You may know of the company
that was first launched with a press conference about their plan of using UFO
technology to build a spaceship. Led by a maverick artist, its members included
some former US government employees, most prominently, a former military intelligence
agent. To raise capital for their venture, they sold stock in the company and
had a publishing division. Their spaceship would fly to the stars, but their
first goal was a trip to the moon.
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Illustration by Lance Moody
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UFOs became a topic of
commercial exploitation within days of the first saucer flap of 1947. Ten years
later, an inventor entered the UFO scene, incorporating his business as the
world’s first flying saucer company. Otis T. Carr created an ambitious aerospace
enterprise that was eventually grounded by an unlikely agency, the US
Securities and Exchange Commission. In this examination, we will look at how Carr’s
project was entangled in the flying saucer Contactee culture, and we’ll also
discuss the role of the other players, from Carr’s partners in crime, to the
victims of his saucer enterprise.
This Otis T. Carr saga
has been documented in bits and pieces, and we’ve used period books, newspaper
and magazine articles, saucer newsletters, FBI files, and court records to assemble
this report. Lance Moody is a film editor, animator, and skeptic with an
enduring fascination with the Carr saga, possibly the most knowledgeable living
person on the topic. In 2001 Lance Moody began conducting interviews for a
proposed documentary on the OTC story and spoke with six key participants in
the OTC story. Most of them have since died, but their recollections revealed
details and insight not found elsewhere. Moody did not complete his documentary,
but he filmed an interview with Eugene P. Carini that was particularly revealing.
Quotes from that discussion and Moody’s other research play a huge role in this
article.
No doubt, some events
were not recorded, there are missing pieces, and some players carried secrets
to the grave. What follows is the epic saga of OTC Enterprises based on the
best documentation available. It’s told in four parts; The Rise of OTC Enterprises,
Countdown to the Saucer Launch, The Trial of Otis T. Carr, and the conclusion, The CG-ES Files.
The Rise of OTC Enterprises
In 1957 retired Marine
major Donald E. Keyhoe began leading the National Investigations Committee on
Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). Keyhoe’s quest was to make the public believe that
not only that flying saucers are real, but also that it was a respectable topic
worthy of scientific study. Unfortunately for his mission, the sensational
tales of Contactees, charlatans and hoaxers often drowned out the legitimate
cases. Otis T. Carr’s story launched in late 1957, but Keyhoe and Carr might as
well have been from different planets.
Otis T. Carr: Who He Is and How He Came to Be
Otis T. Carr has a
past that contains many extraordinary claims, so it requires separating what the
man said while promoting himself and his company from what can be documented.
Carr came from Elkins, West Virginia; the family had two stepsons, a daughter,
and four sons, Otis being the youngest. Carr left public school at age 13 and
was self-educated thereafter. In his teens he worked for Western Maryland
Railroad, then at a generating plant. He spent two years studying art in New York
City, supposedly while working as a hotel package clerk. In 1930 he was living in
Baltimore, Maryland, with brothers, Homer and Pritchard, who worked as hotel
clerks, Otis, as a store manager. Carr later told his followers that during these
early years he had studied and worked with several prominent scientists and engineers
and began developing his revolutionary aerospace concepts in the late 1930s.
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The Charleston Daily Mail, (West Virginia) July 3, 1932, fishing circa 1940s, possibly in Baltimore. Photo from J.B.M.
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In 1932 Carr was the advertising
manager for Levin Brothers Department Store in Charleston, WV, and he married
Eleanor Mathews. The 1940 census showed him employed as an artist in
advertising, living in New York with Eleanor, but by 1942 they settled in Baltimore,
where Carr began working as a hotel night clerk. As for his personality, Carr
was described as soft-spoken, reserved, almost shy, with the mild appearance of
a Sunday school teacher. Somewhere along the line, Carr formulated some
grandiose plans, and began referring to himself in the editorial “we” when
speaking in evangelical tones about his fantastic work.
The flying saucer portion
of Otis T. Carr’s life that can be documented really begins in 1955 with his
registration for an invention. Carr filed a trademark on Aug. 1, 1955, for the name
“Carrotto,” with the United States Patent Office. It was within the listings
for “Electrical Apparatus, Machines and Supplies.” Carr secured a trademark,
but not a patent. At that time, Carr worked for the Southern Hotel in
Baltimore, managed by Harold I. Fink, who said he was employed there as a room
clerk from Dec. 16, 1942, to Dec. 20, 1955, at a salary around $250 a month. “Mr.
Carr was very irresponsible and would hit the bottle quite frequently… he would
imagine that he was a great scientist and inventor. The last time he was on a
drunk, he was fired, and the next day he invented a space ship…” According to documents,
Carr incorporated OTC Enterprises in 1955 and began selling stock, based on plans
for the company to manufacture a “free energy” generator that would power a
spaceship. Carr’s story reached the public in late 1957, just weeks after the
news of Sputnik, the earth’s first space satellite.
1957: To the Stars with OTC Enterprises Inc.
Ralph Elsmo ran a
prominent advertising business in Baltimore and Otis T. Carr became his friend
and client, perhaps connecting due to both being members of the same Alcoholics
Anonymous group. Elsmo believed in Carr’s project to the extent that he
supported the venture by donating the space at 2502 N. Calvert Street to serve
as headquarters for OTC Enterprises, Inc. It was a three-story white brick
building that had once been a residence, but recently remodeled and elegantly
furnished as offices. Carr and Elsmo’s first project together was to package
the OTC brand and grab the attention of the public.
