Flying saucer found in man's garage

After 38 years, a "lost" Hollywood artifact with a truly cosmic history has resurfaced and, no surprise, it's headed straight for the auction block. This Thursday, Dec. 11, the iconic flying saucer from the 1956 MGM classic "Forbidden Planet" will be auctioned off in Calabasas Hills and is expected to fetch anywhere between $80,000 and $120,000, which would be a nice, tidy payday for its owner, a North Carolina man who had the prop stored in his garage and didn't realize its market value. The silver saucer is 82 inches in diameter and constructed of wood, steel and fiberglass and, according to the Profiles in History auction house, it is "a marvel of 1950s engineering." That's because "the central landing base extends from the bottom of the craft by internal movement mechanisms with electric motor drive, as does the ladder and two conveyor-loading ramps." Read more by my colleague Geoff Boucher >>>

Remakes of science fiction classics

Check out what my blog colleague Geoff Boucher has to say on Hero Complex: Hollywood, Back to the Future: Top filmmakers have already dipped into the sci-fi vault for 21st century remakes of “The War of the Worlds,” “The Planet of the Apes” and the upcoming “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” so what’s next on the revival list? Plenty. Here’s a list of a dozen remakes and revival projects now at various stages in the studio pipeline. "When Worlds Collide" Steven Spielberg is one of the producers and Stephen Sommers (“The Mummy,” “Van Helsing”), infamous for his “give me more” attitude toward CGI effects, is directing. Like the original 1951 film produced by George Pal, this “Worlds,” due in theaters next year, is about the mad scramble to build a spaceship to save humanity before Earth is destroyed by a rogue planet entering its orbit. The problem comes when there aren’t enough seats for everybody on Earth. "The Terminator" It’s not a remake, but filmmaker McG’s plan to revive the killer robot franchise with a new sequel next summer starring Christian Bale as John Connor has been circled by fans after a strong showing this past summer at Comic-Con International. “Terminator Salvation” is set in the future and shows the grim war between humans and Skynet with its murderous metallic armies. The plan is for a full trilogy — which means a certain California politician may well live up to that long-ago promise: “I’ll be back.” Read more >>>

Hollywood, Back to the Future: Top filmmakers have already dipped into the sci-fi vault for 21st century remakes of “The War of the Worlds,” “The Planet of the Apes” and the upcoming “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” so what’s next on the revival list? Plenty. Here’s a list of a dozen remakes and revival projects now at various stages in the studio pipeline.

"When Worlds Collide" Steven Spielberg is one of the producers and Stephen Sommers (“The Mummy,” “Van Helsing”), infamous for his “give me more” attitude toward CGI effects, is directing. Like the original 1951 film produced by George Pal, this “Worlds,” due in theaters next year, is about the mad scramble to build a spaceship to save humanity before Earth is destroyed by a rogue planet entering its orbit. The problem comes when there aren’t enough seats for everybody on Earth.

"The Terminator" It’s not a remake, but filmmaker McG’s plan to revive the killer robot franchise with a new sequel next summer starring Christian Bale as John Connor has been circled by fans after a strong showing this past summer at Comic-Con International. “Terminator Salvation” is set in the future and shows the grim war between humans and Skynet with its murderous metallic armies. The plan is for a full trilogy — which means a certain California politician may well live up to that long-ago promise: “I’ll be back.”

Read more >>>

UFO over Los Angeles, November 26, 1904

No, the above object is not a flying saucer on a stick. It is, in fact, Los Angeles' earliest attempt at street lighting in which carbon arc lights were mounted on tall poles around the city. This one was near 7th Street and Alameda, where a 20-story wireless telegraph antenna was being built. That's some skyhook, folks. And a milestone in women's history: "The first women's campaign committee ever formed in Los Angeles for the purpose of doing a definite work in an election." The Times is careful to note that these women can't actually vote!

Anti-gravity house

An anti-gravity house? You may laugh, the author says, but remember "atomic control" seemed impossible a mere 20 years ago. And no more hassles with dusting!

