Friday, January 26, 2018

Saucer Scares: 1952


President Truman, besieged by Saucers.
Reno Evening Gazette, Aug. 5, 1952 .

1952 was perhaps the most important year in the history of the flying saucer phenomenon for the coverage in the press and the impact it had on the public. The public was beginning to take the matter seriously. That year, there was an unbelievable number of authentic sightings reported by witnesses, along with an unbelievable number of unbelievable sightings.

Here are three newspaper clippings of flying saucer incidents that show the importance of investigation.


Indiana July 29, 1952.

July 30, 1952.


Newspapers, television and radio spurred the public's interest and appetite for saucer news, and almost anything UFO-related was used, even if they had to bend over backwards to make the connection. Other times, they reported on saucers sightings that went flat, like this one from Pennsylvania.
Yuma Sun, Aug. 26, 1952


Friday, January 19, 2018

James J. Allen's Alien Encounter Embarrassment: Aug. 6, 1952



West Lumberton, North Carolina, Aug. 6, 1952: A relatively incredible close encounter. James J. Allen sees a UFO and speaks to its occupant. A few historians summarize the case in passing, such as this mention in the August 2005 MUFON Journal by Ted Phillips, in "Physical Traces: Occupants and physical traces."
08/06/52 NC, Lumberton: James Allen, 51 , saw a round object 8 ft long, 6 ft high land within 10 feet of him. A small occupant was seen, and small footprints were found.
INTCAT, (the International Catalog of close encounters and entity reports, compiled by Peter Rogerson, lists the Allen case and cites Phillips among the other Ufologists who have covered the case:
August 6 1952. 2100hrs WEST LUMBERTON (NORTH CAROLINA:  USA) American Houses employee. James J Allen saw an object 2m high, 2.5m long, lit by an interior orange light, descend from the north-west, hit his chimney, damaging it, and land in his backyard. As he approached to within 3m. of the object he saw a small being, 75cm high, standing beside it. When Allen asked the being if it was injured, “it went away in a whiff”, then the object moved away with a whistling sound.
  • Ted Bloecher citing Lumberton Robesonian, 7 August 1952.
  • Phillips 1975, p.8 (case 676) says footprints were found at the site but this detail is not given in the above source he quotes.
  • George Fawcett in Flying Saucers 77.
  • Fawcett 1975 p.26.
  • Santesson 1968, p.183
  • Vallee Case 99 citing Wilkins 1954b, p.268 citing Buffalo Evening News 27 Aug 1952.
  • Data Net V, 11 citing Robesonian 18 Aug 1952.
Loren Gross in UFOs: A History, 1952: August, however, found the events to be fantastic:
A forerunner of many to come was the tale told by 51-year-old James Allen of West Lumberton, North Carolina, on August 6th. So incredible it, was dismissed outright by serious people, the story and others like it were to be favorites with the press. We can only wonder if Mr. Allen was reading too many science fiction books? 
Here's the way the Allen's story was reported at the time in the local paper.
(A line of copy seems to be missing from the printed version.)

The Lumberton Robesonian (NC) Aug. 7, 1952

The next day's news provided further information. There were several people investigating the report, and the Pentagon was expected to launch their own inquiry. Further questioning of Allen produced further details on the encounter, including a better description of the saucer occupant. The little man had a long white beard.

The Lumberton Robesian (NC) Aug. 8, 1952 

UFO historian Loren Gross concluded:
Actually, there is not much difference between Allen's story and that of the Socorro, New Mexico, incident of April 24, 1964, so if people like Allen were making up such stories, they were at least consistent. In 1952 Allen's tale seemed too whimsical which people believing it was just the result of a capricious notion by its originator. There is a very good possibility the Allen story is a hoax for the simple reason there was publicity at the time about a similar incident which was supposed to have occurred months before at the city of Red Springs, an incident that could have inspired Allen. 

James J Allen's 1947 Case Surfaces

UFO historians that discuss the Allen case seem to be unaware of what happened after the initial report. Shortly after the story of the encounter, there were troubling disclosures about James Allen's past, instances of him writing "obscene letters," arranging a rendezvous with a married neighbor, and threatening to hex her husband with witchcraft if she didn't comply.

