Saucer News & Saucer Smear Archives - The Historic UFO magazines by Jim Moseley

 

James W. Moseley (1931-2012) got his start in ufology while working on a proposed flying saucer book. During 1953-54, he travelled throughout the USA tracking down UFO witnesses, also interviewing authors of early saucer literature and as well as prominent figures in clubs and research organizations. The book didn’t come together as planned, but with the connections and friendships Moseley had cultivated, he launched a magazine dedicated to flying saucers instead.

Jerome Clark wrote in his entry for Jim Moseley in The UFO Encyclopedia Vol II: The Phenomenon from the Beginning, 1992:

With August Roberts and Dominic Lucchesi, Moseley founded Saucer News in July 1954, at first calling the magazine Nexus but changing it to the more self-explanatory title the next year. Saucer News was noted for its freewheeling, iconoclastic, personal style. In its pages Moseley praised friends, lashed out at enemies, exposed frauds and hoaxes (even perpetrating one himself, the notorious “Straith letter” [sent to] contactee George Adamski) and reported gleefully on the doings of ufology’s sane and not-so-sane. Saucer News was never less than entertaining, sometimes infuriating, but more often very funny. In 1968 the magazine was sold to flying saucer publisher Gray Barker. The last issue appeared four years later.

Jim Moseley and Gray Barker

Issues of Saucer News are somewhat rare, but thanks to a former subscriber, there’s a large collection now available. The University of Wyoming hosts the papers of Frank Scully, which were recently shared online through their American Heritage Center. The collection includes scans of correspondence, "newsletters, magazine articles, comics, lecture ads, and more." Lots of good stuff, including a near complete run of Saucer News from 1954 to 1964. 

Update: The AFU now hosts a complete collection of Saucer News from 1954 to 1970.

The individual issues:

Nexus 

Saucer News

Saucer News Non-Scheduled Newsletter

The (preliminary) directory below is largely based on Jim Moseley’s own listing of back issues. Besides the feature articles listed, each issue of Saucer News generally contained a summary of UFO sightings and related news, a gossip and rumor roundup, photos, cartoons, and listings of saucer clubs and conventions. Also, book reviews, as well as letters from readers, often prominent figures in the saucer community.  

The online digital collection hosted by the Archives For the Unexplained (AFU), curated by Isaac Koi. (Note: The links open PDFs, some files contain issues out of sequence.)

Saucer News Archive

Saucer News (Nexus) 1-10, 1954-1955

AFU links to individual issues: Saucer News: Nexus 

#l (July 1954) – First issue contains articles by James Moseley and saucer pioneers August C. Roberts and Dominick Lucchesi.

#2 (Aug. 1954) - Contains interesting accounts of a little-known saucer film taken in Africa, and of the activities of the Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York.

#3 (Sept. 1954) - Contains one of the most important articles we have ever published, concerning a lady in Miami who claims to have seen official government photographs of a crashed flying saucer from outer space.

#4 (Oct. 1954) - Contains “The Flying Saucer Mystery – solved” by James W. Moseley and “On the Fringe of the Supernatural” by Dominick Lucchesi.

#5 (Nov. 1954) - “Analysis of the Lubbock [Lights] Incident” by James W. Moseley and “Flying Saucers Fact and Fiction” by John P. Bessor.

#6 (Dec. 1954) - Contains “The Green Fireballs of the Southwest” by “Dr. D.” (Leon Davidson), “Invasion from Space” by Richard Cohen, “The Phantom Caravan by John P. Bessor, and “Jersey City’s Mystery Lights by August C. Roberts.

#7 (Jan. 1955) - Contains editorial on William Dudley Pelley and fascism, a report on “Two Meetings held by Civilian Saucer Intelligence,” and a George Adamski exposé, “Some New Facts About ‘Flying Saucers Have Landed’” by James W. Moseley.

#8 (Feb. 1955) - Contains a fascinating account of the strange events which have occurred in recent years in the vicinity of Mount Shasta, California.

#9 (March 1955) - Contains an interesting article by Frank Scully, author of "Behind the Flying Saucers." (The Aztec crash-retrieval hoax.)

#10 (April 1955) - Contains an important article by the late Dr. Morris K. Jessup, author of several saucer books, whose mysterious death is still a subject of controversy.

#11 (May 1955) - Contains an article by Desmond Leslie, co-author with George Adamski of "Flying Saucers Have Landed." Also contains the results of experiments in extrasensory perception conducted by the Saucer News Staff. Also in this issue are articles by Dr. Morris K. Jessup and Frank Scully.

Saucer News 1955-1957

#13 (Aug.-Sept. 1955) - Contains outstanding “UFOs, Atlantis, & The Antiquity of Civilized man” by Dr. M.K. Jessup, “A Parable” by Desmond Leslie, “A Report on the UFO's and Levitation” by John P. Bessor.

#14 (Oct.-Nov. 1955) – Contains “The Sky Cross” by Frank Reid, “Concerning ‘Space, Gravity, and the Flying Saucer’" by Desmond Leslie, “Are There Other Inhabited Planets?” by Justin Case, and “The Green Fireballs of the Southwest” by “Dr. D.” (Leon Davidson).

