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Chapter Five: 1950s American Pop Culture and UFOs
Researching the 1950s era was probably the most enjoyable part of researching historical UFOs. The ambience of the Hollywood silver screen, Elvis and the birth of Rock and Roll, the motels and ‘Diner’ culture, the technological boom following the Second World War, the communication leaps with the first home televisions, the beginnings of the Cold War and the birth of the atomic age. It was all there in that decade, and underneath it all was the renewed possibilities of a world desperately trying to rebuild itself following a deadly war which simply couldn’t happen again. Ever. The American government knew that the next war would be a thermonuclear war as Russian scientists made their own breakthroughs in atomic energy and weaponry, something that the Americans knew would happen eventually despite the highly compartmentalised stockpiling of classified information within the Manhattan project. Consequently, the threat of world annihilation loomed heavily over their heads, and it seemed understandable why there was little room for anything else in those years. You might argue the UAP were an external manifestation/representation of the inner turmoil suffered subconsciously by society, that ‘interplanetary spacemen’ might also pose a real threat of annihilation. After all, the intentions of these advanced vehicles and their perceived occupants wasn’t known, and this was a big problem. We can understand the extreme decisions that were taken by a new generation, culture and society that was rebuilding itself. It really was a fascinating decade.
1950s Pop Culture
The rich history of how the proud United States government engaged the phenomena in those early years is important to understand. Although the question of how the government engaged the topic isn’t directly relevant to UAP origin, it still gives us an idea of the cultural background within a developing era striving to find its new identity. UFOs in the 1950s America were openly discussed, much more than any other period in the phenomena’s history – at least until present day that is. We can consider that the introduction and popularisation of the cinema, television, wireless radio, news media, telegrams and interlinked communities – thanks to improved motorway services, automobiles, and civilian aeroplanes, meant that people were traveling, and communicating faster, further and longer than ever before.
Consequently, the world suddenly became consciously aware of the anomalous phenomena more clearly in that era. An idea we can refer to as ‘Anomalous Conscious Society’ (ACS) was developing more profoundly than at any point in history. ACS, as a theory, might propose that the attitudes, thoughts and localised cultures of thousands of people within a country, separated by thousands of miles, were suddenly becoming more linked and aligned quicker thanks to dramatically improving technology. For example, the military upgrades from the Second World War had filtered down its technology into the civilian world, allowing for much improved communication. Even the first internet was developed as a consequence of war prior to becoming a civilian necessity. While UAP might have always been present and persisted to engage beyond the ‘Foo-Fighters’ of World War Two, arguably ACS was the process that allowed us to become aware of their presence. A decade that formed the secrecy The fifties are an interesting one at best, a convoluted one at worst, but certainly not without its strange occurrences. The historical conclusion of many established UAP researcher, is that the phenomena’s reality (whatever the origin) had been kept secret by various bureaucrats and defense contractors for some time and buried away like some dirty unwanted truth that is difficult to process.
The entire issue was a repugnant family secret that is not talked about or even acknowledged. From 1969 until 2017, historical UFOs were toxic to one’s professional career. The world turned its back on the biggest revelation ever in history. They did so for almost fifty years (1969-2017) thanks, in some part, to the United states AirForce (USAF). As an open policy, they stigmatised, dismissed and neglected the topic. They took the debunker’s position at every opportunity thanks to the covering conclusions of the Condon Report (see next chapter). Arguably, the denial of an anomalous intelligence is an extended form of ‘heliocentric’ dogma that predates back to Galileo’s telescope. The same fallacy in human logic. The same desire to not ‘believe’, to refuse the due process of investigating UAP case reports holistically, to refuse to look through the telescope because one already knows what it will confirm, what it will mean. The very heart of the historical UFO phenomenon was always case reports. It’s what the USAF’s Project Bluebook, Sign and Grudge were built upon, it’s what AATIP was built upon (military cases), and it’s what makes the phenomena so apparent to us. Within pop culture, UFOs were strongly associated with 1950’s America, as that’s when the issue really sunk into our collective subconscious through processes such as ASC. Films, TV-shows, books and magazines had an influence on science fiction that mirrored the 20th Century Space-Race. This was a time in which the phenomenon was showing itself, or we were widely perceiving it for the first real time in that form. Whatever was happening, our human interaction with it had drastically increased. That era was significant.
