Human beings have always been fascinated with flight,
but in 1947, flying saucers gave us something new to think about. UFOs have
inspired us to imagine and invent.
Who was the first inventor to attempt to build and fly their own saucer? The Weekly
Town Talk, July 19, 1947, featured a photo of Jimmy Webb of Little Rock, Arkansas,
and the homemade “Flying Saucer,” he entered in a local model
airplane competition.
In 1950, Charles Hoberg of Chicago built a small “jet-powered”
saucer “after studying reports of the space ships.”
Sunday News, March 26, 1950
In Sept. 1950, a warning was issued that Detroit, the Plymouth
Motor Corporation’s International Model Plane Contest would feature flying
saucers, and that they might cause alarm and be reported to authorities by the
public.
Mansfield Advertiser Sept. 6, 1950
Plymouth Press release
“Pilot your own Flying Saucer” was the title of an
article in Boy’s Life Jan. 1953, that instructed readers how to construct
an unpowered flying saucer out of balsa wood.
Boy Scout Ray White built such a saucer and
demonstrated it on television for NBC’s Today Show.
Boy’s Life Nov. 1953
The above are just a few examples of the early
attempts to copy flying saucers on a small scale, but in the 1960s, a company
set out to mass produce them.
“Would you believe saucer for $9.98? Better yet, would
you BUY a flying saucer for $9.98? That's the million-dollar question as far as
C. R. Stuard is concerned… Stuard is the co-owner and marketer of the "X-1
Sky Saucer," a flying saucer toy invented recently by a Solar engineer, [currently
in] a test-market] in the Chula Vista Penney store. …
“Idea for the toy came from [Leonard] Mueller’s
invention of a flying saucer-type crop duster. | “But it would have cost us $250,000
to produce our first duster,” says Stuard, “so we put our heads together and decided
to come out with a model of the crop duster and sell it as a toy ‘flying
saucer. We attached a gasoline engine to the saucer… and our model and it took
off and flew…’
Does Stuard believe in real-life flying saucers? Like
from Mars? “Yes, frankly, I do,” he says. “I have a very good friend who says
he saw one. I believe him. He’s not the sort of person who’d make something
like this up. Also, too many of the saucer sightings are unexplained. You know,
expert scientists have told us that the obvious ‘best design’ for space
vehicles of the future is the saucer. It’s shaped perfectly for space travel.
If this is true, then maybe it figures that men from other planets would use
saucers to investigate things on and about earth.”
The saucer’s package stated:
"Your X-1 sky saucer is practically
indestructible and made of rugged polyethylene plastic to withstand the shock
of Earth reentry...it can take it and fly again immediately!"
“Our X-1 Sky Saucer is powered by world famous special
18,000 RPM Cox .049 engine. Over 16" in diameter. Reaches heights of 300
feet & more.”
The X-1 was marketed in the 1970s as the “Star Cruiser
UFO,” but a version was still on sale into the 1990s, and a similar “Nomad” saucer
was produced in 1998.
Back to the Garage
Mass produced copies like the Cox Sky Saucer have their
place, but there’s nothing like the efforts of the early saucer inventors. They
took inspiration from flying saucers, thought for themselves, and got to work. Ufology might benefit from getting back to basics, and that’s a good model to follow.
In 1952, an imaginative author ran into a flying saucer lecturer at a science fiction convention. In a different time and place, perhaps they could have been the best of friends. here's what happened instead.
The Man
for Mars
Ray
Bradbury grew up reading about spacemen like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, loving fantasy
and science fiction. In 1937 at the age of 17 he met Forrest J. Ackerman, joined
a club and became involved in fandom writing for (and publishing) fanzines
until making his first professional sale in 1941. By the late 1940s, he was a
family man and an established author. A snapshot of Bradbury’s career
highlights from Current Biography Yearbook, 1953:
“He has
had 170 short stories published and twenty-three radio dramas and five
television plays produced…with imaginative themes which combine advanced
technology with subtle fantasy and have what has become known as ‘the Bradbury twist.’
His stories were first published in science fiction and fantasy magazines…
[then the mainstream] Collier's, Saturday Evening Post and the New
Yorker. … His most recent work, The Golden Apples of the Sun, is the
fourth of his published books, the others being Dark Carnival (1947), The
Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951). … He has
also done much writing for the moving pictures… Of Bradbury's prolific output Punch
(August 1952) has written: ‘"It is hard to speak with restraint of these
extraordinary tales which raise Ray Bradbury to a secure place among the
imaginative writers of today.’"