#15 (Dec.-Jan. 1955-1956) – Contains “What on Earth Were They?” by Harold T. Wilkins, “The ‘Little People' Case for the UFO” by M.K. Jessup), and “Summary, Notes and comments on Project Blue Book Special Report #14” by Justin Case and James W. Moseley.

#16 (Feb.-March 1956) – Contains “The Al Bender Story” by James W. Moseley, “Conquest of Gravity is Aim of Top U.S. Scientists” (Condensed from the N.Y. Herald-Tribune) comments by Justin Case, “The Air Force and the Saucers - Part One” by “'Dr. D.” (Leon Davidson).

#17 (April-May, 19.56) - Contains an interesting account of pre-World War II sightings by saucer researcher Frank Reid.

#18 (June-July, 19.56) - A most important issue, containing James Moseley's "Earth Theory" solution to the flying saucer mystery.

#19 (Aug.-Sept. 1956) - Contains an interesting article entitled "UFO’ s and Unnatural Clouds," by Frank Reid.

#20 (Oct.-Nov. 1956) - Contains another documented account of pre-World War II sightings, by Frank Reid, and an article by the noted French saucer author Aime Michel.

#21 (Dec.-Jan. 1956-57) - Contains an article entitled "How to Separate Facts from Fiction," by Justin Case, a noted mechanical engineer and saucer researcher.

#22 (Feb.-March 1957) - Contains an important report on attempts to build flying saucers here on earth, and also a report on the early problems of NICAP, written by Dr. M.K. Jessup.

#23 (April-May 1957) - Contains an article entitled "Flying Saucer Research on Trial," by saucer researcher Tom Comella.

#24 (June-July 1957) - Contains interesting articles by Justin Case and “The Air Force and the Saucers” (Part II) by Dr. Leon Davidson, an atomic physicist who is also a noted saucer researcher.

#25 (Aug.-Sept. 1957) - Contains an exposé of Contactee George Hunt Williamson, written by Y. N. ibn Aharon, an expert on ancient history.

#26 (Oct.-Nov. 1957) - Contains interesting articles by Justin Case and Richard Hall, Major Donald Keyhoe's assistant at NICAP.

#27 (Oct. 1957) - The Special Adamski Exposé Issue contains a collection of several articles showing the fallacies in George Adamski's first two books, "Flying Saucers Have Landed" and "Inside the Spaceships." This is one of the most important issues we have ever published.

#28 (Dec.- Jan. 1957-58) - Contains the first in a series of articles by Y. N. ibn Aharon entitled "Extraterrestrialism as an Historical Doctrine." This series purports to prove that the God of the Old Testament, was in reality a being from another planet.

Saucer News 1958-1959

#29 (Feb.-March 1958) - Contains news coverage of the Levelland, Texas, UFO reports and other possibly related cases (including the Reinhold O. Schmidt hoax). “The Air Force and the Saucers” (Part III) by Leon Davidson.

#30 (April-May 1958) - Contains two of the most important articles we have ever published, The first, by Ulbricht Von Rittner, gives the inside story of research on saucer-shaped craft in Germany during World War II; the second, by James Moseley, gives a complete account of the mysterious disappearance in 1953 of saucer researchers Karl Hunrath and Jack Wilkinson.

#3l (June-July 1958) - Contains an outstanding article "Saucers and the International Geophysical Year," by John Corman, an article called "Rationalism in Ufology" by Richard Hall, and another of Y. N. ibn Aharon's series on Extraterrestrialism.

#32 (Aug.-Sept. 1958) - Contains “Study of a Pre-1947 Sighting” by Dr. Leon Davidson and part 3 of the series by Y. N. ibn Aharon. Also, “The Rise and Fall of NICAP” by Moseley and Richard Cohen.

#33 (Oct.-Nov. 1958) - Contains an outstanding article by Major Lawrence J. Tacker of the U.S. Air Force, plus “The Case of the Crashed UFO,” written by noted saucer researcher Bob Barry.

#34 (Dec.-Jan. 1958-59) - Contains an exposé “Otis T. Carr and the Free Energy Principle,” written by NICAP member Robert Durant, plus another of Y. N. ibn Aharon's series on Extraterrestrialism., and a report on the first The Howard Menger Space Convention.

#35 (Feb.-March 1959) - Contains outstanding articles by Tom Comella, “ECM +CIA= UFO, or How to Cause a Radar Sighting by Dr. Leon Davidson, plus an exposé of George Hunt Williamson written by noted saucer researcher Michael Mann, together with James Moseley.

#36 (June 1959) - This most important issue contains a detailed exposé of Gray Barker, written by the noted amateur astronomer Lonzo Dove.

#37 (Sept. 1959) - Contains an article by Bob Barry called "The Case of the Mysterious Airplane Crash," “Who Is Fooling Donald Keyhoe?” by Justin Case, plus articles by Michael Mann and Y. N. ibn Aharon.

#38 (Dec. 1959) - Contains a scathing rebuttal to Saucer News from Major Donald Keyhoe of NICAP, and an article by Frank Reid entitled "The Aerial Phenomena of Earthquakes."

