The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 9-Aug-54-Marseille.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The newspaper Le Provençal, Marseille, published on page 5 on August 27, 1954, an article about a Marseilles resident who "photographed" saucers.
One Mr. L. Alyon, 2, rue Colbert, told them that on Monday, August 9, 1954, at 07:30 p.m. in Marseilles, under a partial haze, he observed for two minutes a dark spherical craft, bright in its periphery, joining a second, cylindrical, object behind the mist, emitting a kind of flashing light.
The saucer then made a sharp 45° turn towards the West and melted with the second object which disappeared at a supersonic speed in said direction.
The newspaper published the photo, visible in this file, and wanted to avoid "making comments, we are not qualified!"
In reality, this Mr. Alyon seemed to be very favored, because he "photographed" saucers all the time in 1954...
[Ref. lpl1:] NEWSPAPER "LE PROVENCAL":
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[Caption of photograph:] Will the photograph communicated by Mr. Alyon overcome the skepticism of Marseille about the saucers?
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To the "flying saucers" and "flying Cigars" file, Marseille can add only one testimony, that of Mr. L. Alyon, 2, Colbert street, to whom we owe the photographic document illustrating this article.
We give below the report that Mr. Alyon communicated to us:
Observation a flying saucer and a cigar flying above Marseille.
Date of the observation: Monday, August 9, 1954.
Time: 07:30 p.m.
Location: Marseille.
Weather conditions: partial fog.
Direction: appearance: East; disappearance: West.
Color: in the beginning, dark, haloed, scintillating with the acceleration.
Approximate dimension: six times the cupola observed at the back of the photograph.
Approximate altitude: three times the height of the hills.
Approximate speed: normal at the beginning, supra-sonic at the departure.
Duration of the phenomenon: two minutes.
General description and observations: dark spherical craft, luminous in its periphery, joining a second cylindrical object being behind the fog, emitting a sort of luminous flickering, the saucer then made an sudden 45° turn towards the West and merged with the second object which disappeared at a supersonic speed in the cited direction."
Let's not offer any comment, we are not qualified!
Let us notice however that in the matter of "flying saucers", Mr. Alyon, though resident of Marseille, was much less favored than these two Norwegian girls (see "La Provence" for yesterday Thursday) who conversed with a pilot of an interplanetary apparatus. Ah! These people of the North! In Marseille, what d'you want? We're satisfied to formulate wishes when shooting stars rain. Eventually we would risk an observation but we are not "saucer-hiking" (yet).
L.-G. G.
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":
| Case Nr. | New case Nr. | Investigator | Date of observation | Zip | Place of observation | Country of observation | Hour of observation | Classification | Comments | Identification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19540809 | 09.08.1954 | Marseille | France |
[Ref. jbo2:] JUAN-VICENTE BALLESTER OLMOS:
| Date | Approx | UFO | Nation | Photo Film | Media | Duration | Blue Book | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08-09-1954 | 19.30 | Fake | OK | Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône (France) | FRA | 13 | PHOTO | L. Alyon/J. Ates | Le Provençal (Marseille), August 27. Patrick Gross, http://www.ufologie.net/1954/9aug1954marseille.htm http://www.ufologie.net/1954/7jun1954marseille.htm Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, http://fotocat.blogspot.com/ (entry 206/04/19) | August 9, 1954 |
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Hoax.
The problem of the photograph is that the photographer, Mr. "L. Alyons" or "Alyon" claimed to have photographed flying saucers on three more occasions:
On May 26, 1954, in Marseille;
On June 7, 1954, in Marseille;
On August 9, 1954 in Marseille;
On August 22, 1954, in Marseilleveyre.
There are thus all chances that the man (and/or men) simply repeatedly produced hoaxes.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Alyon, photograph, sphere, cigar, halation, flickering, manoeuvers, day, fog, weather, cylindrical, turn, fast, L. Alyons, J. Ates
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | April 20, 2006 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | January 6, 2010 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | November 20, 2016 | Addition [ubk1]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | August 1, 2019 | Addition of the Summary. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | November 23, 2021 | Addition [jbo2]. |