The Lumberton Robesian (NC) Aug. 11, 1952 

As with so many of the most interesting UFO cases featured here at The Saucers That Time Forgot, Project Blue Book has no files on this incident



Epilogue

History doesn't tell us if Allen's house was insured, but an ad for the Ray Hatch Insurance Agency in the November 11, 1953, Indiana Kokomo Tribune indicates he could have filed a claim for the saucer's damage to his chimney.

Unfortunately, the typical home insurance policy does not cover alien acts of aggression, only instances of alien accidents.


. 

Friday, January 12, 2018

Avoiding a War of the Worlds: Don't Shoot Them Down!

"Cutting loose your guns might be suicide." 
Major Lewis Norman, as quoted by Donald Keyhoe 
in Flying Saucers from Outer Space, 1953.

Art by Norm Saunders from the 1962 Topps trading card series Mars Attacks
card #4: "Saucers Blast Our Jets."

In 1952, there were rumors and speculation that the Air Force had ordered pilots to fire on flying saucers. Some people were afraid of the consequences, and thought we might anger a technologically advanced civilization and provoke a war we could not win.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 29, 1952
Jet pilots are operating under a 24-hour nation-wide "alert” to chase the mysterious objects and to ‘shoot them down” if they ignore orders to land.

Long Beach Independent, July 30, 1952

 Lebanon Daily News, July 31, 1952.

Perfect Souls from Outer Space

Mangan may have been right. In the 1952 documentary short, The Flying Saucer Mystery, the author of one of the best-selling UFO books of all time was interviewed. Frank Scully of Behind the Flying Saucers said we shouldn't shoot at saucers since the aliens might be "perfect souls" never sullied by the serpent in the Garden of Eden. They would therefore be immortal (and presumably invincible), so to attack them would be "idiotic."

For more information on the "1952 Flying Saucer 'Shoot Down' Stories," see David Rudiak's page, http://roswellproof.homestead.com/ShootDown_INS_72952.html



Friday, January 5, 2018

Dr. O. K. Brown, The Flying Saucer Dentist

Thanks to the dilligent research of Claude Falkstrom, STTF takes another moment to recognize another of The Ufologists That Time Forgot...


Long before Stanton Friedman, "The Flying Saucer Physicist," there was another prolific UFO lecturer: Dr. O. K. Brown, The Flying Saucer Dentist.

In the early 1950s, Dover, Ohio had a population of about 10,000 people (closer to 13,000 today), but it had one that thing most towns its size do not, a resident flying saucer expert. But before we get to UFOs, lets take a look at the man himself.

Dr. O. K. Brown, his wife, Virginia, their daughter and son lived on his farm called Cricket Hill, where as a hobby he raised purebred Suffolk sheep. 


The Daily Reporter ,May 16, 1956

Born Orlo Kenneth Brown, the doctor was a well-educated, highly respected citizen of the Dover community and an influential member of the Rotary Club there, where his activities frequently made news. Dover’s The Daily Reporter, ran a story on him in  Oct. 10, 1970, titled, “It’s been a good life!”, noting that he’d been an educator, a professional baseball player and an amateur archeologist:
Love of Americana, family and orthodontics have blended well in the life of Dr. O.K. Brown of Dover, whose interests range from the dental ills of the ancient American Indian through the merits of Sharp’s Buffalo rifle of 1850 to the viruses and faults of modern day baseball and barn architecture... This man, of many interests taught school in Pennsylvania before deciding on a career in dentistry... He also took an interest in UFO's and made numerous speaking appearances throughout the state on the subject.”


Dr. Brown was also open-minded, and forward thinking, a proponent of space travel and had a strong interest in flying saucers, an early adopter of the term UFO for unidentified flying objects.  He frequently lectured on the topic, explaining that witnesses had produced testimony demonstrating that saucers were interplanetary space craft, and carried the occupants of a peaceful, technologically advanced civilization- from whom we had much to learn.