Saucer News 1960-1962

#39 (March 1960) - Contains interesting articles by Michael Mann and Justin Case, plus an article by Y. N. ibn Aharon entitled "How to Build a Saucer.”

#40 (June 1960) - Contains an important article by noted saucer researcher Lee Munsick, plus a review of one of George Hunt Williamson's books, by Y. N. ibn Aharon.

#41 (Sept. 1960) - This outstanding issue contains a long report on the 1960 Giant Rock saucer convention by James Moseley, with many photographs.

#42 (Dec. 1960) - Contains an important article by Y. N. ibn Aharon and an article by Justin Case entitled "Proof by Ignorance."

#43 (March 1961) - Contains an important scientific UFO article by David Wightman, editor of the outstanding British saucer magazine "Uranus." Also, “An Open Letter to Saucer Researchers” (Part One) by Dr. Leon Davidson.

#44 (June 1961) - Contains an interesting article on extrasensory perception by Justin Case, plus an article by our Associate Editor Melvyn Stiriss.

#45 (Sept. 1961) - Contains a very interesting account of an unexplained plane crash by saucer researcher Max Miller, editor of "Saucers." There is also an article on Extraterrestrialism by Y. N. ibn Aharon.

#46 (Dec. 1961) - Contains the first half of an unusually interesting article by the famous naturalist and saucer researcher Ivan Sanderson.

#47 (March 1962) - Contains the conclusion of the above-mentioned article by Ivan Sanderson, and a well-documented article by Lonzo Dove entitled "Humanoids and the Mars Saucer Cycle."

#48 June 1962) - Contains “Why the Bender Book Has Been Delayed” by Gray Barker and “An Open Letter to Saucer Researchers” (Part Two) by Dr. Leon Davidson.

#49 (Sept. 1962) - Contains a long and very important article by James Moseley concerning his exclusive interview with the head of the Air Force UFO project at Wright-Patterson Field, in Dayton, Ohio.

#50 (Dec. 1962) - Contains the first half of an interesting article by Tom Comella, called "A New Inquiry Into the Flying Saucer Mystery.” Also included is a long exclusive report on the recent saucer "flap" in South America.

Saucer News 1963-1964

#51 (March 1963) - Contains the conclusion of the above-mentioned article by Tom Comella, plus a wealth of recent saucer sightings from around the world.

#52 (June 1963) – Contains “The Olden Moore Story” by C. W. Fitch, “The Mystery of the Disappearing Planes” by Sandy Moseley, and “The End or an Era” by Gray Barker, on the merging of "The Saucerian Bulletin” with Saucer News and his role as associate editor.

#53 (Sept. 1963) – Contains “Florida's Coral Castle” by James W. Moseley, “George Hunt Williamson Re-Visited” by John J. Robinson.

#54 (Dec. 1963) Contains “The Electromagnetic Effects of Flying Saucers” (Part One) by John J. Robinson, “Spacemen in our Midst” by Gray Barker, “How Animals Tell Time Without Clocks" by Gene Steinberg, and “Further Information About Jonathan Swift and the Moons of Mars” by Robert J. Durant and James W. Moseley.

#55 (March 1964) – Contains “Space Ships Over Times Square” by Ed Sparks, Part 2 of John J. Robinson’s article on UFO Electromagnetic Effects, and “The X-4 Electro-Craft” by Howard Menger.

#56 (June 1964) - Contains “Flying Saucers and the Father's Plan” by Laura Mundo and “The Flying Saucers” by Rolf Telano.

Saucer News 1965-1970

Saucer News issues from 1965-1970 are available individually in the collection hosted by the AFU.

SN Non-Scheduled Newsletter

There's now a stand-alone collection of the Saucer News Non-Scheduled Newsletter from 1955 - 1968. Moseley hyped the newsletter as often containing “material that we consider ‘too hot to handle’ in the regularly-scheduled issues of our magazine.”

Saucer News Non-Scheduled Newsletter

. . .

Moseley continued Saucer News until 1968 when he sold the magazine to Gray Barker, then it faded away in a few years. In the 1970s, Moseley revived it as a non-scheduled newsletter, eventually named Saucer Smear, published up until his death in 2012. Isaac Koi recently announced that the complete Saucer Smear collection has been added by to the files hosted at the AFU site. Click the picture below to begin your studies.

Saucer Smear

Every Saucer News issue has several points of interest to even the casual student of UFO history. In the news section, it’s interesting to see the amount of attention given to cases and see what was said about them at the time. Some obscure and forgotten cases often were the subject of lingering examinations, while some stories that became classics were initially treated as routine. UFO history mavens will enjoy cross-referencing cases and prominent figures in ufology with the period coverage in Saucer News to see how it was discussed and regarded in its day.

The links again to the AFU collections for individual issues:

Nexus 

Saucer News

Saucer News Non-Scheduled Newsletter

Saucer Smear 

. . .