       

April 13, 1908

Above, wouldn't it be fun to know what exactly is in Dr. Hoffman's Nerve Syrup? Below, the sad tale of a woman believed to be Mrs. W.I. Roberts, who died after collapsing in line at the Pacific Electric Depot, 6th Street and Main. Unfortunately, I can't find any further stories on whether she was conclusively identified ... The Times reports the death of Lt. C.A.L. Totten, who upset his colleagues on the Yale faculty by issuing predictions of such events as the Russo-Japanese War, the San Francisco earthquake (he was apparently correct on those two) and the end of the world (we're still waiting on that one) ... And be sure to see Los Angeles Hay Storage, 1620 E. 7th, for the finest in equine comestibles.

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Paul Coates

March 27, 1958

An Earthman came to my office yesterday. He brought an object with him in a shopping bag. Gingerly, he removed it from the bag and placed it upright on my desk.

It stood about 2 1/2 feet high and was a heavy steel and plastic cylinder complete with safety valves, cranks and ominous looking buttons. A steel disk covered on end. The other end, about 4 inches in circumference, was filled with dirt.

"Look at it," he demanded.

I assured him that I was--that I wouldn't take my eyes off of it for a second. "What is it?" I asked.

He cleared his throat and looked me straight in the eye. "It's an object," he announced, "that attacked me from outer space."

He didn't flinch when he said it.

But I did.

"It was Monday night. About 10-10:30. I was walking down Loma Linda Avenue," he continued.

"Yes."

"I was nearing the corner of Serrano. On my way to the drugstore."

"And?"

"To buy some cigarettes."

"And?"

"Filter tips," he explained.

"And?" I said impatiently.

"I'm getting to it," he snapped. "It came flying out of the sky. Missed my ear by inches. My right ear. I heard this terrible whish-thump-splat."

 

"You saw it?" I said.

"I saw it after it hit the ground. It missed the sidewalk by 8 inches, maybe."

He pointed to the bottom of the object. "Look at the dirt and grass inside the plastic cylinder. It cut a sharp hole a few inches deep in the lawn of this apartment house and then bounced out again and lay down on its side."

"What did you do then?"

"I was very cautious. I sneaked up on it and touched it."

He glanced quickly to his right and left. We were alone. He whispered.

"It was warm."

"Warm?" I cried.

"Yes. But I poked it and it didn't move. So I picked it up and took it over under the street lamp and examined it. It looked harmless enough so I took its handle and cranked it."

He demonstrated for me, cranking the handle vigorously.

"Nothing," he continued. "Nothing happened. I've been carrying it around ever since, showing it to people. Nobody knows what it is. There's not a marking on it.

"Mr. Coates, you've got to help me find someone who knows what it is."

"I do?" I asked.

"Absolutely. Because so far it's nothing more than an Unidentified Flying Object. And to be perfectly honest with you, I don't believe in such things."

[Note: The Mirror didn't run a picture of this object, unfortunately, so we have to rely on our imaginations--lrh]

       

Matt Weinstock

Jan. 23, 1958

Confidential magazine may have purged itself of obscenity but the expose complex it created is not so easily dispelled.

So says an experienced writer of fact articles.

The way he analyzes the present situation, the public's appetite for gossip and scandal, whetted by Confidential, is now being satisfied by the so-called conservative magazines.

Their editors who a year ago wouldn't have dreamed of going for the racy stuff are now rejecting assigned articles on celebrities when the subject refuses to tell all. These editors insist their writers get full confessions, regardless of whose privacy is invaded, or no sale.

With writers who have a spark of ethics left it's no sale, only despair.

ON THE WAY home from a dentist's office where several teeth were extracted, a Redondo Beach man named Jim went into a drugstore where he sustained a final indignity.

As he waited for his order, mumbled through a mouth still numb and full of cotton pads, the druggist's pet myna bird looked down at him and said, "What's the matter, don't you want to talk to me today?"

AMONG THOSE who will be relieved when Metro buses roll again is a man who lives on the outskirts of Pasadena. The cab fare to the nearest shopping center is killing him. So what? So he's an L.A. cabdriver.

HAD YOUR word picture for today? Insurance man W. Hatton Hulett mentioned to a woman that a mutual acquaintance had been in an auto accident.

"I'm not surprised," she said, "he's the world's worst driver! I wouldn't ride with him on a stack of Bibles!"

A LADY NAMED Mary Louise received a letter from a friend in Carmel asking a favor. She was trying to locate someone here. Would Mary Louise get the address from the phone directory?

Unable to find the name in the Central Section, Mary Louise called Information, who pawed dutifully through the Northeast, the Northwest, the Western and the Southern sections but couldn't find it either.

