The 1954 French flap:

Saucers and cigars multiply in the sky of France

MP calls for official investigation

After the astonishing observations which excited and intrigued last week, more than a thousand Rome residents, in the course of the last forty-eight hours, many Frenchmen, in various regions, witnessed these phenomena in their turn.

It is confirmed once more (and this is the essence of this great mystery) that the reports match as to the strange evolutions of these unknown devices. Once again, too, the thesis of hallucination is hardly admissible. General perplexity is a fact on which everyone agrees, while "saucers" and "antisaucerists" will find there an exciting and inexhaustible conversation topic.

Michèle Morgan and an old gentleman saw "something" on the Esplanade des Invalides

The beautiful French movie star, Michèle Morgan, witnessed while passing on the Esplanade des Invalides a celestial phenomenon about which she stated:

"I'm sure it was not the lights of the Eiffel tower or the lights of an airplane, for I saw the craft going up vertically. An old gentleman, who was near me, and who had also noticed the phenomenon, ran away.

Her friends gently teased her by reminding her that she had played the part of Joan of Arc. But the star persisted in confirming what she had seen.

A ball of fire in the Seine-et-Marne

Until now, flying saucers had never been seen in the Seine-et-Marne. Everything happens, since, on Wednesday, around 8:30 p.m, two residents of Saint-Fargeau witnessed the moves of a ball of fire. These persons are worthy of faith, it is the appariteur Mr. Binet, and Mr. Ravot, butcher.

The latter was returning from Ponthierry when he saw through the windscreen of his car, just before him, a ball of fire moving in the sky.

"I was so surprised," he said, "that I stopped my car, I went out and followed the machine with my eyes for a few minutes. It moved horizontally, sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left, then disappearing in the clouds. It appeared four times, and I noticed in its back a small trail of light, not very long."

Back home, Mr. Ravot could not resist the desire of calling his neighbor, Mr. Binet. The two men inspected the sky, but in vain. Suddenly the butcher's little girl uttered an exclamation. The ball of fire had made a new appearance. Mrrs. Binet and Ravot saw it clearly. It paused for a few seconds before disappearing into the clouds.

Let us repeat this testimony of one of our readers, Mrs. Gamundi, living on 192 avenue Jean Jaurès, Paris. The day before yesterday, she was driving by car between Fontainebleau and Essonne, and for half an hour she watched a motionless luminous ball surrounded by a kind of smoke, from which other luminous balls were falling. The ball shifted suddenly and rose at high speed.

At the moment when returning from [...]

[...] cigar shape surrounded by a kind of purple blue steam.

- Another cigar, matching the characteristics of the one observed in Rome, was seen by three people from Lodève (the Herault). The craft seemed to tow a shining globe at a speed of 1,500 km per hour.

As of Dr. Mercier, of Le Puy, he declared that he had observed, twice above the town, a silent round, brilliant object, which moved from south to north at a very high altitude. This machine would also have been seen by several farmers around Le Puy.

- In the Puy-de-Dôme, new witnesses of the phenomenon became known. The craft had a red color. It was a very elongated cigar which, and this is the first time that this particularity is reported, flew sideways. It was absolutely clear, without trail, and seemed to fly very high.

The other night, around 11 p.m., three young boys aged 16 to 17, who were walking on the jetty of the harbor of Banyuls-sur-Mer (PO), saw in the sky an oblong object moving at high speed and from which seemed to come out red and green flames. A little frightened, the boys went to tell their story to various consumers who were on the terrace of a coffee shop, but thee latter watched the sky and saw no trace of the mysterious machine.

Mr. de Léotard asks the Ministry of the Air for an official investigation

Mr. de Léotard, MP of the Seine, in a written question, explained to the Secretary of State for the Armed Forces (Air) that recent testimonies relating to "flying saucers" and "flying cigars" are intriguing the public opinion, if not to worrying it, he asks:

(1) If instructions have been given for these phenomena to be systematically and scientifically observed;

(2) If these "saucers" or "cigars" could not be hunted for better observation so that the public would know exactly if come collective autosuggestion has to be dissipated or whether it is necessary to consider these phenomena to the point of view of security and national defense.

