Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York

History

Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York held its first meetings in late 1954, making it one of the earliest organised civilian groups dedicated to investigating unidentified flying objects in the United States. The group met on Friday evenings at Steinway Hall, 113 West 57th Street, sixth floor, in midtown Manhattan. Ted Bloecher ran the meetings. Marty Meyerson served as Secretary-Treasurer, operating from 67-90 Groton Street in Forest Hills. The organisation maintained district representatives across the New York metropolitan area: Krupp and Bloecher covered Manhattan, Harold covered Brooklyn, someone on Long Island at 2070 Mott Avenue, and Elliott Rockmore at 341 New York Avenue.

The group distinguished itself immediately through the calibre of its speakers and the seriousness of its investigative approach. At the January 28, 1955 meeting, Dr. Ivan Sanderson, the naturalist and Fortean researcher, delivered a lecture covering his personal investigation of the Flatwoods, West Virginia incident of September 12, 1952. Sanderson had travelled to Braxton County for the North American Newspaper Alliance, interviewed the witnesses extensively, and developed a theory about industrial smog layers affecting the operating parts of whatever had landed on that hilltop. His account was detailed and physical: the pulsing red object seen by dozens of witnesses, the creature with blood-red lens-like eyes standing ten to twelve feet above the ground on the ridge crest, the overpowering metallic stench, and the collie dog that dashed into the mist, turned howling in mid-air, and was later found dead.

The February 1955 meeting featured Richard Victor, Field Service Representative in the Electronics Division of Curtiss-Wright Aviation, who had been interested in UFOs for more than sixteen years. Victor discussed the phenomenon from the viewpoint of aviation and radar, described personal sightings and others reported to him, and suggested a theory to account for their origin and purpose.

CSI took its public reputation seriously. When Meyer Berger's column in the New York Times on February 11, 1955 described the group inaccurately, linking it to a Third Avenue bookshop and calling it a haven for "occultists" and "wide-eyed teen-agers gripped by space virus," CSI published a point-by-point correction. The organisation did not meet at the Rigberg bookshop. It did not publish "Flying Saucer News." It was trying, as the correction stated, "to concentrate in a serious and responsible way on the factual material involving unidentified flying objects."

The publications in this collection consist of meeting summaries, speaker reports, and a publication index. Each issue cost ten cents for non-members. The group maintained connections with other civilian research efforts, including CRIFO (the Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects group run by Leonard Stringfield in Cincinnati) and tracked developments like Frank Edwards's return to radio broadcasting, sponsored by locals of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.