Sometimes the best news is really out of date weird news. Modern reality is a bit depressing and an old relic of an urban folktale can hit the spot like an ice cold lemonade on a hot summer day.
So it was fun to be recently reminded of an obscure bit of Ohio folklore, the Phantom of Route 40 (video link provided by NBC4 of Columbus, Ohio). A nice half-scary tale from the early 1950s with a dash of hot rods and a splash of rational explanation. It plays like a drive-in movie with fun for the whole family.
The story is pretty simple. In the early spring of 1952, a mysterious person roamed late at night up and down a stretch of Route 40 (aka the National Road) near Dayton, Ohio in a high-speed jalopy. The driver would whiz past various lonely truckers, switching on a mysterious system of greenish lights which accentuated the skeleton costume and skull like mask worn by the driver. Once the trucker was thoroughly spooked, the car shot on down the road and would vanish out of sight.
The numerous reports from various frightened truckers kept both the state highway patrol and the local police busy for part of that spring. It even inspired a song (though I have not been able to confirm some of the details contained in the third verse) and a variety of campfire tales. It also added to the extremely rich body of folklore found in the Dayton area (not all of which has to do with Wright-Patterson Air Base). If you watch the TV presentation, there is even a faint suggestion that some one in the area even knows (or at least suspects) who the prankster might be, leaving the tale with a nice sense of possible closure.
To be bad there are a couple of oddities about this tale. We can vouchsafe from the newspaper accounts that this was happening during the period of March through April of 1952. There are strong rumors (though I am having problems confirming them) of other reports that came later (possibly as late as 1953). This suggests that you had one really dedicated prankster.
The eyewitness reports (all from rattled truckers) suggests that the hot rod was rigged with a variety of special lights (interior and exterior). Some of the reports also hints at some kind of fog effect producing a halo around the car's roof. Technically, a car could have been rigged with the equipment needed back in the early 1950s. However, it would have taken a lot of equipment back then. I also doubt if the car could have handled a fog machine. It would have required a prankster who was not only a hot rod enthusiast, but also a reasonably gifted electrician and lighting designer.
All of which is possible but this guy is now becoming a very versatile chap. He might also have been on the thin side since he would be losing space inside the car due to all of the equipment he must have been hauling around. But this is all still possible.
He also had a lot of free time on his hands. The Phantom of Route 40 was also making appearances on parts of Route 30 and Route 45 near the town of Wellsville, Ohio. These incidents were all taking place during the month of March as well. The Phantom of Route 40 was operating near the Indiana border. Wellsville is midway between Pittsburgh, PA and Youngstown, Ohio, over 200 miles on the other side of the state. Today, it would take about 4 hours to drive from the one spot to the other (mostly by interstate). In 1952, the trip would have easily taken about 7 to 8 hours.
So this was one incredibly dedicated prankster. Guess the guy was pretty tired from sitting behind the wheel by the time he got to Wellsville. Some of those reports claim that the driver was standing on the car's running board while high balling the vehicle along a bumpy road. Was this cool cat good or what!
The thin details of the story makes it almost impossible for any kind of assessment. Most likely, some one was having a blast. But the news reports have just enough odd details with widely divergent locations that you have to wonder. Especially in 1952, when lots of people were looking upward at a major UFO flap. Add in the many tales of ghosts roaming highways and byways and well...who knows.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Monday, July 09, 2012
If They Ever Come From Outer Space
Once again, the anniversary of the Roswell Incident has come and gone and nobody has gotten a day off. You would think that folks in this country would get a lousy day off for something like an alien crash but no...we don't even get any stupid greeting cards.
Oh well. However, it is a good time to reflect on the ever popular notion of alien invasion. Due to a wide variety of factors, the concept is becoming faddish in some mighty strange areas as a solution to world peace (the novel Impact by Douglas Preston) and to economic policies (Paul Krugman and his fake alien invasion proposal). Oddly enough, these ideas are almost starting to sound half reasonable.
What isn't reasonable are the various scenarios for such an invasion. Despite some recent interviews and news programs (such as the NBC Today Show story), we don't really know what the folks at the Pentagon really have up their sleeves in the event of a real War of the Worlds. Unfortunately, it is probably deeply rooted in traditional military concepts. After all, you often get a standard form of thinking from the Pentagon like you get the same type of burger from every McDonald's.
Likewise, the history of the U.S. Military cooperation with certain movies would suggest that the key concept of the film was acceptable to the brass. It doesn't mean that the government is trying to send covert messages to the audience (beyond the usual: 1. We look good; 2. We got lots of neat equipment; 3. Don't worry - if anything happens we can handle it; 4. Why not join?). But it does mean that the core ideas are considered half OK.
So certain Hollywood movies do suggest some of the thinking and basically, it all seems to be rooted in the central concept of total full frontal attack as found in such classics as Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and War of the Worlds. Lots of aliens with lots and lots of ships that come screaming in until it becomes a pitch battle waiting for something that tips the war to Earth's favor.