Dover Daily Reporter, July 23. 1955 featured a profile of his wife, Virginia, 
“Portrait of… Mrs. O. K. Brown” 
Dr. Brown is interested and data concerning "flying saucers” and his wife also has developed a profound interest. He has given 40 or 50 talks on the subject and Virginia accompanies him because it gives her an opportunity to meet many people. She leaves the same impression with her new and old acquaintances – friendly, gay and congenial.

Dr. Brown spoke of the subject of flying saucers and extraterrestrial visitation to such diverse Ohio groups as :
- the southeastern Ohio section of the Society of Plastics Engineers. - the Junior's Woman's Club (at the home of Mrs. Russell Stewart).- the New Philadelphia Rotary Club.- the Sertone Club Of Zanesville.- the Tuscarawa County Highway Patrol Auxiliary.- the Denison Methodist Men's Club. - the Gnadenhutten (pop. 900) Chamber of Commerce. - a Valentine Dinner Party organized by the women of the Gahowee Chapter of CCL.- the Tuscarawa County Pharmaceutical Association. - the Uhrichsville Buckeye Club. - the St.Joseph school's P.T.A. - Ohio State Nurses' Association District 20. - the Christian Service Guild of the First Evangelical United Brethren church. - the Dandelions, auxiliary to the Lions Club.
Coshocton Tribune, Feb. 23, 1955


Plastic Engineers, Guests Attend Dinner Meeting at Zanesville
The Southern Ohio section of the Society of Plastics Engineers met Tuesday evening at Zanesville with 115 members and guests in attendance...The chief speaker of the program was Dr. O. K. Brown, Dover dentist, who gave an interesting and informative talk on the subject of "Flying Saucers.” Although not a scientist, Dr. Brown has carried on a study of the "Flying saucer” phenomenon, and gave his opinions on the topic, bolstered with allied information he had picked up from books and articles.

The public was besieged by conflicting information on flying saucers from the government, the news media, and the authors publishing best-selling books on the topic. Dr. Brown served almost as an editor of that information, assimilating it and bringing the saucer story in a narrative to a local Ohio audience.  Dr. Brown lectured for a wide variety of audiences, chiefly business clubs and professional associations. On a few occasions, the local press turned to Dr. Brown's expertise about UFO mysteries. There were some he was able to solve.

Dover Daily Reporter, Nov. 19, 1954

Dr. O. K. Brown, circa 1967

Two Talks from 1954

There are news stories covering the contents of two of Dr. Brown's lectures from 1954, and they provide a fascinating look at how information on flying saucers was being digested by the public and being assimilated into the culture. 

From The Daily Reporter, June 29, 1954, page 3






A-Blasts Irk Other Planets? 
Dr. Brown Cites 'Saucer' Evidence In Club Talk

Did God create inhabited planets other than the Earth? Are inhabitants of other planets hundreds of years ahead of the Earth in progress, especially space travel? Would too many atomic explosions arouse "other planets to the extent its citizens would take retaliatory measures as a matter of preservation? Is it possible that Venus is occupied by people so proficient in mental telepathy that it has no crime?

Those were just some of the questions posed by Dr. O. K. Brown, Dover dentist, last night when he addressed nearly 90 Kiwanians, including 22 from Canton Edgefield's club, following the Dover club's weekly dinner meeting at Helmkamp's. 

POINTING out that the Air Force and government officials have bothered to 'give answers to only about 14 per cent of the 3,000 flying saucers, the dentist, who has made a study of the subject, asked: 
"Are officials afraid of mass panic if they admit landings by flying saucers containing people? "Are they afraid they may upset some religious beliefs by admitting other planets are inhabited. "Are they afraid to admit someone else is 500 years ahead of us in the system of propulsion?" 

Quoting various sources, Dr. Brown pointed out that one scientist said he talked with a man who was 5 feet tall, weighed 135 pounds, had "baby" skin and indicated he came from Venus in a saucer the scientist saw. 
"That scientist gave the man, who gave evidence of being adept at mental telepathy and who didn't speak our language, an exposed photographic film on which the scientist had taken a picture of the space ship," Dr. Brown said. 
"Twenty-three days later, a 'saucer' hovered over the scientist's house and dropped a package. Inside was the photographic film with a message inscribed on it in a strange language which, as yet, hasn't been figured out. 

