ARMSTRONG CffiCLE THEATER USAF Historical Archives ASI(ASHAF-A) Maxwell AFB, Ala 3611 2 DISSOLVE TO: ARTC ARD Jt( (OF HEAVENS SHOvliNG VARIOUS NEBULAE) EDV.T:.qns: (cont'd) ... and we know that there are so.ne 2 , 000 million galaxies such U8 ottrc G~llrlln~ throu~h O!>ace. ( DISSOTNE TO: ED\JArtDS) VIe l<now this much about the uni- verse ... and we know little else .. for sure .. Is there life on other plar1ets? Intelligent life . substantially lik~ our ovm? Scientists tell t.s thd t to be- lieve our earth alone can sustain life is an ...... bsul' d cone lt sJ.on. Among the billions of planets in the millions of Galaxies, there must be many that sustain so. 1e type Of livi ng Cleatvres , Harlow .S.tapley former dir- ector of the Har\ard Cbservatory, tells us that tnere must be 100 mill1on planets in tl1e universe where ~ntelligent beings . . r1ot necessarily like our earthly brand ... 11 ve and mult;ipl y and And some authorit1es have cla~med actual evidence that this type of life does exist on other plan~ts. s an e;.am Jle of the e v1dence t 11e y 0 f fer . DISS')LV:!: TO: ARTCARD -// J (OF f4ARS SHO\IING CANALI) This is Mars. TelescopeG reveal strange geome-cr1c l.111es criss- crosGi.lg i tu surface. 4J .> r->ar s a&o J Perciva l Lowell) a jlatin ished American astronomer statr->d that these l1nes ... the ca11al1 . are true ev1dence of irltelligent l~fe {CUT BACK TO ED\1/ARDS) EDltlAHDS: He said Mars was a dying plcnet .. dying from lJck of wat0r . and the li~es were irrigatiorl canals the Marti~ns had dug to brina Wdte~ from the melting polar ice-caps into their parched planet. Tile moon is our llearest nei0hbor ln spd "e . CUT TO: ARTCARD 1~ 9 {OF r.lOOif) and the only one ou1 pow~rful telescopes can c~l'efttlly sttrvey. DISSOlVE TO: ARTCARD . 10 ( OF l\IOON DETAIL) For yell'S, uStronome:cs huve been muprinc its surface. Sorr.e ha ve see n strange thinGS indeed. CUT TO: ARTCARD r;'ll ( OF GEOI1ETRIC PATTERNS JESSUP, Pg. 172) ON rllOON - Here, for example, is a rough sketch tha t was supposed to show streets and a ve nne s in a region of the moon known a s Schroeter DISSOLVE TO: ARTC ARD :/tl2 (OF ~!OON S':REETS -JESSUP 194) Another rough ske tch of wll3t wa s claimed t o be h.Lehways or aque- ducts, near the region l<noltm as Gasscn~i's crater. (CUT BACK TO ED\'1 ARDS ) And just recently a report was made .. and confirwed .. thdt a ED\tJi\RDS: gigantJ c 'uridGe now stretches across a reGion of the n1oon known the Mare Crisium. Scientists charted this re~ion many years ~go .. a nd r1o such brid~e vJa s in evidence then. But reliable expertn claim it is there now . and that it avr;eared literally J.lmost o vernight. If lt is a natural brid~e . created by natural forces of erosion a s VJe know thLTYl on earth ... it v1ould t ake millions of ye en s to for111. And its pr~scncd v1ould have been noted lonJ before 1953. If it is d natur~l object .. why t .1..t seen Lefore'? If it is not a n~t~r~l object then whnt can it be: There dre those who claim that its co~struction proves th~ ex- istence of intelliGence o n the moon not necessarily moon- people but bein~s fr0111 outer space who are using the 1noon as a space-station for their obser- tion of earth. (EDWARDS CROSSES AWAY FROM ARTCARDS OF PLANETS AND GALAXIES) How can we find out about this? Where do we start? ( EDHARDS APPROACHES TABLE CONTAINIIJG BOOK DISPLAY) We start with bdckgrottnd . his- tory. Here, collected for us ly the 3ditors of the Encyclo- pedia Americana, is a selected