Flying Saucers, the Atomic Bomb and Doomsday: The Outer Limit (Part 1 of 5)

The Outer Limit: A Prelude

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells was first published in 1897, and it is perhaps the most famous and influential science fiction story of all time. Fantasy stories usually involve regular people facing extraordinary experiences, often in a tale of their journey to a strange land. Wells was one of those authors who flipped the premise, by having the strangeness make the journey, intruding into our everyday world. His story is about an alien landing, the beginning of an invasion by conquerors. The Martians have no interest in communicating with humans, who they see as pests that must be exterminated before they can inhabit the Earth. Without meaning to, the Martians unite mankind.

“Did they grasp that we in our millions were organized, disciplined, working together? Or did they interpret our spurts of fire, the sudden stinging of our shells, our steady investment of their encampment, as we should the furious unanimity of onslaught in a disturbed hive of bees?... Never before in the history of the world had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together.”

The 1938 CBS broadcast of Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre's adaptation of The War of the Worlds became the most famous radio drama of all time, and due to its documentary-like presentation some listeners thought a real war had come to the USA. The real thing would come just a few years later with the bombing of Pearl Harbor drawing the States into the Second World War.

The Atom Bomb: A Study of Atom Power, 1945

"Is it a blessing, or will it smash humanity?"

War of the World

The atomic bomb was seen by some people as a tool to bring peace. In the closing days of World War II, shortly after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a survey conducted by Gallup Poll in late August 1945, showed that 69% of the US public felt the atomic bomb was a "good thing." However, afterwords there were those with some rising serious concerns about its destructive potential.

"The public, having been warned of the horrible nature of atomic warfare, has done nothing about it, and to a large extent has dismissed the warning... I say that nothing has been done to avert war since the completion of the atomic bomb, despite the proposal for supranational control of atomic energy put forward by the United States in the United Nations." - Albert Einstein,  The Atlantic, November 1947

Before Doar and Saucers

Harold Sherman and his messiah from Mars, Numar, The Green Man.

The Green Man was a 1946 novel by psychic Harold Sherman that introduced Numar, a peaceful messiah-like messenger in a spaceship from another planet with the power to make our technology stand still. In 1979, Sherman described his inspiration: 

"I had a series of visions wherein I saw Space Beings, possessed of high intelligence, visiting our Earth in space ships of different shapes and sizes, for the purpose of exploration and eventually to fill our skies with large space vehicles, coming in force, hopefully on a friendly mission to help Mankind save itself from self-destruction."

In the 1947 sequel, The Green Man Returns, Numar comes back to deliver "A New Plan of Living which will solve our earth’s problems and bring about true brotherhood," which would end war and the associated threat of atomic bombs.

On Oct. 9, 1946, there was a report of Kareeta, a spaceship visiting the Earth, piloted by Etherians, peaceful visitors who didn't land because "they're afraid of the reception they'll get." The Borderland Sciences Research Associates had established telepathic communication and later disclosed that "at every great crisis . . . or just prior to the collapse of civilization, they make an extended survey here for their own information and historical records."

Weeks before the birth of the age of flying saucers, BSRA member and Fortean Vincent Gaddis wrote in the May/June 1947 issue of Round Robin about extraterrestrials, the Shaver Mystery, and how ancient spiritual entities from space might intercede to protect us from World War III: 

"Among those who can think there is a growing sense of worry and fear. That our culture is nearing a breaking point... There is a gathering of Powers, a search for places of safety, the building of two great armed camps. There have been many prophecies... In 1937 a remarkable prophecy was received in America from high spiritual beings and sent to Dr. Alexander Cannon, in London. who reproduced it in his book, The Power of Karma... This revelation tells of a 'great migration of celestial beings' ages ago, who came to this planet from outer space..."

Worries about the A-bomb grew in people's minds, and the best hope for world peace seemed to be the United Nations. When flying discs hit the news in 1947, some people suspected connections between atomic power and the flying saucers. Others thought flying saucers were a sign that the world was ending.

