Proposal to collect UFO home movies (1950)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 6 July 1950 |
|---|---|
| People | J. Allen Hynek |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 42 |
| Year | 1950 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1950 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 3 |
An Air Force memo dated 6 July 1950 shows senior officers wanting to obtain a newsman's film of a flying disc in Louisville, Kentucky, without revealing Air Force interest, including a suggestion that the FBI make the inquiries instead. Astronomer J. Allen Hynek later quoted it as an example of the Air Force's "feigned disinterest" in UFOs.[1]
The Louisville film
On 28 June 1950, a staff photographer for a Louisville television station heard a plane pass overhead and saw to its left a bright disc with a corona around it. He shot about 50 feet of film while it hovered for some ten seconds before moving off west, and the story ran in the Louisville Courier-Journal.[1]
The memo
The memo, from Lt. Col. F. D. Garrachy of the Air Force's General Investigative Division to the chief of its Counter-Intelligence Division, recorded that Gen. Charles Cabell, Director of Intelligence, had asked Air Materiel Command to obtain the film and interview the photographer "in such a manner as not to indicate Air Force interest". The research and development side had made a similar request. Lt. Col. O'Connell, commander of the local Office of Special Investigations district, was reluctant to send an agent because that would reveal the Air Force's interest, and suggested asking the local FBI to do it. Another officer thought it would be nice if the film could be obtained covertly.[1]
Context
Hynek, the Air Force's astronomy consultant, described a "counter-espionage" attitude toward the public at the time. That same month, a memo warned that excessive inquiries could keep Air Force interest in UFOs a subject of discussion. Publicly, the Air Force was then treating the subject as closed after Project Grudge's 1949 report.[1][2]
Assessment
The memo is about one specific film, not a general scheme to collect home movies. Whether the film was ever obtained is not recorded in the published extracts.[1]
People and topics
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation — The U.S. federal police agency, which helped check flying disc reports from 1947 to 1950.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- J. Allen Hynek — Astronomer and Air Force UFO consultant from 1948 to 1969 who later founded the Center for UFO Studies.
- Project Grudge — The Air Force's skeptical UFO project of 1949–51 that replaced Project Sign.
- Project Blue Book — The Air Force's public UFO investigation from 1952 until its closure in December 1969.
On the Timeline
- Holloman cigar-shaped object film (1950) (July 1950) — A Holloman AFB contractor films a cigar-shaped metallic object and hands the film to the base.
- Dewey Fournet's motion study and Navy inquiry (1951) — A Blue Book officer reportedly runs a private, Navy-assisted inquiry into undersea and aerial UAP.
See every 1950 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Loren E. Gross, UFOs: A History — 1950, April–July (PDF), Sign Oral History Project · sohp.us · archived copy
- Project Grudge — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
Further reading
- UFO files — FBI Vault · vault.fbi.gov · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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