In his 1961 book, Way Out World, Long John Nebel wrote, “Who
is the man who is often called the ‘brains’ of Otis T. Carr? His name is Norman
Evans Colton... a small, well-dressed, dark-haired, blue-eyed man with a very
charming manner ...who may be the greatest salesman I ever met.” Norman Colton entered
the story in an unexpected way. Eugene Carini said, “Norman Colton used to do
work for the Army, used to write technical manuals for the Army… a good talker…
pretty knowledgeable with words. But he also had another side to him where he
had an attitude of grabbing things and thinking like more of his own behalf
than really the good of the project and somebody else.” Colton worked as a
civilian for the illustrated mechanical maintenance magazine Army Motors magazine during World War II
with comic strip artist Will Eisner. The magazine’s success due to it conveying
technical information in a simple and memorable graphic form, often with comics
illustrations.
Colton approached
Eisner in 1949 about a similar project, and the artist created PS: The Preventative Maintenance Monthly
magazine for the Army in 1951, shortly after the US involvement in the war in
Korea. Eisner described him as “a strange guy, a quiet guy, but an incredible
promoter... quite devious in his ways. His talent was his ability to put these
things together.” Colton served as editor, but Eisner was annoyed by his
relentless pursuit of stock ownership of the Army’s PS, which would have
been illegal. Colton’s run as editor ended on July 22, 1953, when the FBI came
after him for “violating administrative procedures” (aka cheating the Army on
business expenses). (Will Eisner: A
Spirited Life by Bob Andelman, 2015.) FBI records indicate that Colton was
twice investigated by the FBI in relation to PS, once for fraud, and
later for “graft” and “forgery,” but “prosecution was declined.”
After PS, Colton
went into advertising and promotion for Ralph Elsmo and Associates, then in June
of 1957, given the job of editing a brochure for OTC Enterprises. Colton was
about 43 years old at the time, and later said, “I was brought into the picture
when Mr. Carr was ready to put some of these discoveries and accomplishments
policies and objectives on paper... brochures, mailing literature...” Carr
could confidently talk about his notions, but much of what he said was
incomprehensible. He was the “talent” while Colton served as manager, handler,
and sometimes, his interpreter. Colton was effective in promoting Carr’s message
in dynamic comprehensible terms, so the two were made a good partners, like a
barker and a carnival act.
Carr had been
tinkering with saucer concepts since at least 1952 but had attracted only a few
local supporters. Colton took Carr’s ideas and made them sing, packaging them
into a colorful spiral-bound pamphlet, published in October 1957, “OTC Enterprises, Inc, Brings You Atoms For Peace.” Long John Nebel later described
it as “thirty-two beautiful pages rife with elaborate diagrams, graphs and
renderings, including a 40” × 8” foldout... that ranks with the best that
Madison Avenue has to offer...” It was available to anyone for $1 “to help
cover the expense of postage and handling.” It carried the slogan: “Peace and
plenty through the application of free energy to supply all things for all
people.” Two subsidiaries were listed, Carrotto Dynamics, Inc. and Utron Atomic
Development, Inc.
Carr was portrayed as bigger
than life, the successor to great scientists and inventors from Galileo to Einstein,
and as the creator of the solution to power sources, “free energy” produced by
the “Carrotto Gravity Motor.” The limitless energy from it could power anything.
Carr’s most sensational invention was powered by the “Utron Electric Accumulator,”
described as “a fourth dimensional space vehicle... the OTC-X1 circular-foil
spacecraft...” In other words, a flying saucer.
Several pages were
devoted to the layout of the proposed campus, the “Plan of Research Institute
for OTC Enterprises, Inc.” This was to be Space, Maryland, set on 67 acres of
land with six buildings in its first phase, and Salvador Dali contracted for a
great mural of “Ezekiel’s wheels” on the dome of one. Later additions were
planned to include homes for thousands of employees, hotels, and a spaceport.
Following the
publication of the OTC brochure, a press conference was held on Oct. 28, 1957,
and as hoped, it put Carr’s name in the papers. The Associated Press story on
Carr was distributed nationally, carried in some newspapers as front-page news.
The Independent from Long Beach, CA,
ran the headline, “Invents Space ‘Saucer,’” but most papers used Carr’s
preferred term, “Circular Foil Craft” to describe the form of his planned
spaceship. The OTC-X1’s anti-gravity propulsion was supposed to be generated by
the counter-rotating forces of the “wheel within a wheel” of the saucer. In his
literature, Carr explained that:
“Any vehicle
accelerated to an axis rotation relative to its attractive inertial mass,
immediately becomes activated by free-space-energy and acts as an independent
force.”
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| The Hartford Courant, Oct. 29, 1957 |
Carr announced that he
had sent his 16-page copyrighted brochure to President Eisenhower, members of
the Cabinet, and the Atomic Energy Commission. The purpose for the press
conference was to get help with the OTC Enterprises’ only problem. Carr said he
could build the spacecraft, but only, “if someone puts up the money.” He
estimated the capital needed to construct the manufacturing facilities and deliver
the OTC-X1 at $20,000,000.
