There was a great UFO movie
from the early 1950s that was never made – until the 1960s. The story centered
on the capture of a flying saucer and the exploitation of its technology – the
intriguing concept behind the Roswell crash story and many other UFO legends.
The investigation of
unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force was officially known
a Project: Sign, then Grudge, then Blue Book, but originally more famous under
the nickname of Project Saucer. One Hollywood producer thought that’d make
a catchy name for a motion picture. Box Office magazine, September 16, 1950, carried an announcement
for a new movie on page 28:
Jerry Fairbanks Plans Flying Disc Subject
“Better move over, Buck Rogers… Hollywood’s filmmakers are adding space sagas to their dockets. Latest of the movie moguls to probe an explanatory finger into the subject is Jerry Fairbanks, producer of commercial and industrial subjects and video films, who is planning Project Saucer as a feature length entry for theatrical release. He has booked Rip Van Ronkel (who scripted Destination Moon to prepare the storyline and will shoot the opus in color starting this winter, with distribution arrangements yet to be set. Data to be incorporated in the film, Fairbanks said, has been compiled by his research department for the past three years.”
Another mention came in
the Oct. 13 column by Dick Williams in the Los Angeles Mirror:
“Jerry Fairbanks is planning ‘Project Saucer’ based on the official Air Force investigation group (which persistent reports indicate is still busy at work at Wright Field, Dayton, O., under Central Intelligence). Variety says Warner Bros. is interested in ‘Behind the Flying Saucers.’ Republic will start work on ‘Flying [Disc] Men from Mars’ next month.”
The project stalled, but
another attempt at making the film was announced in Broadcasting Telecasting, April 5, 1954:
Broadcasting Telecasting, April 5, 1954
Catalog of Copyright Entries, Jan-June 1954
The timing or the money wasn’t right, and it stalled again. In 1964 Jerry Fairbanks revived Project Saucer, but it took two years to get the cameras rolling. Fairbanks was quoted promoting it in an April 11, 1966, Daily Variety, stating that the script for Project Saucer was written by Rip Van Ronkel “over a decade ago when flying saucers first became the rage in the U.S.” (Sadly, Van Ronkel had died the year before at the age of 56.)
As a result of the negative reaction from the DOD, Fairbanks, director Frank Telford and “a new team of writers” updated the screenplay, changing the story away from being a Project Blue Book investigation. As it was retooled, the Vietnam-era anti-war sentiment influenced the script and probably the location of the action. The organization sponsoring the UFO retrieval was not named as the CIA. Also, the role of the Air Force was virtually eliminated from the story and more of the characters were changed to civilian specialists.
From the revised screenplay
To save on the budget,
the movie was set to be filmed in Spain, but Fairbanks was able to strike deals
to make it for the same cost and began production in Hollywood in the fall of
1966 withNational Telefilm
Associates (NTA). When completed, Project Saucer sat on the shelf for
over a year until a distributor could be found, finally released in early 1968
as The Bamboo Saucer. The title was a play on the Cold War phrase, “Bamboo
Curtain,” itself a variant of “Iron Curtain” for the demarcation between the
Communist and capitalist states of East Asia, particularly the People's
Republic of China.
The plot of the movie was slightly similar to Mikel
Conrad’s 1950 film, The Flying Saucer, with rival teams from the US and
Soviets out to capture a flying saucer for their nation. The 1950 film was about
a secret terrestrial weapon but this time, the saucer was of extraterrestrial
origin. Otherwise, there were no
science fiction elements, the story was based on UFO lore from the genuine – the
saucer-related death of Captain Thomas F. Mantell on January 7, 1948, to
the fantastic - Frank Scully’s magnetic
spaceships from Behind the Flying Saucers.
In advance of its release, The Bamboo Saucer was promoted via the flyer pictured above at George van Tassel’s famous flying saucer Contactee convention in October
1967:
“N.T.A. salutes the 14th annual Spacecraft Convention at Giant Rock, and respectfully directs your attention to the exciting new motion picture…”
The copy teased the story:
“From deep inside Red China a peasant’s drawing of a terrifying object from outer space spurs a dramatic search with international significance, terminating in an incredible flight through infinity!”
The actual theatrical movie poster for The Bamboo Saucer said:
"’IT LANDED HERE...IN RED CHINA!’ These words trigger the most incredible life-and-death struggle between RUSSIA and the UNITED STATES...who would be first to find this fantastic machine from outer space and unlock its awesome secrets!”
The Depiction of UFO Concepts in the Movie
Our summary of the film skips many of the plot elements
and drama to focus on the UFO aspects of the story. If you wish to watch the movie
before reading, I can be viewed on YouTube.
While flying the experimental X-109, test pilot Fred Norwood encounters a UFO, a large blue disc with a domed top, no ports or windows. The saucer does not rotate, but pulsing lights around seem to spin around its rim. It flies with great speed and makes erratic turns and maneuvers. The title and the opening credits roll, then this text introduction appears on the screen:
“Grateful acknowledgement is made to all the nationally recognized organizations and publications whose research and records have formed the basis for this story. To the more than 5,000,000 persons who claim to have actually seen Unidentified Flying Objects, no explanation is necessary. To all others no explanation is possible.”
When Norwood lands, he describes the saucer to the flight control as, “Disk-like maybe 40 feet in diameter. Shiny, metallic.” However, there’s no proof; the UFO disabled ground radar, and they tell him all he saw was an illusion caused by a temperature inversion. Norwood is fired from the project, but tries to pursue the UFO independently, and it results in his friend being killed in a crash reminiscent of the tragic incident with Captain Mantell. We aren’t told that the UFO is hostile, but both incidents depicted show the saucer interfere with the flight of our aircraft, the second time with deadly results.
