872 JOURNAL O F POP ULA R CULTURE “flying saucer”

did

not come into popular usage until the summer of 1947 when there was a sudden outbreak of sightings throughout North Ameri ca. Kenn eth Arnold, a priva te

pilot

employed the term while describ- ing to re porters w hat he had alleg edl y seen ne ar Mt. R anier, Washi ngton , on June 24, 1947.5 la ggi ng a ye ar o r two behind a maj or flap . The first was 19 50 , fo llow ing the flap

o f

194 7. The second was 1955-56 , follo wing the s ighti ng wav e of 19 52. The thir d an d final peri od was 1966 -69 , foll owing the grea t wav e of 1964-67 . li ef that thes e apparitio ns wer e vi sito rs from ou ter spac e. Th e 1955-56 pe riod advanced this extraterrestrial hypothesis

(ETH),

adding the tes timony

of

con- tactees to the literature, and creating a ne w them e: the alle gat ion of

a

govern- mental conspiracy instrumen ted

b y

the United States Air Force to suppress “the t rut h.” This consp irac y becam e the cent ral concern of the UFO hobbyists for many ye ars afte r. Th e 1966 -69 perio d marked

a

gra dua l return t o rationality as

a

new genera tion of scien tist s and journalists examin ed the UFO lor e, rej ecte d much of it, and produced a more v al id body of literature . Th e princ ipal creators of the l ore of the 1950’s were : Donald

E.

Keyhoe, a r etired Marine Corps pilot who became the major spokesm an for Americ an ufolo gy

;

Fran k Scul ly, a colu m- nist for

Variety;

Fran k E dwards, a rad io newscas ter; Morr is

K .

Jessup, an astro- physicist; George Adamski,

an

early contacteee. The major contributors to the “New Ufology” of th e 19 60’ s were: Vincent Gaddis, a professional writer ; Dr. Jacques Val lee , a co mpu ter specia list ; Iva n T. S anderson, zoologist; Joh n Fuller, a columnist for

Saturday Review;

Eugene Olson,

a

writer using the name of “Brad Stei ger.” The Br itis h jour nal,

Flyin g Sauc er Revi ew

was al so instru men tal in bri ngi ng abou t im port ant chang es in th e over all approach

t o

the subject. Ironically, the flying saucer myth is being nullified by the increasing avail- ability of rel iab le cas e histories and val id technical inform atio n, a nd th e growing acceptance

of

the subject as a matter worthy

o f

stud y by scientists, ps ychia tris ts and sociolo gist s. This acceptance was the major goa l of the UFO organiza tion s and believers through all the hard years of

ridicule-1947-66.

But now that re- spectability is at ha nd, the bel iev ers find the mse lve s exclu ded. The scope of the UFO phenomenon is unbelievable to newcomers to the fiel d. Thou sand s of sigh tings are recorded annually in ever y co untr y on ear th. Dr. David Saunders, a psychologist with

the

University

of

Colorado, has thus far programmed 50,0 00 docume nted si gh ti ngs f or computerizatio n.6 Dr. Jacques Val lee has also produced statistics on thou sand s of sight ings in Fra nce, Spai n and the U nited Sta tes. ’ For man y years , the flyi ng s aucer cultists labored awk wardl y t o pro ve the rel iab ili ty of such si ght in gs , rather t han t o a tt em pt to determine what, if anything, the witnesses had actually seen, and what were the real stimuli.

of

the

problem

have innocently confused the

UFO