The CIA, the Movie Mogul, and 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

First contact: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Evidence mounts that iconic 1951 movie was CIA UFO acclimation project 

__________________________

 

• Darryl Zanuck – the movie mogul who oversaw the film’s production – was a CIA asset.

• Zanuck was considered a “friend” of the US government who could be “relied upon” to subtly “insert ideas” into his productions.

• Zanuck helped shape the script for The Day the Earth Stood Still and wanted audiences to “completely accept” that open ET contact could happen “in the not too distant future.”

 

Disney’s ‘1952’ now called ‘Tomorrowland’ and is not about aliens... or is it?

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

So, Brad Bird’s hotly-anticipated sci-fi project for Disney – tentatively titled 1952 – now has its official name: Tomorrowland.

Rumors have been swirling online for months that Bird’s film – which will star George Clooney – is to be a Close Encounters-style UFO epic. Bird himself has remained tight-lipped.

In October of last year, Vulture reported on the movie’s mysterious back-story, which goes like this:

last spring, Disney’s head of production, Sean Bailey, arranged for screenwriter Damon Lindelof (Cowboys and Aliens, Prometheus) to be given access to “one of the studio’s odder curiosities: a banker’s box of files and documents that had been left moldering in Walt Disney’s personal development lab, WED Enterprises, which later became the studio’s vaunted Imagineering department.”

According to Vulture’s “spies”, the box was originally labelled with the title of Disney’s 1965 comedy That Darn Cat!, which had been crossed out and in its place was written “1952.” Apparently, inside the box was a “collection of documents and primary source materials that, when looked at all together, indicated that someone had been working on a project (movie? Theme park ride?) about alien contact.”

The identity of this “someone” from Disney’s bygone era working on a project about alien contact was never specified, but I speculated that it might be Ward Kimball – who famously claimed to have worked on an aborted government-sponsored Disney UFO documentary that was supposed to have featured real UFO footage.

However, within hours of publishing his inside scoop on 1952, Vulture’s Claude Brodesser-Akner made a public apology, stating that he had “misunderstood” his source for his story and that Brad Bird’s movie “is not in fact about an alien encounter.”

Now, the movie’s screenwriter Damon Lindelof has chipped in with the following Tweet: “We won't tell you what it's about (yet), but we will tell you what it's NOT about. And that would be ALIENS.”

Teasing us even further, Brad Bird last week Tweeted a picture of the aforementioned “box of files and documents” which is serving as inspiration for this mysterious movie project...

 

This marks the beginning of what will surely be an elaborate marketing campaign for Tomorrowland, with the contents of the box clearly intended to spark further speculation about the film’s plot. So let the speculation continue...

Looking at the box, we are afforded a glimpse of a magazine cover – which is obviously an issue of Amazing Stories. To be precise, it’s the August 1928 issue, which famously laid the foundations for the adventures of Buck Rodgers in the story Armageddon 2419 A.D. However, the cover of the issue is not related to Buck Rodgers, but depicts a scene from the story The Skylark of Space, by E.E. Smith. You can read the full plot for The Skylark of Space here, but suffice to say it deals with the discovery and implications of free energy; interstellar travel; and, yes, aliens.

 

So, basically, what on Earth (or in space) Tomorrowlandis about is still anyone’s guess. Care to guess, anyone? Who are the men pictured with Walt Disney in those photographs? What’s in those dusty files? What’s in that brown sleeve? Is that a music record? Is there film in that Technicolor box? If so, what’s on it?? Damn you Brad Bird and Disney!

Tomorrowland is scheduled for release December 19, 2014.

Disclosure through Disney in 2013?

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Disney's aborted 1950s UFO acclimation movie headed for the big screen?

Earlier this year, Silver Screen Saucers asked: “Could it be that Disney is producing a dramatization of the flying saucer fever that swept America in 1952?” That question was prompted by the enigmatic title 1952 – a “top secret” Disney production quietly announced by the House of Mouse back in June of 2011. We were told that a script was being penned by Damon Lindelof (Prometheus, Cowboys and Aliens), and nothing more. We subsequently learned that Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles) had signed on to co-write and direct.

But yesterday (Oct. 17) saw some intriguing (and confusing) developments when Vulture reported the following:

• Despite its title, 1952 is largely set in the present day.

