JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

The second issue of the NYFS newsletter gives an account of the second meeting, reports on members’ activities, reviews a couple of books, and announces the next meeting.  Not surprisingly, John also works in a gibe at Jim Moseley.

As a hard-working television writer, John Keel took on all sorts of work.  Writing for television was not always agreeable to him; in the ’60s, he became disenchanted with it, and started specializing in forteana.

These pitches were, unfortunately, rejected; but if you’ve ever wondered what “The Flintstones” would have been like if it had been scripted by John Keel, read on…

As you may have noticed, I’ve changed to a different theme for this site.  This one permits wider and more legible scans: the former one had frustrating limitations on image size.  With the change, I can now post typewritten pages that can actually be read by the humanoid eye.  I’ll also be going back and upgrading earlier posts, so do browse through the backlog.  I’ve just revamped the unpublished 12th issue of Anomaly, and redone an earlier post on John’s comic book work: you can now enjoy the whole story of “Love in Greenwich Village.”

ADDENDUM:  I’ve added better scans of the first exchange of letters with Ivan Sanderson, and of the Shavertron interview.

ANOTHER ADDENDUM:  And the first “Stendek” column.

There were ten issues of the newsletter (ten and a half, counting # 4 1/2); they were usually one or two pages.  Much of it was written by John himself; other contributors included Mike Lindner, Ron Rosenblatt, Pearl Gonzalez, and Jack Scaparro.  Here’s the first one, which lists the charter members, and gives an account of the first meeting.

John Keel held the first meeting of the New York Fortean Society on September 19, 1987, at 2 pm, at 7 E. 30th St. in Manhattan.  Attendees included Curtis Gibson and George Emerson Fox, members of the original Fortean Society, and a delegation from the International Fortean Organization in D.C.; there were talks by Mark Chorvinsky and Timothy Beckley.  Officers were elected, and $58.63 was collected.

John kept the notes for his keynote address.  Here they are, sometimes discolored by an antique rubber band.

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The New York Fortean Society was one of John’s more quixotic projects.  Having already written a booklet on “How to Start a Club,” he naturally followed his own instructions.  He published a newsletter (10 issues), printed membership cards, and mailed out flyers for meetings.  It lasted until 1994, but his health and money problems made it hard for him to keep it going; there were sometimes months between meetings and mailings.  He seemed to have fun with it, though; I think he enjoyed the company.

Meetings were usually held on Saturday afternoons at the TRS Suite on E. 30th St.  Afterwards, everyone went to a deli around the corner, Miss Kay’s, for food and talk.  John also organized field trips (to the Nicholas Roerich Museum, for example), picnics, lunches, and holiday parties.  The parties, to his perverse satisfaction, were usually somewhat of a fiasco.

Here, from the first newsletter, is a list of the “Executive Committee” and charter members.

Patrick Huyghe’s name is smeared by the poor printing; my excuses, Pat.  Here, by the way, is what the membership cards looked like.  Classy!

Many Fortean researchers were only too happy to speak to John’s group, and to unwind afterwards at Miss Kay’s.  If anyone’s curious, I’ve listed all of the meetings here. (more…)

John had somewhat of a career crisis in the 1980s.  UFOs were no longer a profitable subject; and the men’s adventure magazines he had written for throughout much of his career had folded.  He turned to writing novels and plays, only to meet rejection from agents and producers.  Partially to keep himself busy, and partially to generate a bit of money, he started putting out ad sheets and self-published booklets.  Here’s one of them, an eight-page pamphlet called “How to Start a Club,” from 1984.  I’m sorry about the holes; John kept his file copy in a binder.

Shortly after this, he took his own advice, and founded the New York Fortean Society.  It wasn’t exactly the cash cow that he planned, but it was fun while it lasted…

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Readers of this site are probably familiar with the “Kelly-Hopkinsville Goblins”; if not, the Wikipedia article is one place to start. These undated polaroids show Ivan T. Sanderson posing with a model of one of the creatures. I’ve never seen these photos in print; perhaps they’re unpublished, perhaps John used them for a magazine article.

This clipping is from the Gallipolis Daily Tribune (Ohio), November 18, 1966.  The Mothman flap was just getting started.

I’ve posted some of the clippings that John saved from the Point Pleasant flap; I’ll post some more.  First, though, I thought you might be interested in the cover sheet of his file.

That’s Gene Duplantier’s rendition of Roger Scarberry’s original sketch.

And here’s the introductory note.  Apparently John circulated this photocopied file to other researchers.  I’ve enhanced the faded original for legibility.