A Friendship
with a Flying Saucer Author
In the
summer of 1950, Ray Douglas Bradbury (1920-2012) was thirty years old. That was
when he met Gerald Heard (1889-1971), a science fiction author twice his age,
who was interested in the paranormal, UFOs, and many other unconventional
subjects. In the 2011 book, Becoming Ray Bradbury, Jonathan R. Eller
described how they became good friends:
“In spite
of Heard’s growing eccentricities… he offered Bradbury more than his passion
for Eastern philosophies. Bradbury was not drawn to Heard’s beliefs, but he was
drawn to his [talent, intellect, and personality].”
From the slightly re-titled US edition.
Heard’s book The Riddle of the Flying Saucers: Is Another World Watching? was published
in the UK later that year. In 1951,
Heard was a founding member of the group Civilian Saucer Investigation of Los
Angeles (CSI), the first UFO organization with a board of scientific and
aeronautical experts. Riddle also lectured on saucers and revised his
book for the 1953 Bantam paperback edition, adding two new chapters on recent sightings.
This all goes to show that Bradbury had a trusted friend who was knowledgeable
on the UFO topic, but Ray had no desire to be any part of it.
However, in the Imagination
April 1951 science fiction magazine, Bradbury’s "In This Sign..." appeared,
a UFO story of sorts about anomalous aerial spheres of blue light, later
revealed to be sentient beings. The story was later retitled "The Fire
Balloons." For a closer look at this from a historical UFO perspective,
see: Ray Bradbury's Orbs from Marsat Blue Blurry Lines.
The Man
for Venus
In 1952, two
rising stars crossed paths, a young science fiction author and an aging flying
saucer lecturer. Although they had much in common, the two were sharply divided
about their opinions on the reality of alien visitors. It happened at the fifth
annual West Coast Science Fantasy Conference, which was held June 28-29, 1952,
at the U.S. Grant Hotel in San Diego.
Ad from Science Fiction Advertiser, July 1952
"Sou-Westercon"
was a major convention sponsored by the San Diego Science-Fantasy Society. Their
guest of honor was author Ray Bradbury. It was
considered a curiosity or quirk, but Bradbury chose not to drive a car or fly
on an airplane. That’s why he travelled from his home in Venice, California, to
the San Diego convention by train.
Anthony
More’s report on the convention inShangri-LA(newsletter of theLos Angeles Science Fantasy Society)
#32, Fall 1952, said Sou-Westercon was, “the
largest fan group ever assembled, and included the largest professional
collection ever brought together at one time at a fan affair.” He noted that Ray
Bradbury was supposed to give the opening remarks, but didn’t arrive on time (possibly
his train was delayed). The convention started without him, the first of their
schedule problems.
The 4-page program for Sou-Westercon was chiefly their directory of the events, but there
was also a page featuring an ad for the booklet “Ray Bradbury Review.” Another
unconnected ad below it was for “Cosmag S-F Digest,” which included an
illustration of two flying saucers zipping through space.
Most of
the speakers covered topics related to science fiction, but one talk was a bit
different. The lecture for Saturday at 1:30 pm was “a discussion of The Flying
Saucers” given by “Dr. Adamski.”
FATE Magazine, July, 1951.
That was George Adamski (1891-1965), before
his greatest claim to fame and bestselling book. (See: The Professor's Message from Space.) At that time, Adamski was an
obscure figure, lecturing onflying
saucer and selling the photographs he claimed to have taken of them. The convention report wryly mentioned Adamski’s presentation in passing:
“The
ubiquitous flying saucer then wheeled into view, and a scattering of fans listened
to a ‘Dr.' Adamski, who competes from the foot of the hill with Palomar
Observatory, tell about that unusual form of iron known as carbon.”
It’s not
documented how long it lasted or exactly what he talked about, but the lecture was
scheduled to last 30 minutes. In other appearances around the same time, Adamski
spoke about saucers as coming from our neighboring inhabited planets and
displayed (and sold) his photos. Adamski sometimes talked two hours longer than
planned, so he’d likely have run past his half-hour given the chance.
Ray
Bradbury arrived from the train station while Adamski was lecturing, and on the
way into the hotel he encountered some people who’d walked out on the talk. (We’ll
hear his recollection of that later.) We don’t know how much of the lecture
Bradbury saw or if he spoke to Adamski, but he was left with an unfavorable
impression. After the convention, both Adamski and Bradbury both went on to
greater successes, and both were the subject of much media coverage. As far as
we know, they never crossed paths again.
It
Came from Outer Space
Universal-International
hired Ray Bradbury to come up with the story for a 1953 science fiction movie
to be filmed in 3-D. One of their working titles was “The Atomic
Monster,” but Bradbury resisted the idea of writing about monstrous flying
saucer invaders from outer space.