The famous McMinnville UFO case
The McMinnville UFO case occurred 11th of May, 1950, complete with testimony and photos, appeared on the 26th of June, 1950 – LIFE magazine edition. The McMinnville incident, which occurred over a farm in Oregon, involved an alleged metallic grey ‘Flying Saucer’ that reportedly performed instant acceleration (one of the AATIP five observables). Evelyn Trent and her husband Paul Trent were witness to the saucer shaped object as it hovered slowly over their farmland before speeding quickly away. They both maintained their claims to the day they died. Debunkers, such as Philip Klass, tried to dismiss the incident as a hoax. However, his claims were limited to conjecture and speculation rather than hard evidence or verified science. To this day the event is regarded as unidentified by most researchers, with Evelyn Trent maintaining into her old age that the object moved incredibly fast. Sceptically, we can’t argue ‘hysteria’ or ‘hallucinations’ due to multiple witnesses. We can rule out misidentified terrestrial objects such as birds and balloons – as these do not match the testimony given. The only valid debunking position to take, is to claim it was a hoax. However, having looked closely at the claims of debunkers such as Klass et al, their claims do not hold up. Psychologically, people do not maintain a potential lie like this one into their old age without significant prior mental health issues, by which, no evidence can be found to validate such theories. The Trent McMinnville case sparked credibility for UFOs and engaged the public imagination. People in that decade believed that honest, hardworking farmers who made no money from their experience were honest in their reporting.
An era of black and white photos
The Trent McMinnville case was one of hundreds of black and white UFO photos taken in the 1950s. Many credible witnesses accompanied the black and white photos. For example, Guy B. Marquand, Jr., was with two friends when he snapped a famous 1951 ‘Flying Saucer’ picture in Riverside, California (3). Marquand stated he caught the object on camera after it had returned, after making rapid acceleration away from him. Another famous picture was taken of four lights captured through the window of a laboratory in 1952, Salem, Massachusetts. During that era, Marilyn Monroe appeared on the 07th of April, 1952, front page issue of ‘LIFE’ magazine with the sub-title, ‘There is a case for interplanetary saucers.’ (1). The in-depth discussion of the ‘Flying Saucer’ phenomenon is evident within a written report, published by the magazine. The topic was taken seriously, not only by the mainstream media, but the USAF in 1952 – an important year for the issue. LIFE magazine reported that they received a response form the USAF and proceeded to publish their statements:
1). ‘Flying Discs’, ‘Cylinders’, and ‘Objects of geometric form and luminous quality,’ may be now operating in Earth’s atmosphere.
2). Bright green fiery ‘Globes’ fly within the skies.
3). The objects cannot be adequately explained as ‘natural phenomena’ by modern science, and are some type of artificial devices, operated by an intelligence.
Science fiction films involving UFOs and ‘space aliens’ invaded Hollywood within 1950s America. Most notably included the 1951 film, ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still,’ and the 1953 film ‘War of the Worlds’ which was based on the 1898 H.G. Wells novel by the same name. One of my favourite films of that genre was ‘Earth vs. the flying saucers,’ (1956) which was based on a bestselling non-fiction book by Major Donald Keyhoe entitled ‘Flying Saucers from Outer Space.’ (1953) (3). This was a different era, a different culture with a different perspective. The stigma of ‘UFOs’ wasn’t established in those years and the topic was openly discussed as a genuine scientific endeavour whilst being a big topic in entertainment. And all the while, UFOs were a real phenomenon.
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Conclusions
The 1950s really was the ‘Flying Saucer’ era, a decade in which the industrial military complex intertwined with deep national security concerns. From the nuclear threat to the space race, the public’s conscious awareness was drawn to new and exhilarating rocket technology that brought with it the great promise of celestial discovery and also the great horror of possible annihilation. And sandwiched in-between was the extra-terrestrials flying around in their spacecraft – or at least that was the public perception for UFOs at the time. This timeframe is an important snapshot from history, a time in which the foundations of the secrecy were nourished with well meaning concerns. More importantly, this was a decade in which America’s conscious focus and awareness was openly placed on the phenomena for the very first time. People believed. And consequently, the anomalous existed.
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References
(1). Darrach, H.B., and Ginna, R. (1952). There is a case for Interplanetary Saucers. | LIFE magazine. Available at: http://www.project1947.com/shg/articles/lifemag52.html [Accessed 26 Oct. 2022].
(2). Rothman, L., and Ronk, L. (2016). ‘See 10 Mysterious UFO Photos from History.’ | Time Magazine. Available at: https://time.com/4232540/history-ufo-sightings/ [Accessed 26 Oct. 2022].
(3). Keyhoe, D. (1953). Flying Saucers from Outer Space. | Henry Holt and Co.
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