From a film producers viewpoint, this is the way it ought to be. Major tourist sites get blown up, mass carnage and speculator displays of destruction followed by a nice moral message and a sweet surge of optimism about the human spirit. But to be honest, I doubt if an alien invasion would ever happen in this manner. For one thing, the sheer cost in material needed for a global invasion (even of a smallish planet such as ours) would have to be mind boggling. Even with superior weapons, alien invaders would have to expect a protracted and costly fight.
Of course this type of invasion is also remarkably human in its planning. Presumably this is how we would do it...oh yeah, we are not talking about humans are we. For all I know, we could be talking about methane breathing jellyfish critters from a moon of Saturn.
Which is why I would argue that the real starting point for exploring alien invasion (at least in theory) is best found in the TV scripts of the British writer Nigel Kneale. Especially the four parts of the Quatermass trilogy (long story but it is sort of a four part trilogy).
The most important of the original stories would be Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit (better known in the U.S. by the title of Five Million Years to Earth). Quatermass II answers the question about methane breathing life forms (most likely they would deal with invasion through a radical change of our atmosphere - which would deal with the human issue pretty quickly). As for Quatermass and the Pit, well if you have read Nick Redfern's book Final Events then you can kick back and watch the so-called Collins Elite's worse nightmare. Even more bizarre, Kneale has an incredible skill at making the fantastic seem strangely logical and highly plausible.
Along with the work of Nigel Kneale, I would also highly recommend the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. This tale of an attempted invasion involving a small band of alien-hybrid children is profoundly precise, rational, and deeply disturbing. Good grief, it also sounds modern. But if you cannot find a copy of the book, the original British film version titled Village of the Damned does a good job of conveying most of the book's key points (minus the references to Hegel). Skip the American version. It is extremely weak.
This is merely a short list, but these would be the key works to start any serious study on the subject. I just hope the Pentagon is playing attention.
Oh well. However, it is a good time to reflect on the ever popular notion of alien invasion. Due to a wide variety of factors, the concept is becoming faddish in some mighty strange areas as a solution to world peace (the novel Impact by Douglas Preston) and to economic policies (Paul Krugman and his fake alien invasion proposal). Oddly enough, these ideas are almost starting to sound half reasonable.
What isn't reasonable are the various scenarios for such an invasion. Despite some recent interviews and news programs (such as the NBC Today Show story), we don't really know what the folks at the Pentagon really have up their sleeves in the event of a real War of the Worlds. Unfortunately, it is probably deeply rooted in traditional military concepts. After all, you often get a standard form of thinking from the Pentagon like you get the same type of burger from every McDonald's.
Likewise, the history of the U.S. Military cooperation with certain movies would suggest that the key concept of the film was acceptable to the brass. It doesn't mean that the government is trying to send covert messages to the audience (beyond the usual: 1. We look good; 2. We got lots of neat equipment; 3. Don't worry - if anything happens we can handle it; 4. Why not join?). But it does mean that the core ideas are considered half OK.
So certain Hollywood movies do suggest some of the thinking and basically, it all seems to be rooted in the central concept of total full frontal attack as found in such classics as Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and War of the Worlds. Lots of aliens with lots and lots of ships that come screaming in until it becomes a pitch battle waiting for something that tips the war to Earth's favor.
From a film producers viewpoint, this is the way it ought to be. Major tourist sites get blown up, mass carnage and speculator displays of destruction followed by a nice moral message and a sweet surge of optimism about the human spirit. But to be honest, I doubt if an alien invasion would ever happen in this manner. For one thing, the sheer cost in material needed for a global invasion (even of a smallish planet such as ours) would have to be mind boggling. Even with superior weapons, alien invaders would have to expect a protracted and costly fight.
Of course this type of invasion is also remarkably human in its planning. Presumably this is how we would do it...oh yeah, we are not talking about humans are we. For all I know, we could be talking about methane breathing jellyfish critters from a moon of Saturn.
Which is why I would argue that the real starting point for exploring alien invasion (at least in theory) is best found in the TV scripts of the British writer Nigel Kneale. Especially the four parts of the Quatermass trilogy (long story but it is sort of a four part trilogy).
The most important of the original stories would be Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit (better known in the U.S. by the title of Five Million Years to Earth). Quatermass II answers the question about methane breathing life forms (most likely they would deal with invasion through a radical change of our atmosphere - which would deal with the human issue pretty quickly). As for Quatermass and the Pit, well if you have read Nick Redfern's book Final Events then you can kick back and watch the so-called Collins Elite's worse nightmare. Even more bizarre, Kneale has an incredible skill at making the fantastic seem strangely logical and highly plausible.
Along with the work of Nigel Kneale, I would also highly recommend the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. This tale of an attempted invasion involving a small band of alien-hybrid children is profoundly precise, rational, and deeply disturbing. Good grief, it also sounds modern. But if you cannot find a copy of the book, the original British film version titled Village of the Damned does a good job of conveying most of the book's key points (minus the references to Hegel). Skip the American version. It is extremely weak.
This is merely a short list, but these would be the key works to start any serious study on the subject. I just hope the Pentagon is playing attention.
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