Mr. and Mrs. Al Chop Promotional Photo

Age and reproduction quality of the newspaper photo showing Al Chop and his wife together isn't the best, but it does offer another example of various partnerships involved in assuring accuracy for the documentary motion picture.  As we mentioned several years ago when first posting this rarely seen picture, the movie depicts Mrs. Chop remaining home while husband Al speeds off to Washington National during an historic night of radar/visually-confirmed UFO activity. However, in reality she accompanied him and was present just outside the restricted radar room as her husband joined military officials and air traffic personnel in watching the unknowns on the radar scope, even as one pilot was reportedly surrounded by bright objects in the sky.

One article here, unfortunately, repeats the error that Edward J. Ruppelt played himself in the film -- an error in which I played a part in my earlier writing, to my everlasting regret.  It turns out that the studio press book itself initially printed this error, and in later years Al Chop himself repeated it in a letter to me, surely a mistake which went unnoticed as he went into detail about his own relationship to the movie.  Ruppelt's brief depiction was actually portrayed by Robert Phillips, one of the few professional actors who graced the documentary.

Regarding the radio interview with producer Clarence Greene, adding a recording of this likely unique interview to the archives would have been great, but I am unaware that any such recording survived the years. (article credit: Barry Greenwood)

Gregory Peck's Peg Leg Comes Out Ahead in One Article

Today, having featured several days of aviation column entries written by "U.F.O." lead player Tom Towers in the fifties, we turn back to various articles by others.  Writer Alfred Kay's piece about the movie was all too typical of so much newspaper reporting about the UFO subject back then, when ridicule, derision and gaining points for a laugh was often an implied editorial policy. Kay's reference to the film as an hour-long feature when it was actually just over an hour and a half in length was careless, but his criticism that very few of the "actors" seemed at ease in front of the cameras should have been tempered -- had he bothered to read the studio's press book -- with an acknowledgement that most of them were L.A. area law enforcement officers invited by the producers to recreate briefly various roles based upon historical  events. Using non-professional actors does not necessarily result in Shakespearean theater, if that's what Kay anticipated.

Personally, I was far more intrigued by Kay's report regarding the pain and problems actor Gregory Peck endured with a peg leg prosthesis while filming "Moby Dick."  Clarence Greene's "U.F.O." has been described as "wooden" for its acting by some, so maybe the inclusion of a peg leg would have satisfied Kay's need to focus upon a prop.  But in the end, he simply dissolves into lame humor as he casts the UFO subject aside.

Elsewhere, the movie menu including "U.F.O." among other features is fair enough, but the brief L.A. Evening News article suggesting UFOs are "probably" not hostile and perhaps beneficial to the human race certainly takes a lot for granted.  Then again, this WAS the 1950s era, when "space brothers" were all the rage.    (credit:  Barry Greenwood)

Not Exactly Amalgamated

As we suggested in the previous blog entry, a future visit wasn't looking trouble-free for the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America, at least not when they held their convention in Los Angeles in July of 1959.  In an attempt to distance their local subcommittee from the controversial group, officials of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) communicated through Tom Towers that the "convention" hosting "contactees" and others of questionable repute was bad news for legitimate UFO research.  Having met Maj. Donald Keyhoe in the sixties, I am more than familiar with his outrage over groups which -- loosely or otherwise -- attempted to claim an association with NICAP when it was under his influence. (credit:  Barry Greenwood)

Disney Artist Hosts Scientific UFO Discussion

Decades of UFO literature mention the meeting Towers describes here, hosted by a famous Walt Disney artist and attended by intriguing names, not the least of whom was Disney's advanced science consultant Ward Kimball.  As controversy rages on regarding the Disney corporation's relationship with actual UFO filming long ago, we nevertheless have little doubt that this 1958 meeting was at least in part precipitated by the movie, "U.F.O." released just two years previously.  The other article here touches upon 1959, when an upcoming  meeting of the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America is announced -- an entity about as welcome as a skunk in a grocery store, as the next blog entry will demonstrate. (credit:  Barry Greenwood)