SAUCERS AND CIGARS CLOG IN THE SKY

... and cause a traffic jam in England

Cigars, orange balls, green discs, phosphorescent globes: since Sunday, it's been a continuous parade of flying saucers of all models. You can see them everywhere: in the East, in the West, in Lorraine, in the Parisian suburbs, in England. Actress Michèle Morgan believes she saw two of them the other night above the Invalides.

Do they take off from Mars or do they come out fully armed with the imagination of spectators obsessed with tales of anticipation and the revelations of "skeptical" journalists? We still don't know. But we hesitate to qualify as jokers those who report these "apparitions" when among them are - this is the case near Châteauroux - two gendarmes in uniform and in the exercise of their functions.

The two gendarmes, MM. Courtaud and Peninon, were on patrol the other night in Montierchaume, when they saw a luminous machine immobilized in the sky, then two others of greenish color, at an altitude of about 1,500 meters.

A country keeper, M. Louis Moll, from Obersdorf [sic] (Moselle) also assures us that he saw Sunday in the sky "a weird thing" that arose near the village of Tromborn.

- The craft, he said, looked a bit like a small bus. It then took on the appearance of an orange ball.

It is also a phosphorescent ball, but red this times and followed by a luminous trail, that a butcher of Saint-Fargeau, Mr. Rabot, saw yesterday evening around 8 a.m. near Ponthierry, a few kilometers from Melun.

Mr. Rabot thought he was seeing things and fled to find his neighbor, Mr. Binet, who came out with his wife. Both saw the saucer like him, as it continued to move for a few minutes.

In the Hérault, it is a flying cigar "towing" a fiery red gobe, that three residents of Lodève saw the other evening.

It was also seen yesterday, in the Vendée, by about thirty people, in Sigournais and Saint-Prouant. It was purple blue and shaped like a carrot... "topped of a sort of disc".

An industrialist of Origny-en-Tiérache (Aisne), Mr. Chovel, said today that he also saw, the other night, an orange disc which moved a hundred meters above the trees, at a dizzying pace.

Traffic jam

There will soon be a cigars and saucers traffic jam in the sky. Meanwhile, traffic was interrupted yesterday for an hour in Blackpool (England) by onlookers who contemplated a "round white object" swaying in the sky... and which, according to the authorities of the nearby aerodrome, may just be a simple weather balloon.

Michèle Morgan said she saw flying saucers

Paris, September 24. Before yesterday evening at 7:40 p.m., Michèle Morgan returned home, at the Invalides, completely distraught, her big eyes out of her head.

She had just witnessed an extraordinary sight she describes:

"- I saw, on the Esplanade, in the sky, two luminous globes, the largest one looked like a big star. And I'm sure it was not the lights of the Eiffel Tower, or those of an airplane, because I saw it suddenly rise vertically."

"An old man, who was near me, and who had also noticed the phenomenon, ran away like a young champion."

"When I got home, I immediately phoned my husband to tell him of my extraordinary emotion. He listened with skepticism. Nevertheless, I am sure I was not the victim of an hallucination. "

Although she incarnated Joan of Arc, Michèle Morgan does not want people say she had visions.

THE RAGE IN FRANCE

'Saucer' buzzes Napoleon tomb

To be anybody at all in France these days you practically have to have seen a flying saucer, preferably one of the iridescent ones that change color like a juke box.

Being able to down gallons of champagne, or owning a slightly rundown château or even attending an opening at a theater hardly counts.

Flying saucers, and now flying cigars, are "sighted" practically daily by witnesses who are upstanding citizens, model of probity and sobriety and pillars of the community.

Latest to report the phenomena was movie star Michèle Morgan who said she sighted a luminous disc hovering over the dome of Les Invalides, where Napoleon is buried.

