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October 13, 1954, Montimont, Ardennes:

Reference for this case: 13-Oct-54-Montimont.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

The regional newspaper L'Ardennais for October 15, 1954, reportedly published on page 4 what follows about a case near Montimont near Vrigne-aux-Bois on October 13, 1954:

"Mr. Sadi Lévy. It is a completely bewildered man whom the owners Mr. and Mrs. Jean Poggiali and the waitresses of the coffee "La Croix de Maltse" in Sedan, places Turenne, saw come in their establishment Wednesday evening towards 8 p.m.. It should be said that Mr. Sadi Lévy, reseller of farming machines, residing place of the Market at Sedan, has some family tie with the owners of the coffee shop, which explains why he wanted to tell his adventure to the first people he knew he met on his road. Short-breathed, and still in prey of an extraordinary emotion, Mr. Lévy told his amazed listeners a confusing incident. He was going back from Vrigne-ux-Bois driving his traction [car model] when near the brickyard of Montimont, the car stopped suddenly. Horrified, Mr. Lévy saw in his headlights two strange and terrifying forms: two small beings of a phosphorescent green with large eyes and a tail, according to what he said. Then, the extraordinary vision disappeared and the car restarted. What did Mr. Lévy exactly see? Was he the victim of an hallucination? One thing is sure: his panic noted little time afterwards by several witnesses. The Gendarmerie, which heard of the affair, opened an investigation on this matter."

The next day, the newspaper seems to have published an explanation: the beings were actually calves lit by the headlights of the witness's car.

Reports:

[Ref. met3:] CNEGU - "LES MYSTERES DE L'EST":

[Ref. jsr1:] JEAN SIDER:

French author and ufologist Jean Sider brings back the indications of the local newspaper L'Ardennais of October 15, 1954:

On October 13, at 08:00 P.M., in Montimont near to Vrigne-aux-Bois, in the Ardennes, Mr. Sadi Lévy saw two odd beings in front of his car.

The car's engine brutally stopped. Once the two curious characters were gone, the engine restarted. Jean Sider specifies that the newspaper does not indicate how the engine restarted, if it was by itself or by action of the starter.

Jean Sider indicates that the article of the L'Ardennais, Sedan, for October 15, pages 4 and 16-17, excepted skeptical remarks, said:

"Mr. Sadi Lévy. It is a completely bewildered man whom the owners Mr. and Mrs. Jean Poggiali and the waitresses of the coffee "La Croix de Maltse" in Sedan, places Turenne, saw come in their establishment Wednesday evening towards 8 p.m.. It should be said that Mr. Sadi Lévy, reseller of farming machines, residing place of the Market at Sedan, has some family tie with the owners of the coffee shop, which explains why he wanted to tell his adventure to the first people he knew he met on his road. Short-breathed, and still in prey of an extraordinary emotion, Mr. Lévy told his amazed listeners a confusing incident. He was going back from Vrigne-ux-Bois driving his traction [car model] when near the brickyard of Montimont, the car stopped suddenly. Horrified, Mr. Lévy saw in his headlights two strange and terrifying forms: two small beings of a phosphorescent green with large eyes and a tail, according to what he said. Then, the extraordinary vision disappeared and the car restarted. What did Mr. Lévy exactly see? Was he the victim of an hallucination? One thing is sure: his panic noted little time afterwards by several witnesses. The Gendarmerie, which heard of the affair, opened an investigation on this matter."

[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":

[Ref. met2:] CNEGU - "LES MYSTERES DE L'EST":

[Ref. met1:] CNEGU - "LES MYSTERES DE L'EST":

[Ref. ars1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The website indicates that on 13 October 1954 in Montimont, France, there was an electromagnetic effect: truck stalls. There were three green, glowing humanoids in road. They vanish and truck runs again. There was a police inquiry. "Objects were observed. Electromagnetic effects were noted. An unidentifiable object and its occupants were observed at close range on a road for a few minutes. Three little green men were seen."

The website adds that "Mr. Sadi Levy encountered in a field near this city two small beings encased in a green phosphorescence, with big eyes, and a small tail. (One of the earliest reference to 'little green men')."

The sources are indicated as "Hatch, Larry, *U* computer database, Author, Redwood City, 2002; Rosales, Albert, Humanoid Sighting Reports Database".

[Ref. ars3:] ALBERT ROSALES:

[Ref. tai1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:

[Ref. jgz1:] JULIEN GONZALEZ:

The author indicates that there was a close encounter of the third kind between Vrigne-aux-Bois and Sedan, in Montimont, the Ardennes, on October 13, 1954, at 08:00 p.m.:

Mr. Sadi Lévy was driving back from Vrigne-aux-Bois when, near the brickyard in Montimont, the car suddenly stopped. Horrified, he saw in his headlights two strange and terrifying forms: two little beings of a phosphorescent green with big eyes and a tail. Suddenly the extraordinary vision disappeared and the car restarted. His panic observed shortly after by several witnesses was certain. The gendarmerie had heard of the case and opened an investigation into it.

The author indicates that the sources are L'Ardennais, of Sedan, of October 15th, 1954, and of October 16th to 16th, 1954; and Jean Sider in "Le dossier 1954 et l'imposture rationaliste", page 199.

[Ref. prn2:] PETER ROGERSON - "INTCAT":

Note: The source reference "P Gross URECAT" should have been my file as it allegedly appeared in in my CE3 catalogue URECAT; but the file did not exist teh, there was only this page in its 1.1 version.

