1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,080 Is it a plane? Is it a dream? The American Broadcasting Company presents the search for 2 00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:10,880 the flying saucers with Walter Kinnon. 3 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:15,680 Thanks, Les. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Many have seen them, millions have heard about 4 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:21,200 them. It's the biggest who's it, what's its story of the year, the flying saucers. At 5 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:25,760 the moment we have a fellow up in a plane hunting a flying saucer and good hunting to 6 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:31,440 standing by in various parts of the country are people who have seen a flying saucer. 7 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:37,680 Not that they all agree in their description of the, well, the thing as a saucer. The different 8 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:43,680 people, it takes different form. One woman said it looked like a five-room house. Many people 9 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:49,200 see that when the housing shortage will be over, but explanations vary as much as descriptions. 10 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:52,960 Walter Winchell says he has information that it's the new type flying wing. 11 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:59,840 Andrei Gromito says that maybe it's a Russian discontroller who doesn't know his own strength. 12 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:06,960 It has been suggested that a disc jockey on Mars is weeding out his old platters. That it's a radar 13 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:13,760 anti-detection advice. That it's natural phenomena. That it's a national psychosis. Half the people 14 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:18,560 in the country are scared to death and the other half never laughed so many. But whatever it is, 15 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:24,320 it has taken our minds off taxes, toil and trouble for a little while and that's not bad. 16 00:01:24,320 --> 00:01:29,200 Now, suppose we start our trip around the country and hear from some of the people who have reported 17 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:35,200 seeing these strange drawings on in the air. The flying saucers were seen in upper New York State 18 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:41,360 by Lewis Stebbins, a solid citizen treasurer of Warren Country. Warren County, I should say. 19 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:47,360 Let's hear him tell his story from Glenn Paul. Whatever it was, certainly created a lot of 20 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:53,600 interest and I say whatever it was because frankly I am still wondering. It was on the Friday night, 21 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:59,600 the 27th of June, somewhere between 9.30 and 10 o'clock. Our neighbor, Mrs. Caffrey, my wife 22 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:05,760 and I were sitting on the porch when we saw this bright, shiny object moving in an arc-like path 23 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:10,720 across the sky. The thing was about the size of an automobile headlight and it appears to be 24 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:16,160 giving off a bright red fire from the front and blue from the back. We couldn't exactly say it 25 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:21,040 was a flying disk we had been hearing about on the radio. Rather, we suspected it might have been a 26 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:26,000 large meteor. I took a lot of kidding about the thing until the paper published a story about 27 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:31,760 the American Meteor Society's report that a fireball, a type of meteor, may have landed that 28 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:37,120 night in northern New York or a month. And I hope it was a meteor, then maybe folks will stop 29 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:43,360 phoning at 2 a.m. asking if I have found the cup to go with my flying saucers. That's my story 30 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:48,400 and now back to Alder Gernon. Thank you, Mr. Sebbels, and hope you find the cup. Well, 31 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:53,680 the strange disks were seen to over Tennessee. They were seen there by a former sheriff and 32 00:02:53,680 --> 00:03:00,480 present game warden of Johnson City. I don't have his name, I'm sorry to say, I try not to have too 33 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:07,280 much business with sheriff. But anyhow, he tells us about it now. Exactly when and where did you 34 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:13,200 see yourself, Mr. Brummit? It was about two weeks ago, the day before the report for 35 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:17,600 carrying the papers all over the country. I saw it from the front portion of the 36 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:24,000 bed for about five seconds. The front part of the object was overshaded. It was a dark 37 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:28,880 blueish color and had a flaming red tail. It was moving horizontally to the earth just like an 38 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:33,760 airplane, but it wasn't, for the light was quivered. You said it had a red tail, 39 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:38,800 but it had been a falling star. No, sir, I've seen many a fallen star in my life, but never 40 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:43,600 have anything like this flying saucer before. It was too bright and too red to be a star. 41 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:48,640 Well, Warden Brummit, there's a rumor in these parts that the dancing disks might be 42 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:53,920 atomic energy on the loose from Oak Ridge. I don't believe that. If it had anything to do 43 00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:57,680 with atomic energy, the government would have announced it, but this time it shouldn't. Well, 44 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:02,880 thank you, State Game Warden Ernest Brummit. This is Bruny Bolton speaking, and now back to 45 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:08,080 Walter Cernan. Thank you, Warden, the first time I ever saw that. Well, the West Coast is at more 46 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:13,360 of flying saucers than any other part of the country. I hear New England is very jealous, 47 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:19,120 but standing by our ABC microphones on the coast, our assistant director Munro Manning of the 48 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:25,600 World Inventors Exposition, Andrew Whitmiller, authority on psychic phenomena. So let's go to 49 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:31,440 Los Angeles. One of them, Mr. Manning, has offered a reward of $1,000 for the first flying disk to 50 