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Speaker 1: The first UFO documentary by Charles Lear. For many people

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growing up in the nineteen seventies, of which this writer

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is one, seeing a UFO documentary was their first in

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depth look into the subject. These films often came along

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with books tied in, and major publishers such as Bantam

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were getting on board. More and more people were willing

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to accept the idea that UFOs were worthy of serious consideration,

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and this meant that more and more people were willing

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to spend money on movies and books covering the subject.

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What had formerly been mostly confined to a subculture of

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enthusiasts was on its way to becoming the profitable entertainment

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industry it is today. What may come as a surprise

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to some readers is that between the nineteen forty seven

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even Summer of the Saucers in nineteen sixty eight, there

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were only two documentaries. If any readers know differently, feel

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free to comment, made in the midst of all the

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science fiction saucer films that became popular starting in the

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nineteen fifties. What is thought to be the first Flying

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Saucer UFO documentary was released in nineteen fifty as an

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approximately nine and a half minute short titled The Flying

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Saucer Mystery. It was re released in nineteen fifty two

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with added footage that brought it up to around twelve minutes.

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Both releases were produced by Telenews, which had a chain

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of thirteen theaters in major cities throughout the US that

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only showed newsreels. According to the December twentieth, twenty nineteen

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post on the Science Fiction Encyclopedia website, the film, which

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release isn't specified, was lost until the nineteen nineties. The producer, director,

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and screenwriter are unnamed. The release dates coincide with two

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significant events flying saucer UFO history. In nineteen forty nine,

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Donald Keiho had his article the Flying Saucers Are Real

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published in the January nineteen fifty issue of True magazine,

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And in nineteen fifty two, a press conference was held

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to field questions from the press about UFOs in Washington,

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d C. Airspace over two successive weekends in July. Edward J.

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Rupev describes both events in his nineteen fifty six book

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The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. According to him, it

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was rumored among magazine publishers that Quiho's article was one

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of the most widely read and widely discussed magazine articles

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in history. As for the nineteen fifty two press conference,

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he says it was the largest and longest the Air

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Force it held since World War Two. It seems as

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though the article was the inspiration for the production of

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the movie, as Kiho appears as the final commentator. After

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the introduction by the narrator name unknown, commentary by Keyho's

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Annapolis classmate and friend at Moreclvin Bolster, and testimony by

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Arthur Weisberger about his July twenty first, nineteen fifty sighting

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of three saucers over Tucson, Arizona. The first authenticated saucer

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photos taken by Paul Trent and mc menville, Oregon, and

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the first motion picture footage shot of a saucer in Louisville,

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Kentucky by t V Camerman for w h A s

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Al Hicksenburg are shown. Then the narrator brings up the

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argument by many authoritative sources, including U S News and

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World Report, that the saucers are jets developed from a

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nineteen fifty experimental Navy fighter, and a photo is shown

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of the VAUNT XF five U dash I, also known

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as the flying Flapjack. He points out that there had

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been no publicly known and movements made on the V

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two since the war, and asks are the saucers the

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secret descendants of the V two. We then get to

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Keiho and he has this to say, after a one

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year's investigation, I believe that the flying saucers seen by

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veteran airline and Air Force pilots are objects from another planet.

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The narrator closes saying that Commander McLaughlin Robert B. U

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s n agrees with Keho, and a model built for

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an episode of the television show We the People based

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on his observations is shown. The model was the basis

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of the illustration of the saucer in the cover of

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Keho's nineteen fifty book, The Flying Saucers Are Real. In

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nineteen fifty two, things changed in a big way as

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far as saucers were concerned. The Air Force had revitalized,

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but was known to the public as Project Saucer and

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Project Blue Book was born out of the ashes of

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projects sign and Grudge. Rupelt was the person in charge,

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and he recounted his experience in his book. According to him,

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he was the person who came up with the term

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unidentified flying object and its acronym UFO is pronounced upho.

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Just as Rupelt was settling in, Blue Book got hit

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with a full on nationwide flat starting in June. They

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culminated in sightings both visual and radar, of UFOs and

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restricted airspace over Washington, d C. On two successive weekends

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starting July nineteenth. Rupelt and the rest of the Blue

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Book staff first heard about the sightings from newspaper reports,

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but the Air Force Public Information officer who handled UFO inquiries,

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Albert M. Chopp, was in the Air Route Traffic Control

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radar room at Washington Airport on July nineteenth and experienced

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the event's firsthand. One episode, in particular was all the

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UFO blips disappearing from the radar the moment that jets

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scrambled the intercept appeared. The re release of the Flying

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Saucer mystery was announced on August twenty third, nineteen fifty two,

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in Billboard magazine, and it was distributed to a broader

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audience by Sterling Films. Most of the footage was new,

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as was the narration. It was updated to reflect the

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current state of the mystery. There's a clip of general

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James A. Sandford speaking at the press conference, saying we

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can say that the recent sightings are in no way

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connected with any secret development by any agency of the

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United States, followed by Kio saying, with all due respect

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to the Air Force, I believe that some of them

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will prove to be of interplanetary origin. Additional witness reports

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include August C. Roberts describing a saucer photo he took,

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saying I think it was from outer space but friendly.

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An East German refugee and former mayor Oscar Link and

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his daughter who claimed to have both seen a saucer

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and its crew while they were still in East Germany

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in nineteen fifty. Frank Scully appears, who had in nineteen fifty,

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just after Kio published the second ever Flying Saucer book,

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Behind the Flying Saucers, He adds some unique commentary speculating

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on the nature of intelligent beings on other planets. He

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says that they might be more mature, might have made

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it to the other side of their atomic age, and

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might have been souls that were never fogged up like

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Adam and Eve, making them perfect and immortal. According to him.

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If this was the case, the idea of the Air

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Force telling them to shoot them down is idiotic. Some

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of the footage used in both releases of the Flying

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Saucer Mystery, such as that of Samford and Keiho, shows

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up in documentaries from the seventies on. What's noteworthy and

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may be a factor in the dirt of UFO documentaries

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throughout the fifties and sixties is that in nineteen fifty three,

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the CIA convened Scientific Advisory Board known as the Robertson Panel,

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recommended that the UFO subject be downplayed in the interest

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of national security. One of their concerns was that public

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hysteria could overwhelm communications and offer enemies of the United

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States an opportunity for a sneak attack. Even so, one producer,

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Clarence Green, was so moved by his own UFO sighting

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that he was willing to risk ridicule and produce the

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first feature length UFO documentary next week, UFO The True

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Story of Flying Saucers. For more information and related news clippings,

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see the excellent site The Saucers That Time Forgot. Charles

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Lear is the author of The Flying Saucer Investigators, available

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in its second edition at Amazon