For more information on Jim Moseley and the Saucer News era, 

see the collection of articles at JimMoseley.com

UFO Patterns: Signals in the Noise

Hearing an unbelievable or absurd flying saucer yarn, Gray Barker would often respond with an enigmatic smile and say, “It all fits the pattern.” It was a private joke, since much of popular UFO lore was invented or circulated by Barker himself.

The human mind is always trying to find patterns. Most people are familiar with pareidolia, which Merriam-Webster defines as “the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.” Pareidolia applies to visual stimulus, but it’s a type of apophenia, “the tendency to perceive a connection or meaningful pattern between unrelated or random things (such as objects or ideas).” 

From A Popular Handbook and Atlas of Astronomy, by William Peck, 1891

Apophenia is finding false signals in the noise. Confirmation bias can play a role as well, and once we’ve adopted a hypothesis, we favor that which seems to fit with, or support our view. An example of that is when Italian astronomer Giovani Schiaparelli detected lines on the surface of Mars, he interpreted them as canals, proof of construction by intelligent inhabitants. When flying saucers came along, it had people making all kinds of mental connections in trying to solve the mystery.

As early as 1947 the Air Force was looking at UFO sightings to determine some actionable data. The idea was that if UFOs were under intelligent control, some evidence of that should be found by identifying repetitions of some characteristics, such as shape, performance, behavior, and locations observed. In March 1953, Project Blue Book head Edward J. Ruppelt gave a “Briefing for Air Defense Command,” where he stated:

“We have made a statistical study of the data that we have collected in order to attempt to determine whether or not there is any common pattern in the sightings but we have had no success in finding any such pattern.”

Copy from The San Bernardino Sun, May 1, 1967

Dr. J. Allen Hynek was an astronomer who worked a side gig as a consultant to the Air Force. 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, was brought in chiefly to assist in data management. Vallee was always looking for messages in the data, and in his 1965 book, Anatomy of a Phenomenon, frequently mentioned patterns and pattern-analysis:

“If new phenomena are present in the set of patterns that constitutes the UFO problem, there is a possibility that these phenomena may lie outside the scope of any one of the specialties recognized today by science, and still be discernible to the mathematical mind.” 

Hynek was influenced by Vallee and searched for common features or patterns in UFO reports. 

Hynek’s Observables 

The San Bernardino Sun, May 1, 1967, ran an article, “It's Easy to Be Ufologist -- Just Read Below” by Karl R. Edgerton. Dr. Hynek was quoted, saying the "more impressive cases" among the unexplained sightings "fit into a pattern." He listed five common characteristics.

• The UFOs had a bright red glow.
• They hovered a few feet off the ground.
• They emitted a "high-pitched whine."
• Animals in the vicinity were terrified, often before the UFOs became visible to the people who later reported them.
• When the objects at last began to disappear, they vanished in seconds.

The next year (Amarillo Daily News, Feb. 15, 1968,) Hynek was asked about the Carroll Wayne Watts case and Texas UFO flap, and he was supportive. “He said many facets of the sightings at Wellington ‘fit the pattern’.” Unfortunately, the Watts case turned out to be hoax, a pastiche based on the alien encounter stories from Dan Fry and Barney and Betty Hill. Watts’ yarn fit the pattern through counterfeiting and mimicry.

Post-Blue Book   

After the closure of Project Blue Book, Hynek wrote a book in 1972, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry. In it he used the word “pattern” 343 times, most often in this context, “UFOs in general, have been reported from many parts of the world, and a definite pattern is evident.” Discussing the 1961 Hill abduction story, Hynek said, “If we discount entirely the account revealed only under hypnosis, the first portion fits the pattern.” Hynek talked about how conventional items mistaken for phenomena did not typically generate reports of high strangeness.

“An aircraft fuselage glistening in the sun, reported by some untutored person as a UFO, is not reported to rush away at incredible speeds. Flares dropped from airplanes (which have often given rise to UFO reports) are not reported as having stopped cars, frightened animals, or cavorted about the sky; nor do the reports contain reference to 'occupants' or to oval-shaped craft hovering six feet off the ground.” 

Jacques Vallee, and J. Allen Hynek wrote in their 1975 book, The Edge of Reality: A Progress Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, “definite patterns of appearance and behavior” repeat in cases throughout the decades:

“One would expect that if UFOs had no substance in fact but were entirely the products of human imagination, there would be considerably greater variety in UFO reports. It does not say much for human imagination to report the same old (but incredible) stories; over some three decades one would imagine that story tellers as well as out and out hoaxsters would bring some variety into their productions!”

On Geraldo Rivera’s ABC talk show Good Night America on June 9th, 1977, Dr. Hynek was asked about the Travis Walton story, and he was supportive of it.

“It fits a pattern… we have some two dozen similar abduction cases currently being studied. Something is going on!”

One of Hynek’s last interviews was in Omni magazine Feb. 1985, and he was asked about his Center for UFO Studies. “What was the understanding that began to emerge from your work?” Dr. Hynek replied: 

“I realized that we don't have UFOs, only UFO reports. I defined the UFO phenomenon, then, as the continual flow of strange sightings and reports from all over the world. The patterns and contents of these reports constitute the UFO phenomenon. The phenomenon says nothing whatsoever about origin, nothing about little green men. The question about whether you do or don't believe in UFOs is irrelevant. If you define the UFO as the UFO report and its consistent contents, then the phenomenon is there.”

