Space: 1947, Atomic Spaceships

 

Before flying saucers, space ships were made famous in science fiction books, magazines, comics, and movies. Toys based on space adventures were popular as a result. Sometimes spaceships were used to sell breakfast cereal.

The website for Kix states, “Since we made our first batch of crispy corn puffs in 1937, KIX® has been dedicated to helping kids get a bright start to their day.” Like a lot of products marketed to kids, they often used advertising gimmicks, in this case, toy spaceships.

 

Advertisements for the Kix Jet Atomic model Space Ships appeared in the Sunday color alongside famous newspaper comics, “Jet Atomic model Space Ships.”

 

There were eight models: Astral Ace, Cosmic Cruiser, Interplanetary Interceptor, Jeto Jeep, Lunar Schooner, Phantom Planeteer, Radar Raycraft, and Solar Streak.

 

The toy spaceships were printed on the back of Kix cereal boxes, which required they be cut out and assembled. 

They were intended to resemble the spaceships from Buck Rogers, but the execution was hampered by the limitations of the cardboard medium, so what we got was colorful paper airplanes. The boxes also had ideas for games, and some educational content about atomic power, spacecraft, and technology.

 

The first version of the ad ran in May. "Flash Gordon" comic strip by Mac Raboy, dated May 25, 1947, had the Kix cereal ad placed below it.

 

The next month, an even more exciting version of the ad appeared on Sunday, June 22, 1947. 

While there was no mention of Martians or other aliens, it talked about Air Pirates, landing on the moon, and Space Rays, with “Fantastic facts for future pilots inside every box.”  “Gripping stuff about future planes changing shape after taking off… how jet planes fly… how radar sees the unseen! Man, it’s dynamite!”

 

The Coming of the Saucers 

Two days after the Kix "Strato Pilot" ad, Kenneth Arnold had his famous sighting that launched the flying saucer craze. He spotted nine unidentified objects he estimated were travelling at 1200 miles per hour, but initially he was reluctant to speculate on their origin and make up. The next month in Pendleton, Oregon, the UFO pioneer lectured on his experience and the newspaper headline for the story was, “Kenneth Arnold Suggests ‘Flying Discs’ May Make Use Of Atomic Power.” The East Oregonian, July 17, 1947 reported he said,

 “Any object traveling at that speed (1382.40 mph) would run into wall of air molecules which would make flight impossible. That wall of atmosphere would have to be destroyed to clear path for the plane.”

The Oregonian reported, “A cyclotronic device mounted in the nose of disc could destroy the atoms in its path and perhaps use their energy as fuel, [Arnold] theorized.”

 

We just have to wonder. On that fateful day in June 1947, what did Kenneth Arnold have for breakfast? 

The Texas UFO Crash Debris Photo from July 1947

A Robertson Panel of another sort, the Texas UFO mystery metal of 1947.

Leonard Robertson of Perryton, Texas, witnessed a UFO explode in late July 1947, and afterwards he was able to recover a large fragment of it. The incident occurred shortly after the flying disc story in Corona and Roswell, New Mexico, only about 250 miles away. The Texas news appeared on the front page of the Amarillo Daily News on August 6, 1947:

Perryton Man Displays Proof of Saucer Story

PERRYTON, Aug. 5 - Leonard Robertson, former Perryton city marshal and now with O. A. Schuster of the Perryton Gas Company, has proof that he really saw something flying through the air recently.

Robertson just realized today that he might be in possession of a flying disk or something odd that flew through the air with the greatest of ease - until it exploded almost in his face. He took his find to Mr. Schuster and Sheriff W. H. Lance, but they haven't been able to help him.

Here's Mr. Robertson's story:

"I was riding my motorcycle south into Dumas - I believe it was July 25 - when something bright in the sky to my left attracted my attention. I pulled off the road and saw a strange object floating over a field about a mile away. It was kind of oval and looked to be about 15 or 20 feet in circumference. It looked something like a big bubble.

"While I was watching it, the durned thing exploded. I saw pieces falling in all directions. I decided to see if I could find some of the pieces so I rode down a side road and walked into the field where I thought the thing fell. This is what I found."

Mr. Robertson displayed a piece of what looked like aluminum, but was much lighter. It was about 30 inches long and 24 inches wide and slightly curved. There were two small holes in it and the center appeared to have been burned. Two of the edges showed where they had overlapped another piece.

There was neither number nor name of any kind on the piece of material.