Medford Mail Tribune, June 27, 1947

A musical warning: (When You See) Those Flying Saucers by Cy Coben-Charlie Green, performed by The Buchanan Brothers, Oct. 27, 1947,  RCA Victor 20-2385-A

"...Many people think the saucers might be someone’s foolish dream

Or maybe they were sent down here from Mars

If you’ll just stop and think you’d realize just what it means

They’re more than atom bombs or falling stars

And though the war may be through there’s unrest and trouble brewin’

And those flying saucers may be just a sign

That if peace doesn’t come it will be the end of some

So repent today, you’re running out of time

When you see a saucer fly like a comet through the sky

You should realize the price you’ll have to pay

You’d better pray to the Lord when you see those flying saucers

It may be the coming of the Judgment Day"

At that time, only the mystical fringe that had already believed we were being visited by extraterrestrials gave serious consideration to flying saucers having an outer space origin. Among them, some took it as a sign, that our ancient gods were back, and here to help.

"Will the ancient gods... come back in time to avert an atom war?"
From "Son of the Sun." by Millen Cooke (as Alexander Blade) illustrated by James Settles. 
Fantastic Adventures Vol.9. No.7. November 1947. 

One World or None

The 1948 novel, The Flying Saucer by Bernard Newman was about an alien invasion prompting the United Nations to unite the world against a common outside enemy.  The invasion was a fake, a conspiracy by scientists who were committed to bring peace to the world and remove the threat of atomic war.

Everyone has heard of the UN, United Nations... But what is the UW? 

In Captain Marvel Adventures #98, dated July 1949, the super hero sees a flying saucer and decides to solve the mystery. Following it to its home planet he's surprised to learn, "Holy Moley! Our Galaxy has a government!" The United Worlds "was formed 1000 years ago to eliminate all war, crime and evil in the galaxy." Earth has been denied membership, but the UW eventually has a change of heart after demonstrations of CM's heroics, but he says, no; the Earth has yet to earn its membership.

The United Nations seemed stymied in keeping the peace on Earth, and with the A-bomb in play it it would be terrible. In times of trouble, people often look to help from above, and in the age of flying saucers, there were some new possibilities.

The Twilight Zone between Flying Saucers and Science Fiction

Science fiction magazines had come into bloom in the 1920s, full of visitors from other worlds, spaceships and almost every other concept that later surfaced in connection with UFOs. Not everyone read SF magazines, but almost everyone read the newspaper, listened to the radio and went to the movies. In the 1940s, the best-known science fiction to the average person was from the comic strips, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Superman, but most would also have remembered the notorious Martian invasion from the The War of the Worlds. Those stories introduced the basic science fiction concepts to an audience of millions of all ages. The science fiction magazines reached a much smaller but devoted audience, and one publication was doing something different. 

In 1944, Ray Palmer introduced the Shaver Mystery to the readers of Amazing Stories, presenting it as a genuine case of extraterrestrials having an active presence on Earth. Palmer also encouraged readers to write in with reports of their sightings of strange things seen in the sky. It was the magazine's policy that alien visitors had come here, and that the space ships were real. 

Ad for FATE magazine, Amazing Stories, dated May 1948.

When saucers arrived in 1947, Palmer offered them as evidence that they were connected, proving Shaver's stories were true. Together with publisher Curtis Fuller in 1948, he launched Fate a magazine on the occult, and the the cover feature of the first issue was, "The Truth about Flying Saucers." The notion of ET saucers was being put out, but the mainstream thought of it as kid stuff, that men from Mars belonged in the funny pages with Buck Rogers. Two magazine stories were about to go a long way towards changing that perception.

Graham Doar's short story, "The Outer Limit" debuted in The Saturday Evening Post dated December 24, 1949. It hit the newsstands shortly before the January 1950 issue of True magazine, which carried Major Donald Keyhoe's famous article, "The Flying Saucers Are Real." The following newspaper article discusses both stories.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 27, 1949, Page 1

After covering Keyhoe's claims, they turn to Doar's story:

It's probably a coincidence that last week's Saturday Evening Post featured a flying saucer story – indexed as fiction – which indicated that the world would end with a bang. In "The Outer Limit," Graham Doar tells how a pilot flying and experimental rocket at five times the speed of sound encountered and was sucked into a flying saucer manned by intelligent beings who warned him that because of the atomic explosions observed from their world they had surrounded Earth with a force field having the effect of a planetary quarantine. Set off any more atomic bombs, they cautioned him, and Earth would explode like a nova.

What set Doar's story apart was that it took A-bomb fears, science fiction ideas and coupled them together with flying saucers for perhaps the first time, certainly a first for a mainstream magazine. What makes Doar's story notable is not only the content, but also its incredible exposure. Aviation historian Curtis Peebles wrote in a Magonia article:

While The Saturday Evening Post had a massive circulation, ‘The Outer Limit’ reached a much wider audience than just the magazine’s subscribers. ...Doar’s story “may be the most often used science fiction story in radio.” ‘The Outer Limit’ was dramatised five times on radio and twice on television.

