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| Arthur L. Draper (R) and two Buhl Planetarium visitors |
Arthur L. Draper was an astronomer and the the director of the Buhl Planetarium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1940 until the time of his death in 1967. In that role, he was often asked to comment about UFOs, and was quoted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 2, 1947. His professional opinion was that people were misidentifying things in the sky due to the contagion of excitement over flying saucers.
"From our experience, we have found that one person can claim to have seen a phenomenon and countless other people will immediately 'see' it also. It is the power of suggestion."Nevertheless, Draper encouraged people to keep looking, and to be interested in what could be discovered in the night sky. In 1950, Draper put together a program put for the planetarium, "The Mystery of the Flying Saucers," and a short article appeared in The Pittsburgh Press accompanied by a stunning UFO illustration by Nat Youngblood.
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| The Pittsburgh Press July 2, 1950 |
Thanks to Luis Taylor the UFO researcher behind Information Dispersal, who sent of scans of the planetarium's flyer for Arthur Draper's presentation, "The Mystery of the Flying Saucers."
Draper's program was a big success and ran weekly from July to September of 1950.
This is my grandfather! An article I have never seen. Thanks for posting this article.
ReplyDeleteIonMoon, I was a guide in the early 1960s at the Buhl. The guides were mostly college students working part-time. I remember your grandfather, a kind, modest man who narrated the Sky Shows, live, and ran the amazing Zeiss Projector. I sat in many a Sky Show just to hear Mr. Draper begin the show in the darkened theater with the Projector emerging from the "floor" in the center of the theater. It had hundreds of lights that projected the stars and the planets. At the same time it was rising from the "pit" it was turning in three or four different directions with the stars moving quickly across the dome. At that moment your grandfather, in a voice I still remember would say, "And above us we see the stars." Pure magic!
DeleteSteve ONeill