Mr. Robertson plans to go back and see if he can find more evidence to back his saucer story.

Amarillo Daily News, Aug. 6, 1947

A photograph of the UFO debris taken by Sheriff W. H. Lance appeared in the follow up story on page 5 of the Aug. 9th paper:

Salvage From Mystery Blast

What is it? Leonard Robertson of Perryton discovered this strange object in a field near Dumas recently. He says it is part of a strange object he watched explode near where he was riding his motorcycle. The material is lighter than aluminum and it has two small holes and a burned spot in it. Mr Robertson said the object appeared to be globe-shaped. He couldn't find any other pieces. 

Amarillo Daily News, Aug. 9, 1947

We could wish for a more detailed description of the fragment. "Lighter than aluminum," but rectangular and "slightly curved," does not sound like foil from a rawin target, or part of a balloon. Like Mac Brazel before him, Robertson didn't put much significance on the debris until he, "realized today that he might be in possession of a flying disk or something odd..." 

While it's possible that the report might have been a joke or a hoax, it seems unlikely that Robertson would target his employer and the local sheriff. Robertson’s report apparently went no farther than the local sheriff, and there is no mention of the incident in Project Blue Book files. There was no subsequent press on the UFO incident, and the debris truly can be said to have come from a saucer that time forgot. 

If there are any readers in the Amarillo area, we ask you to make inquiries to find out what became of this physical evidence.

Flying Saucers & the Regatta Queen Contest: Two Case Studies from 1947

1947 marked the first election in the US where flying saucers played a role. It happened in Oregon, with a candidate exploiting the saucer mystery for an edge in a fierce campaign. Incredibly, it happened twice, in two different races in Oregon, the Coos Bay Pirates Regatta event in Marshfield, and at the Cottage Grove Lake Regatta in Cottage Grove. STTF’s political reporter, Claude Falkstrom, gathered the news clipping to recap the races, the election results, and in one case, the tragic collateral damage.

The Coos Bay Pirates Regatta

From Images of America: Coos Bay, by Andie E. Jensen, 2012:
“The Coos Bay Pirates were a civic group that promoted Coos Bay and North Bend. They were known for their colorful pirate costumes and high jinks in capturing civic members for a time of folly.” They sponsored an annual event, the Coos Bay Pirates Regatta.

The regatta promotion stated: “Thousands of persons will attend... a show worth seeing worth far more than the one dollar admission price... The Pirates produce this show on a non-profit basis to promote southwestern Oregon's interests.” There was a competition: “One of these lovely girls will... rule as queen of the Coos Bay Pirate regatta... Buy a regatta button and ask your Pirate Princess for instructions.” 

The $1 buttons served as tickets to the event, and contestants collected “votes” for queen of the regatta by selling them. Besides a crown and a queenly prize for the winner, there was also cash and merchandise prizes for the runner-ups. The campaign began in mid-June and ended on August 1, the start of the 3-day regatta event. 

Here’s pictures of the candidates, the Pirate Princesses:

The press on the story told about the coronation, the celebrity guests, the orchestra and other activities that would be featured at the gala event.

The Coos Bay Times, June 16, 1947

Meanwhile, less than 400 miles away, a legend was born.

K. Arnold sighting as depicted in Coronet Magazine, November 1952

On June 26, the story broke about Kenneth Arnold seeing a formation of nine unidentified flying objects. As a result, flying saucer fever swept across the USA. As we shall see, it played a role in race for regatta royalty.

On June 28, Queen candidate Donna Christopherson was profiled in the newspaper.

The Coos Bay Times, June 28, 1947

By July 11, Donna Christopherson took the lead in the race for regatta Queen. The next day, she took flight to advertise her campaign and dropped hundreds silver discs from an airplane over Coos Bay, with the message, “Vote for Donna for Queen.” 

The Coos Bay Times, July 12, 1947

Donna appeared in Pirate costume to promote the regatta events.

The Coos Bay Times, July 29, 1947

The saucer stunt had been an attention getter, but by July 18, somehow Donna Christopherson slipped into second place. LuRae Ball took the lead, but then lost it to Fern Amos. The stories from The Coos Bay Times from July 25, 28, 29, 30 and 31 document the close and dramatic race.

On August 1st the final results were:

3. Fern Amos, Veterans of Foreign Wars, awarded $200.
2. Donna Christopherson, Active Club, awarded $300.
1. LuRae Ball, Business & Professional Women's Club, Queen, and awarded a university scholarship.