• Its plot will focus on aliens visiting Earth for the first time.

• The film will also reportedly follow a man in his late 40s through this alien ordeal.

• Lindelof and Bird are aiming to re-create the magic of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

 

1952 co-writer Damon Lindelof

 

Vulture also reported on the movie’s mysterious back-story, which goes like this: last spring, Disney’s head of production, Sean Bailey, arranged for screenwriter Lindelof to be given access to “one of the studio’s odder curiosities: a banker’s box of files and documents that had been left moldering in Walt Disney’s personal development lab, WED Enterprises, which later became the studio’s vaunted Imagineering department.”

According to Vulture’s “spies”, the box was originally labelled with the title of Disney’s 1965 comedy That Darn Cat!, which had been crossed out and in its place was written “1952.” Apparently, inside the box was a “collection of documents and primary source materials that, when looked at all together, indicated that someone had been working on a project (movie? Theme park ride?) about alien contact." 

The identity of this “someone” from Disney’s bygone era working on a project about alien contact has not been specified. As it turns out, though, we may already know... the name “Ward Kimball” springs to mind.

While at a MUFON symposium in 1979, Oscar-winning Disney animator and Imagineer Ward Kimball (the man behind Jiminy Cricket, The Mad Hatter and Pinocchio) claimed that the United States Air Force (USAF) had approached Walt Disney himself during the 1950s to request his cooperation on a documentary about UFOs that would help acclimate the American public to the reality of extraterrestrials. According to Kimball, in exchange for Disney’s cooperation, the USAF offered to furnish the production with genuine UFO footage. Kimball claimed that Disney accepted the deal and – ever faithful to Uncle Sam – began work immediately on the USAF project. It wasn’t long, however, before the USAF reneged on its offer of UFO footage. When Kimball challenged the USAF Colonel overseeing the project he was told that "there was indeed plenty of UFO footage, but that neither Kimball, nor anyone else was going to get access to it." The project was then abandoned and eventually forgotten by all but the few who had worked on it.

 

Walt Disney's most trusted animators - his "nine old men" - included Ward Kimball
(pictured far left, front).

 

So, could Disney’s mysterious 1952 be a 21 Century revival of its aborted 1950s UFO acclimation project? Based on the information thus far presented, there would certainly appear to be a connection... but hold on there, because here’s where it gets confusing...

Within hours of publishing his inside scoop on 1952, Vulture’s Claude Brodesser-Akner posted the following correction to his report: 

“Apparently I misunderstood my source for this story, who contacted me after it was posted to clarify that while it is true that 1952 is very much in the spirit of Close Encounters (and centers around a Roy Neary-like protagonist), it is not in fact about an alien encounter. My apologies for the erroneous plot description.”

Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) making first contact in
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

 

 

Hmmm. So when the unnamed source told Vulture: “It will be set largely in the present day and it is about aliens making contact here on Earth,” and that the aborted Disney project that inspired it was “about alien contact,” apparently this was just a miscommunication. And yet it is just like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Hmmm. Could it be that Vulture’s source (almost certainly an official viral ‘leaker’ for Disney) spilled one too many beans in his revelation of the movie’s alien aspect, has been reprimanded by the studio and has subsequently issued a rather implausible “correction”?

It’s hard to say for sure, but given the past UFO-themed credits of screenwriter Damon Lindelof, and in light of Disney’s longstanding fascination with the UFO enigma– not to mention the strong UFO-related connotations of the 1952title – my money is still firmly on this movie being about aliens.

In terms of the movie’s marketing, Vulture also reported the following: 

“The collaborators are planning an elaborate, very J.J. Abrams–like advanced marketing campaign that will start before filming even begins. The idea is to stage a treasure hunt for intrigued moviegoers that will gradually reveal clues about and build intrigue for the film right up until its release, and which may or may not be related to the contents of the box.”

Perhaps, then, the “box” is just a viral marketing device vaguely inspired by Kimball’s story? Or perhaps it is, as the source originally stated, a real box with real photos and documentation that have directly inspired a new and highly secretive Disney project? Perhaps the box is a remnant of the aborted Disney UFO documentary?

