BAB Firsts: Weird Wednesdays: "In Search Of"

This post was originally published on July 22 2009

Welcome to a regular feature of Bronze Age Babies: Weird Wednesdays, where we look back fondly on books, TV shows, films, and reportedly real incidents connected with the paranormal. Growing up in the 1970s, I was acutely aware of a whole lot of weirdness out there: it seemed like we got reports of UFO sightings almost weekly, and in my home state of California, sightings of the mysterious Bigfoot were also frequent. Supposed psychics like Uri Geller were making appearances on all the talk shows of the day, and books like “Chariots of the Gods” brought pseudo-scientific theories to mass audiences. Television capitalized on the publics' interest with many shows that featured paranormal subject matter.

One of the most interesting TV shows to deal with the paranormal was “In Search Of”, a documentary series hosted by Leonard Nimoy (yes, Star Trek's Mr. Spock). The series premiered in 1976 and covered a wide variety of subjects: UFOs, witchcraft, lost civilizations, Bigfoot – you name it, there was an episode about it! With Nimoy as our guide, we viewers were whisked off into an unseen and sometimes frightening world. What made it all the more terrifying was the creepy music played on the show! This was not a show to be watched when one was alone in the house!

In general, the subject matter was handled in a serious manner. Eyewitnesses and experts were interviewed for each episode. The show sometimes used “recreations” of incidents, which often added some punch, and frequently left this young viewer having trouble falling asleep at night!

This show was one of my first introductions to the wacky world of the paranormal. The variety of topics covered had me going back to the library week after week, trying to dig up any information I could on things like Atlantis, Jack the Ripper, or Easter Island. “In Search Of” managed to both entertain and encourage further thought. Plus, it was flat out scary! For a preteen, it was a pretty good way to start my Saturday night – with the Love Boat and Fantasy Island to follow!

Unfortunately, the show is not currently available on DVD. To get your ISO fix, you’ll have to head over to YouTube.

Weird Wednesdays: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

“It’s the same kind of story
That seems to come down from long ago
Two friends having coffee together
When something flies by their window
It might be on that lawn
Which is wide, at least half of a playing field
Because there’s no explaining what your imagination
Can make you see and feel”

“Hypnotized” by Fleetwood Mac

Although the term “flying saucer” was coined back in 1947, the 1970s were a booming time of UFO activity –at least, a lot of people were seeing strange things in the sky. Maybe because so many social mores were easing, people may have felt more inclined to report such unusual experiences. A person wasn’t automatically assumed to be a drunk or crazy because they claimed to have seen a flying saucer. Certainly, the subject of UFOs, ancient astronauts, and even encounters with alien beings had become part of the popular culture. It was not unusual to see aliens depicted in comic books, television shows, and movies.

Of all the 1970s media depictions of UFOs and alien beings, certainly the most prominent would have been the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind by film-maker Steven Spielberg. This big-budget movie, released in 1977 – the same year as Star Wars – was accurate in many details regarding supposed sightings of UFOs. It approached the subject with two storylines that eventually intertwined, one about investigators seeking out clues to the UFO mystery, and the other about ordinary people whose sightings have dramatically altered their lives. Spielberg was nominated for Best Director by the Academy Awards for the film, and it did win the award for Best Cinematography.

The early encounters with the UFOs are almost directly pulled from the news reports of the day. When lineman Roy Neary (played by Richard Dreyfuss) encounters a multi-colored craft at a dark, deserted railroad crossing, his truck’s engine dies, and nearby metal mailboxes begin to shudder. Suddenly, his entire cab seems to experience a moment of zero gravity, as objects go flying about! He looks out of his window right into the brilliant light flooding the area, and later develops a sunburn. But as soon as the UFO departs, all returns to normal, and his engine re-starts.

This sort of scene was described by many people who claimed to have encounters with UFOs, so Spielberg (who also wrote the film) obviously did his homework. His attention to detail is also evident in the way the UFOs are presented: they are of varying shapes and sizes, all with multiple colored lights, and capable of performing amazing aerial acrobatics. Again, this is all consistent with eyewitness accounts of the time.

But the film falters at the end, when the aliens make contact with a group of government scientists. As is typical with so many Spielberg films, we get a very saccharine happy ending slapped on. The aliens come down, return people they’d kidnapped (in some cases, decades prior), and then take on board their ship a group of willing volunteers. The head alien smiles at everyone and all is sweetness and light.


This is dramatically different than most reports of alien encounters up to that time. Possibly the most famous early 70s encounter was that of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker in Pascagoula, Mississippi in 1973. The two men were fishing one evening when they claimed that a UFO set down near the river and three creatures emerged. The beings seemed to glide rather than walk, and they had a distinctly inhuman appearance. Hickson claimed that they were given some sort of medical exam on the ship and then released (for more info on the case, see the wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascagoula_Abduction).