"An old man near me also saw it," Miss Morgan said. "But he ran away."

Rainbow flying saucers are the rage in central France where draughtsman Jean Besse said he watched one Friday night through powerful binoculars. He said it changed color three times in a few seconds.

At Le Puy, west of here, hotel owner Marcel Maillet said he saw an iridescent saucer changing color like a juke box.

Louis Moll, a railway crossing guard at Oberdorff said he saw a saucer "land" last Sunday.

"It was about 7:15 P.M.," he said. "My eyes were blinded by a great luminous mass which seemed to touch the ground near the village of Tromborn. As it neared the earth, the color changed in what looked to me like Neon tubes. It was the shape of a small bus.

"IT TOUCHED the ground for about 40 seconds ...

Finally it flew off, straight up in the air, lighted by an orange glow which changed to red. I heard nothing."

At Origny - en Tierache, Robert Chovet, his wife and brother-in-law were driving along tuesday night when, he said, they practically ran down a flying saucer.

"It hovered several meters in front of us," he said. "An enormous orange disc at just about tree level. It was immobile for several seconds and then awooshed straight upward with dizzy speed."

AND NOW THE "FLYING BUS"

PARIS, Friday. -- A Rural Guard, M. Louis Moll, said yesterday he had seen a "flying bus" bedecked with "neon lights" descend from the night sky and land near the Lorraine village of Tromborn.

"A great light came down out of the sky. It had the form of a little bus and seemed to have neon tubes around it. There seemed to be little black objects moving around in the lighted machine. After 40 seconds it took off vertically and disappeared trailing orange jets. During all the time I heard no sound."

Another report in the recent series of stories of strange sights in the sky over France came from the town of Origny en Thierache in the north.

M. Robert Chovel, an industrialist, said he and two of his relatives "suddenly found ourselves looking at an enormous orange disc which seemed suspended a few hundred mètres above the trees."

He said it remained still for a time "then disappeared."

At Chateauroux two policemen said they saw a luminous machine hovering at an altitude of about 5000 feet then two other machines of a greenish color at a greater height.

In the Southern Department of Herault several witnesses reported seeing what appeared to be a "flying cigar" towing a fiery red ball at a high speed.

Michelle Morgan the actress claimed she saw two flying saucers over Les Invalides, in the centre or Paris.

A French Deputy has submitted a written question to the Secretary of State for Air asking whether the aerial phenomena are being studied so that the public can be told "what is going on". -- N.Z. P.A. - Reuter.

[...]

At Paris itself, the famous movie star Michèle Morgan, walking on the esplanade of the Invalides Tuesday night, reported seeing two strange luminous globes in the dark sky above the Eiffel Tower. Their weird appearance scared an old gentlemean, who was also looking at the sky, into precipitated fleeing.

[...]

[...] Michèle Morgan, will contribute nothing to overcoming this timidity. The other night, about 7:15 PM, returning home near the Invalides, she clearly observed one of these celestial vehicles that have been so strangely multiplying recently. Unfortunately she told people about it. The press echoed it. After that, she was assailed by telephone calls day and night. "Jokers" asked her if she started having visions when she played Joan of Arc. Finally she had to have her telephone disconnected. You won't get her to testify in the interests of science the next time.

It might be added that the terms "saucer", "cigar" etc., hardly contribute to the serious treatment of these disconcerting manifestations. "Saucer" has a café odour about it, and cigar evoques a postprandial beatitude. The imprudent words create an "atmosphere" scarcely propitious to scientific rigour.

Continental Diary

Flying Saucers - Cigar, Auto Bus,
Etc., Etc., Sighted Over France

By Noel Anthony

Paris, Oct. 9 -- A new wave of flying saucer sightings hit France this week. Film star Michele Morgan set the ball rolling by seeing "something odd" cruising over Les Invalides. She says a portly old gentleman on his evening stroll also so it and took to his heels.