The 1953 United Press interview promoting It Came from Outer Space
mentioned that the author was opposed to riding in a plane, then discussed his
taste in films.
“Bradbury also is anti those science fiction movies in which the
visitors in the flying saucers are usually villains. He
approves of ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still,’ which featured a robot who was a
hero. But in ‘The Thing,’ he complained, the man from another world started out
believable but wound up as a monster.” Giving away the plot, in his
film, an alien who landed here would just seek “to get away safely before
somebody got panicky and killed him.”
Instead of space invaders, Bradbury’s aliens were not hostile, just visually
repugnant to humans.. Their motive was only to repair their damaged ship and resume
their voyage. Still, the studio sold the movie as being about a spaceship that
“carried terrifying beings from outer space [who] planned to conquer the world…”
Trailer: It Came from Outer Space
Meanwhile, George Adamski had also been busy. It's possible that when the
skeptical audience bailed on his 1952 convention lecture, he decided that talk
and photographs were not enough. On November 20, 1952, Adamski claimed to have
encountered a flying saucer and spoke to a man from Venus, and it was backed by photos, physical
evidence, and multiple witnesses. The fantastic story gained traction in the
press, and became the subject of a best-selling 1953 book, Flying Saucers
Have Landed (coauthored with Desmond Leslie).
The Los Angeles Daily News, Oct. 19, 1953, carried two side by side ads featuring authors Bradbury and Adamski.
The 1960s
The UFO
controversy had a resurgence in the 1960s, but Bradbury seems to have avoided taking
part in public conversation on the topic. Bradbury wrote an article for his
friend Forrest J. Ackerman in the Warren magazine Spacemen # 8, June
1964, discussing his favorite science fiction films, among them: “The Day
the Earth Stood Still strikes me as a fine attempt to speak to mankind
today about its problems on Earth.” Bradbury didn’t mind flying saucers as
fiction, he was more concerned with a good story.
In 1967, the paperback collection, Man Faces Extra-Terrestrial Life In Contact edited by Noel Keyes listed Bradbury’s name first and reprinted his 1951, story, "The Fire Balloons."
Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1963. Contact, 1967.
George
Adamski went on to write two more books about his series of interplanetary
adventures. Despite being exposed as a fraud, he still had devoted followers
when he died in 1965 at the age of 74.
1970s:
Close Encounters
Bradbury
was quoted in “’Saucer Cults’ Reread Bible in Light of UFOs” by Russell
Chandler in the Los Angeles Times, Sept. 8, 1974:
“Religion
and science are always circling each other,” he said. “It's like flesh and
skin. There is a continuum between the two… The deep gap between them is just
talk. But Bradbury, who believes “humanoid creatures like us” could exist on
other planets, added that both science and religion “deal in ignorances,” and
that theory is, in fact, faith. “We need to hang loose on this,’ he concluded.
‘There is always the danger of a new quack religion forming, but we need to
allow this to proliferate in a free society.”
The 1976
reprint of Ralph and Judy Blum’s 1974 Bantam paperback book, “Beyond Earth:
Man’s Contact with UFOs,” carried a cover blurb from Ray Bradbury stating:
“We have needed a new, comprehensive UFO survey for many years now. … This is
that book.”
Bradbury didn’t care for flying saucers, but he was deeply moved by Steven Spielberg’s Close
Encounters of the Third Kind. His loving review, “Opening
the Beautiful Door of True Immortality,” was published in The Los Angeles Times,
November 20, 1977 (Reprinted in the UK magazine Starburst, March 1978). He had nothing to say about the UFO lore in the film, just focused on what
he felt was the true message:
“The great truth it teaches is that human beings, no matter what their
shape, size, color, or far star-country of origin, are on their way to
Becoming, Deciding to Be, deciding to travel in order to stay, deciding to live
rather than dooming themselves to graveyard pits on separate worlds.”
Interviewed
for the Jan. 12, Merv Griffin show, Bradbury talked about his love of Close
Encounters: “I've seen it twice and cried both times…it's a very emotional
experience, a very beautiful one...it's probably the most important film of the
last 20 years.”
When Bradbury was a guest on the Tonight Show on March 1, 1978, host Johnny Carson asked him about UFOs and alien contact:
“The fascination lately of course with...Star Wars,Close Encounters… where people become involved again in reported flying saucers, what's your personal observation?"