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:36,720 be presented to the World Inventors Exposition before tomorrow night. Mr. Manning, have you received 51 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:41,520 any claims for the reward yet? Yes, I have. Just a few hours ago, I was told there was a man outside 52 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:45,920 with a flying disk, so I went out to see him, and I said, where's the disk? He pointed straight up 53 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:50,000 and said it's up there. I looked up, but I couldn't see anything, and I said, well, I can't seem to 54 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:54,320 see it. He said, well, that's because it's composed of invisible gas. I said, gas? I said, 55 00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:57,680 well, get it out of here. It might be an implammable gas, and I take it inside as liable as 56 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:02,400 if the auditorium on fire. I said, get going. That's how, as I saw the man. Well, thank you, 57 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:06,960 Mr. Manning. Last night, a resident of North Hollywood reported that a flying disk landed in 58 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:11,440 his flower garden. First reports created a furry of excitement, but a few hours ago, 59 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:16,080 Army Intelligence officers announced that the disk was a phony, probably the work of a couple 60 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:22,560 of useful pranksters. Our second guest, Mr. Miller, author of Forgotten Mysteries, has spent 15 years 61 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:26,880 accumulating case histories of unexplainable happenings. How does the mystery of flying 62 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:31,840 saucers look to you, Mr. Miller? Well, the first reports of the disk are the most reliable. 63 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:36,800 They are little uncommon with the deluge of stories that exploded on the Fourth of July. 64 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:41,440 The two most credible original reports were those of Kenneth Iald, a pilot, whose story 65 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:45,760 started the whole affair, and the report of the crew of an airliner. And you think the 66 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:51,200 other stories are just a nice one? We may call them disk mania, brewed out of bad observation, 67 00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:56,640 hysteria, false truth, and the natural human love of telling tall tales. But what do you 68 00:05:56,640 --> 00:06:01,120 believe is the basis for the original report? I think this may be the result of secret 69 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:05,920 experimentation with the Army and the Navy. This is entirely possible despite official 70 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:12,320 denials. Seconds don't sell their margins down the river. The disk may actually be from Mars or 71 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:17,520 somewhere else in Aldrich's face. There have been many reliable reports that the past 150 years 72 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:23,200 have been saying things, seeing the sky. Well, thank you, R.D. Whitmer. And I'll back to Walter 73 00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:28,800 Kiernan. Thank you, gentlemen. As I say, many have seen these flying saucers, but not many claim 74 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:33,920 credit for them. John Virginia is a fellow who said he may be responsible for the whole thing. 75 00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:39,600 He's not quite sure. But after what we've heard, who is? Anyhow, let's hear what Kyle Walker has to 76 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:44,880 say from Rono. And here's Kyle Walker, whose connection with the flying saucers goes back to 77 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:49,520 a new game he's invented. Now, Mr. Walker, tell us how your game has anything to do with those 78 00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:55,200 saucers. Well, my game is called Spend the Sailor. It's played with right-waste aluminum disks. 79 00:06:55,920 --> 00:07:00,640 A few weeks ago, I decided that the game needed some publicity. So I turned over several hundred 80 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:07,280 special duplicates of this to an advertising man who flies his own plane. I told him to drop them 81 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:12,640 into there over the Midwest, the Pacific Coast, and Canada between June 20th and July 4th. 82 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:15,680 But what your advertising stunt got to do with the flying saucers? 83 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:20,640 There are no just these, so are the gadgets, two feet in diameter, made of rubber, 84 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:25,760 and played it with gas and covered with luminous paint. After starting to spin around in the air, 85 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:31,680 they may go as far as one thousand miles. And they would look very much as those flying saucers 86 00:07:31,680 --> 00:07:36,640 have been described. I admit, I can't prove that the saucers are my gadgets, switching around through 87 00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:41,920 space, but they may be. Well, this is Dick Noel speaking, and now back to Walter Gannon in New York. 88 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:47,280 Thanks, Mr. Walker. Well, that could explain things, but so far, any how, no one has been able 89 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:51,440 to read the writing on any of these flying saucers if there is any writing on them, if there are 90 00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:57,920 any saucers. Anyhow, ABC decided that if there are saucers flying around in the ether, why not send 91 00:07:57,920 --> 00:08:03,600 somebody up to look around to see just what they could see? The correspondent Bob Mcdall of American 92 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:10,560 Affiliate WFMJ has been cruising around in the skies over Youngtown, Ohio on the lookout for flying 93 00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:16,720 saucers. Have you seen any of them up there, Bob? No, not yet. We've been cruising about three 94 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:21,840 thousand feet over the northeast part of the city for the last half hour. We're flying in the 95 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:28,160 approximate area where some young scholars have seen these flying saucers. The other side of the 96 00:08:28,160 --> 00:08:31,360 way is this place throughout the four-hover, which is close to where we're trying to get the 97 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:35,520 flying saucer to land on one of them, which gives us the capture of this visibility here tonight. 