UFO sightings: What in the world or out of the world is going on?

In a summary of Project Blue Book titled, “The Condon Report: Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects,” the Air Force concluded that (1) UFOs gave no indication of being a threat to our national security; (2) none of the 12,618 reports they collected showed “technological developments or principles beyond the range of modern scientific knowledge;” and that there was no evidence that the objects “were extraterrestrial vehicles.”

Pop culture material

However, the idea that the UFOS were extraterrestrial and were manned by aliens led to the introduction, in the 1950s, of flying disks into popular culture.

This was particularly true in motion pictures. The “visitors” came as either enemies or as friends, with “enemies” predominating. One film I particularly liked was “Earth vs the Flying Saucers” (1956), starring Hugh Marlowe and Joan Taylor. H.G. Wells’ 1898 book, “War of the Worlds,” has been the basis of several motion pictures. My favorite is the 1953 version, starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson, with special effects by the great George Pal. Pal’s special effects won an Oscar for the film in 1954.

Another fine saucer movie is 1951’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” with Michael Rennie as “Klaatu” the alien, Patricia Neal and the 7-foot, 7-inch actor, “Lock” Martin, who played the robot, “Gort.” 1956’s “Forbidden Planet,” starring Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielsen, Anne Francis and “Robbie the Robot” had a crew of Earthlings manning a flying saucer.

Perhaps the greatest and best film of this genre was Steven Spielberg’s 1977 award-winning “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” starring Richard Dreyfuss and Melinda Dillon. Produced at a cost of under $20 million, the film grossed more than $300 million worldwide and won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Sound Effects Editing. In addition, it was nominated for seven other Oscars.

Singer and cowboy actor Sheb Wooley (1921-2003) got a hit record out of the flying saucer craze with his novelty song, “Purple People Eater,” in 1958.

A more lasting addition to American culture may be the iconic “Frisbee” flying disc, many of which were made by the Wham-O Toy Co., patented in 1958. The flying toy disc had a complicated history, but was originally derived from a Frisbie Pie Company pie pan.

Further cementing the toy into popular culture is the invention of “Frisbee golf” and throwing the discs for distance and training dogs to catch the toys in flight. The current distance record is a throw of 1,109 feet, set in 2016.

The friendly comedic alien has also made it to the small screen with popular situation comedies such as “My Favorite Martian,” with Ray Walston and Bill Bixby (1963-1966), and “Mork and Mindy” with Robin Williams and Pam Dawber, which debuted in 1978 and ran for four seasons.

Little town of Roswell

During our extended tour of America west of the Mississippi in 2010, Judy, Molly the Scotty dog and I visited the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico. It was near Roswell, you may recall, that a flying saucer supposedly crashed in the desert on July 2, 1947. Several books have been devoted to inconsistencies in newspaper and government reports of this incident, and I’m sure more books are on the way.

While in Roswell, Judy and I purchased several T-shirts and a small “alien head” to hang from Judy’s car’s rearview mirror. You should visit the museum if you are in the area.

The town has taken its notoriety in flying saucer lore seriously, and you would, too, if you had a business there. The museum has thousands of visitors every year. Even the U.S. Mail collection boxes in Roswell look like R2D2 from the “Star Wars” movies.

Some local sightings

While I have never seen a UFO, other Iredell folks apparently have. The earliest “sighting” in Iredell that I can find took place in June of 1892, with reports of “a red ball… [that] passed slowly from the southwest to the northeast and disappeared from view.”

More “strange lights” were seen around Stony Point in October of 1918, just before the First World War Armistice.

In August of 1952 several Iredell residents saw unfamiliar objects in the sky over Iredell County. Two folks who lived near Lookout Dam saw objects come in from the east and travel northward, leaving an “orange streamer” behind them. On the same night, on Caldwell Street in Statesville, a group of young people were having a wiener roast. Three of the boy attendees swore they saw UFOs at 8:05, 9:05 and again at 9:23 PM.

The Landmark, not yet merged with The Daily Record, reported that the boys said the objects were “bigger than a softball, very bright, the first two looking flat in the sky….”

That very same evening, two ladies on Cascade Street in Mooresville were standing on a front porch, “When whoosh — a light lit up the northern sky.” The light grew quickly into a “pinkish-purplish ball of fire” and then disappeared toward the south. The ladies, of course, contacted the Mooresville town manager, Mr. Robert Peck. What, if anything, Mr. Peck did after being told of the objects over town, was not reported in the Mooresville Tribune.

“According to Stacker.com, North Carolina ranks No. 10 among all the states in number of UFOs reported. North Dakota is No. 50 and Washington state is No. 1 in sightings reported.”

What in the world [or out of the world] is going on?