Sometime later, Norwood is summoned to the Washington, D.C. to meet Mr. Hank Peters of an unnamed US government agency with an office door marked, “Security Personnel Only.” Peters shows him a sketch that matches Norwood’s saucer and tells him it’s of a UFO was that was recovered in Red China and hidden in an abandoned church:
“It landed there… the bodies of two – uh – creatures were found nearby, human-like and yet different… The remains decayed very rapidly, and the peasants cremated what was left. …that thing could be so scientifically advanced as to make our technology obsolete and if the Red Chinese get their hands on it, the free world is obsolete.”
Peters recruits Norwood
and two other civilians for the US team, and they parachute into China with the
mission to clandestinely evade the Chinese Army to capture – or destroy the saucer. On the way to
the UFO’s location, they encounter their counterparts, a team from the Soviet
Union and they face each other with guns drawn.
Both teams are composed
of scientists and technical experts but led by government men with a military agenda.
It turns out the Soviets are also operating in secret, and the two teams reluctantly
agree to work together for mutual survival, and to prevent the Chinese government
from getting the saucer.
Cast from left to right: Bernard Fox (as metallurgist Dave Ephram), Bob Hastings (as electronics wizard Jack Garson), Lois Nettleton (as USSR electronics engineer Anna Karachev), Vincent Beck (as USSR metallurgist Zagorsky), Rico Cattani (as Comrade Dubovsky, Soviet team leader), Dan Duryea (as Hank Peters, USA team leader), and John Ericson (as test pilot Fred Norwood).
When they finally find the saucer, the scientists determine it is made from an unknown metal stronger than anything known. Entering the cabin, they find it full of consoles, screens, and instruments designed to be operated by human-like beings.
Portions of the dome are transparent, like four one-way windows, undetectable from the outside. There are no seats or restraints, and they decide the ship produces its own gravity field which allows the occupants to withstand the extreme maneuvers the craft performs. They briefly activate the propulsion and determine its technology operates by “universal lines of magnetic force.” The Russian metallurgist Zagorsky says:
“If we could utilize this principle, we could exploit literally limitless fields of energy. We could irrigate deserts, desalt oceans, increase production of food, of everything, one-hundred-fold.”
Norwood, replies, “We could also manufacture one hell of a super-weapon.”
The Chinese army discovers their location and each team’s hawkish leader takes their men to (G-rated) war. Three of the teams’ members narrowly manage to escape with the saucer, but they lose control, and it flies into space.
As it approaches light speed and heads for a crash into Saturn, working together they literally turn things around and return to earth, deciding no one nation should be given such power.
They head for neutral territory, and on the way, Fred Norton delivers the moral of the story:
“You know, when the world sees this ship, everybody's gonna have to realize there are other intelligent beings in the universe. They will have to meet them face to face one day. All the nations of this earth better be ready to stand together.”
The story was influenced by Silas Newton’s Aztec yarn depicted in Behind the Flying Saucers by Frank Scully, where landed saucers and dead crewmen were captured by the US military.
Frank Scully and Silas Newton (seated).
Another element from Scully’s book is the magnetic powers source which can be used to provided free energy or used as a lethal weapon. The screenplay eliminates the aliens from the story and only the saucer itself is left as a technological mystery and prize for the nation who captures it. The final message is similar to that of the Contactees like George Adamski, that Earth’s nations should unite in brotherhood.
The Crash of a Flying Saucer Film
The Bamboo
Saucer is a little-known film that
it was overshadowed by the release of two science fiction classics the same year,
Planet of the Apes and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film was produced
by a minor studio, a low-budget B-feature exhibited mostly at drive-in theaters.
While
The Bamboo
Saucer has its flaws, it is
worthwhile for how it examines some UFO concepts. It might be regarded as a
classic if it had been completed in the 1950s alongside The Thing from Another
World and The Day the Earth Stood Still. The screenplay was ahead of
its time, but by the time it was filmed a decade and a half later, even
television had been churning out saucer and alien stories for years.
The Bamboo Saucer was
translated and issued abroad. In 1969 it was re-released, cut from 103 to 90
minutes under title Collision Course and later televised under that name.
The end of the 60s were bad for the UFO business in fact and fiction. On television, Star Trek was cancelled on Feb. 18, 1969, and months later Project Blue Book closed shop on investigating UFOs. Except for the Planet of the Apes franchise, not much was happening for science fiction and space films in the cinemas. It wasn’t until the mid-1970s, when a sf resurgence led to mainstream blockbusters like Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
The Bamboo
Saucer was either behind or
ahead of the times. It’s worth picturing it as an anachronism, and with a
healthy sense of wonder and imagination - for what might have been.
Special
Effects: John P. Fulton, Glen Robinson, Deon Hanson
Music:
Edward Paul
The American Film Institute site reports that one contributor died shortly before movie and another shortly after its release. “On 1 Jul 1966, in the midst of pre-production, writer and special effects man John Fulton died of a blood condition... The Bamboo Saucer also marked the final feature film role for Dan Duryea, who died of cancer on 7 Jun 1968.”
. . .
Special thanks to Ricky Poole for introducing me to this The Bamboo Saucer and the story behind it.
This double-sized STTF article is separated into two parts, but printed here in its entirety.
We owe a special acknowledgment to Herschel P. Fink, the Detroit reporter who broke the original story
in 1967 and followed up with a detailed 1968 article in True magazine.
Part One:
"My
boys have just taken a picture..."
