The article below was published in the daily newspaper Idaho Daily Tribune, Lewiston, Idaho, USA, July 11, 1947.
See the case file.
By DAVE JOHNSON
(Idaho Statesman Aviation Editor)
Boise, July 10 -- AP -- Eastman laboratories in San Francisco reported today that film sent them by the Idaho Statesman failed to show any trace of the object I saw and attempted to photograph during my third aerial search for a flying disc.
The laboratory, speeding the processing on the motion picture film , had it ready by noon. It as projected before an audience of three persons. Nothing was apparent in the screening, and the film was then examined by magnifying glasses.
E.W. Stohr, manager of the laboratory's cine service division, said that it was doubtful the camera could have caught the object at the distance attempted.
The film used was eight millimeter, about the width of a finger nail. For those interested in the technical side of the subject, the exposure was F 16 at a speed of 16 frames per second.
The object I saw could have been anywhere from 10 to 15 miles away. Its apparent size to me was that of a twenty-five cent piece. The picture was made from an altitude of 14,000 feet. The object was maneuvering against a background of towering alto cumulus and alto stratus clouds.
I am now in the position of having seen an object which might have been a flying disc, but without photographic proof of it. A constant patrol by 190th fighter squadron P-51 fighter planes from three p.m. until dark yesterday failed to result in sighting one of the objects which people throughout the nation claim to have seen.
I can only reiterate that I saw something, that I do not believe I was seeing it through the power of suggestion, and that what I saw was definitely not an aircraft. It was not a balloon.
The Statesman assigned me to an aerial patrol to search for flying discs until I found one or thought I should give it up. Just before I saw the object, I was convinced the time had come to give up.
But despite the fact nothing could be seen on the film, I'm not so sure now about calling off the hunt. I'll sleep on it a couple of days.
Speaking of sleeping, I was snoring away at a great rate last night when an insistent clamor began to break through, dispelling great clouds of flying discs whirling through my nightmares.
It was the telephone. It was midnight here, but only 11 p.m. in Pendleton, Ore., and it was Kenneth Arnold on the line. He heard about my joining the "I saw the disc" club and wanted to talk about it. He was paying for the call, and I propped myself against a bookcase and tried to tell him what I saw. He hoped the pictures would turn out. Arnold is the man who first reported to the nation that he saw flying discs.
Thinking about the pictures, I went back to the hay, and soon was drenched in perspiration, running away from discs, but not getting anywhere.
At one a.m., the telephone jumped off the stand again. I knocked the electric clock off the bed table, dropped a flashlight -- I dunno why I picked the damned thing up -- and grabbed for the phone.
This time it was Paramount newsreel man by the name of Edwards talking. He wanted to buy the film, provided it showed a disc -- or anything. We yammered about that for a while, I promised to call him later, hung up, and staggered back to bed.
An hour later, the telephone went crazy again.
"Hello?" I blubbered.
"Shay, I dowanna bother you thish late, or ish't early, but I gotta theory."
I gritted my teeth, hung up, turned on the lights, went into the kitchen, and ate a plate of green apple pie. I thought I might as well get some nourishment.
Well, that's about the size of it. Some of my friends are jovial about it. Others are downright sympathetic. I don't know which I prefer.