Ufologist and saucer satirist Gray Barker died on Dec. 6, 1984.

J. Allen Hynek died on April 27, 1986, so in that sense, Dr. Hynek had the last laugh. 

Fame, Fortune and Flying Saucers

Flying saucers and aliens... Some people feared these strange visitors from other planets, while others embraced them as saviors. Xenophobia is defined by Merriam-Webster as “fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.” Fewer people are familiar with the term for its opposite, xenolatria. Xenolatry is veneration, love, or worship of the foreign. 

Armando Simón’s 1979 essay, “The Zeitgeist of the UFO Phenomenon.” Simón’s essay focuses on the portrayal of aliens in science fiction movies:

“Some films have presented the antithesis of the invasion theme. Innocent and peaceful aliens in this case were attacked by an unreasoning, bigoted, and warring human race... The aliens, therefore, served as a convenient point of view for the screenwriter's xenolatric flagellations of humanity.” 

That’s from UFO Phenomena and the Behavioral Scientist,  edited by Richard Haines, and Simón defined xenolatric in a footnote: "This term, recently coined by Isaac Asimov (1976), means hatred for one's own culture combined with idolization of other cultures while remaining blind to any shortcomings in the latter.” Xenolatry is an important underlying premise behind the strain of UFO belief embraced by the Contactees. To them, mankind is a primitive warlike people - we are unworthy, and need to be saved by the wisdom from our benevolent big brothers from outer space. In the age of atomic fear, a lot of people were desperate for salvation from above, whatever the source. As with virtually anything, opportunists pounced to exploit these beliefs.

It seems incredible to us today that in the 1950s people could have been so gullible to fall for swindlers' claims about flying saucers, such as meeting the people who flew them, or having the secrets of their technology. What we have to appreciate is that at the time some kind of unidentified flying objects  were actually being seen by many people, and many more were hearing about them secondhand from supposedly trustworthy sources - coverage in the papers, radio and television news shows. UFOs were frequently a serious topic of discussion, in part because of the news generated by the investigation of flying saucers by the US Air Force. 

Due to the constant media publicity, many people accepted to some degree that flying saucers were real. The main questions were about: what are they, why are they here, and where did they come from? The first saucer generation had seen the impossible happen, the invention and detonation of the atomic bomb, the launches of rockets, and then satellites like Sputnik. However, most people’s understanding was limited to what they’d picked up from newspaper headlines and entertainment, and it seemed that all that “Buck Rogers stuff” was coming true. It was the dawn of the space age, and anything seemed possible.

Exploiting the Possibilities

Mankind’s speculation about life on other worlds did not begin in the 1940s with the flying saucer era. It preceded science fiction too and is probably as old as the development of language. With the flying saucers, it provided charlatans a golden opportunity to capitalize on the public’s interest, and they exploited it to package everything, from fringe religious teachings to confidence schemes.

Among those interested in the reports of flying saucers were the spiritualists and students of the occult. The spiritualists already claimed mental contact with other worlds and used saucers to make people believe that any wonders in the sky - past or present - were evidence of something from beyond our meager planet. In 1888, Helena Blavatsky used the idea of civilizations on other planets in The Secret Doctrine, but in a mystical or religious way, saying that they held knowledge and wisdom far superior to our primitive understanding. She co-founded the Theosophical Society, and Theosophy was a huge influence on fantasy and science fiction literature. The occult was also part of the foundation for folks like Meade Layne’s Borderland Sciences Research Associates (BSRA) beliefs about aliens visiting in spaceships - long before saucers.

BSRA director Riley Crabb wrote in a 1961 article that mysticism "is distasteful to many people who have been brought face to face with metaphysics by their interest in the Saucer phenomenon. This means that old material, the Ancient Wisdom, is going to have to be rewritten for them, dressed up in modern, Space Age, terminology, before they'll study it..." 

(“The Sky People,” Round Robin, vol. 17, no 1, Jan-Feb 1961, p 22). What Crabb described was well underway, and as we shall see, just what George Adamski had perfected back in the late 1940s. 

“The Disgraceful Flying Saucer Hoax” article by Bob Considine in Cosmopolitan magazine, Jan. 1951, noted that the US Air Force wasted a lot of time and money investigating phonies, but that flying saucer fakery was not actually a punishable offense:

“And nothing can be done about such frauds.  A man who pilfers a three-cent stamp from the Post Office Department can be fined and sent to a Federal prison... Yet the most callous and cynical saucer­hoaxers will continue to go scot free, with a cackle of delight, until a penal act is created to check such offenses.”

Except when there was some other associated fraud, hoaxing a saucer story was not a crime. That legal loophole gave opportunists a virtual license to steal. 