(Note -- Miss Morgan's husband, obviously one of these skeptical types, just laughs and says "imagination." But Miss Morgan points out with fair logic, "how can a girl imagine old gentlemen running like Roger Bannister?")

Other reports describe French nigh skies being visited by (A) a flying cigar (B) Several glowing oranges (C) a violet-blue carrot and (D) what village gendarme Louis Moll, obstinately original, persists in saying was "rather like a small autobus." So far no landings, though restaurant-keeper Jacques Pre has a standing offer of a free meal for two and $50.000 for anyone who brings a Martian in to dinner.

France In Grip Of Flying Saucer Fever

From June GODDARD In Paris

FRANCE, the land of logic, is in the full grip of the fever of flying saucers and of little men in space helmets, who make friendly, if unintelligible, advances to startled peasants, or nail them to the spot with a hypnotic "green ray."

For the past 10 days there have been unnumerable flying saucer reports from peasants, doctors, milkmen, butchers, farmers, housewives, gendarmes, teachers, from the Channel coast to the Mediterranean, from the Pyrenees to the Ardennes, from Britany to Alsace.

According to all these witnesses, the sky over France is alight with sparkling yellow "saucers," bluish globes, "flying cigars," (Once as dramatically reported from Mulhouse in Alsace, surrounded by "12 little cheroots"), plain aluminum "saucers," luminous "cigars," 10 "saucers" which seemed to perform a sort of ballet in the sky, and sometimes just plain "mysterious machines."

Unlike earlier flying saucers, those reported hovering over France fly low, sometimes at about 600 ft, and do not flash across the sky, but remain in view for as long as 15 minutes, or remain apparently immobile.

They variously spit flames, form luminous curtains of light, change color, land and take off vertically without a sound.

MANY French scientists, hitherto skeptical on the flying saucer question, are reported to be somewhat shaken by the multiplicity of reports, and by the fact that some are group observations, or individual reports which tally with others received from adjacent regions.

On the subject of little men or Martians, they reiterate that astronomers have never made any observations which could indicate a high form of life on Mars.

They point out that Mars is a thousand million years older than the earth, and that, if life did once exist there, it probably disappeared in the pink icy deserts which appear now to abound on the planet.

The protagonists of the flying saucers and the little men from Mars have been greatly encouraged by an article in the serious journal, "Forces Aériennes Françaises" (French Air Forces) written by a young aeronautical engineer, Lieut. J. Plantier, and approved by an engineer-in-chief of the Air Ministry.

Lieut. Plantier does not take sides, but merely demonstrates theoretically and by mathematical study that all the phenomenal behavior attributed to flying saucers is perfectly explicable if such machines were using cosmic ray energy,

Lieut. Plantier shows that the reports that flying saucers remain motionless in the sky, accelerate from immobility to 10,000 m.p.h. in a few seconds without any noise, and that living beings can fly in them without being harmed by the acceleration, are completely logical if it is admitted that energy of cosmic rays has been harnessed and that machines can fly at the speed of light.

IRRESPECTIVE of the views of scientists, however, French men and women continue to report daily appearances of saucers and cigars and their encounters with the space men.

First reaction of the honest French citizen in the face of any unusual happening or danger - including, it seems, phenomena from outer space - is to inform the gendarmes.

Accordingly, in villages and towns, bold gendarmes have been "alerted" as the French Press has it, and have been kept busy checking reports and examining alleged flying saucer landing areas for "traces."

Two gendarmes at Chateauroux in Central France themselves saw three luminous green flying objects.

Their police training immediately asserted itself, and they stopped a motor car driver and a cyclist so that they too could look and bear witness. Then the gendarmes made out a full report.

The only tangible evidence to date of a landing is that produced by Mr. Marius Dewilde, a 28-year-old metal worker in the North near Valenciennes.

M. Dewilde, a young man with a hairline moustache, a long - and it must be admitted, humorous - face, said he first saw the "Martians" from his garden near the railway line.