The real take home point of this is that whatever these men think happened to them, it terrified them. It was not a happy experience! The same can be said for most people who claimed to meet aliens. But Spielberg can’t help himself – he has to give us that happy ending, no matter what. This is, after all, the man who gave us the drippy E.T. the Extraterrestrial. Decades later, he would make a very different film about aliens: a remake of the classic War of the Worlds. But even with this film, with its invading aliens and massive destruction, our hero at the end returns home to find that his missing son is alive and well, despite disappearing in the middle of a warzone!

Close Encounters is an interesting film, well worth seeing if you have an interest in the UFO phenomenon. Just ignore the sweet little aliens at the end!

Weird Wednesdays: Ancient Astronauts?

If you were alive in the 1970s, it would have been hard for you to avoid hearing about Erich Von Daniken and his book, Chariots of the Gods. The book was first published in English in 1969, and quickly became something of a sensation. Von Daniken, a Swiss author, proposed that our planet was visited in ancient times by alien astronauts, and these visitors were worshipped as gods by our primitive ancestors. Von Daniken even theorized that the aliens engaged in interspecies mating, which helped advance mankind! He pointed to many ancient drawings and artifacts, declaring that they showed the influence of an advanced culture on human development. Although Von Daniken was not the first to promote such an idea (nor was he the last), he is undoubtedly the most well-known proponent of the ancient astronaut theory.

This theory, no matter how outlandish, struck a chord with people, as the book became a best-seller and even led to a TV special, In Search of Ancient Astronauts, hosted by Rod Serling. I recall that my father had a paperback copy of the book, and as a child I enjoyed looking through it, as it had pictures of a variety of archeological wonders. Although scientists in general found little evidence to support Von Daniken’s theories, the idea of star-spanning voyagers coming to our backward little planet and driving our evolution has proved to be irresistible to many.

The ancient astronaut concept crops up again and again in popular culture. References to ancient astronauts are often found in works of science fiction. In the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, an ancient alien monolith is found on the moon, and we are shown in flashback that a similar alien monolith on Earth influenced the evolution of early primates.

The original Battlestar Galactica TV series (1978) had opening narration that went, “There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. That they may have been the architects of the great pyramids, or the lost civilizations of Lemuria or Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens…” The show’s design featured a vaguely Egyptian motif.

In 1976, comic book legend Jack Kirby created the Marvel Comics series The Eternals, which related the story of a hidden race of super-powered beings who had been created millennia before by mysterious alien beings known as the Celestials. The Celestials interfered with the natural evolution of humanity. The Eternals were superficially human but possessed of long life spans and great powers, and had been worshipped by human beings as gods in the past. Their names were bastardized versions of gods and heroes (“Makkari” =”Mercury”, “Zuras” = “Zeus”, etc).

The list could go on and on, as the ancient astronaut theory remains popular to this day. As a matter of fact, Von Daniken is still on the lecture circuit at age 74! I did finally get around to reading Chariots of the Gods years ago, and while I found it somewhat entertaining, I really couldn't buy into any of Von Daniken's theories. For one thing, I tend to think our ancestors were a much smarter and more talented bunch of folks than Von Daniken does. For another, it seems like Von Daniken is mostly concerned with stating how dangerous his ideas are, and how "courageous" he is for expressing them. He's almost like a religious fanatic in the sense that he's so convinced he's right, he doesn't even consider other possibilities. But he's not alone -there are many other people who have written books on the subject, and both TV and film continue to keep the idea alive with the public. Although there seems to be little reason to believe in ancient astronauts, the idea still fascinates many.

Weird Wednesdays: Bigfoot on the Big Screen

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It’s safe to say that Bigfoot (or Sasquatch, if you prefer) was ubiquitous in the 1970s. Sightings of the supposed beast began decades prior, and the ‘Bigfoot’ name was coined in 1958 to describe the unusually large, human-like footprints found in logging areas in northern California. As a kid growing up in California in the 70s, I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t heard of Bigfoot. The legendary creature fueled many a nightmare, and made camping a real adventure! But the shaggy one’s popularity was never higher than in the 70s, when he was not only still sighted in the wilderness occasionally, but even more frequently on TV and movie screens around the country.

A number of documentaries were made on Bigfoot; the one that most readily springs to my mind was The Mysterious Monsters, hosted by actor Peter Graves, of the ultra-cool TV show Mission : Impossible. I actually saw this in a theater, and at the time, was quite terrified by it. Looking back now at clips of the film, courtesy of YouTube, I realize just how low-budget and schlocky it really was! How the seemingly-distinguished Mr. Graves got involved with this thing is the real mystery. Still, the flick had some great moments, like when our pal Bigfoot decides he’d like to hang out with a local cutie, and sends his hairy paw through a window for her!

Another Bigfoot film I saw in a theater was The Legend of Boggy Creek. OK, technically the creature in the film was not called “Bigfoot”, but it’s still about a big hairy weirdo who terrifies people, only these people live in the swamps of Arkansas (that’s kind of terrifying all by itself). My recollections are hazy, but I do know there were some young kids in this docu-drama (the littlest one was named T-Fish, which might make sense in Arkansas) and I know I empathized with them a lot, which is why I still remember this pathetic film. You really have to see this thing; it looked like it was made for about $3. I mean, was there no one with any money in the film industry who wanted to make a primo Bigfoot movie? Apparently, the answer is ‘no’.

