Metronomy - You Could Easily Have Me

It's been awhile since I posted something here, and I'm sorry for that. Just too busy with work and other issues right now. But here's a little something I found on YouTube, a collection of old flying saucer movie clips, set to modern metal or something, I dunno, I'm old. Enjoy.

Dickie Goodman - The Flying Saucer (Pt. 1) - cell ring tone

I found this, from 1952. It’s Flying Saucer (Parts 1 and 2) by Dickie Goodman and Bill Buchanan, who:
using techniques that dated back to the golden age of radio, created a splash with a new kind of record, the "Break-in." Break-ins used pre-recorded songs at various points during the record. Buchanan and Goodman employed major hits of 1955-56 to create "Flying Saucer (Parts 1 and 2)," a reinterpretation of Orson Welles' radio program "The War of the Worlds." This new version of the story of flying saucers invading earth was far more funny than frightening. Audiences agreed, and sales of the record soared to #3 on the Billboard charts.
Their schtick went like this:
Part 1

Instrumental opening--“Shake, Rattle, and Roll,” Joe Turner

(spoken) We interrupt this record to bring you a special bulletin. The reports of a flying saucer hovering over the city have been confirmed. The flying saucers are real.

"Too real when I feel what my heart can´t conceal..."--“The Great Pretender,” The Platters

(spoken) That was The Clatters recording, Too Real. We switch you now to our on the spot reporter downtown.

"C´mon baby let´s go downtown..."--“The Wallflower,” Etta James
For example. Hey, cool music at least; Etta James, The Patters, etc.

(Maybe Greg Bishop or Adam Gorightly has a recording of this somewhere!)

Jackie Gleason and UFOs

I have good memories of watching Jackie Gleason (yes, I'm that old) his show, the Honey Mooners, etc. ("Norton" always cracked me up.) Gleason was more than just an actor in a television comedy program, he was a very talented man. This is from his obitutary from the New York Times:

When he was not performing, Mr. Gleason was often conducting or composing mellow romantic music, ''plain vanilla music'' he called it, which was marketed in record albums with such unpretentious titles as ''Lazy Lively Love'' and ''Oooo!'' He recorded more than 35 albums with the Jackie Gleason Orchestra, and millions of the records were sold. ~ (June 25, 1987)

It's an interesting obituary, full of information about his creative life, but no mention (naturally) of his UFO interest.

I remember reading in FATE magazine a few years ago, in a “filler” or sidebar type thing, that the great Jackie Gleason donated his library of UFO books to, I think, someplace in Florida. Gleason had something like over 200 books about UFOs. Here’s an item about Gleason’s “occult library” on exhibit in Miami, Florida.

On Frank Warren’s excellent blog, there’s a piece on Gleason and UFOs that was posted in 2005 (the piece is written by Bill Knell.) Jackie Gleason, Richard Nixon and ET. It’s full of fun information on Gleason and his UFO interests and what Knell learned from talking with Gleason.

Jackie Gleason’s Trip to the Alien Morgue, by Marty Murray, is about a classic UFO legend: President Richard Nixon took Gleason to see alien bodies in a morgue at Homestead Air Force base.

There’s another article on this by the always entertaining and interesting Timothy Green Beckley: Jackie Gleason and the Little Men From Mars.

A Bit More on 1952

Flying Saucer Parties were popular then. People getting together, having a few cocktails, and then settling in lawn chairs for the saucers to land. Which means, there was enough activity going on in the skies during that time for people to have saucer watch parities.

UFOs appeared over Capitol secured area in 1952

From a History Channel documentary on UFOs: the 1952 UFO sighting above the White House. See below for more on UFOs in 1952.

1952: The Year of the Flap

A brief and random look at UFOs in 1952. . .

1952 was a year for UFOs in not only the United States but the rest of the planet. A well known UFO case is the UFO event over the White House, where several UFOs were witnessed flying over the domed institution. This is a classic case; much has been written about it. For example, Dr. Bruce Maccabee wrote 1952 - Year of the UFO. This was also the year Jim and Coral Lorenzen started the UFO research organization Apro, and Contactee George Van Tassel began his communications with the alien "Ashtar."

The photograph below was taken in July by a member of the Coast Guard:



The web site Project 1947 has a list of sightings in 1952. As they note, the April 7, 1952 issue of Life magazine published the article “Have We Visitors From Outer Space?”

That same year, LOOK magazine also had an article on UFOs.


In 2000, a Kenny Young submitted a request on the Jeff Rense website for information about a Joseph Rohrer, who apparently wrote the following article: Flying Saucer Talk Startles Chamber Membership Meeting, in the Pueblo, Colorado Chieftain, 1952. The article talks about a “three foot tall pilot of a flying saucer,” kept alive in California. The alien was rescued (or captured, I suppose, depending on your point of view) from a “crashed saucer” in Montana.

Best UFO Resources has a photo of a UFO taken in France during that year. This isn't the only photo of a UFO seen in another country that was taken in 1952; any internet search will reveal many more.

Here’s a picture of a UFO that appeared in New Jersey in ‘52.

The Coast Guard photograph looks like some of the wedge shaped UFOs seen more recently. (I saw one myself, with others, in the South Hills of Eugene, Oregon about 20 years ago.) Other 1952 UFOs look just like what we'd expect: those Adamski type, almost hokey, flying saucers. Military or true UFOs from space, either way, the fact is that in 1952, the world was witness to a host of flying saucers.

Medusa's Ladder: The Cold War and Altered Minds: Recalling The UFO Device in Retro TV Episodes

Richelle Hawks looks at TV and UFOs in her Medusa's Ladder column for Binnall of America: The Cold War and Altered Minds: Recalling The UFO Device in Retro TV Episodes.

It's a good article; Richelle points out the mind set behind these television episodes that included UFOs or flying saucers:

During the Cold War, the “UFO episode” was practically a tiny archetype to be fulfilled in popular shows—inevitable and perhaps necessary somehow, a token--similar to the “beatnik” episodes of the 60s, in which the squaresville mainstream characters venture very out of place into the smoky stoned beret-laden basements of jazzhouses, or the “very special” preachy social commentary episodes of the 80s, in which a main character loses her virginity, experiments with drugs, or gets abused.

Viewing these UFO episodes of popular shows, in almost every case, a theme of “secrets” (usually military) is revealed, and personal sanity is either compromised or questioned. More generally, there is a sense of mistrust and unreliability, both intrinsic-culturally and personally. These ideas obviously reflect the Cold War mindset. It is important to note too, that in almost every case in these episodes, a mundane (opposed to magical or ‘real’) origin and solution is supplied for the featured UFO mystery.

There’s also a common thread of an induced altered state, or abnormal of mind. The characters who witness the UFOs are either mentally ill, drunk, stupid, immature, exhausted, or otherwise compromised from normalcy. This feature seems to be necessary to telling the story, but whether it mirrors some instrinsic Truth in the UFO experience, is a novel representation of liminality, or is a simple apologist type device, is up for debate.

Be sure to go over there to Binnall of America and read Richelle's column, as well as the other great stuff over there.

Foil Covered Saucer Man

Frank Warren has a post about a man covered in tin foil and a flying saucer from 1950.

eBay Find: Dana Howard

Only Dana Howard book up right now on eBay -- for $79.00. Sigh.

This is a ceilling light fixture for children, from the 1950s. I want this in my bedroom! (I would, too, if I could get away with it.)

1956 Documentary: U.F.O.

Robert Barrow (Not Your Grandfather's UFO Blog) has an item about a 1956 UFO movie, called U.F.O. It was an United Artists documentary; read here for more info.