The Coos Bay Times, Aug. 4, 1947

Sometimes, even saucers aren’t enough.

Key Saucer Locations: Coos Bay, Cottage Grove, Mount Rainier and the Cascade Range 

The Cottage Grove Lake Regatta

Another event took place about one hundred miles away the same time, the Cottage Grove Lake Regatta. The voting for their regatta queen ran from July 13 through 26, and the votes were tallied in ballot boxes in local businesses, “one vote for each dollar received.”

The Eugene Guard, July 12, 1947

In the Cottage Grove contest, the candidate representing the Moose Lodge, Barbara Anderson, took the early lead.

The Eugene Guard, July 17, 1947

To win further votes, Barbara dropped saucers from a plane on Saturday July 19.

Unfortunately, the disk drop resulted in a serious injuries:

The Eugene Guard, July 19, 1947

The accident did not seem to have an effect on the campaign, and closing in on the finish, Barbara held on to her lead in the race.

The Eugene Guard, July 24, 1947

Despite her early lead, Barbara Anderson slipped and finished in second place as runner-up. Shirley Hileman was crowned regatta queen.

The Eugene Guard, July 24, 29 and, 31, 1947

History records no further flying saucer involvement with either Donna Christopherson or Barbara Anderson, the two Oregon saucer candidates who flew no higher than second place. There was also no further news located about the saucer-related injury of the boy, Dick Miller, but in the absence of an obituary, we hope the lad had a full and speedy recovery.

Oregon Flying Saucer Worries and Project Blue Book

As for other UFO business in the area, in the days leading up to the regatta event, some Cottage Grove residents definitely had saucers on their minds. One citizen wrote to the newspaper over concerns that discs were weapons platforms to spread poison.

The Eugene Guard, July 13 and 27, 1947

Another resident had a sighting of something in the sky she was unable to identify - at first.

The Eugene Guard, July 24, 1947

Closing on a historical note...

There is no Project Blue Book file associated with the regatta saucers. However, it is interesting to see that there is a report from Oregon from the period. It was connected to the Kenneth Arnold sighting, over the same mountains, and said to have occurred on the same day, June 24, 1947. 

Fred Johnson, a prospector on Mt. Adams, reported seeing five or six disc-like objects banking in the sun, but unlike Arnold’s UFOs, these saucers had tails, and their presence caused his compass needle to go wild. Unfortunately, it wasn’t reported until after the Arnold story broke, so it’s uncertain as to whether Johnson was a fraudulent copycat, or a corroborating witness to the most famous UFO sighting of all time. The Air Force’s conclusion: Unidentified. 

Here’s the link the Project Blue Book file on the Fred Johnson sighting report: 
Project Grudge: June 24, 1947, Portland, Oregon (Fold3)

When Flying Saucers Dropped on the USA

Since World War I or before, airplanes have been used to drop leaflets as propaganda tools, and before long, advertisers copied the practice on a civilian audience. After the news of Kenneth Arnold's sighting of a formation of nine unidentified objects made headlines in June 1947, flying saucer fever swept across the United States. 

Saucers were a hot topic, and advertisers were quick to pick up on the trend. In short order, they began dropping disc-shaped ads from airplanes. One early drop resulted in a UFO report from Bend, Oregon in early July 1947.

The Bend Bulletin, OR, July 5, 1947

Flying discs were a sensation, so paper plate-type saucers became the medium for the message.

Discs were dropped as advertising stunts across the USA...

Photo and article from The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 13, 1947

Stores, restaurants, insurance companies, even the U.S. Army were being advertised via saucers.

Examples of saucer advertising from UFOPOP:

A. The Daily Freeman, Waukesha, WI, July 11, 1947

B. The Daily Register, Harrisburg, IL, July 19, 1947

C. The Daily Courier, Waterloo, IA, July 10, 1947

D. The Times Record, Troy, NY, July 11, 1947

Saucers also fell over Canada. (Notice that hoaxers butted in on this, too.)

The Vancouver Sun, July 14, 1947

Here's another example, from radio station KDAL in Duluth, Minnesota. They launched 10,000 silver discs over surrounding cities to advertise their station.

Billboard, July 26, 1947

By the end of August, even Superman was getting in on the act. Superman was a "strange visitor from another planet," so having him confront the mystery of the discs would have been interesting. Instead, we got Superman hoaxing flying saucers to help friends advertise the Teenie Weenies hot dog stand.