It didn’t seem that
unbelievable. Many people believed that flying saucers were secret US military
aircraft, and the Army had announced a contract with John Frost of AVRO Canada
to build a man-made saucer. Maybe, just maybe, Carr was on to something.
Bud Gosnell Joins the Team
Wilfred C. “Bud” Gosnell
was a prominent Baltimore businessman in his mid-fifties who had served in the
Army during World War II, retiring as lieutenant colonel. Gosnell was friends
with Ralph Elsmo, who told him about the exciting new client signed by his advertising
business, Otis T. Carr, a fellow member in their Alcoholics Anonymous group. Gosnell
was interested and given a tour of the OTC offices, and heard the origin story
from Otis himself. Carr told Gosnell that he’d been working to perfect his
engine for about twenty years and had filed a patent in 1949 for the “Utron
Electric Accumulator,” which he’d developed while partnered with the Glenn L.
Martin Company. Carr said he built a small working model in 1952, but that the
project ended when an airplane crash killed officials from the company. OTC
Enterprises would now complete what he started then, but he needed financial
backing. Gosnell found Carr’s stories persuasive, so he invested his first
$1,000 in the company, and went further still. He took a leave of absence from
his job, joining OTC Enterprises full-time as sales manager without salary. He would
be repaid and rewarded when the company succeeded.
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| Carr holding Utron Electric Accumulator, 1957. |
In November, Carr went
to nearby Washington, DC and pitched his OTC-X1 concept to the Pentagon, interesting
them enough to send a team to visit his office. On Dec. 16, 1957, Army
representatives met with Carr in Baltimore, but a spokesman made a
disappointing disclosure right before Christmas. “Model shown does not meet
present or foreseeable needs of the army and the army has no further interest
in the project as presented.” A government condemnation is usually a bad thing,
but things work differently in the flying saucer business.
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| Albuquerque Journal, Dec. 21, 1957 |
1958: Contacting the True Believers
OTC Enterprises was
building a following, but not all the attention was positive. On February 28,
the Federal Bureau of Investigation was tipped off by a man who found the Otis
Carr story suspicious, but if true, the technology “should be in the hands of
the Department of Defense.” The FBI began an investigation on Carr and company
for potential criminal activity, and also for the secondary possibility that
OTC could "attract the interest of the Soviets and that it might be used
as build-up material in one of your double agent operations." The
espionage angle didn’t pan out, but it helped keep Carr on the FBI’s watch list.
They also had reports of him selling unregistered stock, so they shared the
information gathered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Carr buzz reached the
Party Line, the nightly talk show from after midnight until morning from
WOR in New York City. Long John Nebel was the host, joined by a group of
panelists who interviewed guests involved in offbeat or unconventional topics –
frequently flying saucers. On his
March 9th show, Nebel discussed the lavish OTC Enterprises brochure, and while impressed,
he thought the spaceship claims might be too good to be true. Minutes later,
ufologist Gray Barker joined the program via telephone to endorse Otis Carr and
to suggest he’d make a good guest for the show. Nebel agreed.
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Otis Carr and Norman Colton in The Enterprise, April 3, 1958
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Later
that month, on March 30, 1958, Otis T. Carr appeared with Norman Colton on Washington,
D.C., station WTTG’s
program, “The Week in Review.” They displayed models of Carr’s inventions and
told about how they would revolutionize technology and facilitate space travel.
On April 3rd,
The Enterprise, a Baltimore weekly
tabloid newspaper carried a front-page photo from the show with the headline,
“Space Craft Designer Otis T. Carr Impressive in Telecast.” Also, in a somewhat
related article, Carr talked about “the Revelation of the Easter Message,”
saying that his Utron Electrical Accumulator was based on the secret hidden in
the form of Christ’s cross. The paper also featured a two-page spread advertisement
for OTC Enterprises, which explained how they would transform: transportation,
the economy, industry defense and employment. It would affect our daily lives;
in effect, OTC said they could put a saucer in every garage:
“The OTC spacecraft will
look very much like what you have been hearing people describe as a flying
saucer. The first experimental models will... cost millions of dollars as do
the first prototypes of any aircraft. But unlike conventional aircraft, OTC
space vehicles will be very soon be brought down to family size... to sell for
less than the cost of a modern automobile, and take your family across town,
across the nation, or around the world in absolute comfort and safety...”
The ad closed with a
paragraph saying they’d send the OTC brochure including photos and pamphlet,
you just needed to send $1.00 “to help cover the expense of postage and
handling.” At the bottom of it
all was the disclaimer: “THIS IS NOT AN OFFER TO SELL STOCK…”
Carr was building a
reputation as a space expert, and the April 10th issue of the weekly Baltimore Enterprise carried the story where a
reporter asked him about a theoretical rocket atomic warhead test on the moon. Carr
replied, “...if anything should start a chain reaction on our moon... or even
give it a hard push that could knock it momentarily off rotation or out of
orbit... we could be all burned to a crisp in seconds...” This became part of
Carr’s lecture material and provided a contrast to his own spacecraft design,
which he claimed was more economical and safer for the planet. The
article was reprinted in S.P.A.C.E.
July 1958.
