July 1964 – UFO Over Lorain!

Remember when Lorain was visited by a UFO?

The article above appeared in the Lorain Journal on July 20, 1964 and documents that event with a nifty illustration of the rocket ship-shaped UFO by Lorain resident J. Richard Lukovics.

The follow-up article on July 21, 1964 (below) notes that many people saw the same thing. But the FAA wasn't volunteering any information. Sounds like a cover-up to me!

I remember as a kid worrying about UFOs landing (that is, when I wasn't worrying about Lorain being wiped off the map by another tornado). It probably had something to do with my hearing the recording of the original Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast when I was very young. The radio drama is still scary if you happen to catch a replay of it around Halloween.

To add to my irrational fears, I remember my parents jokingly saying that our July 4th firework displays probably caught the attention of beings from other planets. Naturally, the aliens would want to see what the ruckus was all about, and would swoop into our atmosphere for a closer look.

I don't know if there are more UFOs reported around July 4 or not, but I still associate visitors from another planet with our country's birthday celebration.

Coincidentally, I watched some of the SyFy Channel's traditional holiday Twilight Zone marathon on July 4, and it seemed most of the episodes I saw had a storyline about invaders from Mars!

U.F.O. Research Bureau of Lorain – April 1971

Do you believe that UFOs are space vehicles from another planet, piloted by creatures that are possibly here to learn more about us?

I think it’s possible. (Nothing would surprise me these days, when you never know if you’re getting the truth about anything from the media.)

While growing up, I used to think about UFOs a lot. It’s probably because my parents had told me about the War of the Worlds radio broadcast and the chaos that followed.  

The Journal also helped fuel my interest (or anxiety, as the case may be) with the small feature about UFOs that ran on the comic page. And we even had a paperback book about the Incident at Exeter around the Brady household. 

Today, there are all sorts of forums on the internet for those who believe we are not alone in the universe, to share their thoughts, theories and stories with others who feel the same way.

But that wasn’t the case fifty years ago – which is why I find the story below from the April 3, 1971 Lorain Journal about the U.F.O. Research Bureau of Lorain so interesting.

It took a lot of guts for the two gentleman in the article to share their views about their beliefs about flying saucers so freely (and allow themselves to be photographed by our pal Gene Patrick).

And like I said, I think just about anything is possible today – so perhaps the saucer buffs mentioned in the article were well ahead of their time.

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I wrote about a 1964 UFO sighting over Lorain back here.

UFO Scrapbook 1960s - 1970s

May 11, 1966

Remember the Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) craze that began roughly in the early 1960s and kept going right into the 1970s? It seems like everybody was seeing UFOs and wondering if these strange sightings were space crafts, piloted by visitors from another planet.

This all played out in the Lorain Journal. There were local and national sightings, as well as the never-ending debate as to whether or not the U. S. Air Force (or federal government as a whole) was holding back secret information that would confirm that we were being visited by aliens in flying saucers.

Then there was the daily panel on the Journal comics page entitled Our Space Age, created by Otto Binder for distribution by the Bell-McClure Syndicate. It had the effect of keeping UFOs on the public's collective minds constantly – and possibly contributing to some people thinking they saw one.

I remember all this, and being concerned as a kid that there were aliens out there that might invade us. (And it's all because of Mom and Dad telling me about the panic caused by the radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. 

It seems like there were sometimes UFO sightings that coincided with the Fourth of July. I recall one of my parents remarking that the fireworks probably attracted their attention, and they zoomed in for a closer look.

Anyways, here's an ample sample of clippings with some random panels from Our Space Age added to the Martian Mix. The first one is interesting to me because we knew the Lorain family mentioned. I went to school at Charleston Elementary with Bill Milks (who later serviced my lawn mower as well as my parents'). 

March 30, 1966

August 27, 1966

Sept. 10, 1966

Nov. 18, 1966

Feb. 10, 1967

May 3, 1967

May 8, 1967

May 18, 1967

Oct. 11, 1967

Nov. 24, 1967

Dec. 19, 1967

July 30, 1968

Feb. 6, 1969

June 14, 1969

Sept. 17, 1969

Sept. 23, 1969

Oct. 6, 1969

April 5, 1971

Sept. 12, 1971

July 19, 1974

March 11, 1975

UFO Over Yala's – April 1967

Courtesy Craiyon.com

You're probably familiar with Yala's Pizza, Lorain's longtime westside favorite since the 1950s (rebranded a few years ago as Fran's Pizza).

But did you know that there was a UFO sighted over the iconic pizza parlor back in April 1967? Read all about it below in this article that appeared in the Journal on April 28, 1967. (I'm betting Alan Hopewell remembers this.)

I couldn't find a follow-up story in the weeks after the sighting, so I'm assuming that the report went into Project Blue Book, along with a grease-stained Yala's carryout menu.

Appropriately enough, the following "Our Space Age" comic panel appeared in the Journal a little more than a week later on May 9, 1967.

UFOs in our area have been a regular topic on this blog for some time. There were so many articles and reports of sightings in the Journal when I was growing up that flying saucers were always on my mind (and something else for me to worry about besides trying to achieve all A's).

The Passing Scene – August 6, 1966

To finish out this third week of August, here's yet another edition of Gene Patrick's "Passing Scene" comic strip that ran in the Lorain Journal back in the 1960s and 70s. This strip appeared in the paper on August 6, 1966 and is a little timely in view of what's going on in Lorain right now, school-wise.

In addition to recent U.F.O. sightings, the comic acknowledges the Lorain City Schools having recently hired Dr. Joseph F. Calta to be the Superintendent. Dr. Calta would have the job from 1965 - 1975. (You can read more about Dr. Calta and his long career in the Lorain school system here.)

Some younger blog readers may not recognize Dr. Calta's dropping into the car as a parody of the old Hertz commercial below.

The Passing Scene – April 1966

Gene's solution to prevent the theft of the Lakeview Park
Easter Basket's eggs: hide a cop inside one

Let's end the week with a few laughs. Here are all five of Gene Patrick's "The Passing Scene" comic strips that ran in the Journal back in April 1966. Enjoy!

The April 2nd edition humorously addressed a late March 1966 UFO sighting in Lorain.

The April 9th strip mentioned sonic booms – something that I remember from being a kid, as well as something that we experienced a few weeks ago.

The April 16th comic contains Gene's hilarious Lakeview Park Easter Basket cartoon.

The April 23nd edition gave Gene the opportunity to do a nice rendering of Hotel Antlers.

And finally, the April 30th strip foreshadowed the eventual replacement of Lorain City Hall and includes a cameo appearance by Batman and Robin.