The Flying
Saucer Craze of the Fabulous Fifties
by Don Drewniak
Dating back to
the Middle Ages into 1947, there were sporadic
reports of strange objects appearing in the skies.
These were interpreted by a small number of
people as proof the Earth was being visited by
beings from another world.
The August
1946 issue of Amazing Stories included
a story about alien “flying discs.”
However, it was primarily read by a limited
number of science fiction buffs.
On June 24th 1947,
private pilot Kenneth Arnold was on his way to a
fuel stop in Yakima, Washington before moving on
to an air show in Oregon. He had logged over 4,000
hours of flying time and was piloting a CallAir A-2.
A member of a
search and rescue team in Idaho, he decided to
change his course in order to search for a Marine
Corps transport plane that had crashed with 32
Marines on board.
He was
circling his plane mid-afternoon some twenty
miles to the west of Mt. Rainer when he spotted a
bright flash to the northeast.
“It
startled me. I just assumed it was some military
lieutenant out with a shiny P-51 and I had [caught]
the reflection of the sun hitting the wings of
his plane.”
Subsequent to
additional flashes, Arnold ruled out a nearby
Douglas DC-4 as the cause. He stated that the
flashes came from nine shiny objects flying in an
echelon formation that was approximately five
miles in length. They were each about one hundred
feet in diameter and appeared to have no tails.
Each object flipped, banked and weaved from side-to-side
“like the tail of a Chinese kite.”
While the
formation was crossing in front of Arnold, he
timed its passage from Mt. Rainer to Mt. Adams
and calculated they were flying at 1,200 mph or
more. This was well beyond the speed of sound
– 761.2 mph at 59 degrees Fahrenheit. It
wasn't until October 14th of 1947 that the
sound barrier was broken by an aircraft at level
flight. That was done by Chuck Yaeger piloting
the experimental Bell X-1.
The term
“flying saucers” came from Arnold
having described them as being shaped like
saucers, pie plates, discs and half moons. It is
still used today, although it has been largely
supplanted by the abbreviation for unidentified
flying objects, UFOs.
Aided by
newspaper and radio coverage, over 800 reports of
flying saucers came in from the United States and
Canada in the remaining months of 1947.
The Roswell
Incident also happened in the same year, a month
after Arnold’s sighting. The Roswell Army
Air Field issued a press release stating that
they had recovered a “flying disc”.
The Army was
quick to retract the statement and claimed that
the crashed object was a weather balloon. The
incident subsequently faded from newspapers and
radio only to resurface in the 1970s and 1980s.
What happened at Roswell continues to have those
who believe the object in question was a flying
saucer.
A 2019 article
— What Really Happened at Roswell? —
posted on History.com provides
an excellent account of the Roswell tale and its
many plots and subplots.
Going back to
1953, I have no remembrance of how I came to know
of the existence of The Flying Saucers
Are Real by Major Donald Keyhoe. What I
do remember is that whoever or whatever it was
convinced me that the book proved aliens from
outer space were indeed buzzing through our
atmosphere.
I managed to
secure a copy of the book from the Fall River (MA)
Public Library under most unusual circumstances.
At that stage in my life, I had no idea what
"officious" meant. However, the woman
who greeted me at the main desk was the
personification of officiousness. (My apologies
to those who have read the following
eighteen short paragraphs in a previous post.)
“May I
help you, young man?”
“Yes,
thank you, I’m looking for a book, but I don’t
have much time because I have to get back to
school.”
“I am
here to assist you. What is the book?”
“The
Flying Saucers Are Real by Donald
Keyhoe.”
Her eyes widened. She looked at me as if I had
two antennae sticking out of my head, green skin
and an “I Am From Mars” t-shirt.
“Are you
sure you really want that book?”
No, I
asked for it because I don’t want it.
“Yes, I'm
sure.”
“Well, if
you really want it,
please follow me.”
Of course
I really want it, you knucklehead.
If I had known
what blithering meant back then, I would have
used it to further define knucklehead.
“Thank
you.”
Miss Are-You-Really-Sure-You-Want-That-Book
led me to a section that contained a limited
number of science fiction books.
Science
fiction? Didn’t you hear me? Flying saucers
are real!
She removed a
thin book from a shelf that was about a foot
above my head and quickly handed it to me. I
imagined that she was afraid it might give her
some terrible disease. Maybe the same one that
gave me my antennae and green skin.
It was back to
the main desk where I handed her my library card
and the book. She stamped everything in sight
except her forehead which seemed to be getting a
green tinge.
“It’s
due back in two weeks. That’s two weeks.”
She then handed me the disease carrying book and
my card.
Bet she’s
going to wash her hands ten times as soon as I
leave.
Until that
successful quest, my only knowledge of UFOs came
from the science fiction films I watched at the
Park Theater located three blocks from my home.
Those alone were enough to make me a believer.
The book cemented the belief. (In my defense, I
was eleven years old.)
Approximately
two hundred science fiction movies were released
in the 1950s. They can be divided into four
categories: (1) classics; (2) entertaining; (3)
fair and (4) those responsible for the films
should have been tar-and-feathered.
The science
fiction classics: The Day the Earth
Stood Still (1951); The Thing
from Another World (1951); When
Worlds Collide (1951); It Came
from Outer Space (1953); This
Island Earth (!953); The War of the
Worlds (1953); Invaders from
Mars (1953); Them! (1954); The
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954); Forbidden
Planet (1956); Invasion of the Body
Snatchers (1956); Earth vs.
the Flying Saucers (1956); Plan
9 from Outer Space (1957); The
Fly (1958); and The Blob (1958).
The
Flying Saucer (1950) IMHO -
The worst 50s flying saucer movie.
It is notable
only because it was the first movie about a
flying saucer. There might be worse flying saucer
movies somewhere in our Milky Way, but I've yet
to find one on the spinning insane asylum upon
which we live.
Earth
vs. The Flying Saucers (1956)
IMHO – The best 50s flying saucer movie of
the 50s.
The title
accurately describes what the film is about
– a battle of Earth (read United States)
against aliens in flying saucers. No subplots
involving children, dogs, cats, love affairs,
movie stars or sleazy politicians. The first
saucer makes its appearance 5:28 into the
eighty-four minute film. The first landing of the
saucer and exiting of two aliens occurs at the
nineteen minute mark. And thus the battle begins.
The first alien is killed by soldiers using two
Bofors 40mm guns mounted to the back of a
military truck. A United States military
installation is wiped out shortly thereafter by
enemy saucers.
These flying
saucers are not the rinky-dink saucers seen in
some of the earlier saucer movies. They spin
while in flight and have nasty death rays that
completely obliterate their targets. The final
battle in Washington, DC is a classic. Were this
to happen today, just about every politician and
bureaucrat would use every trick in the book to
get as far away as possible.
Plan
9 From Outer Space (1957) – So
bad that it is great.
Extraterrestrials
who look exactly like human beings travel to
Earth in flying saucers fearing that humans will
build a doomsday weapon that might inadvertently
destroy the universe. As a result, they implement
Plan 9 in which they plan to bring dead
Earthlings back from their graves as killer
zombies. When they amass a sufficient number they
will unleash zombie armies unless humans cease
their quest for what may become the ultimate
doomsday weapon.
Free
reads on YouTube: The
Flying Saucer, Earth
vs. The Flying Saucers and Plan
9 from Outer Space.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Amazing_Stories_August_1946_back_cover.png?20210627190054
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