Other saucer fan
magazines were eagerly following the story, and the March-April 1958 issue of The Ufologer said, “Your editors… after
having talked with Mr. Carr personally, we are convinced that this man must
have something great.”
An Upturn in Fortune
“It was the upturn point in his fortune.”
That’s how Bud Gosnell described Carr’s debut on Long John Nebel’s radio show. Though
Nebel and his panelists frequently challenged the claims of “crackpots,” the
exposure they provided served to boost a lot of careers. Carr and Norman Colton
packed up their saucer models and traveled to New York to appear on Nebel’s Party
Line on April 19, 1958. It was broadcast on station WOR which had a signal
powerful enough to reach half the USA and a fair chunk of Canada as well.
Nebel asked about the
possibility of flying saucers coming from other planets, to which Carr replied,
“We believe that there are unidentified electrified objects in the air. We have
seen three on three separate occasions... in 1951 and 1952, they were
definitely electrical, and they were very close to what we had already
designed.” Carr said his space vehicle, unlike rockets, was not expendable, and
that it could “leave the Earth's atmosphere and… could make a trip... from here
to Baltimore or from here to the Moon and return.”
As for the scientific
background that made his discoveries possible, Carr cited Professor Albert
Einstein, “…we corresponded with him and we had the great good fortune of being
advised by him at one time... We worked for a considerable time with and had
many conferences with the great Nikola Tesla...” Carr also had contemporary
help with his antigravity formula, saying, “I found it with the assistance of
Mr. Colton in the evaluation. Mr. Colton researches very heavily in all the
work that I do and we collaborate very closely. Also Mrs. Shea collaborates with me in research.”
Nebel asked Carr if he was selling stock in OTC. Carr replied, “We have not... we
are in the processes of setting up the machinery that will make it possible for
a public offering.” Colton added that before accepting an order for the OTC-X1,
“we will manufacture and demonstrate a miniature prototype model of say ten-foot
diameter, to prove that our statements are correct, and that we can do what we
say we will do.”
With their out-of-this-world
plans, Carr and Colton were just the kind of offbeat guests Nebel liked, so
they were invited back for several return visits. Carr’s appearances on Long
John Nebel’s show made him a star with what Gosnell called the “The Believers,”
those convinced of flying saucer contact tales, which included a faction of
followers of fringe religions. One such listener would go on to become a
significant investor and partner in OTC Enterprises, a young man from
Connecticut, Eugene P. Carini.
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| Flying Saucers July - August 1958 |
Following Carr’s
appearance on the Party Line, he began to get more attention. Gray
Barker published his interview with Otis T. Carr in Saucerian Bulletin, May 1, 1958, later expanded as four-page
article, “Has Man Conquered Gravity?” for the Flying Saucers July - August issue. Carr said that the press photos
showing the interior of the OTC-X1 model revealed the secret propulsion
principle of the device, and enigmatically alluded to the Biblical verse, “He
who hath an eye let him see.” Barker wrote, “[Carr] believes in Flying Saucers…
they may come either from space or some unknown source on the Earth. He offered
certain information to the Government in 1949, feels actual development from
that information could have been made by Uncle Sam… some saucers could be ‘electrical
life’ created in atomic explosions.”Barker published a follow-up in Saucerian Bulletin, Vol 3, No. 3, June
15, 1958, “Late Report on Otis T. Carr.” Barker had Eugene Villagret
investigate OTC Enterprises, Inc. in Baltimore. Villagret had been given a tour
of their offices, including Carr’s workshop on the top floor. In his meeting with
Norman E. Colton, he was told that the US government rejected Carr’s free
energy saucer because they were protecting “vested interests,” the oil and
automotive industries. Colton mentioned OTC’s forthcoming stock offering, which
he said would be preceded by a public demonstration of the space ship.
Otis T. Carr made his
UFO convention debut as the keynote speaker for the third annual Flying Saucer
Federation convention in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Another guest was (retired Army)
Major Wayne S. Aho, a Contactee, and the
director of “Washington Saucer Intelligence,” whose message was an early version of UFO “Disclosure,” and was in the
middle of cross-county lecture tour with
another Contactee, Reinhold O. Schmidt. At these saucer events, Carr found a
built-in audience. They already believed in spaceships, and his spiritual
message of an idealistic peaceful new age via technology seemed just what the
Space Brothers intended for the universe.
Oklahoma Beckons
Back in Baltimore, Bud
Gosnell began to feel that something wasn’t right with OTC Enterprises. Early
on, Gosnell, who worked without salary, was surprised to see Colton riding in
high style behind the wheel of a telephone-equipped Cadillac. Money was flowing
towards travel and entertainment, such as the time OTC chartered a plane to
court a prospective investor in Canada.
OTC was keeping many secrets. According to True magazine,
“Both Norman Evans Colton and Hildegarde W. Shea kept the doors to their offices
locked at all times. Gosnell occasionally surprised them talking and low
intense tones in front of a huge electric coffee percolator… when he
approached, they at once fell silent.” Another Secret was the power source for
the X1’s Utron Electrical
Accumulator. The Utron was a machined out of metal, two conical parts that fit
together to form a bicorne, which when viewed in different profiles, “completely
round and completely square.” The hollow center formed a sphere-shaped cavity
which Norman Colton said, “contains the electrolyte... to produce what is known
as the galvanic action or the generation of an electromotive force.” The
ingredient in the center was a trade secret, but Gosnell was finally able to
pry it out of Carr. Otis said it was, “One of the greatest catalytic agents,
known only to a few men. Honey.”