Bradbury
evaded the question, saying, “I'm very open. I think we you have to keep your mind
totally open…” He later hinted at his true position by saying we had begun exploring
space and “that we're going to be the Martians from here on in...” Carson persisted,
“Do you feel personally that we are being observed? A lot of people believe
that… if that's so, why don’t [aliens] contact us?” Bradbury mentioned the possible
bacterial or cultural concerns, then gave his real answer.
“I don't really
think they're that close to us at this point, but I think that we'll make the
contact… We can't travel fast enough right now… it will be possible, let's say
200 years from now, to make it to Alpha Centauri at almost the speed of light.”
1980s: A Saucer from a Martian Hoaxer
To promote the 1983 movie adaptation of Bradbury’s Something Wicked
This Way Comes, a version was produced for radio. It was narrated by Orson
Welles, notorious for The War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938.
Bradbury was unhappy with the script changes, but rewarded afterwards with a
nice memento when Welles, “handed Bradbury the reading script with a hand-drawn
flying saucer inscribed, ‘For Ray from his admiring friend, Orson.’” From Bradbury
Beyond Apollo by Jonathan R. Eller, 2020
The Turn of the Century
The debate about aliens and UFOs got a boost in 1996 when scientists reported
possible evidence of cellular life in an ancient meteorite thought to originate
on Mars. The Los Angeles Times, Aug. 8, 1996, article stated there was a
prominent non-believer:
“It’s ridiculous,” said author Ray Bradbury, whose Martian Chronicles
painted a far more vibrant picture of Martian life. “They don’t have any proof.
They’re not even sure [the rock] came from Mars. It’s a theory.” Bradbury
compared the announcement to claims about UFOs and mysterious crop circles. He
doesn’t believe it for a minute. “It’s stupid,” he said.
Ray
Bradbury suffered a stroke in 1999 that left him with many physical problems. While
his memory was dimmed by age and illness, he was still sharp and continued to work.
During his final years, Bradbury spoke about UFOS and aliens several more times.
Jim Cherry interviewed Bradbury for Arizona Republic August 31,
2000 (reprinted in Conversations with Ray Bradbury, Steven L. Aggelis,
editor, 2004).
Cherry: “What do you think of alien visitors and UFOs?”
Bradbury: “No such, no way. It's ridiculous; there's absolutely no proof
anywhere, at any time.”
“Wells and
Welles prepared us for the delusional madness of the past fifty years. In fact,
the entire history of the United States and the last half of the twentieth
century is exemplified beautifully in Well's work. Starting with the so-called arrival
of flying saucers in the 1950s, we've had a continuation of a mild panic at
being invaded by creatures from some other part of the universe. It started
with that alien professor who sold hot dogs with saucers of Invaders at the
foot of Mt. Palomar. It then ravened up the years with half-baked sightings to
end in Roswell and while true believers who claimed they never met a bug-eyed
monster they didn't love.
Dr. Hynek
disagreed, and he was the expert on flying saucers hitting the fan, having
started the Center for UFO Studies. People said yes to his truths but snuck off
the next day to Bide-a-Wee Martian Shoals in California, Arizona, and New
Mexico.
The myths
proliferated, all the way from the friendly beasts that invaded Meteor Crater
in my It Came from Outer Space to the incredible mothership landing in
firework illuminations in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. God
reaching down to judge Adam's upstretched hand.
So the
invasions will never cease. Or, not until we landfall Mars, build towns, and become
friendly invaders to the universe. We will arrive in peace, and hopefully go
with God.”
Ray Bradbury only mentioned Roswell in passing, but he recognized the story
as something that had been manufactured by UFO mythmakers. In 2003, Bradbury
had a heated exchange with Paul Davids, the producer of the 1994 Roswell
TV movie. Bradbury was “an arch skeptic,” according to Davids, who said the
disagreement happened at a Hollywood luncheon:
“When he heard that I had made Roswell
he started yelling at me! He started attacking me! Saying ‘what are you doing
making a piece of fiction like that and trying to pass it off as something
that’s true?’”
The last
documented comments by Ray Bradbury on UFOs take us full circle. In 2009, Jeff
Krulik filmed an interview of Bradbury, whom he found “still gracious and full
of life and big ideas.” Almost as an afterthought, Krulik asked him, “Do you
believe in UFOs?” In a hyperbolic reply, Bradbury said that George Adamski
“invented” UFOs, blaming him for the popularity of the belief in them as alien
spaceships. Bradbury described arriving at the 1952 Sou-Westercon:
“I went
down [by] train to go to the science fiction convention in San Diego… in the U.S.