Indulging the latter assumption for a moment – that this new movie will feature real photos and/or footage of UFOs and perhaps even their occupants – what would be the point? If presented in a fictional context (as apparently it would be), said material would immediately be fictionalized by way of its presentation in a “science-fiction” movie. Also, in today’s world of photorealistic CGI and Performance Capture technologies, debates surrounding “real” and “faked” footage would be very difficult to resolve. We could be looking at genuine alien landing footage from any time during the modern UFO era and automatically assume it to be CGI. 

So again I’ll say, “hmmm.” Intriguing stuff, for sure, but until Disney hits us with more info on 1952, I’ll quit with the speculation. Watch this space...

 

1952 is scheduled for release in 2013.

Obama, Roswell, and 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Ask President Obama the quickest way to fictionalize a real event and he'll tell you: brush it gleefully with Hollywood dust.

Earlier this week, while in Maljamar, New Mexico, President Obama dropped the R-bomb on reporters in a cheap effort to elicit some laughs. It worked better than ever, because in his next breath he paraphrased the 1951 UFO movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which the enlightened alien, Klaatu, tells the people of Earth: “We have come to visit you in peace and with good will.”

The President then proceeded to... threaten to kill young children who ask him about Roswell??

You heard the man, "We're gonna keep our secrets here," whatever that means. Don't worry, Mr. President. Your comments may have turned a little sinister towards the end, but all the headlines will recall is your whimsical sci-fi movie soundbite... see!

Related:

Did President Obama Fumble the UFO Cover-up?

"Klaatu Barada Nikto" (Guest Blogger: Grant Cameron)

UFOs and Hollywood: Blurring the Line Between Fact and Fantasy

Guest blogger: Kenn Thomas

Earth Vs. Flying Saucers With Cloudbusters

By Kenn Thomas

Critics skeptical of the Roswell flying saucer crash story often claim that interest in the event dropped off immediately after its initial media flash in 1947, only to be revived in the 1980s by unreliable UFO researchers seeking to profiteer from a myth of their own making. I have often contradicted this assertion by pointing out that the scientist Wilhelm Reich paid a visit to Roswell in 1955 and made clear references to aliens in relation to the town in his final book, Contact With Space. It is an unusual book primarily documenting Reich and his assistants using beam cannons to clash with flying saucers--in real life, not on the silver screen.

Researchers have slowly been accumulating Roswell references in movies and other pop culture forms to support the idea that the incident had more of a cultural impact on pre-1980s pop culture than previously has been presupposed. The little Roswell grey aliens appear in a mid-1960s episode of the anime cartoon Prince Planet, for instance. Recently, a 1951 wristwatch ad from the Hamilton Corporation was discovered that referred to the weather balloon explanation for flying saucers, an explanation offered only for Roswell in 1947 until adopted by the Robertson UFO investigation panel of 1952. Another obvious example often escapes notice; however, that again ties the tale back to Wilhelm Reich. It involves the famous 1956 Ray Harryhausen movie Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers.

Roswell-like alien in Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers.

In that movie, aliens attack the earth in flying saucers and in a few instances the aliens hobble out onto the surface. The creatures look a bit like roll-on deodorant cans with stiff arms and legs. The costumes were used briefly in one other movie, 1961’s The Creation of Humanoids, most recently broadcast following an episode of cable TV’s The Walking Dead series. In Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers, the costumes’ rounded helmets with no features conceal the aliens’ real form until one is killed and his roll-cap removed. The alien looks like a Roswell grey.

Wilhelm Reich had Ruidoso, New Mexico as his destination in 1955 for an overnight stay on his way to Tuscon, Arizona. Passing through Roswell—and Stanton Friedman often makes the point at lectures that few just “pass through” Roswell’s out of the way location—Reich clearly was looking for signs of aliens. In Contact With Space, he writes: “Although it was very hot as we neared Roswell, New Mexico, no OR flow [OR was Reich’s abbreviation for orgone, or natural earth energy] was visible on the road, which should have been shimmering with ‘heatwaves’. Instead, DOR [Reich’s abbreviation for “deadly orgone radiation”, which he believed came from the exhaust of UFOs].”

Some of Reich's assistants, including his daughter, Eva, with a cloudbuster gun mounted on a truck, circa 1955.