Gosnell felt adrift
and was frustrated as sales manager, because he didn’t know what he was
supposed to be selling. There was no actual product, and despite the influx of
cash from investors, Carr’s checks were bouncing. Besides the finances of the
company, Gosnell was also concerned about Carr’s frequent mysterious absences
from the office and his casual attitude towards selling (and recording) stock
shares. Due to his diminishing faith, there were several times Gosnell warned prospective
investors away.
Carr began spending a
lot of time in Oklahoma, and a big part of that was due to Lari Kendrick. In
June of 1958, a flying saucer club was formed there, Horizons Unlimited, with
Kendrick as president, and their first guest lecturer was Otis T. Carr.
Kendrick a big supporter and encouraged Carr to build OTC Enterprises’ Space
headquarters not in Maryland, but in Oklahoma City instead. There, Carr met
with several prominent local business leaders, including oil millionaire Frank
Buttram and E.K. Gaylord, the owner of the Daily Oklahoman and WKY-TV. The most important contact was manager of the amusement park, Frontier City, U.S.A., James
C. Burge. The drafted a contract and Burge paid Carr
$10,000 for the exclusive rights to build a replica of the OTC-X1 saucer as a feature
ride in the park's new section called “Space Frontiers.” As part of the contract,
Burge also became a shareholder in OTC for 21,000 shares, for a total investment of $32,800. Carr was finding a lot to love about Oklahoma City.
Carr's Scientific Education
Part of the Otis T.
Carr’s legend was built on his status as a student of inventor Nikola Tesla
(1856 - 1943). Curiously, Tesla appeared nowhere in Carr’s 1952 Dimensions of Mystery or the original
OTC promotional literature, but in time, became a prominent part of Carr’s
mythology. It seems to have been a later addition, and the first mention of
Tesla that we found was in Long John Nebel’s Party Line on April 19,
1958. Carr claimed that while working in New York as a package clerk at the
Hotel Pennsylvania, he had befriended Nikola Tesla, who lived there in a suite.
Supposedly, Tesla became his scientific mentor, nicknaming Carr “the sponge”
because of his “ready ability to absorb and retain knowledge.” The 1944
biography, Prodigal Genius: The Life of
Nikola Tesla by John J. O`Neill (a personal friend of Tesla) detailed the
inventor’s life during the period of the alleged Carr-Tesla friendship but
contained no mention whatsoever of Otis. The UFO organization Civilian Saucer
Intelligence of New York (CSI) concluded that Carr knew nothing about the man
and had manufactured the friendship after hearing about the saucer fringe’s
veneration of Tesla. When Carr appeared on the Party Line program of
June 28, 1958, he boasted of Tesla’s countless discoveries, prompting a panelist
to ask him to name just one or two. Carr was stumped. “That's funny — I cannot
remember even one.”
Since Carr had no
scientific education, having Tesla as a secret mentor fixed that problem and
supposedly explained why his inventions were so advanced beyond conventional
science. Although Carr had no photos or correspondence to document his claim, supporters
accepted Carr’s word as fact.
When Margaret Storm appeared with Carr and
Norman Colton on the Long John Nebel show of July 11, 1958, she explained how
she became involved with Carr, and why he was included in Return of the Dove, her book on Nikola Tesla: “...I had almost
completed the book, when I learned that Mr. Otis T. Carr had been one of
Tesla's disciples… I didn't spend very much time investigating him… I decided
very quickly that his work belonged in the book.”
Storm’s chapter, “The Otis T. Carr Story,” explained that while Otis was not a Contactee, it was safe
to assume that the space people had been carefully watching his work, and that,
“Tesla and the Dove have assuredly directed it from the scientific department
of Shamballa, making certain that it will fit into the Divine Plan at exactly
the right moment.”
Returning to more
earthly matters, during the show with Margaret Storm, Nebel asked Carr about
whether OTC had stockholders. Otis replied there were some private stockholders,
and he had a brokerage firm preparing a prospectus for the SEC, when approved, “our
subsidiary stock will probably go on the market at ten dollars a share.” Colton
later emphasized, OTC would not “offer the public a single share of stock... before
we have made a physical demonstration of these principles in a flight-worthy
craft.”
Despite his claims to
the contrary, Colton was sending out letters from OTC Enterprises soliciting
funds. FBI files contain a copy of a letter from Margaret Storm dated Aug. 20, 1958, stating: “The
development or our devices has now reached a point where those, like yourself,
who are interested in making an investment, either large or small, can take advantage
of our partnership-option plan. These options are given on a dollar per share
basis. They will be offered only until the date on which the demonstration model
spacecraft is launched, or prior to the public stock offering.”
The OTC Moonshot
From the start Carr
had said that his saucer could fly to the moon, but then he raised the stakes
by announcing a deadline for the voyage. On August 7, 1958, Carr gave a lecture
for the Baltimore Kiwanis Club where he announced that within 16 months, OTC
would build a 45-foot saucer and launch it to the moon. About the same time, Dan
Fry, the leader of Understanding Inc. stopped in Baltimore to visit with Carr.
