JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

http://iowacomicbookclub.com/wp-atom.php There were several UFO sightings in Hartshorne, Oklahoma in 1966, and John investigated them for his proposed article for Playboy. His folder on the sightings contains a report from NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena), correspondence between Gordon Lore of NICAP and an official in Oklahoma and a geologist in North Dakota, and John’s correspondence with one of the witnesses. In 1966, John was just starting his investigation of UFOs.

First, here’s that NICAP report, which I assume was written by Gordon Lore, since John clipped Lore’s correspondence to it. I’m afraid the 59-year-old photocopy has faded; I did my best to darken it.

John Keel died sixteen years ago, on July 3, 2009. Rest in peace, John. And you Keel fans: keep on reading his books!

Greetings, Keel fans! I’m away from John’s papers at the moment, so I thought I’d give you a better picture of his worm painting. I posted about it a while ago, here. John used 35 earthworms to create this painting for an episode of the game show Play Your Hunch back in 1960; it also made an appearance in his novel Three Women. Here it is!

And here’s the explanation on the back..

Here I am examining that explanation with the composer Dary John Mizelle, photographed by Tyler Maxin.

Ad hnere it is hanging in my library. Below it is a cabinet stocked with stereo cards and magic lantern slides, topped by a stuffed Mothman from Point Pleasant. Beside it is a vintage Edison Diamond Disk player. Animation fans might recognize a cel from Sally Cruikshank’s immortal cartoon Quasi at the Quackadero on the wall above it.

Happy Summer!

And here’s the final installment of John’s radio script “One Way Street,” written for the American Forces Network in Germany in 1954 to warn soldiers about traffic safety. I imagine he and his radio buddies enjoyed assembling all those sound effects. And do drive carefully!

Here’s the second part of John’s 1954 script for the American Forces Network: a PSA about traffic safety told mostly in elaborate sound effects. I don’t know why some sound cues are underlined with solid lines and others with broken lines. Did the solid lines indicate prerecorded sounds? One more installment will follow.

John’s radio work for the American Forces Network in the ’50s often required him to dramatize basic points about military discipline. In this short script, he had to come up with a PSA about the important but dull subject of traffic safety, and he had to remind American soldiers not to drink too much German beer and to drive carefully on the unfamiliar German roads. To make it more interesting, he told it mostly with sound effects.

I’m afraid this will disappoint readers who are only interested in John’s Fortean writing, but I hope some of you will enjoy this little tour de force from the young Keel. Here’s the first part of three.

John Keel was born March 25, 1930. He would have been 95 now. Happy Birthday, John! He’s seen here exploring the mysterious phenomena of Times Square.

Here’s the conclusion of “Things in the Sky,” broadcast by the American Forces Network in 1952, and one of the first things John wrote about UFOs. The photos by Carl Hart that he mentions were of the Lubbock Lights in Lubbock, Texas, which caused quite a stir at the time.

Here’s the next part of John’s radio documentary on UFOs, broadcast in 1952 by the American Forces Network in Frankfurt. Leave it to John to introduce The Book of the Damned to American troops!

I’m back, my scanner problems fixed, at least for now. So, to start the new year, here’s one of the first things John wrote about UFOs–a 1952 script for the American Forces Network in Frankfurt. I suspect John himself played Charles Fort. I posted a brief excerpt of this twelve years ago, but here’s the whole thing, in three installments. Please excuse John’s smudged deletion at the end of p. 3; Fort introduces himself on p. 4.

And Happy 2025!