UFO-Mation

History

The New York Saucer Information Bureau published UFO-Mation as its quarterly journal from PO Box 26, Planetarium Station, New York. John Hay edited, Bruce M. Dolen served as art director and co-editor, Constance Lois Jessup handled circulation and publicity, and Lou Becker managed production. Subscription was $1.00 per year for four issues plus supplements; single copies cost 25 cents.

Douglas Deane had founded NYSIB on 1 January 1958, with a constitution calling for the organisation to "stimulate the thinking and reasoning powers of an underestimated citizenry, for the elevation of mankind to its rightful heritage." By the Winter 1959 issue (Vol. 1, No. 1 of UFO-Mation itself), Dolen had taken over as Director, with Ethel Goldenbergh as Secretary, Becker as Treasurer, Jessup on publicity and lectures, Adrienne Munkeberg as Librarian, and Hank Dannenberg as Sergeant at Arms.

NYSIB met at 50 East 69th Street, between Madison and Park Avenues, on the Upper East Side. The group's stated policy was to serve as "an unbiased speaking platform and sounding board" rather than to indulge in controversy or speculation. In practice, the speakers who crossed their stage (Aho, Storm, Carr associates) placed NYSIB closer to the contactee-and-free-energy fringe than to the investigative wing represented by their crosstown neighbours at Civilian Saucer Intelligence. The newsletter's re-dedication editorial acknowledged that some members had come to believe NYSIB was "now defunct" and that reorganisation was needed.

Gil Wilson, a muralist noted for his Moby Dick paintings (used by John Huston to model sets and characterisations for the 1956 film), presented colour slides of "Mr. World and the Hue-mans" at the February 1959 meeting, depicting humanity's relationship with the atom bomb. This mixture of fine art, science fiction, and saucer culture in a single evening's programme captures the specific milieu NYSIB inhabited.