History's Fragments

Time itself often takes a toll on historical documents, and these contributions from Barry Greenwood did not suffer well the years. Still, there's enough of interest here to pass these articles along from Tom Towers' era as aviation editor for the Los Angeles Examiner.  Somewhere, I just know there's a scrapbook or carefully assembled collection including all of Towers' newspaper articles because after I wrote a piece for imdb.com (go ahead and check it out) many years ago, a still unknown person apparently familiar intimately with his life added information.  I requested that the person or people contact me, but this never occurred.

Among today's collection, it's interesting to note a biblical reference to "Ezekiel's wheels," rather an old standby in UFO literature.  In Towers' other column, it's worth a laugh that in 1956 a teenager would have found it almost impossible to successfully fake a UFO film -- while today, it's almost to the point where a toddler could fabricate the motion picture, "Gone With the Wind" with a little computer work.  Of course we exaggerate -- but not by much! 

(credit:  Barry Greenwood)

With Whom or What do We Share the Skies?

In the mid 1950s it might have seemed madness for a movie producer to depict "flying saucers" as something other than fodder for science fiction fans, but that's exactly what the production team of Clarence Greene and Russell Rouse -- and particularly Greene -- accomplished when they brought a very serious side of the UFO issue to the silver screen.  These days, their self-described documentary motion picture might instead be called a docudrama, but no matter what one calls the feature, it was all business. Unfortunately, Greene's public plea for the world's people to face the UFO issue in deadly earnest failed to arouse the typical theater audience because it lacked the "Hollywood touch," concerning itself a little too much with facts and not enough lively action among the mostly non-professional actors.  Nevertheless, history should and must find a prominent place for this oddly unique motion picture, the two apparently legitimate Montana and Utah UFO films included within it, and the important historical period it brought to the silver screen way back in 1956.  The climactic depiction of spellbinding UFO activity and the military pursuit of strange objects over the nation's Capitol in 1952 is particularly significant.

As the U.S. government continues releasing historic UFO information and videos, let it always be remembered that Clarence Greene and Russell Rouse attempted a likewise monumental task 70 years before the practice became fashionable.  Their motion picture was no less than prophetic.

Blogs being what they are, if this is your first visit and you start reading backwards from the most current entry you may become quickly confused or uninspired. However, if you start at the beginning and work through the years consecutively, you will find much of interest here, including personal letters, photos, press book material and other things from my own collection.  To begin from the very first blog entry, simply visit the link below -- and enjoy your visit:  

 http://ufothemovie.blogspot.com/2008/06/of-relatively-incredible-things.html 

The Film's Fatal Influence

My blog entries in more recent years have mostly been possible because of Barry Greenwood's internationally respected research into UFO history and the visual submissions he graciously provides.  To say today's entry is unusual is an understatement.  Who could have even guessed that Clarence Greene's movie, "U.F.O." possessed the power, quickly relegated to TV viewing, to cause a homicide as one brother murdered another in 1961?  As Greenwood wryly suggests, "Greene probably could have used the tag line, 'You watch, you die!' to boost attendance."  That's no exaggeration.  Theater audience numbers in 1956 were not impressive. A movie-related murder in the aisle would have made national headlines and filled box office coffers merely because the morbidly curious among the public would have gobbled up tickets just to be part of the "UFO murder" scene.        (credit: Barry Greenwood)

      

London Speaks

Considering how some reviews came off as lackluster or obviously churned out by writers blissfully ignorant (and happy to remain so) about UFO history, it's a delight to find an article pumped up with fairness and wit -- so often the case from what was once the British press of an era now sadly in decline.  

(credit:  Barry Greenwood)

Air Force Admitted for Free While Civil Defense Takes Notice

For a movie that failed to captivate the nation's theater box offices in 1956, it's interesting to note that "U.F.O." continued to grace motion picture screens well into 1957.  Among the newspaper reviews and articles displayed here is an instance where current and former U.S. Air Force personnel were admitted free to theatrical showings, and the photo of Civil Defense personnel plugging the film indicates that the production did influence serious thinking about UFOs among people responsible for public safety. (credit: Barry Greenwood)

From Pennsylvania to Ontario

With the inclusion of these three newspaper clippings, our current exploration of various articles and reviews regarding the movie is ending.  It is rather interesting that the Canadian newspaper spelled Al Chop's last name as Chopp.  But what's a newspaper without the occasional typo?    In any event, thanks again to researcher Barry Greenwood for contributing  the scanned news clippings you've read over the past several weeks; his efforts made my work on these entries relatively uncomplicated.