"Two little beings, not more than three feet high," he reported, "each wearing a sort of diving suit with metal helmet, were standing near a 'flying cigar,' which had landed on the railway sleepers."

M. Dewilde had no chance to shake hands or welcome the visitors in the name of the Fourth Republic for, as soon as they saw him, they hypnotized him with a "green ray" while they leapt into their machine which, of course, took off vertically in a thick cloud of smoke without making a sound.

Next day the gendarmes "alerted" at once by M. Dewilde and two inspectors of the Air Force police, found a series of strange regular marks on the railway sleepers, which could have been caused by the "saucer" in landing.

MOST intimate contact with the space men was reported by M. Antoine Mazaud, a farmer, aged 58, with a bushy grey moustache, who lives near Limoges in the Massif central plateau of France.

M. Mazaud alleges that a "Martian" about three feet high emerged from a "flying cigar" and began to talk in an unintelligible tongue. When he realized that M. Mazaud could not understand him, he kissed the farmer on the cheek.

M. Mazaud's argumentative fellow-countrymen, questioning this strange story, immediately wanted to know why a creature from another world should adopt the habit - not even universal on earth, they pointed - of kissing.

"It is surprising that he did not pin a medal on your chest and kiss you on both cheeks," they scoffed.

In view of this unsympathetic response to M. Mazaud's story, it is not surprising, therefore, that M. Yves David, a farmer of Chatellerault, concealed for some days the fact that he had been touched on the arm by a "space man" before being momentarily hypnotized by the "green ray" like M. Dewilde.

M. David was afraid of being laughed at, he said, but eventually asked a friend if anyone else had seen the space man. The friend spread the news and, of course, told the gendarmes.

Two women in the Yonne department gave independent reports of having seen a strange machine in a clearing with a pilot standing next to it. Neither stayed to investigate, however.

DAILY the stories continue. No Parisians have yet reported an encounter with a "Martian," altough, as the wits point out, you would expect them to land on the "Champs de Mars" ("Field of Mars"), the esplanade in the front of the military school.

Cartoonists are fully exploiting the "Martian" and flying saucer season. One, in true Gallic vein, has drawn the classic wronged husband who returns home unexpectedly. He has thrown open the cupboard door to reveal a strange little figure in a spaceman's suit and helmet, and is saying to his guilty wife, cowering in bed: "And that, I suppose, you'll tell me, is a Martian."

Most celebrated flying saucer "spotter" to date in Paris is film star Michele Morgan, who reported seeing one near the Eiffel tower at about 10 p.m.

When Mademoiselle Morgan later complained of the flood of telephone calls from fans and friends who wanted to hear further details, her mother made the dry and essentially French comment:

"You lost a good opportunity that night to hold your tongue."

September 22 [1954]

07:30 p.m.: Saint-Chéron/Breuillet (Seine-et-Oise)

07:30 p.m.: Arpajon (Seine-et-Oise)

08:00 p.m.: Saint-Fargeau/Ponthierry (Seine-et-Marne): sphère des nuées

08:30 p.m.: Rueil-Malmaison/Rebais/Sénart (S.et Oise): luminous ball

08:30 p.m.: Paris 7°(Seine): disque lumineux

? (same h?): Chailly-en-Bière (Seine-et-Marne)/Nationale 7,N. of Fontainebleau (S.et-Marne: clouds sphere + 7 or 8 small lumin. "balls."

Paris, France. That same evening [= September 22, 1954].

Pedestrians in downtown Paris reported seeing two small balls approaching the city and then gain altitude until entering the cloud ceiling. 104.

[...]

102. Paris, France, France-Soir, 24 September 54. Also: Paris, France, Parisian-Libere. 1 October 54.
103. Ibid.
104. Ibid.

A front page story.

October 3rd. London's Sunday Dispatch.