Grant Hotel… people were rushing out… ‘We're leaving… [a] man that has a hot
dog stand at the base of Mount Palomar, he's talking about some flying saucers…
He's a nut, stupid nut.’ So I found out that... it was a complete lie that he
made up… and people believed him. I talked on various radio shows and TV shows
and told people not to listen… they asked me about that, I said, ‘Go talk to
that hot dog salesman, it's a complete lie.’”
Ray
Bradbury died on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91. The Los Angeles Times obituary for
Bradbury quoted his view on his writing:
“I’m not a
science fiction writer. I’ve written only one book of science fiction [Fahrenheit
451]. All the others are fantasy. Fantasies are things that can’t happen,
and science fiction is about things that can happen.”
Bradbury
viewed flying saucers from outer space not as science fiction, but as fantasy.
. . .
This article
is an offshoot of a project that began years ago, “Science Fiction vs. Flying
Saucers,” examining the opposition of many of the field’s authors to beliefs
about UFOs. If you’re interested in seeing more on this topic, please let us
know in an email or comment.
CE3K Trivia: George Adamski’s Revenge?
Steven Spielberg’s
Close Encounters of the Third Kind presented a story based on a
potpourri of events, concepts, and legends from UFO lore. Spielberg had scared
moviegoers with Jaws, and all the advertising for CE3K was dark
and menacing, telling us to “Watch the Skies,” and that “We are not Alone.” For
most of the movie, the mystery of the UFOs is treated as menacing, but in
the final act, the Mothership lands we learn that these ancient and
technologically advanced aliens were peaceful and benevolent. Except in appearance, just like George
Adamski’s space brothers.
In 1952, UFO
reports seemed to indicate an impending invasion by monstrous aliens:
June 1952: News of Oskar Linke’s 1950 sighting of a landed saucer with two occupants. July 1952: Jets pursued UFOs invading the airspace over Washington, DC. Aug. 19, 1952: A Florida Scoutmaster was attacked by a fiery blast from a saucer. Sept. 12, 1952: People in West Virginia were menaced by the alien Flatwoods Monster.
As the year
was winding down, there came a plot twist:
Nov. 20,
1952: In the California desert, a flying saucer landed. A beautiful man from
Venus emerged with a message of peace and brotherhood.
Spiritualism,
the Occult, Theosophy and other notions had been thriving in California since
the late 19th century. An example bridging that scene to the UFO
topic would be Guy Ballard of the “I AM’ movement, who claimed that at Mt.
Shasta in 1932, he met twelve Ascended Masters from Venus. Another was Meade
Layne of San Diego, a longtime student of paranormal topics, who in 1945
founded the Borderland Sciences Research Associates. Years before saucers, some
of BSRA’s members already strongly believed in non-human intelligences from
beyond our planet. Other Californians, whether in clubs, churches or cults,
believed, too. One believer was also a teacher. His students
called him “Professor,” and he was the one in 1952 who made contact in the
desert.
George
Adamski
Long before
space visitors became central to his teachings, George Adamski (1891-1965) was
the charismatic leader teaching his own spin on Theosophy in a monastery in in
Southern California in 1934. According to FBI records, his family moved Poland
to the U.S. in 1893, he served from 1913-16 in the Army, then worked various
manual labor jobs, until 1926 when he began lecturing on philosophy, within a few
years he founded his own religion.
“Tibetan
Monastery, First in America, to Shelter Cult Disciples in Laguna Beach” in the Los
Angeles Times, April 8, 1934, reported on the formation of Adamski’s
monastery and quoted him saying that he’d studied under masters in Tibet. "I
learned great truths up there on the roof of the world... to cure the body and
the mind and to win mastery over self and soul. I do not bring to Laguna the
weird rites and bestial superstition… but the scientific portions of the
religion.” Members of his Royal Order of Tibet wore ceremonial garments adorned
with pendants of a twenty-four-point star. “Robes and ritual, Adamski admits,
help the novice to set his feet firmly in the path he elects to follow.”
North County Times, June 4, 1948, observatory photo from his 1953 book.
The first
trace of hint of Adamski’s flying saucer future might have been in his 1946
booklet, “The Possibility of Life on Other Planets,” which stated, “There is no
longer a question as to whether there are other inhabited planets in the
universe but as to the type of beings who live there.” Speculating, he
described what might be the first draft of his angelic aliens:
“…on planets having lighter atmospheric conditions the forms would be of a more delicate nature... different than our own. The atoms composing them would not be so intensely concentrated... In consequence, the brain cells would also become more active and the race as a whole would turn more to the solving of intellectual problems… [Their] bodies would not be great muscular forms in that case but probably more slender and lithe.”
1949 was the
year things really took off.
