Speaker 1: The first UFO documentary by Charles Lear. For many people
growing up in the nineteen seventies, of which this writer
is one, seeing a UFO documentary was their first in
depth look into the subject. These films often came along
with books tied in, and major publishers such as Bantam
were getting on board. More and more people were willing
to accept the idea that UFOs were worthy of serious consideration,
and this meant that more and more people were willing
to spend money on movies and books covering the subject.
What had formerly been mostly confined to a subculture of
enthusiasts was on its way to becoming the profitable entertainment
industry it is today. What may come as a surprise
to some readers is that between the nineteen forty seven
even Summer of the Saucers in nineteen sixty eight, there
were only two documentaries. If any readers know differently, feel
free to comment, made in the midst of all the
science fiction saucer films that became popular starting in the
nineteen fifties. What is thought to be the first Flying
Saucer UFO documentary was released in nineteen fifty as an
approximately nine and a half minute short titled The Flying
Saucer Mystery. It was re released in nineteen fifty two
with added footage that brought it up to around twelve minutes.
Both releases were produced by Telenews, which had a chain
of thirteen theaters in major cities throughout the US that
only showed newsreels. According to the December twentieth, twenty nineteen
post on the Science Fiction Encyclopedia website, the film, which
release isn't specified, was lost until the nineteen nineties. The producer, director,
and screenwriter are unnamed. The release dates coincide with two
significant events flying saucer UFO history. In nineteen forty nine,
Donald Keiho had his article the Flying Saucers Are Real
published in the January nineteen fifty issue of True magazine,
And in nineteen fifty two, a press conference was held
to field questions from the press about UFOs in Washington,
d C. Airspace over two successive weekends in July. Edward J.
Rupev describes both events in his nineteen fifty six book
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. According to him, it
was rumored among magazine publishers that Quiho's article was one
of the most widely read and widely discussed magazine articles
in history. As for the nineteen fifty two press conference,
he says it was the largest and longest the Air
Force it held since World War Two. It seems as
though the article was the inspiration for the production of
the movie, as Kiho appears as the final commentator. After
the introduction by the narrator name unknown, commentary by Keyho's
Annapolis classmate and friend at Moreclvin Bolster, and testimony by
Arthur Weisberger about his July twenty first, nineteen fifty sighting
of three saucers over Tucson, Arizona. The first authenticated saucer
photos taken by Paul Trent and mc menville, Oregon, and
the first motion picture footage shot of a saucer in Louisville,
Kentucky by t V Camerman for w h A s
Al Hicksenburg are shown. Then the narrator brings up the
argument by many authoritative sources, including U S News and
World Report, that the saucers are jets developed from a
nineteen fifty experimental Navy fighter, and a photo is shown
of the VAUNT XF five U dash I, also known
as the flying Flapjack. He points out that there had
been no publicly known and movements made on the V
two since the war, and asks are the saucers the
secret descendants of the V two. We then get to
Keiho and he has this to say, after a one
year's investigation, I believe that the flying saucers seen by
veteran airline and Air Force pilots are objects from another planet.
The narrator closes saying that Commander McLaughlin Robert B. U
s n agrees with Keho, and a model built for
an episode of the television show We the People based
on his observations is shown. The model was the basis
of the illustration of the saucer in the cover of
Keho's nineteen fifty book, The Flying Saucers Are Real. In
nineteen fifty two, things changed in a big way as
far as saucers were concerned. The Air Force had revitalized,
but was known to the public as Project Saucer and
Project Blue Book was born out of the ashes of
projects sign and Grudge. Rupelt was the person in charge,
and he recounted his experience in his book. According to him,
he was the person who came up with the term
unidentified flying object and its acronym UFO is pronounced upho.
Just as Rupelt was settling in, Blue Book got hit
with a full on nationwide flat starting in June. They
culminated in sightings both visual and radar, of UFOs and
restricted airspace over Washington, d C. On two successive weekends
starting July nineteenth. Rupelt and the rest of the Blue
Book staff first heard about the sightings from newspaper reports,
but the Air Force Public Information officer who handled UFO inquiries,
Albert M. Chopp, was in the Air Route Traffic Control
radar room at Washington Airport on July nineteenth and experienced
the event's firsthand. One episode, in particular was all the
UFO blips disappearing from the radar the moment that jets
scrambled the intercept appeared. The re release of the Flying
Saucer mystery was announced on August twenty third, nineteen fifty two,
in Billboard magazine, and it was distributed to a broader
audience by Sterling Films. Most of the footage was new,
as was the narration. It was updated to reflect the
current state of the mystery. There's a clip of general
James A. Sandford speaking at the press conference, saying we
can say that the recent sightings are in no way
connected with any secret development by any agency of the
United States, followed by Kio saying, with all due respect
to the Air Force, I believe that some of them
will prove to be of interplanetary origin. Additional witness reports
include August C. Roberts describing a saucer photo he took,
saying I think it was from outer space but friendly.
An East German refugee and former mayor Oscar Link and
his daughter who claimed to have both seen a saucer
and its crew while they were still in East Germany
in nineteen fifty. Frank Scully appears, who had in nineteen fifty,
just after Kio published the second ever Flying Saucer book,
Behind the Flying Saucers, He adds some unique commentary speculating
on the nature of intelligent beings on other planets. He
says that they might be more mature, might have made
it to the other side of their atomic age, and
might have been souls that were never fogged up like
Adam and Eve, making them perfect and immortal. According to him.
If this was the case, the idea of the Air
Force telling them to shoot them down is idiotic. Some
of the footage used in both releases of the Flying
Saucer Mystery, such as that of Samford and Keiho, shows
up in documentaries from the seventies on. What's noteworthy and
may be a factor in the dirt of UFO documentaries
throughout the fifties and sixties is that in nineteen fifty three,
the CIA convened Scientific Advisory Board known as the Robertson Panel,
recommended that the UFO subject be downplayed in the interest
of national security. One of their concerns was that public
hysteria could overwhelm communications and offer enemies of the United
States an opportunity for a sneak attack. Even so, one producer,
Clarence Green, was so moved by his own UFO sighting
that he was willing to risk ridicule and produce the
first feature length UFO documentary next week, UFO The True
Story of Flying Saucers. For more information and related news clippings,
see the excellent site The Saucers That Time Forgot. Charles
Lear is the author of The Flying Saucer Investigators, available
in its second edition at Amazon