“THE SCIENTIST reported that during his contact with the stranger the man indicated the earth was making big explosions which were shaking the world. Using signs, he made the scientist understand that a few of the explosions would not cause too much harm but that a great many would result in action by his people.”
Dr. Brown went on to point out that another recognized scientist, who was in charge of a vitally important project in World War II, described a "flying saucer" he inspected after it crashed in Colorado. 
"The scientist said the ship had a damaged porthole and that after making an outside inspection for two days the porthole was enlarged to permit an interior inspection," Dr. Brown related. 
"Inside they found bodies of 16 men, ranging from 34 to 42 inches in height. All were burned but an examination showed they had no dental defects, had metal buttons on their clothing which were fastened with thread having a breaking strength of 420 pounds. 

“THE SCIENTISTS found food similar to our K-rations and two containers filled with water twice as heavy as our water. The ship was 99.99 feet long, 27 inches high above the wings which were 45 inches thick. It was constructed of an aluminum material unlike any we know. 
"The Air Force finally learned how to dissemble the ship. Its parts, including instruments which indicated the machine was a push-button operation, and the bodies were taken away by the Air Force and neither the scientists nor anyone else has heard about them since." 
Dr. Brown said two similar saucers, one 72 feet long, and another 36 feet long, also have landed on the U.S. arid have been inspected. "It is noteworthy," he said, "that all the measurements reported to date are divisble by 9." 
Dr. Brown explained that magnetic fault zones exist in flie air, particularly over the northwest and southwest United States, and pointed out that scientists say that is the reason meteors sometimes land on the U.S. "Things just go haywire when the meteors hit the fault zones and they crash," Dr. Brown said. "Some scientists believe the same fault zones caused flying saucers to crash." 

DESCRIBING the possibility of speeds which Earthman can't fathom, Dr. Brown reminded that military radar equipment in a number of instances has picked up objects in the sky, including one over the Capitol and another over the White House at the same time. "Five minutes before our fighter jets appeared, the objects disappeared," he said. "Five minutes after our jets returned to their bases the objects re-appeared and continued to hover over Washington and 'remained on the radar screens until dawn." "We have heard of a pilot and his jet completely disappearing while chasing a saucer," Dr. Brown recalled. "We have heard of a 15-year-old boy 'ham,' or amateur radio operator, accidentally hitting, with his signals, a magnetic frequency and causing shorts in auto motors in the area of his home and even in several planes. 
 . . .

Most readers here will recognize the origin of stories above.

The four faces on the Mt. Rushmore of Ufology, circa 1954:

Kenneth Arnold, Major Donald Keyhoe, Frank Scully, and George Adamski were the best-known figures in the early days of the UFO scene. Arnold had fathered the saucer fever, and the other three had reached the public in best-selling non-fiction books. Their influence on the saucer subject, then and now, is monumental. Nevertheless, the topic was perplexing and the books presented material in conflict with what was being said by military sources and authorities in the news. In his lectures, Dr. Brown served as a guide through the perplexing contradictions.

In the only other Dr. Brown lecture summarized by the press, we learn more about his views on the UFO cover-up and the technology and enlightenment the space visitors could share with mankind.

Zanesville Times Recorder, Sept.  22, 1954, p. 10

While Dr. Brown continued to speak on the topic for many years, unfortunately we have been unable to locate the content of his later lectures. It would be interesting to know if his views evolved over the years based on the new information that surfaced about he credibility of the Adamski and Scully tales, and what he thought about later, better-documented UFO cases.

The UFO lectures seem to have come to end sometime in the 1960s, perhaps connected in some way to the dark days of the Condon Study and the closing of Project Blue Book. Or perhaps, other obligations of a more Earthly nature occupied more of Dr. Brown's time.

Dentist Dover Times Reporter May 15 1970

A sampling of Dr. Brown's recognition and press in his later years.

Dr. Brown passed away in 1997. His obituary from the Dover New Philadelphia Times-Reporter, June 12, 1997:


Friday, December 29, 2017

The Debunkers That Time Forgot: Dr. Richard P. Youtz


Professor Richard P. Youtz, chairman of Barnard College's psychology department from 1946 to 1974.

