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A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

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Ch. 3 The Saucer<br />

INTRODUCTION<br />

The tape has been replayed countless times. Listeners tun<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> to CBS radio were startled by a<br />

news flash that <strong>in</strong>terrupted a live on-air performance by Ramon Raquello and His Orchestra.<br />

Apparently, “a huge flam<strong>in</strong>g object, believed to be a meteorite,” had landed on a farm near<br />

Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Reporter Carl Phillips, on <strong>the</strong> scene, recognized that <strong>the</strong> meteor <strong>in</strong><br />

question was <strong>in</strong> fact a spaceship:<br />

Ladies and gentlemen, this is <strong>the</strong> most terrify<strong>in</strong>g th<strong>in</strong>g I have ever witnessed....Wait a<br />

m<strong>in</strong>ute, someone’s crawl<strong>in</strong>g. Someone or....someth<strong>in</strong>g. I can see peer<strong>in</strong>g out <strong>of</strong> that<br />

black hole two lum<strong>in</strong>ous disks...are <strong>the</strong>y eyes? It might be a face. It might be...good<br />

heavens, someth<strong>in</strong>g's wriggl<strong>in</strong>g out <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> shadow like a gray snake. Now it’s ano<strong>the</strong>r<br />

one, and ano<strong>the</strong>r one, and ano<strong>the</strong>r one. They look like tentacles to me. There, I can see<br />

<strong>the</strong> th<strong>in</strong>g’s body. It’s large as a bear and it glistens like wet lea<strong>the</strong>r. But that face.<br />

It...ladies and gentlemen, it’s <strong>in</strong>describable. I can hardly force myself to keep look<strong>in</strong>g at<br />

it, it’s so awful. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is k<strong>in</strong>d <strong>of</strong> V-<br />

shaped with saliva dripp<strong>in</strong>g from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate. 193<br />

The brutally ugly aliens attacked and destroyed several onlookers with <strong>the</strong>ir “heat-rays” and <strong>the</strong><br />

announcer conceded <strong>the</strong> horrid significance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se strange go<strong>in</strong>gs on. “Ladies and gentleman, I<br />

have a grave announcement to make. Incredible as it may seem, both <strong>the</strong> observations <strong>of</strong> science<br />

and <strong>the</strong> evidence <strong>of</strong> our eyes lead to an <strong>in</strong>escapable assumption that those strange be<strong>in</strong>gs who<br />

landed <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Jersey farmlands tonight are <strong>the</strong> vanguard <strong>of</strong> an <strong>in</strong>vad<strong>in</strong>g army from <strong>the</strong> planet<br />

Mars.” 194<br />

193 Howard Koch, The Panic Broadcast: Portrait <strong>of</strong> an Event (New York: Little and Brown, 1970) 44-45.<br />

194 Koch, 45.<br />

118

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