98 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:40,400 We're almost completely surrounded by glass up here in the cabin. Right beside me is the controls 99 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:45,920 of four-second. In the main seat, George East, aviation and industrial editor of the Youngstowns 100 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:50,880 Indicator. At the beautiful lights we're flying here, it's clear. Certainly there must be a million 101 00:08:50,880 --> 00:08:55,840 of stars overhead. What were the stars? Lighting up the sky. We should be able to see a flying 102 00:08:55,840 --> 00:09:01,120 disk. One can't see them here. Flying saucers have actually been seen by three young scholars. 103 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:05,520 City Patrolman George Mackey declared he saw nine round-octs excelling at a high 104 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:10,800 space from 12 to north by 3 a.m. one night last May while he was on his feet on each 105 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:15,440 train waiting in his car. Mackey described the officers rolling their heads off the road 106 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:20,800 moving at about 300 to 400 feet in the air. He said he resembled a road used by meteorologists 107 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:24,800 and were directly in line one behind the other. The patrolman said he watched them and told 108 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:29,200 them they moved out of sight to the north. Mr. Elizabeth Robert Johnson of Youngstown reported 109 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:33,840 seeing a momentous round-octic as they said on their portion about 8.30 p.m. Saturday. 110 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:38,080 Johnson said his heart is walking through these stars and he was certain of this object 111 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:42,160 which he said was clear cut all around with no falling tail but he noticed there in the 112 00:09:42,160 --> 00:09:47,360 meteor. He said it brought him slowly at a 45 degree angle toward the earth and disappeared to the north 113 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:53,280 east. General, back to overkill us. Thanks Bob Mac, I'm sorry I didn't see one tonight but 114 00:09:53,280 --> 00:09:58,240 sounds like I got a little interference from one. Well interestingly flying saucers is not confined 115 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:03,360 to our own shores. The British have a couple of theories as to what we're seeing and here 116 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:08,880 transcribed is what Professor A. M. Lowell, president of the British Institute of Engineering says 117 00:10:08,880 --> 00:10:13,680 direct from London. Professor Lowell, no doubt you have been reading reports of the so-called 118 00:10:13,680 --> 00:10:19,120 flying saucers being over America. As a leading British scientist, what's your opinion of them? 119 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:25,600 Well I must say that in my opinion it must be due to macisteria. I know you've got to be very careful 120 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:33,040 nowadays. Lot with wool, atom bombs, people feeling rather tired and excitement for that time. 121 00:10:33,840 --> 00:10:39,520 Lots and so on. People like to believe things and don't forget this. Everybody likes to say 122 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:45,120 I saw it. They think it's rather clever. Do you think it might be an optical illusion? 123 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:50,960 No I don't. I don't think. You think there's any chance at all that these flying saucers 124 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:57,200 might be man-made objects at some time? I think it's very unlikely. There is just the rather mild 125 00:10:57,200 --> 00:11:02,960 chance that someone is experimenting with a new kind of radar-fucking device. You will 126 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:10,160 remember the radar camouflage which we used in the war made of metalized paper. Well if you 127 00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:16,720 imagine a rocket far 200 miles high and discharging these sorts of some kind of metal it just might 128 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:22,320 be any concern. But I don't believe it's a macisteria. I do. I always remember going to a 129 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:28,400 spiritualistic cell and I found that if I said look at that lovely blue light everybody else 130 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:33,680 saw it too although I saw absolutely nothing. In other words you really don't expect the 131 00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:37,520 three applying saucers to come down and pick a deal with circuitry in London, eh? Do I wish 132 00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:43,280 the good as I could? I'm sure. Yeah that would be quite surprising. I should be delighted. How is that? 133 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:50,800 Well uh there was a thing I said about some surprising vices and of course vices where it's 134 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:57,120 such a charming face. You might see almost anything there and another man by the way said that he saw 135 00:11:57,120 --> 00:12:03,040 one of them flying so high that he didn't know whether it was a house, an airplane, or a pop of 136 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:07,440 a ginger beer bottle. Now I think he was very lucky. Well we don't have anything to talk to as far as 137 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:13,520 that over here. I'd say thank you very much indeed Professor Low. This is Frederick B. Arbor in London. 138 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:18,800 Now back to New York. Well thanks Professor. One nice thing about a bell if a Britisher wants to 139 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:23,760 see the Loch Ness monster he has to go to Loch Ness. Here you can sit right on your front porch 140 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:28,640 wherever you happen to be and you sit as good a chance as seeing a flying saucer as the next 141 00:12:28,640 --> 00:12:33,520 fellow. Well there you have it but what have you got? Undoubtedly there is something through the 142 00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:39,280 story of the flying saucers, whatever they are. Malone's cup might be a poor witness to a flying 143 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:45,440 saucer but when sober serious citizens around the country look into these skies and see a something 144 00:12:45,440 --> 00:12:51,760 they can't be dismissed as eye strain or eye wash. I haven't seen a flying saucer but I'm going up 145 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:56,560 on the roof now there's a pellet sulk there and I can't see a flying saucer I'll settle for Venus. 146 00:12:56,560 --> 00:13:01,280 Any Venus. Mr. Griffith would you spring us out of here? Sure will will it. The search for the 147 00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:07,760 flying saucers was produced by our special events department. Directed by Joe Graham. This is ABC 148 00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:09,760 The American Broadcasting Company.