list of books covering the .. (BOOKS AND PAN ACROSS TO SHO\v TITLES) whole field of celestidl phenoMena . from ancient sight- ings .. to the latest UFO reports .. (CUT TO EDWARDS. HE TAKES ONE FOOK FROM THE COLLECTION) For make no mi stal~e about j_ t . Unidentified Flyj_ng Objects are nothing new. The Bible gives us a repor~ of a sjghting . CUT TO: ARTCJ\RD ://13 (OF EZEKIEL r S vJHZEL) by the -Prophet Ezekiel i n the Heavens l a r ge, lrillia~tly coloredJ ~n the shape of a wheel ~lithin a wheel. CUT 'iO: ARTCARD /(:lL: (OF FIREBALL, MENZEL, PAGE 25? ) I n 1554 ... this mysterious object flashed 'lcross the slcy near St. Chamas, France. CUT TO: ARTCARD //15 (OF ESSECK -MENZEL PAGE 257) In 1697 . This molten mass of roaring flJme terrifie d the popu- lace of Esseck, Germa ny CUT TO: ARTCARD #16 - ( NECCADO) In 1708 ... a flock of strange ~henome.1a invaded the skles over (CUT BACK TO EDWARDS) Today, science explains most of these ancient sightin~s in terms of natural phenomena . such as fireballs, meteors, shootlnG stars, come~s .. or unusual auroral displays. But not so easily explained are some occurr ~ce s of not too long CUT TO: ARTC~RD #17 (OAKLAND TRIBUNE, NOV. 23) 1896) November 23, 1896. Oakland, California! A mysterious object salle d across the sky! First sieh~Gd in the San Francisco Bay area, a strange cigar-shaped object, reportedly witnessed by thousands, sailed across the sky. Moving sloly, gathering headlines DISSOLVE TO: ARTCARD #18 (NEW YORK HERALD, APRI L 11, 1897) . the UFO was reported from Salt Lake City Denver .. Omaha Kansas City . and . f :Lnally . Chicago . where it sail e d off the front page into the un- (CUT BACK TO EDWARDS ) The first f e w decades of the 20th Century brought few sight- irlgs .. possibly because the u~o took a dim view of the rlewly- invented earthly airplane suddenly trespassing its private don1ain . But in 1947 Year II of the Atomic Age the real U:B'O story bega n . ( ILLUSTRATED fvli\P OF NOHTHWEST -fJl9) It began here the P~cific Nortl1- st .. the spectacul~r country lorde d-over .. DISSOLVE TO: ARTCARD #20 (OF MT. RAINIER) . by i;he hulk of Mt. Rainler. ere . one J une morning ten years ago, a C- 46 Marine Transport plane crashed . Among the volunteer ARMSTRONG CIRCLE THEATRE JANUARY 22, 1?58 UFO: THE ENIGMA CF THE SKIES" vJRITTEN BY: IRVE TUNICK DIRECTED BY: WILLIAM CORRIGAN PRODUCED BY: ROBERT COSTELLO ED\-IARDS: civilians who aided the m.lljtary oearchers Nas DISSOLVE TO: (PHOTO OF' KENNETH ARNOLD -1\RTCATID /,'21) Kenneth Arnold, a bush pilot who had loc;bed thousands of hou.l's of flying in the are .. ll ~lhLlt he and reported , I ~ernati0nnl newsl ARNOLD: (VOICE OVER) It w<J s Tfolhi le I \'Ja s sea rc hi u~ for thi~ . (DISSOLVE TO: ARNOT,D LIVE) . crashed plane that I n0ticed d terrific blue fl~sh LO past th1u my airplane. I noticed tlldt the flash came from vsr'y pecllliar- looking objects th'-l t \J.; re apvrouc h - ing Mt. Rainier at abOUL 107 decree~. The objects were headed towards a saddle bctwee11 these ARNOLD: ( Cont 'd) peaks. They were about 9 in number. They looked something like this .. (SKETCH OB' WHJ\'r 1\IU~OLD HAS SEEN Tl1is is un artist' s concept of what I saw, based on my description. assumed, at the tLme, that they were a fo1mation of some new cy pe (CUT Bf\CK TO ARNOLD) But it baffled llle because they did not seem to have any tails. j ude;ed their \-Ji ng-span to be about 100 feet across. I watched them for several minutes. They traveling from north to