From: Bruce Maccabee <brumac@compuserve.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 16:35:46 -0500
Fwd Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 22:19:30 -0500
Subject: Re: The UFO/Disney Connection


 >Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 00:23:00 -0500
 >From: Sue Kovios <bradford@globalserve.net
 >Subject: The NASA/Disney Connection
 >To: updates@sympatico.ca


 >Source: Marshall Space Flight Centre History Office>>

 >http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/sf/disney.html

 >[Originally,

 >From: earth_2012 <earth@somtel.com>
 >To: davidicke <davidicke2000@egroups.com>
 >Subject: DavidIcke2000 The Nasa/Disney Connection Since 1950
 >Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 21:54:07 -0500

 >From: Rich Hansen <siwahoasis@hotmail.com>

 >From: Brian Zinkle <bzinkle@mwt.net>]

 >To: M-TRAC - MSAA List <cydonia@admin.listbox.com>

-----

 >EXCERPTS:

 >Von Braun served as technical advisor on three space-related
 >television films that Disney produced in the 1950s. Together,
 >von Braun (the engineer) and Disney (the artist) used the new
 >medium of television to illustrate how high man might fly on the
 >strength of technology and the spirit of human imagination.>

****************************************************************

 >Disney personally introduced the first television show, 'Man in
 >Space', which aired on ABC on March 9, 1955.>

****************************************************************

 >"He provided a wealth of information on technical details, from
 >in-orbit fueling operations down to problems of cooking and
 >eating under weightlessness,"

****************************************************************

 >The second show in the series also aired in 1955 and was called
 >'Man and the Moon'>

****************************************************************

 >The final show in the series aired on December 4, 1957, and was
 >entitled 'Mars and Beyond'.

****************************************************************


 >"The Disney-Von Braun Collaboration and Its Influence on Space
 >Exploration">

 >by
 >Mike Wright
 >Marshall Space Flight Center Historian



And Now, (with apologies to Paul Harvey)
The Rest Of The Story!!!!  !!!!   !!!!


Seeing this history of Disney's involvement with NASA and von
Braun, and especially the mention of Ward Kimball brought back
memories of 20 years ago. Although many people heard, perhaps
few remember (or are around to say) what Ward Kimball told the
MUFON symposium in 1979 (I think; or 1978 if not 1979).

I met Kimball in 1980. I was at his house. I saw his tremendous
collection of model trains... that filled a litte building in
back of his house. Kimball was not satisfied with toy trains,
however, He also had a REAL TRAIN (engine and coal car) and
about 500 ft of track. He told me that back in the good old days
(fifties, sixties) when he had parties at his house in Beverly
Hills that he and Walt and the boys would get up a head of steam
in that old engine, shove into forward, and scream along the
track until the slammed on the brakes, stopping jus short of the
end of the track. Fun.

Probably a lot of people about the train. Probably not as many
knew about his collection of UFO books, magazines, etc. Yes, the
untold story: Ward Kimball, production director (?) of
Cinderella, promoter of the NASA-Disney connection, etc. Good
Old Ward was a UFO Buff!

You may wonder how I, a commoner, would happen to know Mr.
Kimball. Well, to make a log story short, when the Fund for UFO
Research was founded in 1979 we scoured the world... sort of...
for big names to be on the National Board of Directors. One of
our major supporters knew Ward and suggested that he might be
interested, so she arranged for me to meet him. That's how I got
to his house. That's how he became one of the original 10
members of the National Board of FUFOR. (Resigned many years
ago.)

But, this isn't the Rest Of The Story! Not by a long shot. The
rest of the story about the NASA-Disney connection was told by
Ward to the slavering MUFON masses in 1979 (or 78). Ward told us
about the Disney-DOD connection,. Yes, that DOD... Department of
Defense...  and the Disney-UFO connection... yes, that UFO!

Please allow me to recite as best I can what was the core of the
information provided by Ward Kimball over 20 years ago.

Sometime in the latter 50's (probably 57, 58) Walt Disney was
contacted by the Air Force and asked if he would be willing to
o a movie on... (gulp) UFOs! According to Kimball, the Air Force
promised to provide Disney with film footage he could use in
his documentary.

(History note: the first UFO documentary wasthe Green-Rouse
film, Unidentified Flying Objects, in 1955 or 56. There had been
many Science Fiction movies about aliens during the 1950s
and, of course, virtually everyone was familiar with the term and
many people had had sightings. [The NASA-Disney article by
Michael Wright mentioned the "load" of science fiction after
WWII, but says nothing about the UFO sightings.]

The official Air Force position was that there was nothing to
it, and this was echoed by the newsmedia. But everyone had heard
about the sightings over Washignton, DC and throughout the
country in 1952. And then there was Sputnik in the fall of 1957
and soon after the dog, Liaka, was orbiting the earth in a
Russian spacecraft. Everyone was looking up and thinking "far
out" (along with Elvis, Bill Haley and the Comets, etc.) The
article by Michael Wright, to which I am responding, discusses
three documentaries done for NASA by Disney. Hence, if the AF
were to decide to "spill the beans" and "come clean", Disney
wuld be a valuable aid in getting information across to the
general public.)

Kimball told us that Disney began the process of creating a
documentary about UFOs and aliens. Once again he turned his
animators loose to think creatively about what the aliens might
look like. At the same time he waited for the film. But then
after some period of time (half a year maybe?) the Air Force
said there would be no Air Force UFO film. Disney cancelled the
project, but by this time a lot of animated film of "creatures"
had been completed by his artists.

So Disney went ahead and made a short "documentary" anyway,
featuring Jonathan Winters impersonating various "characters"
associated with typical UFO lore. Kimaball SHOWED THIS MOVIE at
the MUFON Symposium. He may have said that it was the only time
the film had been shown publicly!

I specifically recall Mr. Winters as an old lady/grandmother who
saw a UFO and reported it... then he portrayed the Air Force
officer who investigated the sightings and offered
explainations. He also portrayed a little boy in a room who had
a telescope looking up at the stars and, to the little boy's
amazement, an alien came through thetelescope into his room (I
think I've got this right). Of course the boys father didn't
believe that story. (INcidently, Winters. too was interested in
UFO stuff!)

Well, folks, that the rest of the story as it won't appear in
the standard history... probably because standard historians
don't know anything about it. I wish I could remember more.
Kimball probably talked for half an hour before showing the
ten or fifteen minute movie. I don't know what may have
happened to the movie. After I visited Kimball at his house
I never saw nor heard from him again.