In Richard H. Hall's introduction to "Historical Viewpoints" in the March-April 2004, Journal of UFO History, he wrote: "A regular feature will be viewpoints and opinions about UFOs offered up over the decades by all sorts of people. Some of the comments for astute, others sadly misguided, and some are by allegedly intelligent and educated people who should have known better than to shoot from the lip." The first sampling was led by the following: 
Under the headline "Saucers Explained" (Science News Letter, Apr. 30, 1960) Dr. Richard P. Youtz, a psychologist and Bernard College, New York City, it says that what witnesses are reporting as "flying saucers" are only "afterimages" resulting from having looked at a bright light source.
Dr. Youtz's work was based on years of study, and long before that 1960 paper, he'd been quoted in newspapers saying that 60% of reports of flying saucers were just optical afterimages.



The New York Barnard Bulletin Oct. 27, 1952
Barnard Bulletin, Nov. 5, 1956
And finally, a story on the presentation that formed the basis for "Saucers Explained."
Alton Evening Telegraph, May 2, 1960

A Rational Voice


Followers of Donald Keyhoe's claim that the flying saucers are real had little interest in hearing any science that did not support the extraterrestrial hypothesis for the origin of UFOs. Dr. Youtz passed in 1986, and received a nice obituary in the New York Times. Today, his work is remembered almost only by his former academy.

"Youtz's belief that the scientific method could be applied to the analysis of behavior guided much of what he did. No phenomenon seemed too far out to approach scientifically. He presented one paper in which he speculated that some reports of flying saucers might be due to visual afterimages. In another line of research, he spent three years studying the perception of colors through the skin. In the early 1960s, there were reports that scientists in the Soviet Union had demonstrated that some people were capable of dermato-optical perception. In careful experiments, Youtz demonstrated that the ability to detect colors was eliminated if the objects were covered by thick glass or if the skin temperature was below 24-degrees C. Furthermore, performance deteriorated if the colored objects were made of material that did not have good thermal conduction properties, such as wood or sponge. These experiments showed that about 10% of the population could discriminate colors by touching objects but that the basis for the discrimination was the thermal properties of objects. Youtz's was a rational voice in the sometimes wild discussion of dermato-optical sensitivity that was taking place."
The History of the Barnard College Psychology Department
Professor Youtz's flying saucer solution didn't catch on, but his work in "dermato-optical perception" seems to have been immortalized, inspiring DC Comics' Batman villain, the "Ten-Eyed Man," the man who could see with his fingertips.

Friday, December 22, 2017

Signs: Ezekiel, the Bible and UFOs


"It's God's truth — I will swear it on a Bible." 
- Kenneth Arnold, Oregon Journal, June 27, 1947


Kenneth Arnold received a warning shortly after his sighting of flying saucers in 1947. Some people were seeing the saucers as a sign from above.

Preacher Sees Doomsday "... getting his flock “ready for the end of this world.”

Spokane Daily Chronicle, page 1, June 27, 1947 

Biblical connections were being found:
Los Angeles Herald-Express, July 8, 1947, "Ezekiel the Prophet Foretold Flying Discs."

