saw the object. In fact, she is the one who called Catherine Ann's attention to it. They said it fell 'behind the foundry' (the Woodward Foundry in North Sixth street) and one of them cried out, 'let's go see if we can find it'."
The "flying saucer" story also brought another communication to this office -- a written one. It was not signed, and although it is customary to ignore mail that has no signature, this letter makes good reading, it has nothing "flammatory" [sic] about it, and probably speaks for some others who saw the "thing" Friday evening.
The letter says:
"I am writing in response to your article about that 'flying saucer'. My friend and I were walking on Breakneck road sometime between 8 and 8:05. (It was Friday night). My friend remarked about how bright this one particular star looked. As he watched it, it suddenly grew brighter and brighter, then suddenly seemed to explode. He shouted: 'Holy Moses, look, a meteor'. I turned and saw a flaming white object hurtling through the sky. It looked to be going quite fast, but I couldn't be sure. The scene lasted about six seconds. Then it either went out of sight, exploded, or went back to the moon or wherever the contraption came from. I can be SURE that it was definitely not a 'flying saucer'. I agree with the police about it being a meteor.
"I am not sending in my name or my friend's name because my friends would laugh at me. But, believe me, every word of this is true. You can print this if you wish or throw it away, but it was no 'flying saucer'."
Tokyo, Japan Pacific Stars and Stripes - 16 Sep 52
Folks Leery Where 'Monster' Stalked
SUTTON, W. Va. -- The excitement of seeing a ten-foot monster skulking through the hills above Flatwoods, W. Va., began to calm down Monday, but residents still were a little leery about wandering too far from home at night.
Seven persons reported seeing an unearthly being Friday
night, but state police already have dismissed the incident as a product of mass hysteria.
MRS. KATHLYN [sic, should be Kathleen] May, Flatwoods, beautician; Gene Lemon, 17-year old national guardsman, and five boys said they saw a monster with a blood red face and green glowing body when they climbed a hill on a farm to search for a bright object.
The incident occurred during what was believed to be a meteor shower over a three state area.
A LARGE NUMBER of curiosity seekers combed the area Sunday but nothing conclusive was found to substantiate reports of the monster.
But Lee Stewart, copublisher of the Braxton County Democrat, said he and a party of men armed with shotguns went to the scene immediately after the terrified group returned to town.
Stewart said there was a strange trampled down area which appeared to be tire skid marks and that a heavy, penetrating odor hung over the area.
LEMON, who was leading a group of flying saucer searchers, said he first saw two eyes staring at him through the darkness. When he put his flashlight on the object, he said it looked like a mechanical monster which gave off a glow.
Lemon fell over backwards and the others with him hotfooted it back to town, where several of them vomited for several hours from the nostril burning metallic odor which they said the so called monster gave off.
Raleigh, West Virginia Register - 16 Sep 52
Bucket-Sized Saucers Sighted Over East Gulf
King-sized flying saucers -- about the dimensions of a gallon bucket -- were reported sighted Saturday at East Gulf about 11 p.m.
Franklin Smedley, 16-year-old Killarney resident, said he and two other boys were standing in East Gulf when he spotted two of the orange-colored objects.
Since the youth had maintained he did not believe in flying saucers, he explained he did not mention his sightings. When four additional objects flew over later he called his companion's attention to them and they all got a good look, Smedley's father quoted his son.
The objects were described by the boys as traveling faster than any plane they had seen.
Mr. and Mrs. Shelby Deaner of East Gulf also reported seeing two objects answering the same description at about the same time.
Deaner said he and his wife had been looking for meteors and were getting ready for bed when his wife glanced out a window and saw the objects. He said they both rushed outside and saw the "saucers" flying over.
He explained that an airplane had flown over about half an hour earlier and that the objects were traveling at least twice as fast as the plane had gone.
Deaner said he had not mentioned the sightings at first for fear of ridicule and told of them only after he heard the report of the boys' sightings.
The Smedley youth's father told of his son's report while at Sunday School yesterday and then Deaner told what he had seen.
Austin, Texas Daily Herald - 16 Sep 52
Two Of Them In The Sky
Saucers Too Vivid for Disbelief
There were two of them -- disc-shaped lights -- spinning, and traveling at a terrific speed high in the sky, said Mrs. William J. Campbell, 204 W. Maple.
"Now I believe there is such a thing as a flying saucer," she added.
It happened at about 11:20 p.m. Monday. Mrs. Campbell was standing on the driveway while her husband, Rev. Campbell, pastor of the Methodist Church, was driving the car in the garage.
Mr. Campbell said he was in the garage when he heard his wife call, frantically, "Flying saucers!" He hurried to her but the lights, moving at great speed, were already out of sight.
The Austin pastor said he was especially impressed with Mrs. Campbell's experience because she earlier had been very skeptical about flying saucers and had told him, "I don't believe there is anything like that."
This, he said, was the description she gave of the lights immediately after she saw them:
The circle of lights was very high in the sky, and from the ground they appeared to be about two feet apart. They were traveling from south to north, much faster than any plane could travel. They made no noise. They were not comets, as there was no tail characteristic of comets, and it is improbable that comets would travel together. They were larger than stars of the first magnitude. The sky was clear so there were no clouds to create an illusion by reflection of light.
The pastor said Mrs. Campbell trembled with excitement.
Janesville, Wisconsin Daily Gazette - 16 Sep 52
Model Planes Compete Sunday
A flying saucer will be one of the attractions next Sunday when an unusual model airplane meet will be held at Rock County airport on U.S. Highway 51. The saucer will be a model, but it does fly, according to model fans who have seen it.
All tiny planes, powered by buzzing gasoline motors, will be radio controlled. No control lines between the planes and the pilot can be used. The "pilot" stands on the ground with a tiny box in his hand and controls his stunting speedster with radio waves.