south, flyirtg in reversed echelon formation .. nnd as they flew they weaved in ar.d out between the mountain poaks. They h~d a kind ARNOLD: (Conttd) of a skipping motion as they sailed along. EDWARDS: (VO) 1\fter the .:3ighting, you landed and reported tl1e incident to the local presentative of the CAA . Tho Civil Aeronautics Administration That' s right. I didn 1 t make too much of the incident as ~ saidJ I thought they were jets. said they fluttered like wellJ like boats on very rouch water I said they flew like you took a saucer and slcimlned ic across w~ter, Well, the papers printed a real e~rbled version. quoted me a s suyiue; they looked like saucers. I didn' t say th~t at all. I said they flew i~ a saucer-like fashion. EDWARDS: (VO) That wu s an historic misquote. so. Because that's how the name 'Flying Saucer s ' came EDW 1\RDS : ( VO ) Have you e ve r seen these so- called Flyi ng Saucers since? es I have . I ' ve seen stra nge bjects in the sky on a t least three different occasions. And I knovJ some regular airllne pilots who ha ve made more thdn a doze n ighting s . But we don't talk much about it. Making a Flyins Saucer report i s like opening your living room to a bob-cat. ou get clawed, scratched and spit on . You're either d real fruitcake or you're out to get publicity by spreading lies . I saw what I saw and I reported it to the proper authorities. WARDS: ( VO) Well . let' s get you r own per- opinion of wha t you s a w .. The Ail' Force investigat e d at t he time and said no jets were flying near tha t area that day. eel that i f these objects were not made by our science and flown by our Air Forces, then I ' m in- cline d to believe that you' ve got to s ay they were of extra - terrestrial o~iGin. EDVJ ARDS : ( VO ) Extra-terrestrial .. from an- other world, another pldnet? That' s right. EDWARDS: (VO) That' s saying a lot. I know it. I 'll tell you this much. All o f us who h~ve made siGhtings . I'm not t lklnG about cracl .. pot s now . bu t rc 1 i . ..l ble people who can be depended on well, none of us have ar>pre- cia t e d be i.ng l uu[:;hed at. \rle made our reports because we ARNOLD: (Cont'd) believed it was our duty to do so. I dont know what' s going in the sky. I don' t think it' s anything for people to get hysterical about. But there' s something eoing on besides Sputnik, I ' m sure of that. It' s something we see but we can' t explain. Now that' s my frank opinion! (CUT BACK TO EDWARDS) ( EDviARDS HOLDS THE DRAltiiNG OF THE OBJECTS ARNOLD HAS SEEN) ED\1/ARDS: Kenneth ~rnold's sighting of objects he claimed looked some- thing like this . (TURNS SKETCH TO CAMERA) was the beginning June 24) 1947 . . Mt. Rainier) \Ja shinr;ton. And it may have been quickly for- gotten . a news oddity .. e xcept that within the next 30 days) there were 53 more reports of so-called Flying Saucers. There was th~ usual quota of crackpots climb1ng on the bandwagon. A Chicago housewjfe saw one . CUT TO: ARTCARD #23 (CARTOON SAUCER 'VIITH LEGS) HOUSEWIFE: (VO) I was out hang_ng the wcish. It w. s Monday, y l know. And th_re I sa w it . big . wilt lebsl CUT TO: ARTCARD t24 (CARTOON OF FLYING v/ASHTUB) EDvl ARDS: ( VO ) A Spokane woman .. WOJ'JIAN : ( VO) It wasnl t e xactly round .. or fla t .. it wa s .. well, it wa s lee a v1a shtub. ARTCARD i/25 -SAUCERS PARADING THrlOUGH EDVJ ARDS : ( VO ) And a remarkably calm Midwest observer I don't !