The tale would have been perfect for The Twilight Zone, but it hadn't been created yet.  There's a lot more to be said about the story, and we'll take a detailed look at "The Outer Limit" and how it introduced concepts that would come to be central to the public's perceptions of UFOs. The subsequent installments will cover:

The Outer Limit, the original short story
The Outer Limit, as adapted for radio and television
The Outer Limit Legacy, its influence on ufology
The Outer Limit Legacy, its influence on science fiction films

  - - -

UFO Cattle Abduction, Twin Falls, Idaho, Sept. 7, 1956

One of the earliest reports of alien abduction from Twin Falls, Idaho, Sept. 7, 1956, more notable that the abductee was a 400-pound steer. UFOs and cattle,  a puzzling connection.

Sometimes a non-vital stories went out on wire services and local papers saved them as filler items, the editors not noticing later updates. This is an example, printed September 10, 1956.

 Nampa Idaho Free Press Sept. 10, 1956.

The Pride of Idaho

         San Bernardino Sun,  September, 15, 1956

The Rest of the Story

However, a Twin Falls editor had already cracked the case and published the story the day before.
Or, so he claimed.

Helena Independent Record Sept. 9, 1956.

As with so many of the most interesting UFO cases featured here at The Saucers That Time Forgot, Project Blue Book has no file on this incident. However the files do include a clipping:

Bonus Feature

The poem, "Three Cows and a UFO" by Roger Glassel, accompanied by a controversial video clip for illustration purpose only.

Captured Flying Saucers: July 7, 1947, The Disk that Slipped by the FBI

The FBI is shut out

There was a FBI memo allegedly about flying saucers recovered with a handwritten notation by director J. Edgar Hoover:

"...we must insist upon full access 

to discs recovered. For instance 

in the La. case the Army grabbed it & 

wouldn't let us have it for cursory 

examination." 

(signed "H" for Hoover.)

The FBI file with the Hoover "La." memo is on page 45 of this PDF:

https://vault.fbi.gov/UFO/UFO%20Part%201%20of%2016/view#document/p45

Some UFO proponents like James Fox have insisted the memo is connected to the recovery of a crashed alien space craft. A few have misinterpreted Hoover's handwriting of La. as SW for South West, thinking that his memo was about Roswell, NM. Others have speculated that it was LA for Los Angeles, CA. However, the facts is that La. was short for Louisiana, as in the case of the July 7, 1947 crashed disk case in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Not Roswell

Top and bottom of the sloppy saucer from the south.

There have been many crashed flying saucers recovered over the years, but this is one of the very few instances where the object's flight and actual crash were witnessed 

From the files of Project Blue Book:

"Mr. (F. G. Harston), Shreveport, Louisiana, stated in an interview on 7 July 1947 that at 1805, 7 July 1947, he heard the disc whirling through the air and had looked up in time to see it when it was approximately 200 feet in the air and coming over a sign board adjacent to the used car lot where he was standing. ( Harston) stated that smoke and fire were coming from The disc and that it was traveling at a high rate of speed and that it fell into the street and his immediate vicinity. ( Harston) further stated that he retrieved the disc from the street and immediately notified Army officials at Barksdale Field."

Project Blue Book's file on this case: 7 July 1947, Shreveport, Louisiana. Here's a picture of F. G. Harston, lucky survivor of the close encounter. 

LIFE: "A Rash Of Flying Disks Breaks Out Over The U.S." in LIFE July 21, 1947

Case Closed

Investigation showed that this disk was yet another made here on Earth:

"A flying disk' fell in the street in a Southern city.  It was composed of aluminum strips, fluorescent-lamp starters, condensers, rivets, screws and copper wire.  A little investigation resulted in a confession from the culprit, the superintendent of an electric-fan factory, who said he concocted the device and threw it from the roof of the factory, hoping to scare his boss, who was getting into his car."

What You Can Believe About Flying Saucers - Conclusion by Sidney Shalett, Saturday Evening Post May 7, 1949

The object was determined to be of Earthly origin, and the identity of the hoaxer was determined, so this in one of the rare cases closed as definitively solved.

Captured Flying Saucers: Saucer Engineers: Aug. 25, 1950 Reading, PA

August 25, 1950, Reading, Pennsylvania:
Police responded to excited reports of a captured flying saucer, one that looked like a military project gone astray. On the small unmanned disc were stenciled the words:  

Non-Explosive
Military Secret - USA
Air Force
S-4763

When the police arrived, they indeed found the disc the witnesses described, but also two individuals who were able to solve the mystery.