APRO and Dr. Carl Jung

Among these columns Towers mentions Dr. Carl Jung's interest in UFOs, revealing also that Jung is a member of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO).  Other topics written about involve pure aviation history of the era and are fun to read. (credit:  Barry Greenwood)

 

From the Moon to Hawaii

In this June, 1958 column, Towers quotes a retired Chrysler Corp. board chairman whose take on any yet-unaccomplished voyage to the moon isn't exactly enthusiastic. We wonder how his opinion may have changed just over a decade later, when the United States made the first manned lunar journey.  Also briefly mentioned is a lecture regarding UFO sightings over Hawaii.  (credit: Barry Greenwood)

                

Frank Edwards Visits Los Angeles

Among other stories in his newspaper column, Tom Towers notes the arrival of noted radio broadcaster and UFO writer Frank Edwards to L.A. in 1957.  This is almost overshadowed by the report of some kind of explosion in an airplane lavatory which apparently blew a man into the blue and to his death.  Also, even a year after the movie first appeared on theater screens it still makes tracks, and in this case Towers himself is acknowledged for his role as Al Chop as "U.F.O." briefly returns to his area. (credit: Barry Greenwood)

Chickcharnies and Flying Saucers

Tom Towers' aviation columns could be quite inclusive of subjects other than or borderline to aviation. (Please note that some scans partly repeat scan images shown just prior.)


credit: Barry Greenwood

 

                                                                                       

Tom Towers, Aviation Writer

Invincible UFO researcher Barry Greenwood continues to contribute a significant amount of historical information for this blog, and last week he provided a number of scans highlighting the aviation articles accomplished by "U.F.O." movie "star" Tom Towers.  During the 1950s Towers was aviation editor for the Los Angeles Examiner and, while he did occasionally touch upon the UFO subject, the bulk of his articles indeed focused upon then-current aviation news.  Over the next several blog entries we will put up scans of Towers' articles which mention, even in just a few lines, UFOs.  Keep in mind always that Tom Towers was not necessarily a hard-line "believer" in a phenomenon harboring extraterrestrial or unexplainable implications, but he always remained open-minded, the mark of a true journalist.

 

A Circuitous Route for the Movie's Music

You may recall a few years back when I posted an e-mail (reference via the search engine above) from recording artist and composer Andrew Gold, son of famed composer Ernest Gold.  I would not have posted the note, but for the unfortunate fact that Andrew died soon after corresponding with me, and it was historically relevant at that point to document his words.

I had found his e-mail address on his Web site, and thought it couldn't hurt to inquire as to the location of his late father's music for "U.F.O."  Andrew's incredibly kind response was more than forthcoming, for while he pretty much considered the music an "oldie" and seemingly not a piece particularly up front in his mind, he astounded me, a complete stranger, by promising he would send me the music if he found it!

Obviously, this never happened and the world grew sad the day Andrew Gold, popular composer/performer of such songs as "Thank You for Being a Friend" and "Lonely Boy" passed away.

A little time went by, when one day there appeared among my e-mails a note from Monstrous Movie Music about re-releasing the movie's music, perhaps a re-orchestration from the original score.  This was truly amazing news, because Ernest Gold's lively and emotional, yet sympathetic score conducted by Emil Newman provided pure magic to prop up a motion picture production which, I readily confess, sometimes thirsted for great music to accentuate slow and even tedious portions.

More time, years, slid by, but no project occurred, and finally it came to my attention that the original score was indeed missing, gone, apparently irretrievably.  To a long-time motion picture music fanatic such as myself, this was devastating news, and I even conjured in my head a scenario where a super-computer might rewrite Gold's score based upon a digital perusal of his previous work and style (Verdict:  Unlikely, and very expensive in any case to even attempt it).