[Ref. ars2:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Explanations:

The source of the case is, says CNEGU, the newspaper L'Ardennais for October 15, 1954 and October 16-17, 1954. Renaud Leclet of CNEGU had published in their magazine Les Mystères de l'Est No. 8 of 2003 a transcript of the articles on the saucers of that newspaper for the whole year 1954, but these two articles, which should be at pages 64-66, do not appear: there is indeed an article from L'Ardennais for October 15, 1954, but it is said it was on page 1; and that for October 16-17, 1954, is also that of page 1. None evoked this case which would have been published in both cases on page 4. Renaud Leclet must have seen the articles on page 1 and not think that there would be other saucer articles a few pages further.

I do not have J.-M. Ligeron's book, "Ovni en Ardennes" from 1981 either; it is the first ufological source, it is a self-published book, hard to find, or sold second-hand at quite a price.

I also miss the first version published in LDLN No. 319 by Jean Sider: which is less of a problem insofar Sider republished this in his 1997 book on the 1954 wave [jsr1]. Unfortunately, he published only the article of L'Ardennais of the 15th, "except the skeptical remarks", and did not say a word of the article of the 16-17.

There is nevertheless enough information to understand that the case seems to have been first published in L'Ardennais for October 15, 1954, without explanation, and that the explanation by the "cows" should be in the article of L'Ardennais for October 16-17, 1954, since the CNEGU gives us in their reproduction of the article of L'Ardennais for October 3, 2004: "Explanation imposed at the time: the witness confused with two calves escaped from a meadow...". The phrase "explanation imposed" in French suggests that at L'Ardennais in 2005, one was not quite convinced by the explanation of the time.

That leaves me with two possible explanations: extraterrestrial visitors, or calves lit by the car's headlights...

It also happens that the "skeptical" scientist of the time, Evry Schatzman, a member of the Rationalist Union, did on his side mention in the press that some unspecified case, of "saucer" or "beings", would have been caused by reflections of car headlights in the eyes of cows at night.

Note that here, there was reportedly first a stop of the car - but no headlights failure - the stop would have occurred before Mr. Sadi Levy saw the "aliens" or calves. And these would have then "disappeared", after which the car (a Citroën Traction Avant) allegedly restarted on its own. All this is very strange, but I cannot forget that no saucer was seen and that the so-called extraterrestrials, if they were "phosphorescent", would also have been small, with big eyes, and a tail... Which is quite suggestive of calves...

So, while looking for more information (for example the report of the Gendarmes, not available to date), I think the case was likely a misinterpretation indeed.

Keywords:

(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)

Montimont, Ardennes, Vrigne-aux-Bois, Sadi Levy, Citroën, tail, big eyes, green, characters, car, road, engine, stop, two, headlights, phosphorescent, stop, night, single, scared, two, calf, calves, cow

Sources:

[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.

• [----] Article in the regional newspaper L'Ardennais, Sedan, France, page 4, October 15, 1954.
• [----] Article in the regional newspaper L'Ardennais, Sedan, France, page 4, October 16-17, 1954.
• [----] "Ovni en Ardennes - 10 ans d'enquête sur les soucoupes volantes", book by Jean-Michel Ligeron, self-pubilshed, France, page 139, 1981.
• [----] Article by Jean Sider, in the ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit (LDLN), France, #319, page 18, August 1993.
• [met3] "Complément à la 3ème édition du catalogue Nord-Est des observations d'hamanoïdes", by Raoul Robé et al., in the ufology magazine Les Mystères de l'Est, CNEGU, France, #2, page 8, 1996.
• [jsr1] "Le Dossier 1954 et l'Imposture Rationaliste", book by Jean Sider, Ramuel publisher, France, pages 199, 253, 1997.
• [lhh1] "*U* Computer Database", database by Larry Hatch, USA, circa 2002.
• [----] Article in the regional newspaper L'Ardennais, France, October 3, 2004.
• [met2] "Réponse des 'débunkers de l'Est' à Jean Sider", article Raoul Robé in the annual ufology magazine Les Mystères de l'Est, CNEGU, France, N° 4, page 142, 1998.
• [met1] "Revue de Presse", in the ufology annual magazine Les Mystères de l'Est, CNEGU, France, #10, page 75, 2005.
• [----] "Little Green Men", article by Martin S. Kottmeyer in the Fortean magazine The Anomalist, USA, #10, 2002.
• [ars1] "1954 Humanoid Reports", compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2003, at www.ufoinfo.com/humanoid/humanoid1954.shtml
• [uda1] "13 Oct 1954 - Montimont, France", web page by the website UFOdna, circa 2008, at www.ufodna.com/uf16/uf2/162479.htm
• [ars3] "Not your grandmother's humanoid", article by Albert Rosales, in Phenomena Magazine, USA, #55, November 2013.
• [tai1] "1954: October Sightings", catalog on the UFO website Think About It, USA, not dated, found 2014, at http://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/8-1954-october-sightings
• [jgz1] "RR3 - Le Dossier des Rencontres du Troisième Type en France", book by Julien Gonzalez, Le Temps Présent publishers, France, page 133, 2014.
• [prn2] "INTCAT 1954", catalogue compiled by Peter Rogerson, U-K., circa 2016, at https://intcat.blogspot.com/search?q=1954
• [ars2] "All that glitters is not gray", article by Albert Rosales, in the Alterntate Perceptions magazine, USA, 2016, at http://www.apmagazine.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=343

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This page was last updated on July 25, 2019.