Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2025

Publisher

Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library

Source Publication

Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (JCMS)

Source ISSN

2578-4900

Original Item ID

DOI: 10.1353/cj.2025.a960490

Abstract

The origin point of UFO subculture is typically dated to June 24, 1947, when an initial report of a "flying saucer" near Mount Rainier by Washingtonian Kenneth Arnold quickly sparked hundreds of similar reports nationwide (with varying degrees of irony, earnestness, originality, and reliability). The most famous of these claims is almost certainly one originating in Roswell, New Mexico, that July: a purported crash of an alien spacecraft that has remained a source of paranoid fascination for UFO watchers all over the world ever since. Many of the other 1947 claims also retain continued importance in the UFO community, like the so-called Maury Island hoax (which Arnold himself helped investigate), in which one of the claimants was said to have been contacted by "a man in a dark suit" and told not to discuss the matter further with anyone. This is now recognized as one of the earliest known formulations of what would ultimately become the "Men in Black" submyth.

Comments

Accepted version. Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (JCMS), Vol. 64, No. 3 (Spring 2025): 150-155. DOI. © 2025 Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library. used with permission.

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