The Bible and Project Blue Book

Project Blue Book checked the Bible for such signs. General John A. Samford, from page three of the AF transcript of the July 29, 1952 press conference prompted by the Washington, D.C. UFO radar incidents.
“The volume of reporting is related to many things. We know that reports of this kind go back to Biblical times. There have been flurries of them in various centuries. 1846 seems to of been a time when there were quite a flurry of reporting of this card. Our current series of report goes back, generally, to 1946 in which things with this kind reported in Sweden."
Later handwritten notes added in margin, with an arrow pointing to Biblical times:
“Charles Fort has written on the subject of UFOs – his works published during the last century.”
Captain Edward J. Ruppelt of Project Blue Book in a 1952 document, “Draft of Article for August Air Intelligence Digest” had a section dealing with the Biblical UFOs, UAPs or UAOs:
"Ezekiel Saw de Wheel,"Zechariah saw a "roll"
The AIR INTELLIGENCE DIGEST will not quarrel with readers who dismiss as far-fetched any interpretation of the Biblical quotations below as references to 1) a disc-shaped UAO and 2) a cigar-shaped UAO. These quotations are presented solely for whatever significance, if any, that DIGEST readers read into them.
The wording of the well-known reference in Ezekiel is: " . . . a whirlwind came out of the north . . . a fire unfolding . . . and a brightness was about it, out of the midst thereof as the color of amber . . . it sparkled like the color of burnished brass . . . like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps . . . the appearance of the wheels was like unto the color of a beryl (greenish-blue) . . . as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel".
Less familiar is a passage in Zechariah: "Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and beheld a flying roll . . . the length thereof (was) twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof (was) ten cubits." "Roll," in Biblical terminology, usually meant the parchment rolls then used for books. In some translations, the phrase "flying book" is substituted for "flying roll" in the foregoing passage. Converting cubits into feet, Zechariah's "flying roll" measured 30 by 15 feet.
Ruppelt briefly touched on the topic in his 1956 book, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects:
“Did UFO reports actually start in 1947? We had spent a great deal of time trying to resolve this question. Old newspaper files, journals, and books that we found in the Library of Congress contained many reports of odd things being seen in the sky as far back as the Biblical times. The old Negro spiritual says, 'Ezekiel saw a wheel 'way up in the middle of the air.' We couldn't substantiate Ezekiel's sighting because many of the very old reports of odd things observed in the sky could be explained as natural phenomena that weren't fully understood in those days."

The Air Force wasn't going to accept the Biblical accounts on faith alone, but it was enough for many.

Flying Saucers, God's Last Sign of the Age

Certainly a bit of religion worked its way into UFO lore, such as with George Adamski's Space Brothers, "technological angels" from Venus. A bit of flying saucery worked its way into some churches as well. The Reverend R.D. Ingle included saucers in some of his sermons.


"Earthquakes and Flying Saucers, God's Last Sign of the Age."


Harrisonburg Daily News-Record (VA) March 21, 1953

"The United States Will be Invaded From the Air According to Bible Predictions"

Zanesville Signal (OH) April 1953 


Ezekiel's vision
 
Reverend Billy Graham was asked in his column about Ezekiel and flying saucers. Graham didn't know much about saucers, but didn't think they were part of Biblical prophecy. Still, he thought it prudent to get right with the Lord just in case, and also to "Watch..."

Charleston Daily Mail (WV) April 2, 1953


The topic of UFOs and religion is near infinite, so we'll let Rev. Graham have the last word for now.



Friday, December 15, 2017

First Flying Saucer Occupant Report, Published July 9, 1947



Little Green Men from Mars were not initially given any serious thought as being the answer to flying saucers. In 1947, most people thought that if flying saucers were real, they must be a secret military project- ours or by other countries spying on the USA. Space aliens were taken no more seriously than the earlier talk of mischievous gremlins sabotaging airplanes during World War II.

The first report of contact with alien beings from saucers was made in Nashville, Tennessee in early July 1947, and published in the day after the story of the "captured flying disc" story from Roswell, New Mexico:

The Nashville Tennessean, July 9, 1947, page one
All Over the Nation People Talk Saucers
The flying saucer furore has finally hit Nashville... One man, apparently sane and sober, wrote the editor of The Nashville Tennessean, a long interesting letter about his brush with a couple of Men from Mars on a nearby flying field. These strange little men, “all heads and arms and legs, glowing like fireflies,” landed and alighted from a flying saucer as he drove along a highway, the man wrote. The man from Nashville and the Men from Mars exchanged greetings (in sign language) and the saucer finally took off in a cloud of dust, so the letter says.

The Nashville TennesseanJuly 9, 1947
Indistinguishable from a joke?

Describing the story, Jerome Clark in The UFO Encyclopedia Volume 2, 1992, said,

"The newspaper account characterizes the correspondent (whose letter was only paraphrased, not published) as 'apparently perfectly sane and sober,' but the story sounds more like a practical joke than a serious report."
The letter may not have been genuine, but the account is important for being the first published, and closely resembles many other that would eventually surface later, including a number of accounts told or published at the each year on April 1st.

As with so many of the most interesting UFO cases featured here at The Saucers That Time Forgot, Project Blue Book has no file on this incident.

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