Yet, there was a modicum of good news.  The original tapes containing Newman's music were apparently intact, even with some "raw track" selections on acetate, and the music recordings are or were in possession of at least one person, a music producer who actually included four pieces of the movie's music a few years ago in a CD entitled, The Ernest Gold Collection, Volume One (Dragon's Domain Records, DDR738).  David at Monstrous Movie Music does not know why the entire music soundtrack was not included among the many other Gold selections on the CD.

I attempted to get a response from a source at the CD distributor's location, but nobody responded and, as is the usual dilemma, a troublesome number of years have passed anyway.  If I learn more, I'll note it here.

(From the dark side: At least one pirate Internet site which will not be identified and whose location I have nevertheless forgotten posted two music selections from the movie.  I was surprised and had not searched out of curiosity until I knew about the CD's release.  I'm well aware how pirate sites grab new music and post it immediately, depriving artists of royalties, but the last things I would have expected to find would be selections from the now relatively obscure "U.F.O."  Then again, Ernest Gold's music was probably the draw because of his fame and reputation.)

In the meantime, the two visuals here impart a little more historical information about the music, including standard union payments and individual musicians involved when a definitive recording session finally took place in November, 1955. Chappell and Co. owned rights to the music for a time, as indicated in a list of the movie's music titles (we posted two pages of titles with further info a few years ago).


(My appreciation to David at Monstrous Movie Music for vital information regarding the music cannot be overestimated.)

When "Powers" Went Viral

Like many sources, when the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) prepared this information sheet regarding the movie, the actor's name was listed as Tom Powers instead of Towers.  Some confusion likely stemmed from the fact that, as we have mentioned on numerous occasions, there actually once was a Hollywood character actor of some repute named Tom Powers, who surely would have enjoyed these recurring episodes of misdirected publicity in 1956.

There's more to be said about the motion picture's music, coming up next time.

(Thanks to David and Monstrous Movie Music for this ASCAP document.)

The Mystery of the Missing

The premiere of "U.F.O." elicited a number of reactions, and if an "ornamental iron specialist" was encouraged to developed some instrument to aid in contacting "the visitors" -- ? -- because of the movie, who can fault him?

On the more serious side, however, again we find a newspaper article certifying that the producers placed "documents and official records" with the Title Insurance Company of Los Angeles.  I have never been able to determine what these items comprised, and even a letter to the Title Insurance Co. back in the 1970s only resulted in their response that they no longer had any of this material on file.

Yes, we can obviously assume that the producers eventually retrieved this material, but still have no record of the contents.  There may have been some gems there.

 

Cr:  Barry Greenwood

Himalayas on Permanent Hold

 

When producer Clarence Greene made a brief stop in Cincinnati in 1956, he apparently commented on some future plans which we were never to hear about again.  Writer/reviewer E. B. Radcliffe mentions yet another "investigation of the incredible" project by Greene, this time intended for the Himalayas.  If indeed profits from U.F.O. were expected to fund this venture, that idea was a non-starter as soon as Greene realized box office receipts were quite the disappointment financially.

Radcliffe's reference to the movie, The Well, an early drama involving race relations, reminds us that Greene originally wanted Tom Towers to play the lead as sheriff, but Towers' work obligations as an L.A. newspaper reporter caused him to decline the offer.  To confuse matters here, character actor Tom Powers is listed as appearing in The Well.



Cr:  Barry Greenwood

Examining the Script

Portrayed in the movie by actors, the real Albert Chop and his wife take a moment to check the script for "U.F.O." in this time-weathered photo from the Hollywood Citizen News of May 9, 1956. As we noted much earlier in this blog through a series of articles, the "final" script experienced a number of changes during production -- which I discovered when Tom Towers loaned me his copy, stored faithfully behind his sofa for years.

Cr: Barry Greenwood

From California to Hawaii

Though California seems to have set the record for mention of the movie among various news sources in 1956, which seems logical for the motion picture capital of the nation, newspaper articles steadily continued to pop up all over the planet.  A "local believer" in Hawaii, noted here in a letter to the editor, also had something to say.

(Cr: Barry Greenwood)