-mow why e verybody' s tting s o excited. They cumc through our yard ull the ti111c. ( CU'r BACK TO EDWARDS) ut ... m"'king all allowances for illusion, de lUSiOll, l10dX anu hallucinatlon . there rcmairled e nough lncredi ble l'eports b;y credible observers to ne t people rna11y people . thinking , They came fJ.'Om eveJ.~y scctlon of the country. CUT TO : Mfl P #26 ( OF UNITED STA1ES -SAN FERNANDO VALLEY OF CALIFORNIA. ) Fernando, California. A commercial a i rline pilot saw elongated object, with port- oles along its side. (PAN TO: BOULDER CITY, COLO. ) Boulder City, Colorado. A Superintendent of Schools spotte d a strange cigar-shaped object that moved a t incredible (PAN TO: WASHINGTON D. C. ) Washington, D. C. A Signal Corps Intelligence Officer saw this spherical object flowing in the (PAN TO: GREENVIICH POINT, L . I . ) Greenwich Point, Long Isla nd . a management sale s consultant reported .. a round obj e c t with jet pods underneath (CUT BACK TO EDWARDS) And if anyone wa s less than serious about Flyint; Saucers . the tragic Mantell incident at Godman Field, Fr.. Knox, Ke ntucky, gave them real caus e to reflect. On J a nuary (th, 1948, early i n a1ternoon Kentucky State police report e d an unidentified flying object, circular in appear- moving westward at a cood DISSOLVE TO: (FILM: CONTROL TO\'JER -GODMAN AIR Godman checked, found no experi- mental aircraft in the neighbor- UFO was sighted by the Commanding Officer of the field . Just at this time a flight of F-5la headed from Mari e tta, Georgla to LoJisvill e , Kentucky neared the field. The flight ... UFO: THE Ei'JIGMA OF 'rHE SKIE~Y' FADE IN: CLOCK (SET 6 SEC. BEFORE SUPER: EDHnRDS ED\'JARDS: Good evcni11g everybody, coast to coast. This is Douglas Edwards. Tonight the Circle Theatre GOes after ..1 most nnusual story: the riddle of the Flying Sducers. of t:1e n ... tu ... -.e of the problem . . dnd t~1e cont1 ove rS'T o~.~.r usuul fort.Ja t . Ir.s tc JU of dram_tizinc an adventure, we wj 11 sh~re cne. Inste~d of merely observin~, ~1e ask yo1 to pcrtlcl- pate. Are UFO ... Unid2nt~fl~d Flyng Objects ~eal or imasinwd? If ~hcse so-called FlyinG Sauce~s are ~"eal .. \'lhere do they corr.e from? A:e they S3c~et w~apons being test~d by o~r ow~ o~ fo ign covert1r . en'Gs .. or are they a s m:::.ny be lie va spacecraft from other planets, i.nvadlng O\\r dtmosphere, observing llfc on c&rth? DISSOLVE TO: ARTCARD f/:27 (OF MANTELL) under the command of Captain Thomas Mantell, a veteran combat pilot was immediately vectored in on the strange spherical- shaped object. (CUT BACK TO EDWARDS) What happened then depends upon what version you read. There were s e ven witnesses in Godman Tower and their accounts differ in many details. But this is sure. Captain Mantell .. b y radio .. re- ported sighting the object dbove aid it was "Metallic a nd of tremendous size". Mantell' s plane was not equipped with Oxygen DISSOLVE TO: (FILM -F- 51 ZOOMING UPWARD) . ye t he headed upward. One of his wingtnen broke off as the climb began. The rernainin~two stayed with him to 15, 000 feet, then broke off. Mantell was in a m3ximum climb a t 22,500, hls plane under perfect coutrol. (CUT BACK TO ED\IARDS) From this point on, there is nothinG but mystery. Trans- mission WdS garbled a nd dttetnpts to contact Mantell went ununswered. Mantell' s plat1e began to level off a t 30,000 feet .. beran a gradual t~rn to the left .. then it nosed downward .. and . dt full power . began to dive. Be t\'Ce n 10 a nd 20 thous nd feet, the plane literally tore ~p~rt. CUT TO: ARTCARD 1~-28 (OF NJ\H'rELT, CRASH) Mantell