Jun 2, 2021 10:35 PM
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/histor...encounters
EXCERPTS: As early as 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs referred to “green men” in his first science fiction novel A Princess of Mars [...] Then the image of a green alien was further strengthened by a curious widely-publicized event on a Kentucky farm in 1955.
Members of the Sutton family along with a couple of friends showed up at a police station obviously terrified. That is an indisputable fact. They recounted how a “bright silvery object with an exhaust all the colours of the rainbow” landed and humanoid creatures with “an oversized head and arms extended almost to the ground” emerged. When one came towards the back door, two guys grabbed their guns and fired at the “little man” who seemed to be impervious to bullets, did a “flip” and scrambled into the darkness...
[...] The media loved the story and numerous versions were published, often accompanied by drawings of the creatures as described by the witnesses. Large heads, large ears, about three feet tall, glowing eyes, spindly legs, and talons instead of fingers. The aliens were never described as green, their bodies were said to “give off an eerie shimmer as if made of silver metal.”
But one reporter for The Evansville Courier thought the story needed a bit of colour and used a touch of journalistic license. The aliens became “little green men.” Other media followed suit and the legend of “The Siege of the Little Green Men” was born. What actually happened that night remains a mystery but no trace of an alien encounter has ever been found.
The Kentucky aliens were not described as having particularly large eyes, so where does our most common depiction of an alien with large oval eyes come from? For that we go back to September 1961 and what should have been an uneventful drive for a New Hampshire couple. Barney and Betty Hill had taken a belated honeymoon trip and were on their way home when they noted a bright light in the sky...
[...]The next day Betty reported the event to the local Air Force base and a report was taken. ... Because of sleep problems and anxiety, Barney began to see a psychiatrist who referred him to a colleague, Dr. Benjamin Simon, specializing in hypnosis. Perhaps under hypnosis, the couple could recall what actually happened and their anxieties could be resolved. ... The aliens in these adventures are commonly described as having skinny bodies and large heads with oval eyes, just like a picture drawn by Barney under hypnosis depicting the leader of the extraterrestrials who had abducted him and Betty on that lonely road in 1961.
[...] So, now we have a grasp on why the most popular image of an alien is a giant-headed, oval-eyed, greenish creature. That mental picture is born out of some questionable human accounts imaginatively inflated by an exuberant media vying for attention... (MORE - details)
EXCERPTS: As early as 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs referred to “green men” in his first science fiction novel A Princess of Mars [...] Then the image of a green alien was further strengthened by a curious widely-publicized event on a Kentucky farm in 1955.
Members of the Sutton family along with a couple of friends showed up at a police station obviously terrified. That is an indisputable fact. They recounted how a “bright silvery object with an exhaust all the colours of the rainbow” landed and humanoid creatures with “an oversized head and arms extended almost to the ground” emerged. When one came towards the back door, two guys grabbed their guns and fired at the “little man” who seemed to be impervious to bullets, did a “flip” and scrambled into the darkness...
[...] The media loved the story and numerous versions were published, often accompanied by drawings of the creatures as described by the witnesses. Large heads, large ears, about three feet tall, glowing eyes, spindly legs, and talons instead of fingers. The aliens were never described as green, their bodies were said to “give off an eerie shimmer as if made of silver metal.”
But one reporter for The Evansville Courier thought the story needed a bit of colour and used a touch of journalistic license. The aliens became “little green men.” Other media followed suit and the legend of “The Siege of the Little Green Men” was born. What actually happened that night remains a mystery but no trace of an alien encounter has ever been found.
The Kentucky aliens were not described as having particularly large eyes, so where does our most common depiction of an alien with large oval eyes come from? For that we go back to September 1961 and what should have been an uneventful drive for a New Hampshire couple. Barney and Betty Hill had taken a belated honeymoon trip and were on their way home when they noted a bright light in the sky...
[...]The next day Betty reported the event to the local Air Force base and a report was taken. ... Because of sleep problems and anxiety, Barney began to see a psychiatrist who referred him to a colleague, Dr. Benjamin Simon, specializing in hypnosis. Perhaps under hypnosis, the couple could recall what actually happened and their anxieties could be resolved. ... The aliens in these adventures are commonly described as having skinny bodies and large heads with oval eyes, just like a picture drawn by Barney under hypnosis depicting the leader of the extraterrestrials who had abducted him and Betty on that lonely road in 1961.
[...] So, now we have a grasp on why the most popular image of an alien is a giant-headed, oval-eyed, greenish creature. That mental picture is born out of some questionable human accounts imaginatively inflated by an exuberant media vying for attention... (MORE - details)