The two became friends and Carr traveled to the first Northern California Spacecraft
Convention in Pleasanton on Aug. 23 & 24th, hosted by Fry’s friends. Understanding Sept. 1958 reported, “Major
Wayne Aho did an excellent job as M.C., keeping the program moving... Among the
outstanding new speakers was Otis Carr, from Baltimore, a dynamic and
enthusiastic backer of Spacecraft… Free Energy and the Saucer principle... Other
speakers were Dan Fry, Reinhold Schmidt... Calvin Girvin, Carl Anderson...”
Carr also took part in a panel discussion there with Fry and Aho.
Wayne Aho was skilled
at working the saucer convention and lecture circuit, and more importantly, the
press. He had just wrapped up several months in a successful lecture tour
partnership endorsing Reinhold O. Schmidt, the new Contactee who’d met the
people from Saturn. Carr recognized Aho’s value and brought him into the OTC
team. Carr always brought along a model of his saucer and the Utron as a visual
aid to wow the crowd, but with Aho he had a good lecture partner and a living
stage prop. At their first event together, Carr announced that Maj. Aho would
join him on a flight to the moon set for Dec. 7, 1959.
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| Akron Beacon Journal, Sept. 7, 1958 |
The moon launch became the hook for Carr’s enterprise, and he and associates took it on the road for a bigger audience. Contactee Howard Menger held his own version of a Giant Rock Spacecraft convention, the "First East Coast Interplanetary Space Convention," held Sept. 13-14, 1958 at Swiftstream Farm, Lebanon, New Jersey. Flying Saucer Review, Nov.-Dec. 1958, reported: "Newspapermen, radio and TV reporters were there in force. Long John Nebel, of WOR's all night off-beat program was there with his crew of panel guests and technicians… Among the guest speakers were Major Wayne Aho, of Washington Saucer Intelligence; Otis T. Carr, designer of the world's first free energy device space ship; Norman Colton, Carr’s engineer; Margaret Storm, author of the forthcoming book Return of the Dove, about Nikola Tesla; Gray Barker, author of They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, and many others."
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Carr and Aho at Menger's 1958 convention.
|
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Carr with Aho, and Gray Barker of The Saucerian.
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Menger’s space
convention was where Eugene P. Carini first met Otis T. Carr, and he became a
major supporter. Carini owned an electronics repair business in Connecticut, and had an interest in saucers and
new energy sources, later becoming the director of the local chapter of the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America, and he was friends with OTC's Margaret Storm. Gene began
corresponding with Carr and within
months, Carini offered his services as a technical consultant. More
importantly, he contributed $10,000 to the OTC-X1 project, which also bought
him the exclusive distribution and manufacturing rights for the area, as “OTC
Enterprises of New England." Carr met Carini in New York City to pick up the
check. Carini didn’t learn the rest of the story until much later. After
meeting Carini, Carr went missing from Baltimore for three days. Fearing foul
play, Bud Gosnell demanded to know what had happened to him, so Norman Colton
and Hildegarde Shea went looking. They found Carr with the money in NYC at the
Waldorf-Astoria, drunk to the point of being “well beyond taking care of
himself.” Gosnell realized this solved the mystery of Carr’s many other
absences. Under the merciful principles of A.A., Gosnell forgave Otis, remained
loyal and offered his support.
On Tour
Carr and Aho toured throughout the country in September and October, appearing at high schools, Masonic temples, civic clubs - anywhere, for anyone that would host them. On Oct. 12, Carr and Aho spoke in Kansas City, MO, for the U.F.O. Study Club. Members asked what he thought he might be on the moon and Carr replied, "We expect to find bases there established by beings from other worlds."
 |
| News Journal, Sept. 30, 1958 |
At lectures
such as these, FBI files show that they collected donations of $2 “per person
to help finance Carr’s anticipated trip to the moon.” The FBI was watching in
part because they had received a citizen’s letter warning that Wayne Aho might
be impersonating a military officer, so the agency began an investigation into
his identity and credentials. Aho might have exploited his status as a retired
Army intelligence officer, but that alone was not a criminal offense for the
FBI to pursue.
 |
| WKY News Oct. 1958 |
WKY-TV News in Oklahoma City covered one of the Carr-Aho lecture appearances there from Oct. 1958 and filmed a rare surviving on-camera interview with the pair. From Understanding, Oct. 1958:“Major Wayne S. Aho, Director of Washington Saucer Intelligence (along with his bride, Dorothy), and Mr. Otis T. Carr, Inventor of the OTC-X1 Spaceship, who also heads OTC Enterprises of Baltimore, Maryland, will be speaking in California during the month of November for most of the Flying Saucer Groups and for others. They have just finished a lecture tour of the Central and Northern States and will return to Washington and Baltimore by way of the Southern States.”
On Oct. 30, 1958, Dan B. Haber, a NICAP member, sent the FBI office in Cleveland, Ohio, a package of information on OTC Enterprises, Inc., saying, “My research in the field of UFO's has revealed a number of money-gathering organizations… Carr Enterprises is one of the most flagrant of the lot.” The most damning piece of information enclosed was the previously-mentioned letter from Margaret Storm on the OTC letterhead soliciting investments. Haber was advised that a copy of each enclosure was being made available to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Carr’s contract with James
C. Burge for the OTC-X1 space ship ride at Frontier City, U.S.A. was taking
shape, and information about it appeared in the park’s promotional material and
in the media. “Frontier City Due Expansion” was the headline for the story in The Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, Nov.
