Harry Morgan ("Red Dog One") Dies

Actor Harry Morgan died a few days ago, relevant here because his was the voice of "Red Dog One" (the pilot surrounded by UFOs over Washington, D.C.) in the movie. Morgan's distinctive voice and face graced numerous motion pictures and TV shows over the years, and he was perhaps best remembered for his role as Col. Sherman Potter in TV's "M*A*S*H," and as police officer Joe Friday's (Jack Webb) partner in later episodes of "Dragnet." Of minor interest to those intrigued by such patterns, it may be noted that veteran actor Morgan performed in a movie about UFOs, while Webb later created a TV series based upon Project Bluebook's files ("Project UFO").

I made an attempt to get a few answers from Mr. Morgan back in the seventies about his role in the UFO documentary, but received no response.

The Movie Search Continues

Despite the lack of recent blog entries, I still look for updates, and continue to expect some rather interesting news about the motion picture when it develops -- so please check in now and then.

Posters: Dazed and Amused

Good grief. Okay, this blog deals exclusively with the 1956 documentary, "UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers." In 1970, British TV produced a sci-fi series entitled, "UFO." Soon, in 2012, a big-screen aliens-on-the-attack film also called "UFO" will appear. As long as blog visitors realize we are neither the 1970s or 2012 offspring of this much-used term, we'll survive the latest cinematic title confusion. One wishes public UFO research was as popular as science fiction movie posters and productions.

Andrew Gold 1951-2011

You knew Andrew Gold as a popular recording artist, most familiar for his songs, "Lonely Boy" and"Thank You for Being a Friend." I knew him -- for one brief e-mail moment during the summer of 2001 -- as the son of Ernest Gold, the award-winning composer who developed musical scores for such movies as "Exodus" and, of particular interest to me, for United Artists' 1956 documentary motion picture, "UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers."

Andrew died last week following lingering health issues. Drawing upon messages saved 10 years ago, I decided to post his one e-mail message and my two, keeping in mind how rare and appreciated it can be when a celebrity spares a minute or two to answer questions from inquiring minds. Frankly, I was a little surprised that he shared his and his grandparents' thoughts about UFOs in an e-mail to a stranger such as I, but including those few words of a personal nature really did speak kindly about the writer.

(Recently, I discovered that the soundtrack music for "UFO" is missing no longer, and I hope to offer further details later this year.)

2011 Movie Update

We may have a very interesting update regarding "U.F.O." later this year. If you have an appreciation for the motion picture's production values, please be sure to check this blog now and then.

Towers on the Newspaper Beat, 1958 & 1959

We've noted that Tom Towers never shied away from reporting about UFOs as aviation editor of the (defunct) Los Angeles Examiner. These gems from his newspaper career reflect upon some intriguing UFO history, including a serious meeting about the subject hosted and attended by Disney personnel in the company of scientists and engineers. Some Walt Disney personnel and factions appear, at least in the past, to have entertained a curious interest in things far more "out there" than The Mouse and flying elephants.

Towers had little tolerance for UFO-related hoaxes and frauds, though he apparently enjoyed directing his readers' attention to the absurd and controversial. The heated dismissal by NICAP director Donald E. Keyhoe and NICAP's Los Angeles subcommittee of a conference focusing upon "contactees" was hardly unusual, as NICAP had been critical (generally for good reason) from its inception of people claiming outrageous stories of meetings and good times with space aliens. However, when the Barney and Betty Hill UFO abduction story emerged publicly in the sixties, followed by other seemingly credible accounts offered up by terrified witnesses, NICAP and serious researchers began to make a sharp and characteristically viable distinction between contactees' tall tales and disturbing abduction reports.

(Thanks to researcher and author Barry Greenwood for these clippings.)