Reich’s concern about the environmental impact of UFOs stemmed from experiences he had in his lab in Rangeley, Maine called Orgonon. In 1951 he first discovered the DOR business by putting a milligram of radium into one of his orgone boxes, an invention of his designed to harness the natural earth energy. It resulted in highly polluted air around the lab, causing fauna to wilt and animals to become ill. Strange red UFOs appeared in the sky over Rangeley. In response to all this, Reich came up with another invention, the “cloudbuster,” a cannon mounted on the back of a truck that concentrated and redirected orgone, which was aimed and fired at the UFOs, causing them to disappear. In the following years, he brought these devices with him to Tucson, Arizona, passing through Roswell, and did battle with UFOs there.

That happened in real life. It’s an obscure story to many now but apparently a paradigm for the major Hollywood science fiction of the time. Reich’s cloudbuster battles with UFOs are virtually reproduced in Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers. Instead of orgone, earth's scientists develop a sonar canon, but they are mounted onto trucks and directed at the space ships in the same way Reich did it. And the movie was released just shortly after the end of Reich’s desert UFO adventure, so it can’t be said that Reich took his ideas from a fanciful movie. In fact, it seems quite the reverse.

Scenes from Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers, including cloudbuster-like cannon (upper right).

The controversies about Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers in the UFO community relate to Donald Keyhoe's request that his name be removed from the credits following his discovery that it would be a “fictional” movie (see here for details). But was it fictional? The movie may have had little relation to Keyhoe’s book at the time, but did it have another uncredited real life analog?

Kenn Thomas’ essay, “Wilhelm Reich, Eisenhower and the Aliens” appears in Secret and Suppressed II: Banned Ideas and Hidden History into the 21st Century, Edited by Adam Parfrey and Kenn Thomas, available at feralhouse.com. Mr. Thomas’ current book, JFK & UFO, is also available from Feral House. Thomas’ web site is steamshovelpress.com.

'Invaders from Mars': UFO acclimation movie?

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers



Invaders from Mars: UFO acclimation effort?



In 1953, director William Cameron Menzies gave the world Invaders from Mars – a fascinating if typically clunky addition to what was then the burgeoning UFO subgenre. The movie did what it said on the tin: there were invaders, and they were from Mars, and – aside from the film’s none-too-subtle communist invasion allegory (then obligatory for movies of its ilk) – that was pretty much it. Yet Invaders from Mars bears closer scrutiny from a UFOlogical perspective, with one scene in particular screaming out for analysis. 

The scene in question sees the film’s hero – an implausibly square-jawed astronomer – declare the Martians’ arrival as no surprise. He explains that the government has been studying the saucers for a number of years and is well aware that they are extraterrestrial in origin.

In the fashion of a public service announcement, the astronomer goes on to describe various real-life cases catalogued by the Air Force’s “Project Saucer” (officially named Project Sign), including the UFO-related death of Captain Thomas Mantell in 1948 and the “Lubbock Lights” of 1951. The astronomer illustrates his eight-minute lecture with genuine news-clippings and UFO photographs: “Life can, and does, exist on other planets,” he intones, before displaying scale models of the multiple saucer types he says are known to exist by the Air Force.

This lengthy scene clearly was devoid of narrative function and it did not appear in the US theatrical cut of the film. That it was scripted and shot at all raises questions about the possibility of subversive government involvement in the filmmaking process – a notion that cannot easily be dismissed in light of the US government's documented historical efforts to manipulate the content of Hollywood's UFO movies. Such efforts typically were geared towards debunking the UFO phenomenon; in a few select cases, however, the objective apparently was to acclimate the public to the notion of UFO reality (with the Robert Emenegger case of the early 1970s standing as perhaps the best example of this approach).

Watch the Invaders from Mars scene (as well as the rest of the movie) and see if you're not intrigued...

NOTE: This article was originally posted on Silver Screen Saucers in March 2011.

Disney to produce secret sci-fi movie

By Robbie Graham

Frequent J.J. Abrams collaborator Damon Lindelof has just sold a "secret" sci-fi movie pitch to Disney. It's enigmatically titled: 1952. Beyond that, no details are forthcoming.

I'm gonna stick my neck out and bet that it's about aliens (perhaps relating in some way to the UFO fever that swept America in 1952). Hardly a risky bet, though, considering most of Hollywood's sci-fis right now are about aliens.