23, 1958. “Twenty-six new rides and concessions... will be installed at
Frontier City, U.S.A., now undergoing an $800,000 expansion program... There
will be room for 35 passengers in the cabin of an aluminum ‘saucer’ which is
the exact model of a space ship, now being designed by Otis T. Carr, Maryland
scientist, for his proposed trip to the moon in December 1959. The outside
shell of the ‘saucer’ will orbit counter-clockwise and the inside, clock-wise.
Passengers will get the effect of floating through space by a hydraulic lift.
Inner workings of the space ship can be seen by passengers through a plexiglass
window. A lecture prepared by Mr. Carr will be tape recorded and played each
time to explain the project to the visitors. Frontier City has the exclusive
rights to the cable car and spaceship rides for one year.” Carr’s ride would complete
the illusion of space flight with “an animated movie of heavenly bodies above
the passengers to give the passengers an impression of leaving the earth and
approaching a distant planet…” The spaceship ride might stand on its own, but
its design and promotion were tied to the successful flight of Otis T. Carr’s
saucer to the moon.
The Occult Studies of
Otis T. Carr
Norman Colton was
always hustling for the OTC brand. Lance Moody contacted Colton’s son, Richard
around 2001. “He told me a great story about his dad calling him in Baltimore
from NY and asking him to bring up one of the models to him for a radio
appearance. So, the boy, very young 10-12 got on the train to bring it up to
NY.” Carr and Colton travelled a lot in promotion, frequently to appear on Long John Nebel's show.
 |
| Photo and caption from Carr's model literature. |
On Nov. 15, 1958 Otis
T. Carr & Norman Colton paid another visit to the Party Line. Nebel
expressed concern about the shift in Carr’s focus, saying, “you seem to be
getting involved in metaphysics, in the occult… bringing a little mysticism
into something that originally you presented as something you considered to be
scientific.” Carr replied that he considered all his work to be scientific, but
“There is nothing wrong with mysticism… It is knowledge, gained by a past. We
have had some training in these fields and have been a great help to us in the
further development of our enterprise.”
After getting a
non-answer from Carr on a question about saucer kooks, Nebel asked Norman
Colton about OTC’s association with the Contactees, saying, “...as a director
of a corporation, if you tie up with Van Tassel, and the Dan Fry, and the
Menger, and the Adamski stories, it is only natural for people listening to
presume that you have a lot of wild tales too.” Colton replied, “...if your
assumption is that we discolor ourselves by association... Mr. Carr's
appearances before them and among them have resulted in very wide publicity and
very serious identification for the principles he has set forth. This has been
our purpose, our mission... very largely accomplished...”
Later in the show, a Party
Line listener asked Carr why he was associated with the Rosicrucians, “a
metaphysical group.” Carr replied, “There is nothing mysterious about the
mystical, as we have mentioned before - it is a path of learning. It is a very
happy, wonderful organization. We have found much information in there that is
actable to science.” Nebel was often frustrated by Carr’s balderdash-laden
rhetoric, and later asked a follow-up question, “Mr. Carr, again, as a
scientist, as an inventor, as a pioneer in space. Don't you think it's a little
ridiculous to constantly tie in metaphysics into this subject, sir?” True to
form, Carr replied, “The definition of metaphysics is oftentimes loosely used.”
Long John Nebel’s
concern about Carr’s fringe associations were sincere, but he was likely was
unaware of how central they were to the enterprise. Carr was a Rosicrucian, a
member of the “The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosæ Crucis” (AMORC). The
Rosicrucians fancy themselves to be the caretakers of secret ancient wisdom,
guarded through the centuries until the time is right to share it with the
world. Carr was doing his part. In 1958 OTC Enterprises quietly began publishing
occult books as “Millennium Publications.” Carr later talked about his interest
in the occult in a 1960 interview with True
magazine reporter Richard Gehman, saying, “We always were of an inquiring mind.
We have explored the philosophies of the Rosicrucians and the Russian lady,
Madam Blatafsky. We also have been interested in Christian Science and other
metaphysical and occult groups seeking better understanding.” Carr mangled the
name, he was referring to Helena P. Blavatsky of the Theosophical Society, and
the last part referred to Dan Fry’s Understanding, Inc.
Carr also told Gehman
about his flying saucer sighting from April 1952, “…by the time my startlement
and amazement had completely registered, the craft was gone. It disappeared as
quickly as a soap bubble. The descriptions that have been given by people who
have made contact have invariably identified such a craft as a Venusian scout
ship.” That’s the model of saucer George Adamski first described. Another area
of Carr’s studies was The Oahspe Bible, of which he said, “This is one
of the most profound scientific documents ever published! Isn’t anything Dr.
Einstein ever found out that isn’t in here! Space ships, landings, cosmology -
everything!”
Build Your Own Saucer
Otis T. Carr began
marketing the company’s first physical product in October, a set of model plans for the “OTC-X1 Space Craft” sold at $5, two for $9, or three for $12. The 17’
x 22” color plans were mailed in a tube and could double as decorative posters.