The book and The Banning Live Wire, Dec. 29, 1949
Then in 1949
Adamski published a book, Pioneers of Space: A Trip to the Moon, Mars and Venus, while presented as fiction, he wrote, “it will not be long before all this will become a reality.” It was
an interplanetary tale of alien contact with some familiar Theosophical elements.
Earth had many scientifically advanced ancient civilizations, including Atlantea
and Lemuria. However, abusing their technology, they came to “destroy
themselves.”
“That is the
great reason why the Earth people are so far behind [Mars and other planets]...
Now it looks like earth is going to have another destruction, for the present
civilization is getting very [technologically advanced] but without the wisdom
in the way of living ... and it is the very thing that destroyed Atlantea. The
people on Venus are still farther ahead ... they have had no such destruction
at any time.”
Throughout
his life, Adamski used ghost writers, but the thoughts and messages were his. Later
in the story, it was revealed that visitors have been coming to our planet since
ancient times.
“There have
been many great souls sent to earth to teach the way of life ... You call them
messiahs, masters, and all sorts of names, but they have come from higher
planes of life to start the people of earth on the right path of life ... the
last of our messengers whom you call Jesus, was crucified ...”
Skipping
ahead for a moment, Pioneers of Space
was later mentioned in Frank Scully’s 1950 book, Behind the Flying Saucers, as if it were non-fiction, and Adamski was
described as a scientist. Scully and Adamski became friends, and later attended
some of the same saucer conventions.
The Escondido, CA, Times-Advocate, June 20, 1951, carried a short item, “Noted Author Visits Palomar Gardens,” about Frank Scully. It reported that “Scully and Professor George Adamski spent many hours discussing their forthcoming books, which will sequel their first publications on interplanetary space travel.”
Having a
book to promote made Adamski more marketable as a lecturer, and he began speaking
more frequently to audiences outside of Palmar Gardens. The Blade Tribune, (Oceanside, CA) March
8, 1950, reported on an upcoming George Adamski lecture. His message was usually
optimistic about space visitors, but here Adamski talked about the possibility
of hostile invaders:
"He avers that if our Earth people suddenly found
themselves threatened by attack from another planet, they would lose no time
uniting as one in the common defense. Even Stalin would be preaching
cooperation and anxiously seek our alliance and friendship."
The Blade Tribune, (Oceanside, CA) March 8, 1950
Adamski’s saucer
career continued to escalate with him producing a series of photographs of
spaceships in the sky. He was credited as the co-author of “Flying Saucers as Astronomers See Them” in Fate magazine, Sept. 1950. In that article, Adamski was not committal
about his UFO photo being a spaceship, saying it might be just “a type of electric
discharge… We sincerely doubt whether they have any connection with
visitors." A few months later, Adamski had changed his mind. “…in February,
1949, was I successful in getting my first picture of space ships.”
In “I Photographed Space Ships,” FateJuly 1951, he published seven
photos and described his career:
“I was guest speaker for the Fallbrook, California, Rotary Club where I talked about the reality of space ships. This was the first of many similar lectures before service clubs in Southern California, which continued through the year of 1950.”
By that time, Adamski had begun selling
copies of his photographs, both at his base in Mount Palomar and at his lectures.
The photos began appearing in newspapers, but it was the saucers were in the
spotlight, not Adamski himself.
“Photos of what are purported to be flying saucers have shown up at KTTV. Owners now say they bought them for $1 each from a prof. George Adamski of Mt. Palomar. Scoffers say the prof really runs a hot dog stand near Palomar and the photos are a, shall we say, sideline. Moreover, they want to see the negative.”
The Adamski
lecture for a science fiction convention in San Diego on June 28, 1952 was not
well received. (We’ll examine this convention incident in a later article.) Despite
their fondness for interplanetary tales, science fiction fans were generally
skeptical of flying saucer tales. Many of them walked out on Adamski’s presentation
of uncorroborated stories and pictures. Maybe it motivated him to produce more
compelling evidence.
Meanwhile, Adamski
got another publicity boost in the summer of 1952.
Billboard Aug. 23, 1952
The Coming of the Saucers by Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer reprinted several
of Adamski’s photographs from his Fate
article and once more introduced him as “Professor.” Seeing this prompted George
Hunt Williamson (1926-1985) to connect with Adamski. In a Oct.19, 1952, letter
to a friend, Williamson said that in radio conversation with from aliens:
“We
have been told that a man will contact us… there will be a landing in this
vicinity by special ship direct from Mars within two or three weeks from
now!... Professor George Adamski is in on this too. He is a very great man
indeed.”