was killed. Parts of his plane ere fb und more than ha l f d mile froiO the centrc.tl wre clcage. (CUT BACK TO EDWARDS) There are questions tha t must ans~tered about thls tragic incident. ~Thy did an e xperj.ence d pilot like Mantell brea k one of the cardinal ~ulcs of flying: never go above 10,000 feet with- out oxyeen? What did he see tha t force d him to throw caution to the winds? After the Mantell crash, UFO l ' C - ports continued to pile in. Dur- ing Janu3ry a nd Febru..1ry of 1948 the sig h ting s too k o n t.tn i11t e r - natioi1...tl fla vor . "Balls of Fire, traveling slowly across the sky" were reported from Norw<..ty , Denm.:.irk, eden a nd Germa ny. 'l'lle n Southern Europe chimed in then South On July 21, a report came in from land of a UFO, rocket-shaped, with two rows of windows along the sides. This might have been fast forgotten, e xcept for what happened just one week later. On July 24, 19L~8, a co:.:m~ l'~ lal (MAP -SOUTH EASTERN U. S . -//29) ... airliner flying from Houston, Texas to Atlanta was 20 miles southwest of Montgomery, Alabama, At the controls: Clarence S . Chiles atld his co-pilot John B. \llhi tted. (CUT BACK TO ED\~ARDS) At 2:45 in the morning these ve teran flyers saw a llght, dP.ad ahead, and closing in fast. Traveling at a speed estimated between 500 and 700 ltliles an hour, the light bore in on them. The object was brilliantly lighte d . it appeared to l1ave two sets of windows, . a nd underneath, from the belly of the ship, there WdS a sort o f blue flourescent glow. As they wutched fc.lscina t ed, th(~ object flashed by about 700 feet to their rie:ht. On lundlnE, Chile s and Whitted reported the incj_dent to the roper authorities und then euch dre N a sketcr. or what he saw. CUT 'rO: ARTCARD //30 - (CIIILBS SKETCH) This is the Chiles' sketch. Double windows, in slze about twice the diameter of a B- 29 . CU'r TO: ARTC P.I\D ;;'31 - (WHITTED SKETCH) EDl;JARDS: And this is the sl:etch drawn co-pilot Whitted. Same generbl slldp~ double row of wh~t ".ppear to be w..i..ndovm no v1l.ngs ( CU'l' BACK '1'0 ED\tlARDS) What w&s it? To this day . accord- lng to tne two pilots 1nvolved . no loc;ical explanation offered by scientists, by e xperts . fits the bill. People may C:tl'guc about what they sa\1 . but they c...~nt deny thc1t they s;...~\1 somethinG some th1ng thu t these rne n wi th thousands of hours of flying experience tad r1e ver seen bef'orc .. and huVG11t seen sincel !s there an explanation a reasonable, natural e:cplanat"lon ED\-JARDS: for the mysterious obJC~ts seen by so many credible observel'S o ve r the past 10 years? For this .. For this or this? To get the official Alr Force point- o f - view, we 're goinG directly to ~he rource .. directly to the Alr Force files that have been thrown o~en to u s . Can e very slehting be reusonubly e x plained . or ml,3t we ...~cccpt the proposition_, the fact . that at least some of these objects ori~inate in outer space a nd that our earth is now being ob- served by creatures from another Ft'\DE IN FLI P A. C . THEATRE EDl:J ARDS : ( vo ) In j ust a r.1orr:ent, we will return UFO THE ENIGIVIA OF TIIE SKIES on the ARMSTRONC CIRCLE TiillATRE. FADE IN: C0Mf13RC IAL (EDWARDS -~vORK AREA ) ED\!lARDS: Ra r ely a day passes but that sighting s of flying saucers a r e r epor t e d . These reports . (THREE SIGHTING PHOTOS -~ AnTCJ\RDS c ome from every corner of th e ntry .. sightings of strange, disc-l i k e shapes . From Italy New Zeal a nd Brazil