In connection with this product, Carr had his concepts copyrighted, not
patented: the Carrotto Gravity Motor, the Utron Electric Battery/Utron
electrical accumulator, and the OTC-X1 space craft, all © 1958.
Carr brought his
soon-to-be released model plans to the Party Line show. Long John Nebel
found it to be a strange venture and asked why he was selling them. Carr told
him it was a good way to accelerate interest in the space age, and to educate
the public about the technology that would replace rockets. “If they will take
these plans... and faithfully follow them...
they can then... order machine made parts... and when properly qualified
to do so... they can build a model that will fly. Not only in our atmosphere...
but out of it.” Nebel asked about his own success and Carr said he had built a
flying model himself, “That's the one that's missing.” He said it flew away and
was lost - apparently in space.
Advertisements for the
model plans were sent to names on the OTC mailing list, and it promised
excitement:
“ANIMATE IT! SEE IT WORK! EVEN FLY IT YOURSELF!
(Under proper qualification, of course).”
The flyer also offered
information on how to become an “exclusive distributor” for OTC Enterprises,
which involved the purchase of shares of stock in the company. Carr was trying
to pitch these to the toy market and leased an office in Homestead, Pennsylvania
to do so. As for the question of “proper qualification” to fly the Carr Model,
there was a section in the plans, “Who Qualifies?” Sorry kids, only “people
already engaged in an aircraft production or the making of energy machines of
older kinds… mature professional people at all levels… of laboratory research
and development in our institutions and industries.”
The model plans also
included a note that for $5.00 you could receive a kit of literature including
photos, a copy of the OTC brochure and Carr’s book, Dimensions of Mystery,“100 pages of revelation and prophecy in mystical allegory.”
Dimensions of Mystery: A Message for the Twentieth Century was written by Carr in March of 1952, but not
published until 1958. Up until then, Carr had presented himself as a scientific
inventor, and this was the first hint of his occult interests. Carr’s
colleague, Margaret Storm said, “It makes delightful reading for everyone, but
will be of especial significance to all true mystics, adepts, and other
illuminati.” In the segment, “Mystical Revelations,” Carr told how in 1909, at
the age of five years, the Sphinx appeared to him and said, "Earth child,
thou who wast chosen by the Cosmic at the turn of the century for a particular
task...” But it wasn’t until 1938 when his second message came to clarify his
mission, “Build thyself atomic-powered aircraft of circular foil, as it were, a
wheel within a wheel, and I will join thee on thy ascent to Heaven where we
will shake our fists in the face of the Omnipotent God!” Carr’s concluding
“Testament” explained that “...within these pages in simple words and phrases,
yet hard to decipher are the complete specifications for a fourth dimensional
gravity engine that utilizes the straight line and the curve! This engine will
operate continuously without tension or the dissipation of the energy that
causes it to operate!”
In his marketing of
OTC Enterprises, Norman Colton downplayed Carr’s occult side and pitched the
message as more conventional, about science, industry, and progress. However,
Carr spent most of the end of 1958 lecturing with Wayne Aho for Units of
Contactee Dan Fry’s spiritually themed flying saucer organization,
Understanding, Inc. While on tour they were photographed for the Tucson Daily
Citizen, Dec. 5, 1958, “Uneasy Over Trip To Moon? Not Flying Saucer Man
Aho” by Jack Carson. Aho stated, “I hope that by this trip we can do something
to bring a peaceful space age into being.”
 |
| Tucson Daily Citizen, Dec. 5, 1958 |
One of the few
negative pieces on OTC was the exposé in Saucer
News, Dec/Jan 1958-59, “Otis T. Carr and the Free Energy Principle,”
written by Robert J. Durant (of Donald Keyhoe’s NICAP). Referring to Carr’s
pseudo-scientific double-talk, Durant said, “For all most people know, he might
well be a great scientist. After all,
he is completely unintelligible, isn’t he?” Most notably he reported that OTC
Enterprises was selling stock, perhaps the first public disclosure of the
crime.
Meanwhile, back in
Baltimore, Bud Gosnell was one of the few original supporters still on board
with OTC Enterprises. Four founding players had left, including George Mahone
and Ralph Elsmo. Although funds from wealthy investors were coming in, Gosnell
was becoming increasingly unhappy with how the company operated. When Otis T.
Carr announced that he had decided to transfer all operations from Baltimore to
Oklahoma City it was the breaking point for Gosnell. He wrote a letter to the
Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 3, 1959, informing them of the
illegal practices of OTC Enterprises and told them about the several of Carr’s
big investors, including: Eugene Carini and his $10,000; K. M. Jesse
of Wichita, Kansas, who had invested and set up the OTC Commercial Corporation;
Frank Santora of Wilmington, Delaware, who pledged $10,000; and Dr. and Mrs. Harry D. Jenkins of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, who put in “several thousands.” Gosnell stayed with OTC, apparently in hopes of
recovering his lost investments and to keep an eye on things for the SEC.
Back in Oklahoma,
Carr’s contract with Frontier City was on the verge of making something real. The
saucer ride was being constructed, and the OTC-X1 prototype was scheduled to be
launched for its opening day in April 1959.
Continue reading
Part 2:
Countdown to the Saucer Launch
