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Great Falls film

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During August 1950, the Great Falls, Montana movie was taken by Nicholas Mariana, the manager of the Great Falls baseball team. Commonly referred to as “the Great Falls Film” or “the Montana Film”.

(The date of the sighting has been one of the many issues that has been the source of debate. 15 August and 5 August 1950 are both commonly suggested in various sources.)

This incident is Case 41 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article, since it was referred to in 58 of the books covered by that article.

The Great Falls film was one of two motion pictures of UFO sightings considered by the Robertson Panel, organized by the CIA, in January 1953.

In his book “UFOs Explained” (1974), Philip J Klass referred to the Great Falls footage as “the most impressive and famous UFO movie”. In his book “Scientific Ufology” (1999), Kevin D Randle wrote that the Great Falls footage “would become one of the best, and, therefore most controversial pieces of physical evidence available”.

This incident has also featured in a list of cases produced by British ufologist Gary Heseltine for the Fortean Times in 2007 as part of a survey of various researchers of the ten cases from 1947 onwards that interested them the most.

 

Isaac Koi’s “ICES” Rating for this sighting = 7,020 (out of a potential score of 14*14*14*14 i.e. 38,416)

(1) “Impact” Rating of 13 (out of a potential score of 14), because it is Case 41 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article.

(2) “Credibility” Rating of 10 (out of a potential score of 14) because the debate regarding this incident has centered on what was filmed, rather than whether the incident was a hoax - although there have been several persuasive suggestions that the eyewitness accounts included some significant embellishments.

(2) “Expert” Rating of 9 (out of a potential score of 14). It is given this above slightly above average rating because (at the time of writing) it has been included in a small number of the short lists of the best cases produced by various UFO researchers that have been compiled by Isaac Koi (see the “Best UFO Cases" article at PART 3: Existing lists by various individuals).

(4)“Strangeness” Rating of 6 (out of a potential score of 14). The sighting has a below average strangeness rating since there is relatively limited evidence to be explained as to the nature of the objects that was filmed. Several researchers have plausibly suggested that the objects that were filmed were merely aircraft.

 

 

Sections below:

1. Web Resources

2. Book References

3. Other material

 

 

 

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Web Resources

For links to various relevant documents and articles online see:

http://www.nicap.org/montanadir.htm

http://ufologie.net/htm/montana50.htm

This incident is discussed on the AboveTopSecret.com (“ATS”) internet discussion forums in Thread 300193.

There is a rapid turnover of UFO material on the Internet. Many links to material on UFO websites quickly become out of date. Therefore, instead of giving many links to specific webpages I have instead included below a search box which can be used to search various leading UFO websites at the same time. You can then click on tabs at the top of the search results to list only results from forums, only results from websites I have labelled as "skeptical" etc. I have included tabs for a couple of specific websites that I find particularly useful, including the valuable archives of the UFO UpDates email discussion List. The relevant websites are all listed in the discussion of the "UFO Searchillion" search engine in Section 2.4 of the "Free UFO Researcher Starter Pack" and continues to evolve...

 

The relevant search box is one of the two main tools on this website which are intended to help reduce the amount of reinvention of the wheel within UFOlogy. The other main tool is the collection of tables of references to discussion of UFO incidents, personalities and other matters in various books. Those tables can be sorted by author, length and date. I hope these tools are useful.

 

 

 

Book References

The table below includes references to relevant discussions in UFO/SETI books noted by Isaac Koi during a review of approximately 963 UFO/SETI books during the period 2003-2006 (with a few later additions). The table can be sorted by author, date and length of discussion by clicking on the relevant word in the top line of the table.

Many of the tables of references on this website are considerably longer than the references to books found on most other UFO websites. Indeed, some are probably the longest that have been collated in relation to some events and personalities. Together with the "UFO Searchillion" search box, I hope that these tables are found to be a useful contribution to UFOlogy.

For discussion of the Great Falls, Montana film see the following:

 

Year

Discussion by:

 

No. of Pages

1972

Baker, R M L in “UFO's: A Scientific Debate” (1972) (edited by Carl Sagan and Thornton Page) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 191-198 (in Chapter 8) of the Barnes and Noble hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Norton paperback edition.

8

1968

Baker, Robert in his article “Observational Evidence of Anomalistic Phenomena”, The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences Vol. XV, No. 1, pages 31-36 January-Febuary, 1968 (1968.0100). Reprinted in Appendix 3 to Robert Baker’s prepared statement to the Roush Hearing (the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Astronautics "Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects" on 1968.0729) at pages 177-182 of the transcript of the Ninetieth Congress, Second Session, Number 7. Complete transcript available free online at the following links:

http://ncas.sawco.com/ufosymposium/contents.html http://www.project1947.com/shg/symposium/contents.html

6

1968

Baker, Robert in the Roush Hearing (the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Astronautics "Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects" on 1968.0729) at page 127 of the transcript of the Ninetieth Congress, Second Session, Number 7. Edited and annotated transcript presented by Fuller, John in his “Aliens in the Skies” (1969), with the relevant extract appearing at page 150 (in Chapter 6) of the Putnam hardback edition. Complete transcript available free online at the following links:

http://ncas.sawco.com/ufosymposium/contents.html http://www.project1947.com/shg/symposium/contents.html

1

1967

Binder, Otto in his “What we really know about Flying Saucers” (1967) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 194 (in Chapter 16) of the Fawcett paperback edition.

1

1996

Brookesmith, Peter in his “UFO: The Government Files” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 63, 69 (in Chapter 3) of the Parragon hardback edition.

2

1995

Bryan, C D B in his “Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction, UFOs, and the Conference at MIT” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 112 (in Chapter 4) of the Weidenfeld & Nicolson hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Knopf hardback edition and the Penguin Arkana softcover edition) at page 149 of the Orion paperback edition.

1

1994

Campbell, Steuart in his “The UFO Mystery Solved” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 94 (in Chapter 4) of the Explicit Books softcover edition.

1

1998

Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 397-401 of the Visible Ink Press softcover edition in an entry entitled “Montana Film”.

5

1992

Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: 1st edition: Volume 2 – Emergence of a Phenomenon” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 251-254 of the Omnigraphics hardback edition in an entry entitled “Montana Film”.

4

1998

Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning - 2nd edition” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) in Volume 2:L-Z at pages 642-644 (in an entry entitled “Montana Film”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition.

3

1977

Collins, Jim in his “Unidentified Flying Objects” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 33-35 (in Chapter 5) of the Raintree hardback edition.

3

1969

Condon Report (“Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects”, Edward U Condon (Director) and Daniel S Gillmor (Editor) (1969)) as Condon Case Number 47 at pages 74-78 (in Section 3, Chapter 1 “Field Studies”, by Roy Craig), 119 (in Section 3, Chapter 2 “Analysis of UFO Photographic Evidence”, by William K Hartmann), 626-636 and plate 27 (in Section 4, “Case Studies”, Chapter 3, “Photographic Case Studies”) of the uncorrected version submitted to the Air Force (with the same page numbering in the 3 volume paperbound edition distributed by the National Technical Information Service, US Department of Commerce) at pages 52-54, 82, 407-415 of the Vision hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Bantam paperback edition). The first of these editions has the same page numbering as the edition available free online at the following links:

http://www.project1947.com/shg/condon/contents.html

18

1995

Craig, Roy in his “UFOs – An Insider’s View” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 132-133 (in Chapter 8), 158, 160-161, 162 (in Chapter 10), 230-231 (in Chapter 14) of the UNT softback edition.

8

1979

Crockett, Art in “The Total UFO Story” (1979) (edited by Milt Machlin) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 148-149 (in Chapter 6) of the Dale paperback edition.

2

2000

Dolan, Richard M in his “UFOs and the National Security State: Volume 1: 1941-1973” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 140-141 (in Chapter 3) of the Keyhole softcover edition, at pages 85-86 of the 2002 revised Hampton Road softcover edition.

2

1953

Durant Report (the memo dated 16th February 1953 from F C Durant to the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence relating to the Robertson Panel) at page 7. The Durant Report is available online at: http://www.cufon.org/cufon/robert.htm

1

1976

Flammonde, Paris in his “Ufo Exist!” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 311-313 (in Chapter 16) of the Ballantine Books paperback edition.

3

1999

Glenday, Craig in his “The UFO Investigator’s Handbook” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 96 (in Chapter 4) of the Running Press softcover edition.

1

1967

Greenfield, Irving A in his “The UFO Report” (1967) at pages 51-52 (in Chapter 5) of the Lancer paperback edition.

2

2000

Greenwood, Barry in his article “On the Question of Tampering with the 1950 Great Falls UFO Film” in the September 2000 edition of his UFO Historical Revue (Edition 7 (2000)), in that edition generally. Available online at: http://www.cufon.org/uhr/uhr7.htm

1

2000

Hall, Michael David and Connors, Wendy Ann in their “Captain Edward J Ruppelt : Summer of the Saucers - 1952” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 23-24 (in Chapter 1) of the Rose Press softcover edition.

2

1999

Hall, Michael David in his “UFOs : A Century of Sightings” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 134-136 (in Chapter 3), 294 (in Chapter 7) of the Galde Press softcover edition.

3

2000

Hansen, Terry in his “The Missing Times : News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-Up : News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover -Up” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 183-184 (in Chapter 5), 220 (in Chapter 6) of the Xlibris softcover edition.

3

1977

Hynek, J Allen in his “The Hynek UFO Report” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) in Chapter 10, at pages 241-242 of the Barnes & Noble hardback reprint (1997) at pages 251-252 of the Dell paperback edition (with the same page numbering in the Sphere paperback edition).

2

1972

Hynek, J Allen in his “The UFO Experience” (1972) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) (in Chapter 6) at pages 57-58 of the Henry Regnery hardback edition (with same page numbering in the Abelard-Schuman hardback edition) at page 65-66 of the various Ballantine paperback editions, at pages 80-81 of the Corgi paperback edition. Included in a table indicating an assessment of Strangeness Rating/Probability Rating of 2/9 as DD5 in Appendix 1 at page 235 of the Henry Regnery hardback edition (with same page numbering in the Abelard-Schuman hardback edition) at page 265 of the various Ballantine paperback editions, at page 289 of the Corgi paperback edition.

2

1973

Keyhoe, Donald E in his “Aliens from Space” (1973) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 217-218 (in Chapter 14) of the Signet paperback edition, pages 245-246 of the Panther paperback edition.

2

1953

Keyhoe, Donald E in his “Flying Saucers from Outer Space” (1953) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 154 (in Chapter 9) of the Henry Holt hardback edition, page 156 of the Tandem paperback edition.

1

1974

Klass, Philip J in his “UFOs Explained” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 152-166 (in Chapter 16, “The Great Falls UFO Movies”) of the Random House hardback edition / pages 180-196 of Random House paperback edition.

15

1979

Knight, David C in his “UFOs: A pictorial history from antiquity to the present” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 44 (in Part 3) of the McGraw Hill hardback edition.

1

2000

Maccabee, Bruce in his “UFO-FBI Connection” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 164-165 (in Chapter 16) of the Llewellyn softcover edition.

2

1977

Menzel, Donald and Taves, Ernest in their “The UFO Enigma“ (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 110-111 (in Chapter 8, “The [Condon Report’s] ‘Unexplained Cases”) of the Doubleday hardback edition.

2

1964

NICAP in its “The UFO Evidence” (1964) (edited by Richard Hall) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 88 (in Section 8) and page 111 (in Section 9) of the privately published paperbound edition, with the same page numbering in the 1997 Barnes & Noble paperbound reprint. Available free online at:

http://www.nicap.org/ufoe/section_8.htm

http://www.nicap.org/ufoe/section_9.htm

1

1985

Peter Warrington in their “Science and the UFOs " (1985) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 41 (in Chapter 3) of the Blackwell hardback edition.

1

2001

Randle, Kevin D and Story, Ronald in “The Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters” (2001) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 230-232 (in an entry entitled “Great Falls (Montana) movie”) of the New American Library softcover edition, at pages 225-228 of the pdf edition (with the same page numbering in the Microsoft Word edition).

3

2001

Randle, Kevin D and Story, Ronald in “The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters” (2001) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 281-283 (in an entry entitled “Great Falls (Montana) movie”) of the Robinson softcover edition.

3

1980

Randle, Kevin in “The Encyclopedia of UFOs” (1980) edited by Ronald Story (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 153-155 (in an entry entitled “Great Falls (Montana) movie”) of the NEL hardback edition.

3

1997

Randle, Kevin in his “Conspiracy of Silence” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 129-132 (in Chapter 6) of the Avon paperback edition.

4

1999

Randle, Kevin in his “Scientific Ufology” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 75-91, 125 (in Chapter 4), 211-212, 216 (in Chapter 8) of the Avon softcover edition.

21

1989

Randle, Kevin in his “The UFO Casebook” (1989) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 49-54 of the Warner Books paperback edition (entry entitled “August 5, 1950: The Great Falls Movie”) and at pages 164-165.

6

1997

Randles, Jenny in her “Alien Contact – The First Fifty Years” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 16 (in the chapter entitled “1950”) of the Collins and Brown hardback edition.

1

2000

Randles, Jenny in her “The Little Giant Encyclopedia of UFOs” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 39 (in Part 1, “A UFO Timeline”) of the Sterling softcover edition.

1

1983

Randles, Jenny in her “UFO Reality” (1983) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 193-196 (in Chapter 14) of the Hale hardback edition.

4

1974

Rehn, K Gosta in his “UFOs Here and Now” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 13-14 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “The Condon-Colorado Report”) of the Abelard-Schuman hardback edition.

2

1956

Ruppelt, Edward J in his “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects” (1956) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 219-220, 224 (in Chapter 16) of the original 17 chapter Doubleday hardback edition, at pages 286-288, 292 of the Gollancz hardback edition, at pages 287-289, 293-294 of the Ace paperback edition, at pages 219-220, 224 of the 1959 revised Doubleday 20 chapter hardback edition, at pages 157-158, 160 of the reprinted Source Books softcover edition. The first of these editions (i.e. the original 17 chapter hardback edition) has the same page numbering as the version available free online at: http://www.nicap.org/rufo/contents2.htm

3

1996

Rux, Bruce in his “Architects of the Underworld” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 37-39 (in Chapter 2) of the Frog softcover edition.

3

1980

Sachs, Margaret in her “The UFO Encyclopedia“ (1980 (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 127-128 (in an entry entitled “Great Falls, Montana”) and at page viii (in a list entitled “Chronological list of UFO sightings”) of the Corgi softback edition.

3

1968

Saunders, David R and Harkins, R Roger in their “UFOs? Yes!” (1968) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 83-92 (in Chapter 8), 93-102, 103-104, 107-108 (Chapter 9 generally) of the Signet paperback edition.

10

1997

Sellier, Charles E and Meier, Joe in their “UFO” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 266-267 (in Chapter 15) of the Contemporary Books hardback edition.

2

1974

Sladek, John in his “The New Apocrypha” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 42 (in Chapter 3) of the Panther paperback edition.

1

1999

Spaceage in its “UFO USA - A Traveler's Guide” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 102-104 (in the chapter entitled “Montana”) of the Hyperion softcover edition.

3

1991

Spencer, John in his “The UFO Encyclopedia” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 203-204 (in an entry entitled “Mariana, Nicholas”) of the Guild hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Avon softcover edition) at pages 236-237 of the Headline paperback edition.

2

1966

Stanton, L Jerome in his “Flying Saucers : Hoax or Reality?” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 81 (in Chapter 4) of the Belmont paperback edition.

1

1986

Stevens, Wendelle and Roberts, August in their “UFO Photographs: Around The World: Vol. 1” (1986) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 232 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Appendix 1 : Catalogue of UFO Photographic Reports”) of the UFO Photo Archives hardback edition.

1

1981

Story, Ronald in his “UFOs and the Limits of Science” (1981) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 112-114 (in Chapter 4) of the NEL Hardback edition.

3

1992

Vallee, Jacques in his “Forbidden Science: Journals 1957-1969.” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 286 (in Chapter 15, journal entry for 1967.0618) of the North Atlantic Books hardback edition, at page 290 of the 1996 abridged Marlowe paperback edition.

1

1994

Vesco, Renato and Childress, David Hatcher in their “Man Made UFOs 1944-1994 – 50 Years of Suppression” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 66 (in Chapter 3) of the AUP softcover edition.

1

1971

Vesco, Renato in his “Intercept Ufo” (Formerly published as “Intercept - But Don't Shoot”) (1971) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 66 (in Chapter 3) of the Zebra paperback edition.

1

1980

Von Buttlar, Johannes in his “The UFO Phenomenon” (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 74 (in Chapter 7) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition.

1

 

Other Material

Official US documents about this incident can be found online. See the material on the ambitious “Project Blue Book Archive” website in relation to Project Blue Book Case Number 792, which commences at the link provided (and continues on the pages which follow it).

Listed as Project Blue Book Case Number 792 on the redacted US National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”) microfilm records of Project Blue Book, released to the National Archives in 1975 – see National Archives Microfilm Publication T1206 roll number 1. An image of the relevant index page has been given the unique Page ID (“PID”) of NARA-PBB1-37 (page 37 of 1014) at the link below.

Listed (without a Project Blue Book Case Number) on the unredacted Maxwell Air Force Base (“Maxwell”) microfilm records of Project Blue Book – see Maxwell microfilm roll number 30,363. An image of the relevant index page has been given the unique Page ID (“PID”) of MAXW-PBB2-268 (page 268 of 1352) at the link below. The relevant case file is included on Maxwell microfilm roll number 30,369 – at the link below from the page with the PID of MAXW-PBB8-196 (page 196 of 1656) to the page with the PID of MAXW-PBB8-302 (page 302 of 1656).

http://www.bluebookarchive.org

 

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