Superman Sunday newspaper comic, Aug. 31, 1947

The fad of saucer drops trailed off, but was still in practice well into the 1950s. But exploiting flying saucers never went out of style, and affected everything from music to movies. In future articles, we'll continue to explore this aspect of UFO culture here at The Saucers That Time Forgot. 

Next up: 

Flying Saucers & the Regatta Queen Contest: Two Case Studies from 1947

. . .

See our previous articles on UFO Commercial Exploitation:

UFOs: Real True Hoaxes of Advertising

Discs in the Sky: Flying Saucer Commercialism

Forgotten UFO Literature: The Poems of 1947

In the first weeks of the flying saucer hysteria of 1947, many opinions were offered about the mystery. Some people expressed their outlook in the form of poetry, and here's a small collection of some early notable examples.

The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, from July 4, 1947:

Two saucer poems from The Boston Globe, July 7, 1947:

A (premature) lament about the end of the saucers. From the Pennsylvania Altoona Tribune,  July 22, 1947:

And finally, not exactly poetry, but a piece on what William Shakespeare might have said about UFOs. From Ohio's Dayton Daily News, July 8, 1947:

The First Several Saucer Solutions of 1947

In the weeks following the historic UFO sighting by Kenneth Arnold, many explanations surfaced for the reports of flying saucers. This was spoofed in a cartoon in the July 7, 1947 edition of The Times Record from Troy, New York:

The Times Record, Troy NY, July 7, 1947

The explanations offered ranged from the serious to the silly. STTF's Claude Falkstrom has collected some of the most notable ones from the summer of 1947.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 28, 1947

The Tennessean Sun, June 29, 1947 

The Vought  XF5U-1 "Flying Flapjack?" 

Daily News, July 5, 1947

The Montana Standard, July 5, 1947 

Atomic Experiments?

The Independent Record, July 6, 1947

Mass Hysteria?

Dr. Steckel v. Dr. Overholser

Two psychiatrists gave their conflicting opinions on saucers, Dr. Harry A. Steckel v. Dr. Winfred Overholser on flying saucers as mass hysteria:

The News-Press, (Fort Myers, FL)  July 7, 1947

Remotely-piloted Missiles, Corpuscles?

The Mexico Ledger, July 7, 1947, The Evening Sun, July 7, 1947

Optical Illusions and the Power of Suggestion?

The Milwaukee Sentinel, July 7, 1947

Meteors, Birds or Reflections? 

The Ottawa Journal,  July 7, 1947,  Tampa Bay Times and The Evening Sun, July 9, 1947

Airborne Radioactive Waste?

The Daily Courier, July 10, 1947

Grain Silo Reflections?

 The Sentinel, Carlisle PA, July 9, 1947

Several Silly Suggestions:

The Weekly Acadian, July 10, 1947

Entoptic Phenomena?

Tampa Bay Times, July 13, 1947

Fear-Inspired Folklore?

Messenger-Inquirer, July 20, 1947

Associated Press Science Editor, Howard W. Blakeslee wrote a long article on how the flying saucers might be a "new folklore in the making":

The flying disks are probably the first of a series of aerial puzzles, with others to come, in the opinion of Dr. J.L. Moreno, New York... Men have been seeing things like flying disks for centuries. Now these apparitions have a new meaning and some of them a new dreadfulness. 

The full text of the article can be found at Saturday Night Uforia, "in the news 1947," look for the story, Seeing of Saucers in Flight Is Phenomenon of Current Fears

Industrial Waste?

The News Palladium, July 30, 1947

The Saucers That 1947 Forgot

By August of 1947, the flying saucer sensation was over, and the topic was spoken of in the past tense. The Gallup Poll asked "What do you think the saucers are?" After months of conflicting explanations, no one could be sure, but of the respondents who thought saucers were real, the top answer was military "secret weapon."

Aug. 15, 1947

When saucers were discussed, the idea lingered that the UFOs could be a secret military weapon, but there was no consensus on who was flying them.

The Soviets thought they were ours.

St. Clair Chronicle, Aug. 23, 1947

Oregon Representative Harris Ellsworth got word that behind the saucers story we might find a rocket from Russia.

The Freeport Journal-Standard, Dec. 22, 1947

Stories of saucer sightings, and various explanations from the credible to the crackpot variety, continued to make good copy. The newspapers continued to provide stories about flying saucers for their curious readers. It didn't much matter to the newspaper editors what was being seen, or whether it was real; saucers were news, and they sold news.