Could
today's widespread belief that flying saucers are extraterrestrial spaceships
be the result of an unintentional, civilian conspiracy? One that created
real flying saucers in order to achieve its end?
Now,
historian Jack Hagerty and I may have uncovered just that in our latest book, "The
Saucer Fleet" (Apogee Books, 2008). What we discovered was that the desire to
make money from a current news event led several major entertainment
corporations, perhaps the entire industry, into individually promoting the same
sensational, but unproven theory with all their persuasive power. Thus they
effectively became co-conspirators in the greatest
public deception of the 20th century! It is a phenomenon that today, having
existed for so long, is taken as indisputable fact.
How did it
happen? To begin with, we analyze the social environment that created the
original "flying saucer scare" that occurred just after World War 2.
Then we show how people in the entertainment industry grabbed at that event,
quickly producing books, articles, art, movies and TV shows all promoting
the same idea, the idea that the lights people had seen in the sky were spaceships
from another planet.
We point
out that "Thus, because
of a politically charged environment, the Saucer Fleet had changed the world.
And the major movie [studios] had finally stepped in to carry their image - and
their message - to people everywhere."
Central to
the book, we thoroughly examine the resultant popular films, like "The THING,"
"The
Day the Earth Stood Still," "War of the Worlds", "This Island
Earth," "Forbidden Planet," "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers,"
TV shows like "Lost in Space," "The INVADERS," advertising
campaigns and Newspaper Adventure strips - all containing real flying saucers
that were created to convince people of a controversial idea. In the book, we
explain, "Our main mission here is to [uncover] some new facts about real
flying saucers...."
And we do. Along
the way we also uncover some other very interesting items, such as:
Originally ...flying saucers were invented, developed, and
flown by humans. Ironically, they had their name stolen by the very thing they
would have become...in time.
Hagerty
reveals the hidden story of Christ being crucified in "The Day the Earth
Stood Still," and observes that "War of the Worlds" is "so deeply
entrenched in our culture that there will probably be versions
of it being made for the next 100 years." These discoveries reveal messages
that are hidden in our culture today.
In this
way, "The Saucer Fleet" contains many fascinating facts that reveal a
different explanation of where flying saucers came from and why they are here.
As we state early in the book, "We want to give you a new appreciation for the
tremendous human effort that went into creating these popular media
events [real flying saucers]."
Jon
Rogers is an author/illustrator living in Bow, Wa., and
co-writer of "The Saucer Fleet" and "The Spaceship Handbook" with Jack Haggerty. This account of "The Saucer Fleet," available here,
was written for SPACE.com.
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