FALSE ALARM . . . Two Reading, Pa., boys, John Feick, 15, left, and Paul Fisher, 14, right, thought the "flying saucer" they built was quite a trick. Motorcycle Patrolman Floyd Auchenbach didn't share their admiration. The patrolman investigated reports that people had seen "a real flying saucer." He found this gadget, which the boys said they had constructed for fun and to fool people. It won't fly. 
The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky August 26, 1950

Feick and Fisher had further ambitions.

There had been other counterfeit flying saucers found before, and some were even counterfeit military projects. Billy Rose's column in the Riverhead, NY, County Review from June 15, 1950, reported on the claims by Radio commentator Henry J. Taylor. Not only were flying saucers real, they were secret USA military projects. 

The County Review, June 15, 1950

Chances are good that John Feick and Paul Fisher heard about Taylor's story and it influenced the creation of their disc. Despite their announcement of a sequel, no report was found of a later disturbance by a rocket launch in Reading, however. 

The object was determined to be of Earthly origin, and the identity of the hoaxers was determined, so this is one of the few cases definitively closed as solved.

As with so many of the most interesting UFO cases featured here at The Saucers That Time Forgot, Project Blue Book has no file on this incident.

When Prophecy Fails in Denmark, 1967

UFO pioneer George Adamski died in the US in 1965, but his teachings lived beyond him and were spread around the world. Two years later, Orthon, the first extraterrestrial he'd befriended, was working with believers in Denmark, sharing technology and preparing for their rescue from the impending atomic war. 

A portrait of Orthon and a model of his saucer.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette, Dec. 17, 1967.

The authorities were unsympathetic to the groups needs.

Dec. 22 1967

  Knud Weiking on how Orthon saves.

Dec. 24 1967

Though this be madness, yet there is method in't. 

Most readers know the atomic war was postponed. Orthon's followers were forced to consider another plan building an escape ship using a Free Energy engine.

 

El Paso Herald-Post Dec. 26 1967

As with so many of the most interesting UFO cases featured here at The Saucers That Time Forgot, Project Blue Book has no file on this incident.

Stanton Friedman on Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Stanton Friedman on Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Steven Spielberg's 1977 film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind is headed back to theaters. In its original release, the audiences went in not knowing what to expect. The previews and ads suggested something a bit sinister and mysterious.  Spielberg was famous for terrifying audiences with the shark and Jaws, so many people may have been expecting CE3K to be a space monster movie. We were told to "Watch the Skies," and that, "We are Not alone." It sounded like a warning.

“When Steven Spielberg made Jaws, the world went shark crazy. Reports of shark attacks increased by the thousands and people began to approach the beach with caution and even with fear. Now with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg is making a film about an even more fascinating subject and one thing seems certain. Just as Jaws gave us a new respect for the mysteries that lie beneath the surface of the sea, after seeing Close Encounters of the Third Kind, we will probably never look at the sky in quite the same way again.

Like Jaws, Steven Spielberg’s newest film begins in a small American town but this time it leads to one inescapable conclusion: we are not alone. WATCH THE SKIES”

6 minute teaser

1977 TV spot for CE3K

CE3K& Ufology

Close Encounters became a huge financial success, a beloved classic of cinema and a touchstone for the UFO topic. However on it's original release, the reviews were mixed. Let's take a look back at what critics were saying about it at the time. In Variety, A.D. Murphy said:

“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” is a daring film concept which in its special and technical effects has been superbly realized. Steven Spielberg’s film climaxes in final 35 minutes with an almost ethereal confrontation with life forms from another world; the first 100 minutes, however, are somewhat redundant in exposition and irritating in tone.

Ufologist Dr. J. Allen Hynek was a consultant on the film, and deeply involved in the project, and a big supporter. He participated in its promotion, had a cameo in it, published a non-fiction book The Hynek UFO Report released in connection with the film, wrote the epilogue to the CE3K novelization, and received funding and publicity for CUFOs, the Center for UFO Studies.

