Page 48 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - August/September 2017

48 Bigfoot, blue man and flying saucer hoaxes

Bigfoot, blue man and

flying saucer hoaxes in

1958

Originally published by the Daily News
on January 4, 1959. This story was
written by Tom Allen.

We all certainly were as dumb as ever in 1958,
but for some reason we didn’t fall for our usual
quota of hoaxes. Or maybe it’s just that hoaxers
don’t hoax like they used to in less troubled
times.
One hoax in the grand manner was
pulled in England. Though we didn’t come close
to matching it, we had a couple of cases which,
as the extrasensory perception fans say, “cannot
be scientifically explained.”
The hoax-hunters’ year got off to a
promising start when screw-top bottles were
reported popping their caps in the Seaford, L.I.,
home of the James Herrmanns. But when
furniture and bric-a-brac began hurtling around
the house, the hoax theory underfoot by a parade
of scientists and pseudo-scientists. The case still
has not been solved.
Then there was Big Foot. He lumbered
out of the tall timber in northern California last
California is habitat in which hoaxes sometimes because his space suit was really his union suit,
year and is now so famous that official chamber
thrive for years. But Osgood Klinkus, the painted with luminous blue paint.
of commerce maps mark the spots where his 16-
phantom student of Jordan High School in Long Jerry also wore a blue cape, made from a
inch footprints were found.
Beach, lasted only a year. bed sheet; a blue cloth mask and a football
Big Foot’s tracks were discovered in
George was dreamed up in May 1957, helmet covered with a plastic bubble and
rugged Humboldt County, where construction
when students with some faculty connivance equipped with battery-powered Christmas tree
crews are carving out a road. When he ambled
enrolled him in school and started turning in test lights hooked up to flash intermittently.
along, the length of his stride was nearly 6 feet.
papers marked with his name. George A blue hoax from head to toe, Jerry
When he ran he produced a 10-foot stride.
sometimes got higher grades than his would leap out on lonely country roads and
Humboldt’s version of the Abominable
ghostwriters did. dance in front of approaching cars. He said he
Snowman has been seen, as far as is known, by
The school expelled George once for was inspired by a song, “The Little Blue Man,”
only three persons. Two construction workers
smoking, but he came back, only to be which was popular at the time.
said they saw him bound across the road while
indefinitely suspended again last May because Jerry was released by the authorities,
they were driving to their camp. He was covered
he got married. The full military ceremony, with who frankly didn’t know what to charge him
with hair, towered 8 to 10 feet, and was 4 feet
George wearing a mask and his bride wearing a with. He immediately came back to earth by first
across the shoulders, they reported.
sheepish grin, was conducted, arch of crossed marrying and then volunteering for the draft.
Another worker was warming up his
sabres and all, by Reserve Officer Training The ex-spaceman is an infantryman now.
bulldozer one morning when he saw Big Foot
Corps at the school. Jerry’s mischief lasted about a month,
nosing around. A few days later, the bulldozer which is considerably below par for a good,
operator left the job. He has not returned.
Teachers Fooled By Imaginary Student solid hoax. It was a nice try, but it lacked the
Al Corbett, a Seattle taxidermist who
sweep and grandeur of a classic hoax. There was
viewed Big Foot’s tracks, said they were
When the hoax was exposed, some teachers only one of them in 1958.
“definitely human” and were made by a man,
refused to believe it. But Principal Milton Sager,
between 6 feet 7 and 7 feet 6, weighing up to
with the air of a man who has suffered through (Continued on Page 49)
400 pounds. Corbett believes the tracks were
too long a joke, said George’s suspension isn’t
made by a very wild Indian.
enough. “I’d be happy to attend his funeral,” the
Indians from the nearby Hoopa
Reservation say they have been seeing the tracks principal sighed.
for years. The Indians believe the tracks are Michigan’s Little Blue Man from outer
space has been retired, too.
those of survivors of a legendary tribe of big-
Last April, police in Huron County
footed aborigines who once roamed the area.
received frequent reports about an apparition in
Though he never came right out and said
a glowing blue space suit and flashing space
hoax, Humboldt County Sheriff Albert A.
helmet. The spaceman was mostly described as
Nickols is skeptical about Big Foot. So
small, down to 2 feet in height, as a matter of
skeptical, in fact, that Ray Wallace, employer of
fact. But as the number of sightings grew, so did
the road building crew pestered by Big Foot, felt
obliged to deny that the critter is imaginary. the spaceman.
Wallace even threatened to sue the sheriff, but His height was approaching 6 feet 6, and
mothers in isolated rural homes were keeping
he didn’t say over what.
their children indoors when police at last
“The men said they quit because it was
captured the Little Blue Man.
too far out to drive,” Wallace reported. “But I
He turned out to be a medium-sized, 22- The Science of Magic
think most of them were just plain scared.”
year-old earthling named Jerry Sprague. Two with Gwilda Wiyaka
friends were also picked up by police. Jerry,
*** www.XZBN.net
though, was the only Blue Man among them,