Project Blue Book, the Expert Consultant,
and his Staff
Hector Quintanilla took over in
1962 as the chief of the U.S. Air Force’s Aerial Phenomena Branch of the Foreign
Technology Division, better known as Project Blue Book. In his proposed 1974
book, UFOs, An Air Force Dilemma, Quintanilla explained the project operated.
The office at Wright-Patterson AFB consisted of two officers, one sergeant, and
one civilian stenographer, but they had resources on hand as needed. Each Air
Force base had a designated UFO investigating officer, and it was one of those nearest
the reported sighting that would conduct the initial investigation, submit his
report to the project office at Wright-Patterson. If unexplained, they would
contact the visit or contact the witness by telephone or mail requesting
further information. “Although our office complement was small, I had at my
disposal professional experts from all scientific disciplines. Wright-Patterson
has the best Materials Laboratory in the world…”
Blue Book’s most famous expert
consultant was Dr. J. Allen Hynek, professor of astronomy at Northwestern University
in Illinois. In the mid-1960s Project Blue Book had authorized Hynek to recruit
assistance from colleagues in analyzing and processing UFO reports. Jacques
Vallee, a young French ufologist who was pursuing his Ph.D. and working as a
computer programmer, chiefly assisted in data management. Hynek later described
his colleagues as, “an excellent scientific staff that could be employed from
time to time.” William T. Powers was an electronics engineer at Dearborn Observatory
who occasionally tackled UFO field work. Fred H. Beckman was an electron
microscopist, and he chiefly provided photo analysis. Beckman was the newcomer;
he’d caught the UFO bug in the flap of 1966, the one that brought a mixture of
fame and infamy to Hynek.
Unfortunately, these “invisible
colleagues” were not available in March 1966 when the Air Force sent Dr, Hynek to
investigate the Michigan UFO sightings that were making big news. After a brief
and harried investigation, Hynek gave a press conference and suggested that some
of the UFO sightings were caused by ignis fatuus, the combustion of marsh gas. The
resulting public backlash against the “swamp gas” explanation caused the Air
Force a great deal of grief and embarrassment. It also gave the saucer topic a
big boost, and even politicians were demanding real answers. That started the
ball rolling, and later that year, a scientific UFO study was finally launched,
led by Dr. Edward Condon at the University of Colorado. Meanwhile, there was friction
between Hynek and Quintanilla. Hynek was increasingly vocal Blue Book’s
scientific shortcomings. Quintanilla’s
book shows that he was irritated at the astronomer’s increasingly pro-UFO
stance and stated that when Dr. Hynek began to be recognized as a UFO expert and celebrity in 1964, “Hynek began to change… He embarrassed me and the Air
Force on a number of occasions… 1966 was the year which convinced me that Dr.
Hynek had lost his usefulness to the project.” In 1967, Project Blue Book received
over 70 UFO reports in the month of January alone. One of them was a photographic
case that made major news, and it also caused further division between Quintanilla
and Hynek.
The Flying Hamburger of Michigan
Dr. Hynek
was drawn into another big media case in Michigan, the sighting of the strange
flight of a “hamburger-shaped object.” It began on a freezing Monday afternoon,
January 9, 1967, when reporter Herschel P. Fink of The
Detroit News received a phone call.
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) Two
teen-aged brothers report they observed and photographed a disc-shaped flying
object which they said hovered for 10 minutes behind their home, and within a
mile of Selfridge Air Force Base. Dan Jaroslaw, 17, and his brother Grant, 15,
showed photographs to a Detroit Free Press photographer to support their report
of a disc-shaped, bi-colored flying object, slightly domed at the top with what
appeared to be a slim mast at the rear.
The Air Force said they knew
nothing of the reported sighting despite the fact that a Coast Guard helicopter
was operating in the immediate vicinity at the time.
Dan told reporters that he
and his brother were behind their house on Lake St. Clair, about a quarter mile
off the backyard of their Harrison township home outside of this Detroit suburb
to take pictures of dye on the lake. The older brother said last night that
"there were some dye tests being made on the septic tank to check for
leaks, and Grant was going to take pictures of the dye on the lake when it (the
object) was about a quarter of a mile in front of us on the lake." The
brothers said they noticed the object about 2:30 p.m. They said it raced off to
the southeast and disappeared in clouds.
"About five minutes
after it disappeared - it went real fast - a helicopter came up from behind
us," Dan said. He added that his brother took pictures of both aircraft. Dan said, "We've seen a
lot of strange aircraft from the base in the 14 years we've lived here, but
never anything like this. It moved faster than any of the jets we see from the
base."
Numbers on the back of the
photographs taken with a Polaroid camera, however, showed [two exposures] of
the reported flying objects coming after the helicopter photo. The object was
on Nos. 1 and 2, the helicopter No. 3 and the object again on 4 [which was
missing, and 5].
Dan said four pictures were
taken of the object. Last night, the family said that they had not shown the
pictures to the Air Force, and would not do so. "They just might grab
them and never give them back to us," Mrs. [Betty] Jaroslaw said.
The youngsters denied having
gotten any ideas about UFO's from a nationally-televised situation comedy
series last night in which a youngster stirred his home city by getting some
UFO pictures. [My Three Sons, January 5, 1967, "You Saw a
What?"] Capt. Mina Costin, information officer at Selfridge, said the base
operations officer, who coordinates reports of unidentified flying objects, the
command post of the 1st Fighter Wing and the base radar station had neither
sighted any UFOs nor had any reports of them despite the fact that Dan said "the
helicopter could have seen it easily."
The three UFO photos the
brothers shared were all taken from a slightly different angle, but the object
was remained in almost the same position. The officers at Selfridge Air Force
Base were impressed. Many UFO photographs are merely either specs or blobs
shown against the sky, making it difficult to tell whether the object was a
distant large object, or a small one nearby, suspended from a string or tossed
into the air. The Jaroslaw pictures depicted an object with distinct features,
and included some landscape with definite points of reference for investigation
and analysis.
The Evening Gazette (Worcester MA), Jan. 12, 1967
The Investigation of Major
Raymond W. Nyls
(No photo available)
Major Raymond W. Nyls, 47,
was the Selfridge base operations officer, an amateur astronomer with an
interest in UFOs and he was the one tasked as the local investigator for Blue Book.
mentioned in the story above was. The day after the sighting, Nyls went to the
scene at Harrison Township to investigate on behalf of Project Blue Book. He
found the family very reluctant to talk about the sighting, and he was unable to
view or obtain the original photographs. Nyls said, “It was a very funny
family.”
Th boys told the press that they’d
been home from school that afternoon because their mother was ill. Betty
Jaroslaw, with her daughter and two sons lived in a two-story house on the
shore of Lake St. Clair. According to Herschel P. Fink, the house “had been
gutted in a fire almost two years before. Mrs. Jaroslaw and the two boys lived
in the basement. The rest of the house, located in a fashionable lakefront
area, remained uninhabitable. The boy's father [Alfred P. Jaroslaw], divorced
from their mother, lived a few miles away with his second family in a new
house.". Maj. Nyls reported that the “back yard looked like a junkyard.”
At the spot where the photos had been taken, there was a structure made from 2 ½
inch iron pipe that had once been the frame for a swing set, and portion of the
pipe was visible in at least one of the photos. From the location, he could see
the frozen lake which eliminated the possibility that the object was just a
boat on the water. There was no object in the yard that resembled the saucer in
the photos. Later, he told the press, "The type of person and the type of
camera involved would lead me to believe this is not a hoax.” Nyls obtained
copies and enlargements of the photos from Herschel Fink of The Detroit News,
who had seen the originals, and said they showed no sign of having been
tampered with. Based on viewing the copies, Nyls described the UFO pictures as
“the best I've ever seen." Major Nyls sent copies by plane to Wright-Patterson
which were used in the Air Force’s subsequent attempts at analysis.
Nyls also conducted a typical
investigation, looking for additional witnesses, gathering weather data, checking
into air traffic, etc. About the only details that Nyls picked up that weren’t
in the press was that the witnesses said the object was dull gray, and when
asked to compare the size of it to an object held at arm’s length, said “baseball.”
Nyls’ report stated the UFO had “hovered at low altitude, moved back and forth slightly
and tipped slightly” for about ten minutes, then flew off very fast to the
southeast. He characterized both witnesses as “reliable.”
Major Nyls returned the next
day to take measurements and photographs for the investigation. Mrs. Jaroslaw continued
her refusal to share the Polaroids for examination. The family no longer wanted
any attention, and Hershel Fink reported, “This refusal to show the original
prints was part of a strange reaction by the Jaroslaw family to the initial
newsbreak. The family went into hiding, refusing to be interviewed. Its
unlisted telephone number was changed twice and large 'Keep Out' and 'Beware of
Dog' signs were posted." (True magazine)
Grant with his Polaroid Swinger. Degraded copy of the helicopter photo from PBB files.
The photo of the helicopter was
problematic. There were 5 photos in all. Polaroid prints had information
printed on the back, a manufacturing code and an exposure number, which was
useful for keeping photos in order by the sequence shot. The brothers’ exposures
showed: 1 & 2 the saucer, 3 was of a helicopter, 4 was of the saucer (but
not shared with the news or Air Force), and 5 showed the saucer with a section
of pipe of the right side. Despite what the boys said, the numbering sequence
proved that the helicopter picture had been taken between the shots of the UFO,
not afterwards. Another contradiction was that the helicopter was said to have
flown closer to the boys than the saucer, but the picture had a coarser texture
to the grain of the image, than the UFO pictures did.
“Air Force officials today were checking some ‘pretty
interesting pictures’ of an unidentified flying object. ...Maj. Raymond Nyls…
said the pictures "look pretty authentic… about the best I've seen." Nyls
was unable to persuade the boys to give him the original photographs, however.
He said he would gather information on weather conditions at the time and make
a report…
Maj. Hector Quintanilla of the Foreign Technology Division said with
the original photographs, he would be able to determine the size and shape of
the object "within a few inches." This would be difficult, he said,
with copies. …[Regarding the Polaroids’ numbering sequence,] According to Nyls,
this discrepancy can be attributed to the boys' excitement. ‘The type of person
and the type of camera used would lead me to believe this is not a hoax,’ he
said. Nyls said he also interviewed the pilot of the helicopter, who reported
seeing nothing unusual.”
Dr. J. Allen Hynek heard about the photos
and called The Detroit News and asked to examine their prints and negatives
made from the Jaroslaw Polaroids. The Chicago
Daily News reported: “Negatives were
made from three Polaroid prints were submitted to Hynek over the weekend.
Jacques Vallee, a member of the Northwestern astronomy department, which Hynek
heads, had the negatives analyzed by experts at the University of Chicago for
evidence of a hoax.” That was mainly Fred Beckman,
who began examining them with sophisticated equipment from thehospital. He checked the images with a flying spot
electronic density plotter, then made new prints using coherent point source
light to produce crisper images. After a full day of testing, Beckman found
nothing in the photos to indicate tampering or that they were faked.
Beckman shared the good news with Hynek,
who gave an exclusive interview to Herschel Fink, optimistically saying, “analysis so far does not show any indication of an
obvious hoax.” He was favorably impressed by “the similarity of these pictures
have to other photos I have seen and also to verbal descriptions I've taken
from ostensibly reliable people," Hynek said. He added, “So often these
reports and investigations go only to the head-scratching phase and no further.
I want to go as far as we can on these pictures.” Fred Beckman was identified
as “an expert in electron microscope photography and other precision photography.”
Hynek said that since the two witnesses were related, it was “essentially a
one-witness case. However, “Being Polaroid prints offers less chance for
darkroom chicanery." He also thought the fact that there were multiple photos
increased their credibility and believability.
AP story in the Intelligencer Journal, Jan. 17, 1967
The AP also reported:
“Lt. William Marley, primary
analyst in the Blue Book office… and Hynek both pointed out that the Jaroslaw
pictures have one advantage over most UFO pictures in that they contain points
of reference to aid in judging depth. The pictures were snapped through a
children’s swing. The branches of a small bush showing the [left] side and an
iron pole shows on the [right].
Fred H. Beckman, a Hynek
associate and expert in precision photography, already has subjected the copies
to several tests. ‘I think we can pretty well
rule out anything holding it up, Beckman said,’ referring to speculation the
object could’ve been suspended from the swing by a thread.”
Hold UFO Photo - Two brothers, Dan Jaroslaw, 17, left, and Grant,
15, view a picture of an unidentified flying object which they claimed to have
made behind their home on Lake St. Clair with the camera Grant is holding.
Pictures showed a saucer-shaped object with what appeared to be an antenna
extending from an outer edge. (AP Wirephoto) (Jan. 17, 1967)
The version of the story from
United Press International was less giddy, saying, “The Air Force's chief
consultant on unidentified flying objects said Monday photographs of what is
said to be UFO over Michigan may not be a hoax.” They summarized the same basic
story noting, “Hynek said he will continue examining the photographs and hopes
to have ‘something definite in a day or two.’”
There was a hint of tension in the original reporting from The New York Times, Jan. 17, 1967, “'Saucer' Pictures Under Study for Authenticity,” which stated that “the two brothers and their mother, Mrs. Betty Jaroslaw, could not be found today. Last week, local reporters found members of the Jaroslaw family unresponsive to questions.”
The New York Times, Jan. 17, 1967
The 17th was not
only big for newspaper coverage, it was also the day the Air Force’s photo report
by James R. Schuit (Intelligence Research Specialist) was completed. The
one-page report contained two short paragraphs, saying,
“Analysis of the
available photography fails to provide any definitive information pertaining to
the identification of the unidentified object. The original photography is
required…”
Project Blue Book director
Major Hector Quintanilla was not happy in either the non-conclusion, or in the massive
publicity generated by Hynek’s comments. At some point, Project Blue Book had crafted
a canned response for any inquiry about off-book comments made by Dr. Hynek:
It almost reminds us of the
tape from the Mission Impossible show, that if the agent botched the
job, “…the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.”
In the aftermath of the huge
press, a story from the AP with far less reach appeared
in the Ironwood Daily Globe, Jan. 18, 1967. The Air Force – and a
possibly chastised Hynek – tried to bring the story back down to earth.
AF Continues Study of UFO
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — The Air
Force is continuing its investigation of photographs taken in Michigan last
week of what appears to be an unidentified flying object, but has come to no
conclusions, officers said yesterday. Spokesmen in project Blue Book at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the agency that investigates UFO reports, said
they still had not viewed the original photographs taken last week near
Selfridge Air Force Base in Michigan. Two boys took photographs of a
hamburger-shaped object with a projection at one end. Wright-Patterson officers
have been studying copies of the photographs, but have said they could not make
proper measurement evaluations or reach any definite conclusions until they
looked at the original prints.
Meanwhile, Dr. J. Allen Hynek
of Evanston, Ill., chairman of the Astronomy Department at Northwestern
University, said in a telephone interview with The Dayton Daily News
Tuesday he did not mean to put an "authentic" stamp on the pictures.
Dr. Hynek has been consulted by the Air Force on UFO investigations in the
past, but Project Blue Book officers said Tuesday he had not been consulted in
regard to the Michigan photographs. "All I said (to a reporter) was that
at first glance the pictures do not appear to be an obvious hoax," Dr.
Hynek said. "I didn't mean to imply that it was not a hoax. What I meant
to say was that if it was a hoax, it is a very clever hoax.”
Hynek had stepped in it and
was backpedaling. When the Air Force questioned him about his endorsement of
the photos, "Dr. Hynek informed our office that he only told the
Associated Press that the photographs appeared to be of an authentic image. He
claimed he was misquoted when the AP said that he, Dr. Hynek, stated the
photographs were apparently authentic." (Jan. 26, 1967, memo from Lt.
William F. Marley of the Aerial Phenomena Branch.)
William T. Powers
At the same time the above
drama was playing out, another investigation was underway. Hynek had also asked
Bill Powers to try his hand with the photos. Powers asked Maj. Nyls to return
to the Jaroslaws' yard to collect data for photo analysis. Nyls (assisted by
Airman 3c Charles R. Hill) spent three chilly hours on Jan. 18, using blowups
of the UFO photos to determine the exact position and camera angle from which
each had been taken, and meticulously measuring the branches of the bush and
the dimensions of the swing frame.
Jaroslaw Picture #5
Nyls already had his
suspicions, but while there, he discovered that the position of the UFO appeared
higher in the last photo, but not from movement. Picture 5 had been taken from
a kneeling position. Nyls made technical drawings with the site data, and once
he was done, it was flown to Chicago so Powers could get started.
Maj. Nyls' Photos and technical drawings
With the data from Nyls,
Powers began determining the UFO’s size and distance from the camera. He spent
several hours creating diagrams and running calculations and triangulating the reference
points. Powers produced a 27-page handwritten report, “Procedures for
Evaluating Jaroslaw Photo,” mostly pages of drawings and trigonometry
concluding, “A hoax cannot be ruled out. An object 3 3/4” in diameter hung from
the pipe overhead could produce the same appearance. … Nothing in the pictures suggests a distant
object.”
Illustration – Nyls’ investigation photo with overlay of a Jaroslaw shot.
Knowing that, “The ultimate
proof of a hoax is to be able to reproduce it,” Powers asked Maj. Nyls to give
it a try. Meanwhile, the Air Force asked the CIA to help.
Part Two:
All the King’s Men
The Central Intelligence
Agency and the Condon Study
The University of Colorado
UFO study led by Dr. Edward U. Condon was underway, and one of the coordinators
was Dr. Thomas Ratchford from the Air Force Research and Development Office.
The Condon Committee was given access to CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation
Center (NPIC) for technical analysis of alleged UFO pictures, but the agency’s
input was to remain secret.
CIA-NPIC document on Condon Study
Hector Quintanilla wanted to
borrow these resources to examine the Jaroslaw photos, and in a memo dated
January 18, 1967, he asked Dr. Ratchford, “Please see if you can get some
expert opinions with regards to the size of the alleged flying saucer. …If it
all possible please expedite because the news media is clamoring for an expert
analysis of the photographs. …I would not mention the organization. …I will be waiting
anxiously for some kind of conclusion.” Quintanilla sent copies of the photos
and Maj. Nyls’ data and measurements of the scene to the NPIC.
Dr. Condon’s people were interested, too. A letter from Robert J. Low to Condon, Jan. 27, 1967, mentioned “the two photographs by the two boys of the UFO over St. Clair Lake,” saying, “Just talked to Hynek who reports that Life [magazine’s] offer for the pictures was turned down. So I guess they don’t have them – at least not yet. [Dr. Thomas] Ratchford has advised me that Air Force Intelligence indicates they can’t tell much from the copies they have. The material they were working with was a copy. There has been too much degrading of the picture to tell anything. This means we must get hold of the original.”
The UFO
group, National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, also wanted the
pictures. From “Photographs Under Study”
in NICAP’s The UFO Investigator, Jan.-Feb.
1967:
“In
conversations with the mother and the boy who took the pictures, and with the
family lawyer, NICAP was promised a set of the Polaroid prints for analysis.
However, the pictures have never been submitted and we are now informed that a
major magazine is attempting to purchase them.”
Hynek was getting the cold
shoulder from Blue Book. Jacques Vallee’s journal for Jan. 30, 1967, records
that, “Hynek went to Dayton without being able to see Quintanilla, who is still
mad at him.”
Two weeks later, the CIA’s National
Photographic Interpretation Center was finally completed. Dated February 17, 1967,
“Photo Analysis of UFO Photography," the 2.5-page written portion stated, “This
office cannot shed any light on the authenticity of this alleged UFO from this
photo analysis.” Several problematic elements were mentioned, including, “the
fact that the tail-section of the UFO was photographed in each case with the
same cross-section exposed casts some suspicion on the authenticity of the
UFO.”Without having the original prints
to examine, all they would say was, “inconclusive.”
Blue
Book’s Mock Saucer
If
the story was fading from the public’s memory, it got another boost in a
nationally syndicated Sunday magazine newspaper supplement, This Week March
5, 1967. The article was by L. Jerome Stanton on the Condon Study, “The Final
Word on Flying Saucers?”
This Week, March 5, 1967
It
included a half-page shot of the brothers and their saucer photo, noted Hynek’s
favorable appraisal, and stated, “Undoubtedly the photos will be shown to the
University of Colorado group.” He was right, but they and everyone else were stumped
by not having access to the originals.
Dr. Hynek
had frequently been away from the university, busy with the press, fretting
about what the Condon Study was doing, traveling, and giving lectures and interviews. (KABC-TV's
Press Conference on Feb. 26, 1967). One of those speaking engagements took him back to Michigan. The Associated
Press story, March 23, 1967, “UFO Expert Speaks At Hillsdale College,” reported
that Hynek still thought the Dexter UFO sightings were probably swamp gas, but
“the case is not really closed.” The topic of the Jaroslaw pictures came up:
“Asked
about Polaroid photographs taken by brothers Dan and Grant Jaroslaw outside
Detroit last Nov. 9, Hynek-said he understands the Air Force hopes to be able
to make a report on them in a few days. After two weeks of studying copies of
the Jaroslaw photographs, Hynek reported that ‘the possibility of a hoax seems
less likely (in photographs made with a camera of this type), although it has
not been eliminated entirely.’”
Maj. Nyls’
report on the project to duplicate the photos is absent from Blue Book, but he seems
to have been delayed until the second half of March. Nyls began by constructing
a model out of balsa wood, rounder than the Jaroslaw UFO, but close enough. Then
he painted it to match their photos, a light gray with a darker band around the
center. When he returned to the Jaroslaw property, he suspended the model from
the swing frame at two points with translucent fishing line. The Polaroid
Swinger used a plastic fixed focus single element lens, and it did not have the
resolution to detect a light-colored filament against the sky. The fishing line
didn’t show in the pictures. “I couldn’t even make it out with my own eyes,”
Nyls said. His first shot closely resembled the position of the saucer in the Jaroslaw
photos.