Adamski and
a small party of followers were out in the California desert on November 20,
19521, but he alone made contact. The first press on his contact was in The Phoenix Gazette, November 24, 1952,
“Flying Saucer 'Passenger' Declares A-Bomb Blasts Reason For Visits” by Len
Welch. The story was told by Mr. and Mrs. George Williamson, Mr. and Mrs.
Alfred Bailey, who claimed to have witnessed the events from a distance.
“Professor Adamski described the saucer as... about 20 feet in diameter,
translucent but not transparent, with a shining silver finish on the exterior,
portholes on the side, and three ball bearing devices underneath.” The man from
the saucer communicated primarily in gestures and indicated he was from the
planet Venus. “According to the Williamsons and Baileys… the intentions of the
visitors is peaceful.” When Adamski asked the visitor why he was here, the
spaceman used his “arms to indicate mushroom-shaped clouds associated with
atomic experiments... radiation from explosions is causing his people some
concern and fear that blasts will destroy everything.”
Sometimes, a bad cover of a song becomes a bigger hit than the original. That’s a bit like what happened with Adamski, his story repackaged what had come before. Back in the 1920s, Theosophy’s believers like Frederick G. Hehr had promoted the notion of angelic beings from Venus come to earth to teach humanity. Others religious figures like Guy Ballard and Eugene Drake had claimed contact with such space people, but most of those claims were on the psychic, not physical plane.
As for the notion of aliens saving us from destroying ourselves with atomic weapons, that had been floating around in science fiction since at least 1947.
"Will the ancient gods... come back in
time to avert an atom war?" From Fantastic Adventures Nov. 1947, "Son of the Sun." by Millen Cooke (as Alexander Blade) illustrated by
James Settles.
Most in the press and general public were unaware of what had come before, so it was news to them. Also, the props helped sell the story. Not only did Adamski have multiple witnesses, and photographs, there was physical evidence. The Venusian had left footprints behind, and the soles of his shoes had left behind alien symbols. Williamson even had the foresight to bring along plaster to cast the footprints.
As his fame
spread, so did the confusion that the “Professor” who saw flying saucers was associated
with the Mt. Palomar observatory.
Blade Tribune, Jan. 22, 1953
At the time
of the first encounter, Adamski had a few low-quality photos of the saucer, but
shortly afterwards he produced clearer photos, which he sold at his lectures.
Beginning
March 12, 1953, The Corona Daily
Independent ran a series of three articles on “Dr.” George Adamski’s
lecture given at the Corona Lion’s Club. Justin Hammond wrote an article about
Adamski’ lecture and continued the coverage of it in his "Ring
Around" column. His story describes the Venusian as looking “just like we
do except unusually handsome and that his eyes were somewhat slanted. He had
long black hair, very beautiful and wavy.” He quotes Adamski as saying, “Mainly
we conversed by mental pictures...”
Hammond didn’t
share a description of the saucer, but said, “The good doctor showed us three
photos he took of the flying saucer which looked me - undoubtedly I’m wrong -
like an out-of doors picture of a three-bulb electric light fixture.” The
series made no mention of warnings of atomic bombs, instead focusing on the
novelty of the alien encounter. “Dr. Adamski says that spacemen have been
visiting Earth for many years. He also said that there may be thousands of them
walking the streets of Earth today.”
An epilogue
of sorts appeared a few days later, a letter from the Mayor of Corona, C.R.
Miller who said, “no one in his right mind would take any stock in” Adamski’s yarns.
Adamski’s
1952 story was packaged with a previously completed manuscript by a UK
author, Desmond Leslie. Their book was published in the Fall of 1953, Flying Saucers Have Landed. Leslie’s foreword
discussed the teachings of Theosophy:
“About eighteen million years ago… came a huge, shining, radiant vessel of dazzling power and beauty, bringing to earth... human beings, of perfection beyond our highest ideals; gods rather than men…”
The latter
part of the book was Adamski’s story of meeting the man from Venus. It became an
international best seller, enormous publicity for him.
Evening Star, December 13, 1953
The Daily Telegraph, Sydney Australia, Oct. 4, 1953
In the months and years that followed, he was considered a flying saucer expert, in demand as a lecturer and frequently interviewed for newspapers, magazines, radio and television programs.
1954 press conference. From Flying Saucer Pilgrimage by Bryant & Helen Reeve, 1957.
Adamski on Long John Nebel’s late-night TV show on WOR, April 30, 1960.
The Times-Advocate
(Escondido CA) Jan. 2, 1954, sought his expertise when a fiery object was reported in the skies.
