Space Review

History

Albert K. Bender founded the International Flying Saucer Bureau in 1952, operating from P.O. Box 241, Bridgeport 2, Connecticut. Space Review was its official publication: a small newsletter running to perhaps a dozen pages per issue, published quarterly. The first issue appeared in October 1952. Each issue was copyrighted by Bender personally.

The IFSB grew rapidly during the 1952 sighting wave. Bender appointed state and international representatives who recruited members and forwarded sighting reports to headquarters. The organisation maintained representatives across the United States and abroad: J. Ronald Albert covered Canada from Ottawa, Paul Baudat represented France (he appeared on French radio speaking about the IFSB and flying saucers), and the network extended to England, where a Mrs. D.M. Woodall of Bristol claimed to hold seances with Senator Marconi on the subject. Gray Barker, who would later become central to the Men in Black narrative, contributed a regular "Thought for the Month" column.

Space Review's content was a mix of sighting reports, book reviews, profiles of IFSB representatives, speculative articles about Mars, and reprints from wire services and newspapers. The October 1952 inaugural issue reported sightings from the summer wave: radar contacts over Washington D.C. in July and August, sixty reports from midtown Manhattan within ten days, an unidentified metallic object over Los Alamos on August 2, lights over the Mojave Desert the same night, and a flurry of sightings over Bridgeport itself following the IFSB's formation. Bender noted, with characteristic enthusiasm, that "the flying saucer occupants know of the formation of the IFSB and its purpose."

The February 1954 issue shifted toward popular astronomy and space travel speculation. Bender wrote about Mars approaching opposition, reviewed books on physical meteorology and interplanetary travel, and published predictions for 1955 that ranged from a cancer cure to Noah's Ark being found by explorers. The tone was earnest and occasionally naive, mixing genuine scientific reporting (an Associated Press story about anti-proton detection by Dr. Marcel Schein at the University of Chicago) with mystical speculation.

Each issue dedicated itself to a member who had provided "exceptional service to IFSB." The July 1953 issue honoured Gail Sprague of Wausau, Wisconsin. The October 1953 issue was dedicated to August C. Roberts of Jersey City, who served in the IFSB's Department of Investigation and had personally investigated a fireball incident in New Haven, Connecticut on August 20, 1953, where a ball of fire punched a foot-square hole through a 20-gauge steel signboard.

Then, in late 1953, Bender abruptly shut down the IFSB. The final regular issue had appeared in October 1953 (Volume 2, Number 4). Three more issues appeared in 1954 as a "limited and restricted publication," increasingly focused on speculative content about Mars and the future. The newsletter announced its final issue would not appear until "the latter part of October, 1954." It never came.