Some spacey tidbits from the Fall 1966 issue of Saucer News

Everyone has 46-year-old issues of homemade-looking UFO society magazines laying around the living room, right?¹

No?!?

Well, since I happen to have just such a magazine right here beside me, I'll share.

Here are some far-out tidbits from the official publication of the Saucer And Unexplained Celestial Events Research Society (Get it? S.A.U.C.E.R.S.):

• "WE WISH TO THANK KENNETH LARSON of Hollywood, California, for the flying saucer cover design on the cover of this issue. After having tried two other designs that we were not quite satisfied with, we have decided to adopt this one as our permanent emblem."²
• "MANY SUBSCRIBERS FAILED TO RECEIVE OUR JUNE ISSUE, for some reason that we do not understand."³
• Here is an excerpt from "The Case for Extraterrestrial Little Men," an article written by Jack and Mary Robinson:
  

  "The space being will have to weight at least 40 pounds. It is a scientific fact that the brain of any advanced intelligent being must have a high mental capacity, and must weigh at least 2 pounds. This gives us the minimum possible size of a UFO pilot. At least a 40-pound body would be necessary to contain such a brain."


• ADVERTISEMENT #1: "PREDICTIONS WITH DICE! Ancients believed tossed dice revealed future. New, informative method....$2.00. Enclose stamped, addressed envelope. Californians add 4% tax. Predicta-Dice, Dept. 10, 1722 S. Crescent Hts. Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90035."
• ADVERTISEMENT #2: "MY CONTACT WITH FLYING SAUCERS — by Dino Kraspedon — $3.50. A famous Brazilian scientist tells of his unique experiences with space beings."
• ADVERTISEMENT #3: "FLYING SAUCERS IN THE BIBLE — by Virginia Brasington — $3.00. Did you know that portions of the Bible actually describe flying saucer sightings in ancient times? The complete story appears in this stimulating book."
• Here are some of the entries in this issue's largest section — eight pages of "Recent UFO Sightings":
  
  • On the night of March 26th, a 13-year-old boy named Charles Cozens, of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, saw two strange "ships" land in a field behind a police station in a residential section of town.
  
  • In Australia, another flying saucer "nest" has been found. ... The latest "nest" is in a swamp near Bankstown, and consists of an almost symmetrical 20-foot-diameter circle of flattened reeds. A local woman and her neighbors claimed they saw mysterious white lights in that area for several nights in a row.
  • On the morning of April 6th, two 12-year-old boys on their way to school in Norwalk, Connecticut were attacked by a silvery ball, eight feet in diameter, which dove four times to within 15 feet of the ground.
  • A terrified 11-year-old girl in Dorchester, Mass. reported that at about 4 a.m. on April 25th, a flying saucer of some sort banged into the side of the house and rocked her bed.
  • On April 25th, Governor Haydon Burns of Florida saw an unexplained aerial object while flying through the state on a political campaign. The encounter occurred while the Governor's private plane was at 6,000 feet over Ocala, Florida, and involved a lighted UFO at some distance from the aircraft.

• Finally, saving the best for last, here's the magazine's verbatim description of a sighting that took place right here in York, Pennsylvania. (It states that the description was taken from the June 13, 1966, issue of The (York) Gazette and Daily, the predecessor of my paper, the York Daily Record/Sunday News.)
  

  "On June 12th, a family of five living in a rural area near York, Pa. observed a flying saucer hovering over the treetops within 700 yards of their home. The object had 'compartments' that glowed with 'soft-colored lights,' and was in the shape of a flattened triangle. It made various zig-zag motions in the sky that definitely eliminated the possibility of it being a satellite, according to the witnesses, who watched the UFO through binoculars off and on for 25 minutes."

  I'll have to get into the microfilm archives and see if I can discover anything else about that local UFO sighting from the Summer of '66.
  

Footnotes

1. Of course, if your living room still looks like one of these rooms, you might just have some 1960s publications laying around.
2. I wonder if the Kenneth Larson mentioned is Hollywood set designer Kenneth A. Larson.
3. Clearly, those issues were stolen by aliens. Or the government. You decide.