"Well, I guess they've moved to outer space," said Mary Louise. "I don't suppose you have that listed?"

At which, Mary Louise reports triumphantly, the operator's studied solemnity evaporated and she giggled, "No, hardly."

[Attention young persons--in the days before touch tone phones and directory assistance/411, we ancient ones used something called "a phone book" or dialed Information to get telephone numbers. A large city like Los Angeles had directories for various parts of the city. Some of us walking antiques even remember phones without dials. When we picked up the handset, an operator said, "Number please!"--lrh].

LOOSE ENDS -- Overheard in the Redwood House: "Things are so tough I can't even afford to bet the horses" ...  Tony Tichenor, 5, confided to his father he and his friend Dennis, 6, don't let things bother them because they had "faith, hope and celery" ... Ray Southworth is happy to learn that bicycle riding is included among forms of tension relief. He's a firm believer in cycletherapy ... Progress note: You can now buy a complete human skeleton for $290, a skull for $40--made of plastic, in Texas ... Observation by Mattie Rae: Wearing chemises takes pretty kneeses.

Abominable Snowman!

Jan. 16, 1958

I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for stories like this:

 

Paul Coates

Jan. 8, 1958

There are businessmen in this town whose professed interest in humanity I question.

Among them is the owner of a local tire agency who advertised in an East Los Angeles paper this week:

"If you are riding on smooth tires, you're only fooling yourself. It's bad enough to risk your own life, but how about the lives of your loved ones?"

And then followed his dramatic appeal to the readers' consciences with:

"Planning to buy a new car?

"If so, let's trade tires. Let us put tires on your old car not quite as good as yours and pay you the difference. It's money found."

And if you survive the trip to your favorite new car agency, let the sucker who gets stuck with your smooth-tired automobile risk the lives of his loved ones instead, I presume.

ALSO ON MY DESK is a handbill showing the recent double-horror attraction for a South Side theater.

It advertises:

"FREE CANDY to all boys and girls attending the show."

And it ballyhoos the "monster" in one of the pictures as

"A teenage titan of terror on a LUSTFUL BINGE that paralyzed a town with fear."

There are psychiatrists who see no damage in permitting kids to attend occasional horror shows.

But I question, sincerely, whether boys and girls lured into a theater by a promise of free candy are going to benefit from viewing a "lustful binge."

It's a pretty sad choice of words. And it took a pretty sad example of an adult to combine them with free candy.

TWO DAYS AGO, I reported the frustration of a chemical engineer in Glendora who tried to fulfill his civic obligation by reporting an unidentified flying object.

He tried to contact both Civil Defense and Operation Skywatch offices.

He placed half a dozen phone calls to CD units, to military installations, to Skywatch stations.

His reward was either no answer or no interest. Plus some derision.

He told telephone operators and police of his plight, but they were at a loss as to who else he might try.

So maybe it's a good idea to write down this phone number: SY camore 5-7235.

It's the number of the Pasadena Air Defense Filter Center.

According to Capt. Gordon L. Brock, the center operates 24 hours a day, covers Southern California plus parts of western Arizona and Central California and is prepared to investigate all unusual aerial activity.

He admits that, unfortunately, not many people know it exists.

LAST MONTH, I wrote about a 9-year-old girl from Granite City, Ill., who visited Hollywood with her parents to have a final wish fulfilled before she died.

The wish was to meet Roy Rogers. And a meeting was arranged.

At least, the little girl and her parents were told it was.

But some Hollywood press agentry at its worst fouled up the girl's hopes and left her standing on a street corner for an hour, waiting vainly for Roy to appear.

After the fiasco, it was pretty well determined that Roy never knew of the proposed meeting.

Yesterday, there came a postscript to the story in a note from the girl's mother:

"I would like very much for you to publish our thanks to Girl Scout Troop 156 for the individual greetings they sent her for Christmas. They gave her a tremendous thrill.

"Also, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans made several calls and sent her a lovely gift box for Christmas. Of all her gifts, the one she was happiest with was the costume which they sent her.

"Donna was released from the hospital recently after a third operation on her brain tumor.

"Four doctors had told us that the operation was impossible but somehow God decided to change that. Now, they tell us she will be blind but, thank God, she will live.

"We shall never forget the kindness shown us by everyone."

       

Things to come

Nov. 25, 1957
Los Angeles

The designers display a painting of the proposed Theme Building at LAX: