Proposal to collect UFO home movies (1950)

Proposal to collect UFO home movies (1950)

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	4

The so-called proposal to collect UFO home movies is an Air Force memorandum dated 6 July 1950. It records senior officers trying to get hold of a Louisville newsman's film of a "flying disk" without revealing the Air Force's interest. The local Office of Special Investigations commander suggested that the FBI make the inquiries instead.^[1] J. Allen Hynek, the Air Force's long-time scientific adviser, later quoted the memo as an example of what the historian Loren Gross calls a "condition of feigned disinterest".^[1] Michael Shellenberger's 2024 UAP timeline summarises it more broadly. It says the author "wants to collect UAP motion pictures taken by U.S. citizens with cooperation from the FBI" and did not want Americans to know of Air Force interest.^[4] The memo itself concerns one specific film.^[1]

The Louisville film

• The sighting. On 28 June 1950, a staff photographer for a Louisville, Kentucky, television station was out on a routine assignment when he heard a plane pass overhead and looked up.^[1]
  • To the left of the aircraft he saw "a large bright disc with a light corona around it".^[1]
  • He shot about 50 feet of film while the object hovered motionless for some 10 seconds before it moved off to the west.^[1]
• Coverage. Gross sources the story to a United Press report of 28 June 1950.^[1] The 6 July memo refers to an article about it in the Louisville Courier-Journal.^[1]
• The wave. The sighting was part of a busy stretch of reports.
  • The same day, five people in Cairo, Illinois, reported egg-shaped, chrome-like objects.^[1]
  • An Air Intelligence Report from Georgia described an "erratic" object seen before dawn, which vanished before a radar set had warmed up.^[1]

The memo

• Who wrote it. The memo, headed "Unconventional Aircraft (Unclassified)", was sent to the Chief of the Counter-Intelligence Division of the Department of the Air Force.^[1]
  • Gross says it came from Lt. Col. F. D. Garrachy, Chief of the Air Force's General Investigative Division.^[1]
  • The timeline spells the name "McGarrachy".^[4]
• The requests. According to the memo, the 5th OSI District commander, Lt. Col. O'Connell, had received a request from Air Materiel Command (AMC).^[1]
  • General Cabell, the Director of Intelligence, had phoned AMC about the Courier-Journal article. He asked for action to obtain the moving pictures and interview the photographer, with inquiries made "in such a manner as not to indicate Air Force interest".^[1]
  • General Putt and Colonel Bousshey of Air Force research and development had made a similar, independent request.^[1]
  • That request reflected a wish by a Dr. Valley of the Research and Development Board to see such a film if one existed.^[1]
• The FBI suggestion. O'Connell was reluctant to send an agent to the newspaper, because the agent would have to identify himself as Air Force and so "indicate the Air Force interest in this matter".^[1]
  • He suggested that the best course "might be for him to contact the FBI locally" and have an FBI representative conduct the investigation, "thereby precluding any indication of Air Force interest".^[1]
  • He wanted the approval of the Director of Special Investigations first.^[1]
• Second thoughts. The memo also records that other offices drew back:^[1]
  • The Technical Capabilities Branch of Air Force Intelligence (AFOIN) withdrew its request. It thought the film would "not be likely to add anything new on this subject" and probably could not be obtained "without compromising the Air Force interest".
  • Colonel Roth, executive to General Putt, said it "would be nice if OSI could arrange to secure a copy of the film in some covert manner". Failing that, he would suggest Dr. Valley negotiate directly with the Courier-Journal.
  • Major Nold said the OSI "should not directly attempt to obtain the information".
  • The matter was referred to the Counter-Intelligence Division "for further action as necessary".
• Correction note: the earlier version of this article named the Director of Intelligence as "Gen. Charles Cabell". The memo as quoted gives only "General Cabell", and his first name is not covered in the sources read here.^[1]

Context

• Grudge. Publicly, the Air Force was treating UFOs as a closed subject. Project Grudge had issued its only formal report in August 1949.^[2]
  • The report concluded that the reports were misidentifications, "mass-hysteria and war nerves", hoaxes or the work of "psychopathological persons", and recommended reducing the investigation in scope.^[2]
  • Grudge officials thought official interest itself encouraged belief in UFOs. The Air Force announced the project's end on 27 December 1949.^[2]
• Hynek's view. Hynek, who called Grudge "less science and more of a public relations campaign", felt the Air Force had adopted a "counter-espionage" attitude toward the public.^[2][1]
  • Gross says Hynek cited the 6 July memo in this connection.^[1]
  • The timeline's source for the memo is Hynek's book The Hynek UFO Report, p. 54. Its Internet Archive copy is a restricted lending scan and was not read here.^[4][3]
• The Feiling memo. A memo of 19 July 1950 between Colonel Bruno W. Feiling, chief of the Technical Analysis Division, and Lt. Col. Hemstreet makes the same point.^[1]
  • It said that if no one else had reported a sighting, there was "no justification for contacting as many agencies as was done in this case".^[1]
  • It added: "Excessive contacts can only serve to keep our interest in these matters a subject of discussion by more people than we would like."^[1]
• Gross's reading. Gross reads the sentence "if a legitimate sighting is made, it would be reported by a number of people" as implying that the Air Force did recognise "legitimate" sightings.^[1]
  • He sees Cabell as the man "calling the shots".^[1]
  • He argues this attitude may explain why later official projects resembled "a public relations effort" more than science.^[1]
• Timeline note. The timeline adds that this was "a time when USAF public messaging is debunking UAP cases".^[4]

Assessment

• One film. Despite the title, the memo concerns one particular film, not a general scheme to collect home movies.^[1]
  • The FBI idea was one officer's suggestion, made subject to approval. Other offices withdrew their requests or advised against direct OSI involvement.^[1]
• Outcome unknown. Whether the film was ever obtained is not recorded in the published extracts.^[1]
• Significance. The memo does show the highest level of Air Force intelligence quietly seeking UFO evidence while keeping its interest hidden.^[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 →

Further reading

References

Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia article “Project Grudge”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.