X-minus One: "The Vital Factor"

"The Vital Factor"
Originally broadcast: November 30 1955

	X Minus One - 55-11-30 X Minus One 027 The Vital Factor .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

The Flying Saucer Phenomenon

It all began on June 24, 1947 when pilot Kenneth Arnold spotted some mysterious crescent-shaped lights skipping like saucers in the sky while he flew his small airplane. He reported seeing nine of the objects flying in a "V" formation over Mount Rainier, Washington (There was also a little known report in 1947 near a little town in New Mexico called Roswell). In the war years there were reports of "ghost rockets" and "foo fighters," but the tales never really caught public attention. This story however changed all that. The terms "flying saucer"and "flying disc" were adopted.

After reports of the Arnold sighting hit the media, other cases began to be reported in increasing numbers. By early July there was a sudden surge in sightings. Most American newspapers were filled with front-page stories of the new "flying saucers" or "flying discs" phenomenon.

In 1948 and 1949, strange green fireballs were seen exploding over the skies of New Mexico. Many feared they were guided missiles sent by the Soviet Union. The Air Force concluded that they were merely meteors.


1950 introduces the first flying saucer on celluloid, with the movie The Flying Saucer.

The Day the Earth Stood Still directed by Robert Wise, was released in 1951.

News stories and magazine articles pop up with topics such as "Some Saucers Still A Mystery," "Little Men Dressed In Blue," "Saucers And Mass Hysteria," and "Visitors From Outer Space?"

The United States Air Force, which coined the new term in 1952, initially defined UFOs as those objects that remain unidentified after scrutiny by expert investigators.

During the summer of 1952 Unidentified Flying Objects were seen roaming the skies over Washington D.C. and the White House.

George Adamski allegedly met an alien called Orthon in the California desert November 20, 1952. These friendly visitors warned of the dangers of scientific progress and gave a message for humanity.

In 1955 Fred Morrison sold his flying disc invention to WHAMO, which originally introduced it in 1957 as the "Pluto Platter". Three years later WHAMO rebranded the "Pluto Platter" as the "Frisbee."


In 1957 Brazil, farmer Antonio Villas Boas claimed a space woman captured and "had her way" with him.

Also in 1957 the Canadian aircraft builder AVRO (with considerable funding by the United States Air Force) rolls out its wingless saucer-shaped Y-2 Project, re-named the Avrocar.

In 1961, Betty and Barney Hill reported seeing a UFO following their car the night of September 19. Later, under hypnosis there was revealed a strange story of abduction.

By the end of the decade the saucer craze became an inseperable part of life in the Atomic Era America, and the rest of the globe for that matter: we ate flying saucer wafer candy, we lit our homes with flying saucer lighting, we watched them fly across the movie screen, we read the novelized stories in books, and we could play with an endless array of imaginative space toys. Disney turned them into amusement rides. Song writers composed about them. Architects even designed buildings to emulate them.


Was it all nothing more than swamp gas?

Or a misidentification of the planet Venus?

Does it really matter?

space monsters, originally uploaded by hastingsgraham.

Watch the skies. Always keep watching.

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Resources:

• Wikipedia
• Out of this World History
• Man-Made Flying Saucers
• Flying Saucer Candy

This Flying Saucer featurette is also published on the blog Atomic Living

The Day Hollywood Stood Still

Baseball, Apple Pie, originally uploaded by Kiel Bryant.

Who couldn't delve into the subject of the Flying Saucer phenomenon in the Atomic Age without referring to the iconic contributions made by Hollywood? And so, here it is . . .


The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
My all, all-time fave. I can still remember being huddling in front of our tiny black and white set as a wee youngster, staring wide eyed as Gort makes his appearance down the ramp. Brimming over with one memorable scene after the other.

Stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Billy Gray and Lock Martin as Gort.

	Day The Earth Stood Still-Bernard Herrmann - Gort - The Visor - The Telescope .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Also see:

• Gort! - Be a Friend of Gort
• hulu.com/the-day-the-earth-stood-still - Movie clips
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 film) @ Internet Movie Database
  
• Site Guide - The Day the Earth Stood Still
  
• The Day the Earth Stood Still - Radio Broadcast
• TCM - The Day the Earth Stood Still
  
• Harry Bates-Farewell-to-the-Master - The original story that inspired the movie
• Fred Barton Productions, Inc. - Own your own Gort

War of the Worlds (1953) - Most memorable moment is Anne's encounter, with the creature's hand on her shoulder. Also quite arguably the best saucer design ever seen on celluloid.
War of the Worlds (1953) Trailer


Invasion of the Saucer-Men (1957)
Humorously played with a short appearance by Frank Gorshin. And who can resist the iconic bug-eyed men in this one.
Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) movie trailer


Earth vs the Flying Saucers (1956)
Hugh Marlowe as a hero scientist. But this movie is flooded with saucer imagery. Most memorable scene(s) is the saucer crashing into the Washington D.C. memorial of your choice.
Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956) Trailer


Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1957)
Pods from space take over an unsuspecting town's populace. Not a saucer movie, but definitely an otherworldly invasion flick.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1957) Trailer


It Came From Outer Space (1953)
Another hero scientist to the rescue tries to make peace with a stranded menace from outer space. I like the ending when one of the bug-eyed creatures disguised as the lead love interest shoots deadly sparks from her wand.
It Came From Outer Space


Invaders From Mars (1953)
I don't know... it seems like the movie runs on about 30 minutes longer than it really needs to be, but it's considered a classic, plus an original storyline told from a child's perspective.