For further details, head on over to Empire.

Incidentally, the next issue of UFO Matrix magazine (due out late July) will feature an extensive new article, written by myself, entitled: UFOs and Disney: Behind the Magic Kingdom, which features exclusive revelations from the writer/director of Disney's much-debated 1995 Alien Encounters From New Tomorrowland documentary, plus a whole lot more information about the history of Disney and its ties to the government and military in the context of the UFO phenomenon.

I'll post more details about this article closer to the time of its publication next month.

Guest Blogger: Grant Cameron

Klaatu Barada Nikto

By Grant Cameron

Barack Obama recently returned from a trip to Poland where part of his job was as a salesman for the military-industrial-complex trying to sell the Poles on a new missile defense shield to protect the country from “rogue states,” such as Iran. To the logical and sane of the world, this “2011 model of Star Wars” proposed purchase by Poland makes no sense. Perhaps the Poles will help to lower the very high unemployment rate in the United States by buying the latest and greatest war weapon to match their status as the leading economy in the former eastern bloc.

Whatever the reason for the Polish government even considering the idea, those who may get these new high-tech research and development jobs in Poland and the United States will have the aliens to thank.

The original proposal for Star Wars (the defense shield, not the movie), which got its name from UFO advocate and space and missile consultant Carol Rosin, came on March 23, 1983, when President Ronald Reagan made a speech proposing a strategic defense whereby a state of the art missile shield could be created to block incoming nuclear ballistic missiles.

The shooting-down of incoming missiles had been visualized since the late 1950s but not much happened to develop it. Reagan was seriously pitched the idea in 1983 by Dr. Edward Teller, a scientist from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and – if the rumors are to be believed – a key mover and shaker in the cover-up of the extraterrestrial presence on earth. Teller announced the development of the X-ray laser to Reagan, thus proposing that a defensive shield against incoming missiles was feasible with a few billion a year in research funds.

The general opinion in the scientific and military world was that the concept was unrealistic, even unscientific. Reagan, however, bought into the idea and began to lobby for the funds to begin development. Billions of dollars began to flow into the idea, which never did achieve any concrete operational success.

More importantly, against the advice of advisors, Reagan promised to share the Star Wars technology with the Soviet Union. Reagan reasoned that in this way he and U.S.S.R. General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev could rid the world of nuclear weapons and live in peace forever.

Colin Powell, Reagan’s national security advisor, was firmly convinced that the offer made to Gorbachev had been inspired by concepts raised in one of Reagan’s favorite movies – the 1951 flying saucer movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Reagan knew movies. He acted in 54 films, and he had watched 377 movies while President. He loved movies and The Day the Earth Stood Still remained a favorite of his throughout his Presidency.

It was in that movie that the humanoid alien Klaatu warned: “I am leaving soon, and you will forgive me if I speak bluntly. The universe grows smaller every day, and the threat of aggression by any group, anywhere, can no longer be tolerated. There must be security for all, or no one is secure.”

It was this concept of aliens, and a Star Wars defense that could put an end to nuclear weapons, that Reagan proposed during a November 1985 Geneva Summit with Gorbachev. “At our meeting in Geneva,” recalled Gorbachev, “the U.S. President said that if the earth faced an invasion by extraterrestrials, the United States and the Soviet Union would join forces to repel such an invasion. I shall not dispute the hypothesis, though I think it's early yet to worry about such an intrusion...”

In reply to Reagan’s alien invasion scenario, Gorbachev had supplemented Reagan’s idea stating we should never forget the biblical passage “[God] hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” The two men became friends and agreed that the world needed a lasting peace.

World peace and aliens were never far from Reagan’s mind. He used to walk around the White House asking people if they had seen the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, and uttering the phrase “Klaatu barada nikto.” These were the words that Klaatu had given in the film to the character of Helen, the heroine in the movie. These words were to be uttered to the alien robot, Gort. If spoken, the words would stop Gort from destroying the world. In the movie, Helen had uttered the words and, in the nick of time, had saved the world. Reagan planned to do the same.