In my judgment, TV probably did a slightly better job by Bigfoot than film. Of course, the most famous Bigfoot on TV has got to be the one from The Six Million Dollar Man. Well-known wrestler Andre the Giant, and later Ted Cassidy (aka Lurch from The Addams Family) both appeared as our hairy friend. Bigfoot’s story in the show was quite convoluted: he was a cyborg (or android) built by aliens! Of course, after initially fighting Steve Austin, Bigfoot became a good guy – well, most of the time. There were five episodes that featured Bigfoot in 1976-1977. Although both actors were impressively large, I always felt that facially, Bigfoot looked more like a freaky hippie than an ape-man.

Around the same time that ol’ BF was appearing in prime time, he was also stomping through the Saturday morning line up. Bigfoot and Wildboy was a segment of the Sid and Marty Kroft Supershow presented on ABC in 1976. It went off to become its own show in 1979. I’ll admit that I have no memory of seeing this show as a kid; but from what I’ve seen on YouTube and other places, I don’t think I missed anything. This Bigfoot seemed to have a very human-looking face – probably because they couldn’t afford any make-up or prosthetic appliances! Bigfoot finds and raises a young boy (‘Wildboy’) – I don’t even want to go any further with that. Actually, it sort of sounds like something Jack Kirby might have done; he did have Kamandi, and Devil Dinosaur and Moonboy. What a team-up that might have been –Bigfoot, Devil Dinosaur, Wildboy, and Moonboy. Get your popcorn ready!

Of course, any discussion of Bigfoot in the 70s would be incomplete if I did not bring up the most famous pseudo-Bigfoot of all time, Chewbacca. Sure, he’s a wookiee, and his face looks more like a dog than an ape, but come on: is there any doubt that Lucas wasn’t at least influenced by BF when he created Chewbacca? (Hmm, we could do a huge post on all the things that Lucas stole was influenced by when making Star Wars.) Chewie is a big, hairy powerful creature -sounds a lot like Bigfoot to me. Although I haven’t heard of many Bigfoots piloting spaceships. Then again, maybe that’s why no one can find them. I thought it was both appropriate and hilarious when I read that Peter Mayhew, the actor who plays Chewbacca, was worried that he would be mistaken for Bigfoot and shot while filming Return of the Jedi in the forests of northern California. That sort of brings it full circle!

Weird Wednesdays: The Dover Demon

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Karen: Although it’s been over 30 years since I first heard about it, I still hate the Dover Demon. I’m sure most people have no idea what I’m talking about – and good for them. The story is trivial, meaningless, and without any verification whatsoever. But it was a story that struck right at my core, particularly since I had an older brother who took no small joy in scaring me.

The time would have been late spring, perhaps June, since I believe I was out of school already. The year was 1977, and I was 12 years old. I do recall that it was a pleasant night in my central California town, and my brother, Steve, who was 18, myself, and two of his friends had decided to take a walk about half a mile or so to our nearest 7-Eleven, where we might grab a Slurpee or maybe some other treat. It was a clear, warm night and many stars were visible. In other words, it was a pretty nice evening to take a walk. Unless you have a sadistic older brother, that is.

As we wound our way down the streets of our neighborhood, Steve began to discuss a story we’d heard recently on the news. Here I am indebted to Loren Coleman’s wonderful book, Mysterious America, for the particulars of the case, as I was unable to recall them. Four kids in Dover, Massachusetts had reported seeing a strange creature over the course of a 25 hour period on April 21-22, 1977. Witnesses described it as a small, 3-4 foot tall, spindly humanoid, with light, peach-colored skin, and long toes and fingers. The most disturbing detail was its head: it was unusually large, shaped like a watermelon, and had no features except for two large glassy eyes. The kids saw it in different locations in their small town, all at night. One witness, John Baxter (whose drawing is shown above, from Coleman's book) saw it climb over rocks in a gully, with its feet “molded” over the stones.

As we walked along, talking about this weird thing, we approached a large brick wall. There were no street lights in the immediate area and it was fairly dark. My brother said, “What if we saw that thing right now? What if it was climbing up over that wall?” I told him to shut up, which of course only goaded him on. “What if it was crawling along the wall, staring at us with those big, glowing eyes?” That was it – I was completely freaked out. The hairs on the back of my neck were at full attention. But Steve kept it up. I wanted to run back home, but we were too far and I was too scared to do it alone now. I had no choice but to keep going with them, nervously looking over my shoulder.

We finally made it to the 7-Eleven, and I was able to calm down. Nothing like a cherry-cola Slurpee for a case of nerves! The only problem was, we now had to walk back past that wall again!

As we walked towards the wall, things were quiet. Probably the only sound was our footsteps, and me drinking my Slurpee. Suddenly my brother yelled, “What’s that?” I just about choked! I looked around frantically only to see Steve laughing at my reaction. I wanted to kill him, but even more, I wanted to get home!

As far as I know, the Dover Demon has never re-appeared - except in my imagination, whenever I am out for a walk at night. Damn you Steve.