Maj. Nyls’ saucer photo #1
Then he swung the model out, capturing it pointed to the left, as if banking for a turn or descent. Afterwards, Nyls sent the two pictures to Hynek and crew for study. The photos were good. Nyls had said the boys’ UFO pictures, “the best I've ever seen," but his were even better.
Maj. Nyls’ saucer photo #2
Bill
Powers had engineered the photo test, and the results proved that there was
nothing unearthly about the boys’ pictures. When he was done, the Air Force issued
a press release about Nyls’ photos, one that while damning, carefully avoided
making any accusations:
23
March 1967
SELFRIDGE
AFB, Mich - Major Raymond W. Nyls, Unidentified
Flying Objects Officer here, took this photograph of a small model flying
saucer he made himself. He stood in the same spot where the Jaroslaw brothers
said they stood to take the photographs of the flying saucer they reported in
January. Major Nyls suspended his model on a thin string hanging from an
overhead pole. U.S. Air Force Photo
INFORMATION
DIVISION, 1st Fighter Wing, Selfridge AFB, Mich 48045
The Detroit News, March 26, 1967, reported the word about Maj. Nyls’ photos. “They
appear as almost duplicates of the originals,” Hynek said. “The ability to
closely duplicate a UFO picture is very significant. Nyls’ test showed that is
possible to essentially duplicate the Jaroslaw photos, using – and this is the
most important – the identical model camera in the identical position and under
the same basic conditions. This throws considerable doubt on the sighting and
removes it from serious consideration as far as I’m concerned.” The boys,
speaking to the press for the first time since the initial story, insisted it
was genuine, not a hoax. Grant said, “We saw something out there and we took
pictures of it. I don’t know what it was, but it was there. It was real.”
AP story, March 27, 1967
Alfred
Jaroslaw, the boys’ father, was incensed at the hoax allegation (and the ribbing
he was getting from friends). “This casts a lot of doubt on my boys and I'm
convinced they photographed what they said they saw. No models were involved.
I'm out to prove it was genuine.” He accused the Air Force of “covering up the
truth about saucers” by casting aspersions on his sons. He requested a lie
detector test for the boys. Further details were in the AP story below,
including the father saying of the failed polygraph, "I probably will try
another, and sodium pentothal — the truth drug.”
Battle Creek Enquirer, March 29, 1967
Herschel Fink reported that when Dan Jaroslaw was asked for his reaction, he said: “I don't want to say anything else, and I don't want anything else written. It's just as I said it was. Everybody’s bugging me.” The Jaroslaw family was represented by an attorney, and they had been courted by national magazines.
For whatever reason, the Polaroid pictures were copyrighted in the name of Grant P. Jaroslaw, dated April 19, 1967, as “Helicopter [against sky],” and “UFO # 1 – 4 [Aircraft in snowscape.]”
"Officer's Saucer Photo
Like Those of Two Boys" by Jack Jones was essentially on the Air Force
closing the case. It showed a comparison of the Jaroslaw saucer photo to that
of Maj. Nyls and said, “Blue Book officials here were careful not to use any
words like 'hoax' or 'fake' in talking about the boys' pictures. They said they were unable to
reach any conclusions about the case because of the unavailability of the
original pictures for analysis. In the course of his investigation, Nyls tried
to duplicate the setup of the boys’ pictures in order to aid in the photo
interpretation."
In True, Maj. Hector Quintanilla, told Fink that the Air Force "doesn't like to openly call anything a hoax." Comparing the Jaroslaw and Nyls photos, he said, "We found the two pictures similar. If we had an original Jaroslaw photo I think we could have told the size exactly, but, using The Detroit News blowups, we were only able to tell that the object was about four inches long, with a plus or minus error factor of a couple of inches." As an aside, he said “We've thrown up lampshades and ‘frisbees’ and taken some wild pictures with the [Polaroid] Swinger. I was really surprised.” It made great saucer photos – at least great phony ones.
The picture kept showing
up, and its likeness was included in the Playboy, Dec. 1967 article
by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, “The UFO Gap” There was no mention of the Jaroslaw case, but their UFO was
included in the illustration by Marvin Hayes.
Readers would see the image twice;
the binocular lenses were die-cut holes, so when they turned the page, the
saucer was shown hovering above Moscow. The article did discuss photo evidence,
though:
“If unimpeachable photographs
can be obtained, it follows that the stimulus that gave rise to the report was
accompanied by an actual image on the retinas of the witnesses… In any event,
the existence of unimpeachable pictographs would represent incontrovertible
scientific evidence that UFOs as we have defined them, exist.”
Due to the findings of the Condon Study, Project Blue Book closed in late 1969. Bill Powers moved on to other things. Dr. Hynek continued his work independently, and in 1973 opened the Center for UFO Studies, (CUFOS), with Fred Beckman as member of the scientific board. Over the next few years, the Jaroslaw case remained in the “inconclusive” limbo but was frequently featured in UFO literature as genuine. Chances are, it would have become far more famous had the UFO looked more like the stereotypical flying saucer.
Dr. Hynek kept copies of the Jaroslaw photos and sometimes showed (tinted) slides of them in his UFO lectures.
The Real Experts Speak
Not much is known about Dan and Grant Jaroslaw’s decade after the events, but it included both serving stints in the military. Afterwards, each returned home to Michigan.
In 1976, Dan, 26, Grant, 24, wrote a
letter together to Dr. J. Allen Hynek:
“Dan suggested to make a model of a U.F.O., hang it up with a string, and if the photo turned out good, we could play a joke on our family and friends to see their reaction and then tell them the truth.