Adamski thought it was from Mars, explaining that malfunctioning saucers are blown
up before they crash. The falling debris turns to gelatin and disintegrates, to
prevent crashed saucers or their debris being retrieved.
Adamski’s
success inspired many imitators who became known as Contactees. They virtually
took over the flying saucer business, and were supported by George Van Tassel’s
annual Giant Rock Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention, which provided a forum
and marketplace for the Contactees and their fans.
Despite the crowd of competitors, Adamski remained the top brand. His second book, Inside the
Space Ships, also became a bestseller in 1955.
Popularity notwithstanding, Adamski had his doubters. Upstart flying saucer magazine publisher
James W. Moseley had interviewed Adamski in late 1953, and while he found the
“Professor” interesting and charismatic, he had not been convinced. Moseley's Saucer
News, printed critical articles and topped it off in the Oct. 1957 “Special Adamski Expose Issue” with articles by Moseley, Irma Baker and Lonzo Dove. It included
correspondence with some of Adamski’s supporting witnesses, who admitted that the story and photographs were untrue.
Donald
Keyhoe, the director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial
Phenomena rejected Adamski and the Contactees. In his 1959 telegram to a
convention promoter, Keyhoe said:
“Your
carnival approach to the subject of unidentified flying objects is...
offsetting serious work by NICAP and other... fact-finding UFO groups.”
In December 1957,
Adamski received a letter on Department of State stationary from R.E. Straith
of the “Cultural Exchange Committee,” that stated that the US Government could
not officially endorse him, but privately offered their support. The letter was
a hoax, a prank by Gray Barker and Jim Moseley. Adamski must have known it was
bogus, but he and his followers continued to tout the letter as proof of his
credibility. (For further details, see George Adamski, R.E. Straith and the Seven Letters of Mischief.)
Rather than
admit to any fraud in his stories and photo, Adamski insisted that it was his
critics who were the phonies, part of the saucer cover-up. In Flying Saucers
Farewell, 1961, he said:
"The only way the 'Silence Group' could
combat me was to discredit me before the public. If it had not been for the assistance
of my friends from other planets, the 'Silence Group' would have achieved its
aim.”
From the
start, Adamski’s stories escalated into a series of ever more incredible
encounters and interplanetary adventures. The entry on Adamski in The UFO
Encyclopedia Vol II, 1992, had a section, “Decline and Fall,” where Jerome
Clark stated in part:
“Those
inclined to accept Adamskiat his word... found the
story of [his 1962] trip to Saturn more than they could believe. …A postcard
written allegedly by space people… was traced to [an address used by] Adamski …Those
who replied were asked to contribute money to cover expenses… a
scheme to bilk the credulous. …By 1964 Adamski’s name had disappeared even from
the pages of England’s widely read Flying Saucer Review… [published by] Adamski's
most articulate defender."
Still, George
Adamski kept spreading the Space Brothers Gospel. The next year he went on a
lecture tour through New York and Rhode Island. He died of a heart attack a few
weeks later at the age of 74 on April 23, 1965.
Changing Lives: The Adamski Legacy
Without George Adamski, we would not have had UFO researchers conducting a Remote Viewing program for the U.S. government, Robert Bigelow’s (paranormal study group) National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), or its successors and spin-offs: Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). The key figure leading to all of those was theoretical physicist Harold E. Puthoff.
In Jacques Vallee’s Forbidden Science Vol. 4 entry for Saturday 19 July 1997, he documented a meeting of NIDS in Las Vegas where Chairman of the Board, Hal Puthoff disclosed what prompted him to become involved in the UFO topic:
Hal recalls the day when, as a very studious boy, he left his engineering studies in a fit of atypical behavior to wander downtown, got into a bookstore and mechanically picked up Adamski's book, “and it changed my life,” he said, “even after I recognized his story was bullshit!”
Essentially,
Adamski was an opportunist who capitalized on the public’s UFO craze. He dressed
his old Royal Order of Tibet philosophy up in flying saucer drag and it went
over in a big way, changing many people's lives. When Adamski was exposed to be a fraud, some of the faithful denied it and continued to believe in him. More puzzling, many of those who lost faith in Adamski still clung to the concepts promoted in his stories. Though people may have forgotten Adamski himself, his propaganda lives on. To those who want to believe, any report or rumor of a UFO is a hopeful sign that benevolent visitors in spaceships are here to help and guide our planet.
. . .
Recommended Reading
There's far more to the Adamski story, and many opinions on it. Here are two excellent sources for further study:
Saturday Night Uforia, Saucer Reading Fest part 12 features excellent coverage of the early days of George Adamski.