So much was happening in France the English press was forced to take note. Actually the story was too big. The London Sunday Dispatch could only print a summary on its front page. With the situation unclear, errors and the lack of detail was inevitable in the reporting. The Dispatch informed its readers:

"Near Grenoble farmer Joseph Habrat saw a luminous engine moving at great speed.

"His daughter, Yvette, said it came to within 600 yards with a gentle snoring sound.

"A little later two thousand people saw a dozen of them 'dancing a ballet' in the sky.

"Two people at Rixheim, near Mulhouse, watched a cigar-shaped luminous engine surrounded by twelve smaller satellite cigars.

"Three holiday-makers on Carry-le-Rouet beach saw a half-cigar over the port. Three women who saw it described it as leaving a trail of smoke.

"A flying mushroom was reported by a lorry-driver and his friend at Faremontiers. It was in a field and had three tripod-like legs.

"'I tried to approach it,' he said, 'but about four hundred feet away I was stopped by a ray. I felt little prickings. My head swam. I had a cold sweat. I could not move.'

"The mushroom then rose slowly and flew off.

"Dr. Martinet, skin disease specialist at Chambery, watched a flying saucer manoeuvring in the sky for four minutes.

"In the gulf of Gascony the mate and two seamen of a cargo boat saw a moving disc with a greenish glow.

"Actress Michele Morgan saw a luminous disc over the Invalides air terminal in Paris.

"There have been three reports of men from another planet landing in France.

"At Vienne a farmer said the visitor, who wore a kind of diving suit, caressed his arm.

"A woman at Drome saw a being about the size of a child and with a human face. He seemed to be wrapped in a transparent sack.'

"Both visitors to France returned to their saucers and took off vertically.

"A little helmeted and booted man with a revolver firing 'luminous and paralysing rays' was seen by the foreman of a quarry at Marcilly-sur-Vienne and six of his workmen.

"A whistling sound drew the attention of two men at Blanzy to a cigar-shaped machine in a freshly ploughed field.

"The men said the machine was about six feet in length. The pointed tip was yellow, the rest of the cigar brown.

"As they approached the machine it rose vertically.

"A policeman, a grocer, and eight other people saw an incandescent 'cigar' at Agen.

"A brilliant ball appeared to a stallkeeper at Belesta. He said it left a trail of grey smoke as it shot through the sky."

The author of the aforementioned account noted that at the same time that day (October 3, 1954) 40 miles away an amazing "sky display" was taking place above a wooded area near the village of Marcoign, France, before 20 witnesses. That so many people at the same moment at different locations should have a similar hallucination boggled the writer's mind, so much so he consulted a psychiatrist assigned to the Law Courts of the Seine, a Dr. Gouriou.

"Is mass "delusion upon this scale possible?"

The above question was put to the mental health expert who replied he had never known a flying saucer to play a role in any of his patient's hallucinations, and that hallucinations were usually sounds rather than visual images. Moreover, when on rare occasions visual disorders did occur, such problems were nearly always due to toxemia or cerebral lesions which would certainly help to rule out the possibility of a "mass visual delusion." 24.

Dr. Gouriou then wisely ended the interview with: "...I for one think that those who maintain that they have seen saucers do so in good faith, unless of course they are trying to hoax us. But we must never forget that whatever a normal human being sees, he, to a considerable extent interprets, and this fact alone renders all human evidence fallible." 25.

from the UFO Files...

1954: FRANCE'S LONGEST DAY

Forty-three years ago, on October 2, 1954, a wave of UFOs invaded France. Here's the summary...

[...]

"Over Les Invalides airport in Paris, actress Michele Morgan saw a glowing disk." (See FLYING SAUCERS UNCENSORED by Harold T. Wilkins, Pyramid Books, 1967, pages 56 and 57.)

(Editor's Note: Michele Morgan starred with Jack Haley and Gloria DeHaven in the 1943 movie "Higher and Higher." Which, incidentally, was Frank Sinatra's first film.)

[...]

September 1954

Thu 23

Michele Morgan tells her observation of the day before, and is the target of mockeries of journalists and songwriters.