Wendell Swanson's Mother

Among a wealth of newspaper and magazine articles I read about the movie over many years, never have I encountered anything about the family of radar expert Wendell Swanson, one of the few to portray himself and recreate his own role in "U.F.O."  Yet, among today's collection is a newspaper article spotlighting Swanson's mother, including a photo.  I am reminded of the late comedic actor and singer Jimmy Durante, who was fond of cracking the words, "Everybody wants to get into the act!"   (credit:  Barry Greenwood)

The 60 Cent Matinee

While Edward Ruppelt and Nicholas Mariana each receive more publicity in today's articles, the ad showing a matinee airing of the film for the cost of 60 cents, by today's standards, seems almost as peculiar as the saucers.  As a kid I often went to double-feature matinees at neighborhood theaters for 35 cents a visit. Nostalgia vs. changing times (sigh. . .), how unfair!  (credit:  Barry Greenwood)

Brick or Treat

Some reviewers found the movie appealing or at least interesting, while others lavished United Artists' strange release with anything but praise.  Had it been filmed in 3-D or matured a bit and prepared for theaters in Cinerama format somehow, maybe reception would have been a little less icy. (credit: Barry Greenwood)

Mariana and Newhouse Prominently Mentioned

Unexplained films of strange objects shown in the movie receive top billing in today's assortment of newspaper articles, as photographers Nicholas Mariana and Delbert Newhouse are quoted.  Most of this information was obviously harvested from the United Artists press kit, but occasions where the Montana and Utah incidents receive publicity as key ingredients of the Greene-Rouse documentary are certainly welcome and worthwhile. (credit:  Barry Greenwood)

UFOs and Pilot in Pursuit Likened to Cat and Mouse Encounter

Reviewers continued to both praise and find fault with the motion picture's director and production values, but aside from that we must consider "U.F.O." as profoundly significant for its early warning about strange things in our skies.  In 2024, we observe that its direction in 1956 was nothing less than prophetic, as we are now extremely aware of government concern and ongoing investigations.

Also today we feature a newspaper printing of the movie's most familiar poster, and we find it interesting how one review compares the famous 1952 Washington, DC UFO encounter involving several objects surrounding a military pilot to a kitten playing with a mouse.

While many newspapers listed Tom Towers as Powers thanks to a press book error, here we actually see a news clipping where the story title lists him as Powers, but the text itself correctly names him as Towers.  As we've noted before, the fact that there was a real movie actor named Tom Powers only added to the confusion -- which Towers and I were finally able to correct to some degree by the 1970s in TV Guide and other publications. (credit:  Barry Greenwood)

Reporters Are Actors, Says Towers

Tom Towers, interviewed by another reporter here as the movie premiered, said a thing or two I hadn't heard from him before, particularly where he notes that reporters may need to become "actors" to get stories on occasion.  This was interesting because I have accepted for years the premise that writers in general are all actors -- and sometimes better at acting than established actors as they pursue their craft and appear in public.  Elsewhere today, we note that producer Clarence Greene brought documents to an interview with the Boston Globe, and we wonder whether these comprised long-missing things, including studio information, that Greene put into the hands of a Los Angeles security company which no longer has possession of them. (credit:  Barry Greenwood)

Hot Water and Wire Brushes

It was good to see the occasional newspaper article focusing upon key personnel other than Clarence Greene or Tom Towers.  In this collection, American Airlines pilot Willis Sperry and former Project Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt receive prominent mention.  We also find something we haven't seen in newsprint before:  A specific instance where a theater's advertisement for the movie involved painting flying saucer images all over the street.  Apparently, finding a guaranteed method to scrub away the images days later was difficult until the time-tested method of mixing boys, hot water and wire brushes was organized, kind of like a reverse (Mark Twain's) Tom Sawyer scene about whitewash and a fence. (credit: Barry Greenwood)

Cincinnati's Hometown Son

Articles from a Cincinnati newspaper make it clear that Tom Towers grew up in that city.  Also of interest is a reference to Dick Williams, another member of the newspaper industry who may have played his own very brief role in the movie, though this is not really clarified, the way the article is worded.  In a companion item a day earlier from the Cincinnati Enquirer, the newspaper honors Towers by including a photo from the movie (a better quality picture will be found among our earliest blog entries), but simultaneously degrades the entire effort when the motion picture is incorrectly titled as "U.F.I." with a short caption which should have easily been caught by an editor before -30- (Sorry, but I just had to show off my now irrelevant newspaper knowledge:  -30- was once a newspaper code number representing the end of a reporter's story.  Actually, there exists an old Jack Webb movie entitled "-30-"). (credit:  Barry Greenwood)