Contactees and Capitalists

The history of the Contactee era is complex and involves many interesting personalities, each with their own storylines. The 1957 book, Flying Saucer Pilgrimage, by Bryant and Helen Reeve provides a great look at the era and its figures from a believer’s point of view, and it shows just how intermingled the saucer culture was with New Age mysticism. Our examination is more centered on how the UFO culture, particularly the Contactee faction, was exploited by those seeking fame and fortune. We’ll introduce some of the players who were significant in capitalizing on flying saucer belief, actually turning it into a business. Sort of a Saucerian “Who’s Who” of personalities discussed in past and future STTF articles.

Kenneth Arnold

Kenneth Arnold’s 1947 sighting launched the flying saucer craze, and within weeks of it, he was lecturing on the topic. Early on, Arnold cagily refrained from committing to an explanation, but he did say he thought the saucers were under intelligent control and might be from another world. Arnold was the first witness to become a UFO lecturer, and he went on to publish a souvenir booklet and co-author a non-fiction book on his experiences.

Ray Palmer

Raymond A. Palmer was in the UFO business well before the whole saucer scene took off. He promoted the Charles Fort-derived notion of extraterrestrial spaceships visiting earth as reality in his science fiction magazine Amazing Stories. In 1947,  Palmer latched on to the premier saucer witness, Kenneth Arnold, featuring him in the 1948 debut of Fate magazine and co-writing The Coming of the Saucers in 1952. Palmer also published many UFO, New Age and Contactee books including: Other Tongues, Other Flesh by George Hunt Williamson, 1953, The Secret of the Saucers by Orfeo Angelucci, 1955, and Flying Saucer Pilgrimage by Bryant and Helen Reeve, 1957. A born huckster, Palmer began increasing the UFO content in his magazine Other Worlds, then in 1957 retitled it Flying Saucers.

Donald Keyhoe

Donald Keyhoe was a retired Marine major who had served in World War I and became a writer of both news articles and fiction, including adventure stories for pulp magazines. In 1949 the editor of True magazine sent Keyhoe the assignment of picking up a flying saucer story they’d gotten stuck on, hoping Keyhoe’s military contacts could help him penetrate the secrecy. The resulting article was a sensation almost as big as the original fever of 1947, and along with the resulting 1950 book, The Flying Saucers Are Real, proved that UFOs was a bankable topic. Keyhoe was focused on factual, documented cases from credible witnesses, but many others that followed were peddling sensational stories to cash in. 

Frank Scully and Silas Newton

In a way, it all began with a lecture. Silas Newton told a story for Denver college students, an implausible tale of a crashed flying saucer and the dead aliens inside being captured and hidden by the US government. Frank Scully promoted the crashed saucer story, and in a sense, it paved the way for the Contactees tales of meeting aliens. Behind the Flying Saucers introduced the basic meme of peaceful visitors from Venus, a world far more advanced than our own, but opposed by the barbaric US military, who Scully called “the Pentagonians.” The saucer story itself was the brainchild of oil swindler Silas Newton who evidently invented it as a backdrop to sell “doodlebugs,” oil detection devices that he said were based on the alien technology. The crashed saucer story became a best-selling book and enduring legend even though it was proven to be without factual basis. Frank Scully and Silas Newton were honored guests when flying saucer conventions began to be held, but that diminished when Newton and his partner Leo Gebauer were convicted of fraud in 1953. Newton set another precedent though, for a light penalty. He never served any prison time for the fraud. When it comes to saucers, crime pays. White collar crime, at least.

 George Adamski

George Adamski used flying saucers as the bait to get people to accept the mystic teachings he’d been peddling since the 1930s with his "Royal Order of Tibet." In 1952 he recycled his old material, saying it was knowledge passed to him from the angelic people, our Space Brothers from other planets. Adamski topped Newton and Scully’s story of a magnetic saucer from Venus by adding a living, talkative occupant, a friendly brother from space. “Orthon” was borrowed from Klaatu, of the 1951 film, The Day the Earth Stood Still, a modern Messiah figure. It was a means for Adamski to spread his “ministry,” but the desire for fame and fortune may have been part of it too. Adamski’s rise as a UFO lecturer and author is chronicled in A Critical Appraisal Of George Adamski The Man Who Spoke To The Space Brothers by Marc Hallet, 2016. The financial success of Adamski is discussed, and Hallet says that things really took off with the publication of the 1953 book, Flying Saucers Have Landed, which became a bestseller. Adamski capitalized on his fame in a number of ways. At his many lectures, he sold his books and pamphlets, and at his Palomar Gardens home, sold copies of his saucer photos and charged tourists to look through his telescope. Hallet also notes that “He also simply accepted gifts, sent in by admirers from all corners of the world.” It was a good business model, and Adamski soon had many imitators and competitors. 

Gray Barker

Gray Barker launched The Saucerian in September 1953, a magazine, devoted to flying saucers and associated mysteries. His 1956 book, They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, helped establish the legend of the Men in Black, and stir up saucer paranoia. Barker wrote the column, “Chasing the Flying Saucers” for Ray Palmer’s Flying Saucers magazine, which helped boost his profile, and he went on to become a book publisher himself. Under his imprint, Saucerian Books, Barker published over 80 books and booklets by Contactees and New Age authors between 1959 and 1984. In The Saucerian and Saucer News, he also sold his own self-made flying saucer films and other merchandise, as well as brokering books and products by others.

