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The Man Who Invented

Flying Saucersby Professor Solomon

http://www.professorsolomon.com

,

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The Man Who Invented FlyingSaucers

R flying saucers. Who was Palmer? And how couldhe have been responsible for UFOs?

Palmer was the editor ofAmazing Stories, a popular

science-fiction magazine. From 1945 to 1947 he ran a seriesinAmazing that became known as the Shaver Mystery (orto many, the Shaver Hoax). Author Richard Shaver wroteabout a subterranean world inhabited by Deros. Travel-ing about in flying disks, these demonic creatures wereresponsibleby means of secret raysfor most of the illsof Mankind. Shaver claimed to have actually visited the

caves, and insisted his stories were factual.And Palmer (who edited and rewrote the stories) pre-

sented them as such. The most sensational true story evertold, he announced. He also printed letters from readers

who claimed to have had contacts with the Deros, or tohave spotted their ships in the sky. We all know somethingstrange is going on, editorialized Palmer. It has happened

to thousands of us. The circulation ofAmazing Storiessky-rocketed, until the publisherworried that it had gottenout of handquashed the series.

Years later, Palmers assistant editor told how the serieshad originated: Early in the 40s, a letter came to us fromDick Shaver purporting to reveal the truth about a race offreaks, called Deros, living under the surface of the earth.Ray Palmer read it, handed it to me for comment. I read athird of it, tossed it in the waste basket. Ray, who loved toshow his editors a trick or two about the business, fished itout of the basket, ran it inAmazingand a flood of mailpoured in from readers who insisted every word of it wastrue because theyd been plagued by Deros for years.(Quoted in Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of the Pulp

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Magazinesby Ron Goulart.)For those who consider Palmer to be the man who

invented flying saucers (as ufologist John Keel has dubbedhim), the Shaver episode speaks for itself. It was the succsde circulationof a magazine editor who has been described

(by skeptic Martin Gardner) as a shy, good-natured, gentle,energetic little man with the personality of a professionalcon artist, whose primary motive was simply to createuproars that would sell magazines.

But Palmer didnt stop with the Deros and their flyingdisks. He went on to found and edit Fatemagazine, which

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reported on UFOs and other mysteries. And in Fatehe pro-moted a new theory: that flying saucers came from OuterSpace. The second issue featured an article by Kenneth

Arnold, titled Are Space Visitors Here? (Arnold was the

pilot whose UFO sighting in June 1947 inspired the termflying saucer, and prompted a wave of similar reports.)Palmer also coauthored a book with Arnold; founded apress that specialized in UFO publications; and (in theopinion of some) mischievously transformed the alienspaceships of science fiction into the flying saucer phenom-enon. A hunchbacked dwarf (due to a childhood accident)

with a wicked sense of humor, Ray Palmer has been accused(by Daniel Cohen in Myths of the Space Age) of having pro-grammed the imagination of an entire generation of flyingsaucer enthusiastsa programming that spilled over tothe general public.

It is fascinating to look through issues ofAmazing Storiesedited by Palmer, and examine the illustrations. There aredisk-shaped spaceships and bug-eyed aliensfrom thedecade before the first sightings of flying saucers. Was theman prophet...or progenitor?