The Blob (1958)
Steve McQueen, an infectious title tune, and a big gob of man-eating space goo.
The Blob (1958) - Theatrical Trailer


This Island Earth (1955)
Not exactly an invasion storyline, but it does go in to quite a bit of detail into the sad story of Exeter and his dying other-worldly race. And there's saucers, the "interocitor", the "mu-tants" and a hero scientist.
This Island Earth (1955) - Theatrical Trailer

The THING (from Another World) (1951)
A giant carrot-man (played by James Arness) from space terrorizes a polar research outpost. My favorite scene is the beginning when the search-party forms a wide circle around an object they find under the ice, then realize they've found a crashed saucer.
The Thing (1951) movie clip

- - -

This Flying Saucer featurette is also published on the blog Atomic Living

Flight to the Moon, Disneyland

1955 Flight to the Moon Attraction, Disneyland, originally uploaded by Miehana.

The TWA Moonliner is undoubtedly the most imposing sight at the Flight to the Moon Exhibit at Tomorrowland, Disneyland, in thos photo dated for 1955.

Launch the story of the TWA Moonliner at Wikipedia, and Rocket to the Moon at Yesterland.

Man in Space - The Ferry Rocket

Man in Space is an episode of Disneyland which originally aired on March 9, 1955 and later, was edited into a featurette to play in theaters.

The episode was converted into a 32 page comic book ("Dell Comics" (#716)) in 1956. Under the title Walt Disney's Man in Space: A Science Feature from Tomorrowland.

It was also made into a "Tomorrowland adventure" book for classroom use in 1959 as Man in Space: A Tomorrowland Adventure.

Conquest of Space - 1955

See How it will Happen in Your Lifetime! the bold teaser states . . . Conquest of Space, the 1955 movie produced by George Pal. The plot depicts a voyage to Mars, pulling from all science and technology of the day to be as realistic as possible.

As stated on Wikipedia, "Conquest of Space was based on The Conquest of Space, a non-fiction 1949 book illustrated by Chesley Bonestell and written by Willy Ley. Bonestell is noted for his photorealistic paintings of views from outer space, and worked on the space background art for the movie. The film also incorporated material from Wernher von Braun's 1952 book The Mars Project. The two books are straight popular science, with no story line.

The entire movie revolves around the struggle to endure the long trip, and the struggle to survive on Mars until a return to Earth was possible, with the underlying theme questioning whether mankind has the right to explore the heavens, or is he setting out as an invader to worlds not his own.





Directed by: Byron Haskin
Produced by: George Pal
Starring: Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, Mickey Shaughnessy
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release date: April 20, 1955 (U.S. release)

Of All Possible Worlds

Of All Possible Worlds
by William Tenn
1955

Contains the following Tenn classics:

• Introduction: On the Fiction in Science Fiction
  
• Down Among the Dead Men (Galaxy 1954)
  
• Me, Myself and I (Planet, Winter 1947)
  
• The Liberation of Earth (Future, May 1953)
  
• Everybody Loves Irving Bommer (Fantastic Adventures, Aug 1951)
  
• Flirgleflip (Fantastic Adventures, May 1950)
  
• The Tenants (F&SF, 1954)
  
• The Custodian (IF, Nov 1953)

William Tenn is the pseudonym for the science fiction work of Philip Klass. Born May 9, 1920, in London, England, he moved to New York where he grew up in Brooklyn. Since 1945, he has written academic articles, essays, two novels and more than 60 short stories.

The Science Fiction Encyclopedia ranked Tenn as "one of the genre's very few genuinely comic, genuinely incisive writers of short fiction."

Bibliography

• Children of Wonder (1953)
• Of All Possible Worlds (1955)
• The Human Angle (1956)
• Time in Advance (1958)
• A Lamp for Medusa (novella published as a double with The Players of Hell by Dave Van Arnam) (1968)
• Of Men and Monsters (1968) (novel)
• Once Against the Law (1968) (anthology of crime fiction edited by Tenn and Donald E. Westlake)
• The Seven Sexes (1968)
• The Square Root of Man (1968)
• The Wooden Star (1968)
• Immodest Proposals: The Complete Science Fiction of William Tenn, Volume I (omnibus) (2000)
• Here Comes Civilization: The Complete Science Fiction of William Tenn, Volume II (ominbus) (2001)
• Dancing Naked, the Unexpurgated William Tenn (nonfiction omnibus) (2004) [Hugo Nominee, Best Related Book, 2005]

External Links:

• William Tenn official site

Disney's Man In Space

Disney's Man in Space - Conquest of Space - Launch! Von Braun's vision comes alive in 1955 with a little help from the Disney animators. This clip features a retriever rocket and a wheel-type space station.

Launch eight segments of this historic film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75vX6O8paGo