To the dismay of the White House Reagan then went public with his notion of world peace based on alien invasion. On five occasions he raised the alien invasion/united world concept: he did so with Russian leaders; at the United Nations; and even at schools such as Fallston High School in Harford County, Maryland. It was at the Fallston high school in May 1985 where Reagan described his “fantasy” (as he called it) even though it was not in the prepared speech:

"I couldn't help but - one point in our discussion with General Gorbachev - when you stop and think we are all God's children, wherever we may live in the world, I couldn't help but say to him, just think how easy his task and mine might be in these meetings that we held if suddenly there was a threat to this world from some other species, from another planet, outside in the universe. We'd forget all the little local differences that we have between our countries, and we would find out once and for all that we are really are all human beings here on this Earth together. Well, I don't suppose we can wait for some alien race to come down and threaten us, but I think that between us we can bring about that realization."

General Colin Powell, Reagan’s national security advisor, went on the record stating that it was part of his job to keep the alien remarks – especially the alien invasion remarks – out of Reagan’s speeches. He feared that people would actually get the idea that there was a real concern in the White House that there was going to be an alien invasion. Every time Reagan would bring up the aliens, Powell would role his eyes and tell his staff, “Here come the little green men again.” In the case of the Fallston speech there was little Powell could do if Reagan chose to ad lib.

Reagan’s decision to tell the students of the alien invasion was an example of why the White House staff chose to keep him from student events. It was hard to control him. Question and answer sessions were cancelled as he would be “too loose” and “speak too freely.” Judi Buckalew, a presidential aide, spoke of the fear of allowing students around the President. “The staff was always trying to keep him away from these high school groups that would come in to have their pictures taken,” she said, “because he would stand around and answer all their questions, saying all kinds of things. The staff would literally tug him away from these kids.”

It can even be surmised that the alien invasion notion that Reagan got from The Day the Earth Stood Still may actually have led to the end of the Cold War. In 1989, inspired by Klaatu’s words, “There must be security for all, or no one is secure,” Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall and asked his friend Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Gorbachev removed the wall which separated the two Germanys, and there has been peace between the West and the Eastern bloc countries ever since.

Reagan and Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit in Switzerland, 19 November, 1985.(1985-11-19)...

The idea of an alien invasion and world peace was an idea that went on to inspire others, most notably President Clinton and his wife Hillary. In 1996 Bill and Hillary screened Independence Day. The blockbuster movie was a movie depicts an alien invasion that destroys much of the United States, including the White House. In the end however, the President and the people come together to destroy the aliens.

Clinton spoke of the movie saying, in part, “I loved it… and I was glad we won.” He stated later that many in his administration came to actually believe that – as depicted in the movie – there really was a recovered flying saucer at Area 51, so he sent someone to the base to check it out.

Like Reagan before him, the movie inspired Clinton think of a united world. “The good thing about Independence Day is there’s an ultimate lesson for that – for the problems right here on Earth,” said Clinton. “We whipped that problem by working together with all these countries. And all of a sudden the differences we had with them seemed so small once we realized there were threats that went beyond our borders. And I wish that we could think about that when we deal with terrorism and when we deal with weapons proliferation – the difference between all these others problems. That's the lesson I wish people would take away from Independence Day.” In total, Bill Clinton would talk publicly about Independence Day on five occasions.

The Clintons, June, 1998.

Like Bill, Hillary also was inspired by the movie. She spoke about it during her campaign for President in December 2007.  It might have helped that Roland Emmerich, the director of Independence Day, had hosted a fundraiser for Hillary’s campaign at his home earlier in the year.

“Remember that movie Independence Day,” said Hillary, as she campaigned in Iowa, “where invaders were coming from outer space and the whole world was united against the invasion? Why can't we be united on behalf of our planet? And that's what I want to do.” Hillary would talk publicly about Independence Day and the concept of alien invasion on four occasions.

Klaatu would be pleased, no doubt, but would still see much room for improvement in our politicians. Klaatu, barada, nikto. Long live the dream of a united world, and long live alien invasion movies.

Copyright © 2011, Grant Cameron

Grant Cameron is the world’s leading researcher on the subject of UFOs and the Presidency. He has written extensively on this and related subjects including the Canadian government's early investigations into flying saucers; UFO disclosure politics; and the Rockefeller UFO Initiative. He has lectured widely in Canada and the United States and has been interviewed for numerous radio, TV news and documentary programs.