Truman Bethurum

Truman Bethurum was the second most popular Contactee behind Adamski, and he developed a significant following of his own within the saucer world. Bethurum captivated crowds with his tales of riding in a spaceship piloted by Aura Rhanes, the beautiful female saucer captain from planet Clarion. In 1954, Bethurum’s book, Aboard A Flying Saucer was released, and he sold it along with other pamphlets at lectures and conventions. In 1955 Aura Rhanes (in astral form) advised Bethurum to solicit contributions to purchase land and build the “Sanctuary of Thought,” a commune of peace and brotherly love. Its continued operation was funded by further contributions, the sale of Bethurum’s literature - and the fees from private spiritual readings.

Orfeo Angelucci

Orfeo Angelucci is mentioned here chiefly because of his popularity in the early days, and for his role in the inaugural 1953 Los Angeles saucer convention. In The Secret of the Saucers, Orefo Angelucci described a visionary experience where an otherworldly entity spoke to him and shared revelations, ones that sound familiar to other occult saucer narratives:

“We know your mind is filled with questions. One question in particular troubles you and it concerns the entity the world knows as Jesus Christ. May we set your mind at rest. In allegorical language Christ is indeed the Son of God. The star that burned over Bethlehem is a cosmic fact. It announced the birth on your planet of an entity not of Earth’s evolution. He is Lord of the Flame — an infinite entity of the sun. Out of compassion for mankind’s suffering He became flesh and blood and entered the hell of ignorance, woe and evil. As the Sun Spirit who sacrificed Himself for the children of woe he has become a part of the oversoul of mankind and the world spirit. In this He differs from all other world teachers.”

Angelucci went on to become a popular lecturer, the author of two books and a series of pamphlets, and he seemed to be the most sincere of the Contactees, more of a religious visionary than a performer. 

Daniel Fry

Daniel W. Fry was yet another Contactee and went on to form his own spiritually-focused UFO organization, Understanding, Inc., which had local study groups or “Units” that formed a network. Speakers approved by Fry could tour the Understanding lecture circuit from group to group, and usually be fed, housed, and paid by the membership along the way. Fry’s lecture circuit provided a ready customer base to saucer lecturers, and for the more predatory types, easy marks to be tapped for dollars. 

Gabriel Green

Gabriel Green was an active participant in the Contactee convention scene, claimed to have had his own contact experiences, and founded the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America in 1957. Green presided over the AFSCA, published their magazine, sponsored lectures, and hosted their successful series of UFO conventions. Green capitalized on his status as a saucer celebrity by announcing his candidacy for President of the United States with Daniel Fry as VP, running on a platform based on the teachings of peace and wisdom from space. His 1960 presidential bid was backed by the support of his UFO convention lecturers, and supposedly, the people of Alpha Centauri. Green ultimately withdrew and endorsed John Kennedy, but later entered the race for United States Senator for California in 1962, where he lost in the primary with a relatively impressive 170,000 votes.  

George Van Tassel

George Van Tassel began hosting the annual Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention at Giant Rock, California, in 1954, providing a stage for anyone who claimed to be in contact with flying saucer occupants.  It was a  showcase for Contactees, who had a spiritual saucer approach, regarding aliens as angelic “Space Brothers,” and Van Tassel’s host organization was “The Ministry of Universal Wisdom.” Lecturers for his first convention included George Hunt Williamson, Orfeo Angelucci, Truman Bethurum, Dan Fry, author Frank Scully and Van Tassel himself. Admission was free, but there was a bustling marketplace with books and saucer-related merchandise for sale. Shortly thereafter, Van Tassel said he received plans from the aliens to build the Integratron, a building to house a machine that he claimed would “recharge energy into living cell structure, to bring about longer life with youthful energy." Van Tassel began soliciting financial donations to finance it., and the building was completed in 1959. However, the rejuvenation device never was finished, despite of the thousands of dollars collected for its construction. Nevertheless, Van Tassel’s conventions energized the Contactee scene in the 1950s, and he inspired many others to host flying saucer gatherings in other locations.  

Long John Nebel and “The Party Line”

Another person instrumental in giving Contactees a voice was Long John Nebel who hosted the legendary WOR radio talk show, “Long John’s Party Line,” which launched in 1954. The format featured Nebel and a group of panelists interviewing an offbeat guest. The Daily News from New York, in their Aug. 2, 1957 edition described the show:

“Long John's ‘Party Line’ is something unique in radio, one of the most interesting and novel post-midnight items ever heard in New York and in the 25 other states reached by WOR... Airing Mondays through Saturdays, midnight to 5:30 A. M. Nebel and his guests discussed “unconventional subjects as flying saucers, haunted houses, reincarnation, astrology, numerology, witchcraft, stage and black magic to hypnotism, the stock market, advertising practices, medicine, travel, archeology, bullfighting, modern art and music...”

The show featured some serious UFO proponents such as Donald Keyhoe, but they were far outnumbered by the fantastic fringe from “The Way Out World.” Nebel himself was not a believer, but he knew what was good for business.