Friedman With Portrait Of Sculpture
made from a recollection of a close encounter

Ufologist, Stanton T. Friedman, "the flying saucer scientist" was less enthusiastic about the film. Prior to resurrecting the Roswell case, Friedman was a flying saucer lecturer who chiefly promoted the Betty and Barney Hill abduction story. He'd consulted on the 1975 TV movie based on the Hill case, The UFO Incident, but he gave low marks to Spielberg's film. Close Encounters of the Third Kind was criticized by Stanton Friedman as "inaccurate." He said that, " 'Close Encounters' is visually spectacular- a feast for the eyes- but UFOlogically a disaster," and in his opinion, "about 20 percent legitimate and 80 percent overdone."

The Sarasota Journal,  Jan. 11, 1978 

It's not known if Friedman's disapproval prompted Spielberg to tamper with the film, but CE3K has been re-edited several times over the decades, with footage added and cut. With the new re-release, Spielberg has one last chance to fix his mistakes, and just maybe, to finally win the praise of the flying saucer scientist.

Captured Flying Saucers: US Navy Investigates Crashed Disc, Alice, TX, July 4, 1950

X for eXperimental

STTF correspondent Roger Glassel of Sweden has provided us with the story of a crashed flying saucer, discovered in Alice, Texas, July 4th, 1950. At the time, flying saucers were thought by most people to be secret military projects, and several credible authorities were supporting the hypothesis. World War I flying ace, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, agreed that flying saucers could be real, but "belong to the U.S.A."

Portsmouth Times. May 18, 1950.

The Northrop X-4, as shown in Flying Magazine, March 1949

There were some real classified military aircraft projects underway in the 1940s and, and they carried an "X" prefix, designating experimental. The link below is to an article from FAS on the history of the projects: "The X-Plane Program has evolved from being the first rocket-powered airplane to break the sound barrier (the X-1 on 14 October 1947) and included over 30 different major research designs..." X-Planes Experimental Aircraft

The X-147-A

In Alice, Texas, on July 4th, 1950, a crashed flying saucer was discovered. The San Antonio Express reported in their  July 5, 1950 issue:

"Discoverer of the saucer was Leroy Holloman of an Alice roofing and sheet metal company. Driving along a highway bordering a plowed field, he spotted the saucer. Within an hour Alice's sleepy Fourth of July burst into a galaxy of wild rumors. Here s what the crowd saw: An aluminum object, almost round, about four feet across each way, six or eight inches thick in the middle, with antenna and 'running lights' on both sides, and a small opening in the back. Stenciled on the left side were the words 'warning. X-147-A. Don’t touch.' And no one, at first, would touch it. But excited townspeople knelt down and looked through the little hole. They could see machinery inside. Among those who came running were Police Chief Stokes Micenheimer and Managing Editor Curtis Vinson of the Alice Daily Echo."

The text on the object was in English and it looked like Army stenciling. This led to speculation that the saucer was a secret military project, perhaps gone astray. Micenheimer and Vinson contacted government authorities, and the FBI was among those they notified.

The FBI's files contain three memos on the event starting on page 35 of this PDF.

They also called in the Marines

Alice Daily Echo, July 5,1950.

Another unusual aspect of this case is that instead of the Air Force, the incident was investigated by the US Navy. Micenheimer and Vinson also contacted the Navy, from the nearby Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. Here's the story form All Hands, the US Navy magazine, "published monthly in Washington, DC, by the Bureau of Naval Personnel for the information and interest of the Naval Service as a whole."

All Hands, Sept. 1950

All Hands, Oct. 1950

This story from Naval Aviation News identifies the specific aircraft elements used to construct the counterfeit saucer's body:

Naval Aviation News, September, 1950

Photos from  the Navy's examination of the captured disc:

View of the saucer's underside, showing distinct traces of terrestrial construction.

An "alien autopsy." The saucer's propulsion unit was removed for analysis.

The Navy decided to put the crashed saucer into service:

Alice Daily Echo, July 7, 1950.

There have been many UFO hoaxes over the years, but very few of them are centered on spoofing a military secret project. The experimental "X-147-A" designation was a nice touch, but doesn't indicate any knowledge beyond what an average aircraft buff would have had at the time. The hoaxer had welding skill and access to aircraft parts, so it seems very likely he was a mechanic at the airport in Alice, Texas. 

Many discoveries of crashed flying saucers generate lasting mysteries, but due to the timely reporting and investigation, the true origin of this one was solved within a few hours. The object was determined to be of Earthly origin, but the identity of the hoaxer was not determined, so in that regard, the case remains unsolved

As with so many of the most interesting UFO cases featured here at The Saucers That Time Forgot, Project Blue Book has no file on this incident. 

A special thanks to Roger Glassel for the case details and documents.