He has made 20+ trips to the National Archives and most of the various Presidential archives looking for presidential UFO material. One highlight of his presidential UFO research was the chance to question Vice-President Dick Cheney on his knowledge of the UFO subject. Another significant achievement was a FOIA to the White House Office of Science and Technology which yielded 1,000 pages of UFO documents from the Clinton Administration. Many of these findings – as well as the rest of Cameron’s research – can be accessed through The Presidents UFO Website, Barack Obama UFO, and Hillary Clinton UFO.

U.S. Air Force monitored 1956 UFO docudrama

In my co-authored article A History of Government Management of UFO Perceptions through Film and Television - which appears in the Spring 2011 issue of the peer-reviewed North American Studies journal 49th Parallel - I mention an intriguing case from the mid-1950s in which the U.S. Air Force (USAF) saw fit to closely monitor the production process and audience reception of a major UFO-themed docudrama entitled UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers (1956).

The USAF believed that the docudrama would stir up a “storm of public controversy” and had prepared a special case file that, if required, would  have served to debunk every last one of the real-life UFO sightings dramatised during the film's 90-minute running time. As it turned out, however, the USAF had little to worry about: upon its release, the film did not generate mass-saucer-hysteria, only respectable box-office returns. 

You can watch UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers, in full, right here:

For further information about UFO: The True Story of Flying Saucers, check out researcher Robert Barrow's excellent blog, which is solely dedicated to the film and features a huge amount fascinating historical material associated with its production and reception, including articles, original newspaper clippings, photographs, interviews and much more - essentially everything you could ever hope to know about the film.

UFO researchers and character assassination through Hollywood

In her recent guest article for Silver Screen Saucers, Linda Moulton Howe described how in 1980 a Hollywood producer had sought to use the title of her animal mutilation documentary – A Strange Harvest – for a big screen adaptation of her work and had even requested the right to lift from her documentary entire excerpts of real witness testimony.

Linda had serious reservations, however, and was concerned that the use of her factual but bizarre animal mutilation information in the context of a "Friday-night sci-fi flick" would not only damage her reputation as a serious journalist, but also the credibility of the mutilation phenomenon itself.

Linda ultimately denied the producer her requests. It was a wise decision, as the resultant movie – Endangered Species (1982) – distorted the facts as documented in A Strange Harvest out of all recognition and effectively pushed the idea of animal mutilations further into the realm of cinematic fantasy. And perhaps that was the point: take a serious and controversial idea, then rubbish it in the public mind through the process of ‘Hollywoodisation.’

Linda’s ‘near-miss’ with Hollywood has clear echoes of a case from the mid-1950s involving Donald Keyhoe – then a jagged thorn in the side of the US government’s UFO secret-keepers. A group of Hollywood producers had approached Keyhoe seeking to buy the rights to his non-fiction book, Flying Saucers from Outer Space (1953), telling him their film was to be a serious documentary about UFOs. Although initially suspicious, Keyhoe eventually went along with the deal. Big mistake. Upon its completion in 1956, the "documentary" turned out to be the schlock sci-fi B-movie Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers. Keyhoe was outraged and demanded that his name be removed from the film's credits, but to no avail.

As suspicious as all of this may sound, it should be noted that - as far as I can tell - there are no clear links to the US government from the producers of either Endangered Species or Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers. The same can be said for the writers and directors of these two movies. It could be argued, however, that if any such links were plain to see, then the government's propagandists would be undeserving of their paychecks. In short, more research is required into not only the backgrounds and professional associations of the key individuals involved in these movies, but also the precise structure and financing of the production companies and studios that backed them. Although I myself am currently engaged in such research, finding satisfactory answers is a laborious process - all the more so considering most of the individuals involved in these movies are either retired or dead, and that their production companies no longer exist. Still, if and when I find anything of note, I'll report it here at Silver Screen Saucers.

Hollywood and the Discourse on Disclosure

Does Hollywood really drive UFOlogy, as many sceptics suggest? What are the arguments for and against the idea that big screen entertainment fuels the UFO mythos? How has the Disclosure movement of the 21st Century influenced Hollywood's millennial UFO movies? 

Over at Bryce Zabel and Richard Dolan's A.D. After Disclosure site, I have a new article addressing these and related questions.