Howard Menger

Howard Menger struck fame by appearing on the Oct. 29, 1956, Long John Nebel show, which led to national TV exposure on the Steve Allen Show. Menger’s tale was familiar, he’d met people from a spaceship, gone for a ride and taken pictures. The story was so familiar, he became known as “the East Coast Adamski.” Menger became a flying saucer entrepreneur, with an impressive list of products. His record of piano music, Authentic Music From Another Planet, 1957 was followed by his bride-to-be Connie Weber’s My Saturnian Lover, 1958, and together they held the” East Coast Interplanetary Space Convention" at his New Jersey farm in 1958, and unlike the Van Tassel gatherings they charged admission, $2.00. Gray Barker announced the publication of Menger’s book there, and From Outer Space to You came out in 1959. Gray Barker marketed these products through his Saucerian magazine, and also sold copies of Menger’s flying saucer pictures and movies.

Buck Nelson

Buck Nelson achieved some celebrity status from his story about meeting Venusians and their giant 385-pound dog, “Big Bo,” which he chronicled in the 1956 booklet, My Trip to Mars, the Moon, and Venus.  It was sold at his appearances at Giant Rock and lectures nationwide, but he had another product, physical evidence from his space adventures, packets of fur from Big Bo. In 1958 Nelson began hosting his own annual “Spacecraft Conventions” at his ranch in Mountain View, Missouri. Besides the typical book stalls for lecturers’ wares, Nelson had his own saucer souvenir booth which sold toys, postcards, ball-point pens, pennants, balloons, liniment for sore backs and so much more. Nelson also operated a concession stand offering such refreshments as hotdogs burgers and soda. By Nelson’s final convention in 1966, attendance was down to 150 people, down from the phenomenal turnout of 1958 with about 2000 customers.

 Wayne Aho

Major Wayne S. Aho described himself as the director of “Washington Saucer Intelligence,” which becomes a bit less impressive-sounding when you know it was based in Oklahoma, not Washington, DC, that it was a civilian organization, that the Major was retired from the Army, and that he mostly the director of his own lecture tours. The press and public sometimes confused the Contactee Aho with the far more conservative UFO proponent Major Donald Keyhoe. Aho was a pervasive lecturer in the late 50s, but seemed to begin phasing out the Washington Saucer Intelligence facade about the time he became “Director of Public Education” for Otis T. Carr’s OTC Enterprises, Inc. Aho created the New Age Foundation in the early 1960s, a UFO-based organization that was overtly religious, and held spiritual gatherings at Mt. Rainier.

Reinhold O. Schmidt 

Reinhold O. Schmidt was an agricultural broker, a seemingly ordinary man drawn into an extraordinary adventure. He saw a silver spaceship and its crew near Kearney, Nebraska, and after his credibility was challenged was briefly confined to a mental hospital for observation. Afterwards, Schmidt went on to have a series of ever more amazing contacts - and lecture tours. The space people showed Schmidt where to mine for gold and precious miraculous minerals, but when Schmidt began luring large investments out of gullible widows, he eventually wound up in trouble - court and then prison. 

Otis T. Carr 

Otis T. Carr was considered an inventor, not a Contactee, but he shared in their values - and their spotlight on the lecture stages. Carr’s plan was to build a saucer-shaped spaceship operated on cosmic free energy principles, and to do so, he formed OTC Enterprises, Inc, and set about his goal of collecting $20,000,000 to finance it. His story has some elements in common with that of Reinhold O. Schmidt, including arrest, conviction, and some of the supporting cast. Like with Schmidt, we’ll be giving the Carr story a feature-length STTF treatment in the future, part of our “Flying Saucer Swindlers” series.

The End of the Beginning

By the early 1960s, the saucer prophets’ act had worn thin, and their day was done. Donald Keyhoe and other serious flying saucer proponents considered the Contactees a distracting circus sideshow that damaged the credibility of the UFO topic. They wished the clown show would go away, and to some extent, it happened. George Adamski died in 1965, and the Contactee scene seemed to be drying up as well. Gabriel Green’s Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America was finished around 1969, and Dan Fry’s Understanding Inc. were fading, but so was the more serious NICAP. That left APRO and MUFON to carry on, leaving the Contactee folks without a major organization to champion their cause. The conventions at Giant Rock continued on a smaller scale but ended with the death of George Van Tassel in 1978. 

 

However, the Contactee movement wasn’t finished, it just fell out of fashion. In the 1970s the stories of the Pascagoula Abduction and the Travis Walton incident helped revive interest in alien encounters, and the message of the Space Brothers was rekindled somewhat by the 1978 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In the 1980s without a strict Donald Keyhoe to keep the Contactees away, the spirit of the Space Brothers made a stealthy comeback by infiltrating mainstream ufology. As UFO organizations struggled to survive, they relaxed their standards to embrace devotees of fringe beliefs of all sorts. This side of ufology is not necessarily about money, but it’s show business, and as the saying goes, the show must go on.

In the weeks and months to come, STTF will take a closer look at some of these figures, including their careers as lecturers, convention promoters, and sometimes, criminals.