Dan made a quick model. Then we wrapped plain white thread with paper tape around two poles several times, and then taped the model to the threads. I was reluctant to waste the film, because I thought the threads and tape would be visible on the photo. The weather conditions were just right, the photo came out so real looking we took some more. At the same time we were taking the pictures, a helicopter flew over the area. Just for the heck of it, I photographed it, too.
We showed our mother the photos and pretended they were real. But before we knew it, while we were in another room, she had called the Newspaper.
Dan and I for some reason decided to let the paper have a story. We made it up as the reporter asked his questions. And said the helicopter was with the U.F.O. Also, we just didn't think the story would become as big as it did. We are sorry if we caused anyone any trouble over this.
"Respectfully,
Grant [P.] Jaroslaw
Dan A. Jaroslaw”
(Reproduced in The UFO Handbook by Allan Hendry, 1979)
The same year, Dr. Hynek produced 3 sets of UFO slides and audiotapes for Edmund Scientific. In the “UFO/IFO" collection, slide 4 showed the Jaroslaw saucer and in the accompanying tape, Hynek said he that back at the time, he had been only “partially convinced” that the photos were genuine.
Duped and Re-Duped
If their letter of apology was sincere, the kids’ prank spun way out of control right from the start. It had happened before in other UFO cases, a joke where the target was fooled and reported it, getting the press or authorities involved. At that point, the choice for the perps usually comes down to: confess and face punishment and disgrace, or lie and pray to get away with it. Often, like in this case, secondary dupes unwittingly promote the hoax as genuine, here, Nyls, Beckman, Hynek and the press. In the case of the Jaroslaw boys, things may have been even messier with them defended, protected, and managed by their divorced parents. All we know for sure is that when the publicity and pressure was over, as adults, Dan and Grant confessed and apologized.
UFO literature presenting the UFO as authentic, even the AF imitation.
If not for their letter to Dr. Hynek, Dan and Grant’s photos would hang in the saucer hall of fame as UFO classics. Every hoax seems to have its champions and no explanation, evidence, or even confession will dissuade them. For whatever reason, the Project Blue Book files have only a few poor copies of the Jaroslaw photos, but there are several good versions of Maj. Nyls’ model. Decades later, the Jaroslaw photos occasionally are presented in articles and websites as if they were genuine. The twist? Often Maj. Nyls’ fakes are mistakenly presented as the “real” thing.
Grant Paul Jaroslaw died on November 2, 2004.
Daniel Alfred Jaroslaw (as of 2021) is still with us, one of the few UFO hoaxers known to have become a professional actor. At last report, he still has those notorious Polaroids from 1967, and still has an interest in the paranormal, aliens, and UFOs.
. . .
For Further Reading
Project Blue Book ruled the Jaroslaw case “Insufficient
data for evaluation… The measurement of the image does not substantiate the
description given by the witnesses.” The summary noted: “Photograph was taken
of the alleged UFO; however detailed investigation of copies of the original
indicated a possible hoax.” There are two folders in the Blue Book files, one primarily for the case documents, and a second on with mostly the photographs by Maj Nyls.
APRO Bulletin, Jan – Feb. 1967, “Brothers Photograph Object” included a summary of the
case and a letter with detailed analysis by James H. Frey of Detroit. He’d been
in touch with Hynek’s team and rightfully concluded the photos were likely
fakes based on numbering sequence and the positions of object relative to the
metal frame and tree branches.
For more on the Dr. Hynek’s
collaborations with William T. Powers, Fred Beckman, Jacques Vallee, and the
beginnings of the “Invisible College, see The Close Encounters Man by
Mark O'Connell, 2017.
“Metamorphosis” (part 3) by
Gary P. Posner, his story of believing, then discovering the photos were fakes.
Thanks to Clas Svahn and his associates at the Archives for the Unexplained (AFU) for additional newspaper clippings. Also to Louis Taylor for images, and Rich Reynolds for magazine material.
Thanks to Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos for the supplemental data and images he furnished for this article. For updates on aerial phenomena news and historical research, check his UFO FOTOCAT blog.
It was suggested that the Jaroslaw
brothers were copycats, inspired by a television show. In My Three Sons,
January 5, 1967, "You Saw a What?," Ernie saw a flying saucer, but no
one believed him. He goes back and manages to photograph it, then his father, Steve
Douglas took the photos to the Air Force. General Carstairs told him that what
the boy saw was a test flight of Project Moonbeam, and that it must be kept
secret for national security. After being persuaded to lie for his country, Ernie
had to be interviewed by a smug reporter on live television to protect the
cover-up. Later, he’s made fun of at school. The show may not have had any
influence on the boys, but it may have prompted Mrs. Jaroslaw’s fear the Air
Force would take and hide the photos.
If the inspiration came from television, there’s another possibility. The week before the Jan. 10, 1967, debut of the Quinn Martin show, The Invaders, advertisements appeared in magazines and on TV.
The Detroit Free Press, Jan. 22, 1967, reported that a woman thought the photos were phony and had had taken a clam, stuck it in a snowbank and produced a similar picture. The newspaper duplicated her attempt and published the results next to the Jaroslaw’s photos.
Harold Pawluk of Los Angeles took a
photo of a UFO that closely resembled the Jaroslaw UFO. The picture appeared in
some California newspapers and in his old home in Canada.
The Edmonton Journal, Feb. 15, 1967
Pawluk later wrote to say it was just a hoax.
The Edmonton Journal, Dec. 4, 1967
One of the unusual characteristics of
the Jaroslaw “flying hamburger” was the antenna or pipe-like structure at its
rear. In 1967, commercials for the McDonald’s hamburger franchise gave Ronald McDonald a “flying
hamburger,” and it had a prominent exhaust pipe sticking up at its aft. Corporate
appropriation - or coincidence?