The meet is being held by the Thermal Duster Model Airplane club and will be open to the public, free of charge, from 10 a.m. till 5 p.m. It will be entirely different from any meet previously held here. In the past a few radio controlled planes were seen, but more as a novelty than a participating model. This meet will see many such planes, going through their paces.
The principles involved in flying and controlling these planes are similar to those used in the guided missiles and target drones developed for the air force. Dr. Walter Good, Washington, D.C., utilized the experience gained in this field to perfect the proximity fuse, used so effectively in World War II.
Each entry will be judged on 12 maneuvers including spot landings, a 200 foot minimum rectangular flight, figure eights, whipstalls, loops and spirals. Each maneuver is graded in sections.
Each of the transmitters is licensed by the federal government for experimental use and operate on strictly controlled frequencies.
Contestants are expected from many points in the state as well as Illinois and Iowa, and awards will be given at the close of the meet. Additional features will include U-control planes.
Salt Lake, Utah Tribune - 16 Sep 52
Saucer's Secret Disclosed Like Carpet, Just Magic
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, Sept. 15 -- The first flying saucer in captivity won a British magician a prize at the annual International Congress of Magicians Monday.
F.G. Cleaver, a retired mechanical engineer, foxed the tough panel of eight judges by commanding the saucer to go spinning around the competition hall, then drop back into its case.
The coveted grand prix was awarded to "Moroso of Italy" on a basis of points scored for showmanship, manipulation style, and originality.
The 300 professional and amateur aspirants from 11 nations, including the United States, spent four hours showing their skills behind the closed doors of Geneva's Casino.
The grand prix carries a reward of only $175, but will open the way for professional engagements all over the world for Moroso.
Roger Perrin, a French ventriloquist, won third prize. None of the Americans placed.
Galveston, Texas Daily News - 16 Sep 52
Innocents and Saucers
It is to be hoped that the address which the distinguished astronomer, Dr. Otto Struve of the University of California, delivered at the Western Amateur Astronomers Convention, will be widely published for the benefit of the innocents who are convinced that flying saucers are space ships from other worlds: for Dr. Struve combed the universe for evidence of intelligent beings.
Like other astronomers he finds that of all planets in the solar system only the earth can support intelligent life. Mars? Its green areas may be lichen and mosses, but not chlorophyll-producing vegetation. Besides, it hasn't water enough. Venus? It is wrapped in suffocating carbon dioxide, with no free oxygen or water. Lead would melt on Mercury. The other planets have atmospheres of ammonia and methane.
After promenading, so to speak, through the millions and millions of stars of the Milky Way Dr. Struve, for purely statistical reasons, concedes that among them there may be a thousand inhabitable worlds, with the probability that the estimate is too large by a factor of ten or a hundred. The average distance of these hypothetical worlds is 50,000 light-years. If intelligent creatures at this enormous distance could see an event here through some remarkable telescope it would have to be one that occurred when Neanderthal man was clubbing wild animals for food.
Evidently the innocents who believe not only that the flying saucers are space ships but that they are manned by intelligent crews who are looking us over with pity for our sorry social condition have something to think about. If they traveled with the speed of light it must have taken the visitors at least 50,000 years to get here, and it will take them 50,000 more to get back. The late Sir James Jeans thought that life might be "a disease of matter in its old age." Dr. Struve holds with him that life is evanescent and that we may not be good for much more than 100,000 years -- an estimate which is probably much too low, even if we admit that homo sapiens is a very unstable species and a mere upstart compared with the termite.
Possibly it may be worth a round trip that takes twenty times as long as recorded human history to look on a moribund form of life. But how could the crews of the flying saucers have known 50,000 light-years ago of wars that have cost millions of lives, of revolutions, of airplanes that are faster than the speed of sound, of great cities buzzing with the activities of a mechanized society? Perhaps relativity may help the innocent: for it makes sense in relativity to ask: "How were you feeling next week?"
Notes:
1. The statement of a witness in "Lots Of People Refuse To Accept Flaming Object In Sky As Meteor" that "a magazine recently published a new theory of flying saucers which claimed that they are occasionally caused to explode by whoever controls them" is most likely referring to a People Today magazine article of September 10, 1952. The article was titled "Flying Saucers Are Real - Remember the A Bomb" and can be read in Part Thirty-Eight of this series.
2. The statement in "Glowing Monster Smells Terrible" that unnamed police "said the eyewitnesses' guess as to the monster's height varied from seven to 17 feet" fails to note that most involved in the sighting were children, the youngest being 10-years old, whose estimates of height can be expected to be different than that of adults.
3. The story "Braxton Monster Left Skid Tracks Where He Landed" carries an inaccuracy as to the whereabouts of Mrs. May when the incident began. Mrs. May was actually in her house while the boys played outside. After sighting something coming down from the sky, the boys ran inside to get her, and they all then proceeded to investigate.
4. The story of a creature sighted by Kathleen May, Eugene Lemon and several children told in several articles above would eventually come to be known variously as "the Flatwoods monster" or "the Braxton county monster". Their complete story can be found in the "Past Weeks" portal of this site under the title "Here There Be Monsters".
5. The report of Lt. Cmdr. Schmidt-Jensen of the Danish Coastal destroyer Willemoes would be the first of several reports during the naval portion of "Operation Mainbrace", a large-scale NATO military exercise to test NATO's ability to resist Soviet military aggression across Western Europe. More stories will follow in parts 41 and 42 of this series.
6. A succinct biography of Dr. Gerald Heard, subject of "Churchman Says Saucers May Be Real", can be read here. Much more may be read here. Dr. Heard's 1953 book Is Another World Watching is available through the Library portal of Saturday Night Uforia.
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