http://kirstincronn-mills.com/?page_id=176 I continue working my way through John’s file of “Official Correspondence ’66.” Here, he writes a letter to Joseph Wershba, taking him to task for a program he’d written and produced for CBS, UFO: Friend, Foe, or Fantasy? John also invites him out to lunch, so they can discuss UFOs further. Wershba politely declines to comment. The program in question, by the way, has been posted on YouTube.
John writes a “humdinger” of a letter to the Lorenzens, obviously exhilarated by having turned in his Playboy article (entitled, like his later book, Operation Trojan Horse), and the prospect of a large advance for the book. He discusses Ralph Rankow, NICAP’s photo analyst; Coral Lorenzen’s theory that aliens want to put drugs in our water supply; silicon-based aliens; UFOs and Indians; and Jim Moseley. He did start work on his UFO film; I posted part of the script here.
John responds to June Larson, who was supplying him with UFO clippings. Back then, this was all done with paper and postage, which cost money, so he’s trying to narrow down the subject matter and reduce costs. $30 or $40 a week was expensive, particularly since he was earning less with UFO research than he had with comedy writing. Of particular note here, I think, is his list of subjects of interest.
Coral Lorenzen responds to John’s distress about alien interference by reminding him not to “let your fear get you by the throat,” and to be wary of unreliable and unbalanced witnesses. She fills him in on her recent run of bad luck, adding that if she were afraid someone or something was influencing her, she’d “have gone to the looney bin this year.” She also reports on some recent UFO activity in her area. One footnote: the movie “Phenomena 7.7” was a documentary by Frank Stranges, now apparently lost; the number referred to the percentage of sightings the Air Force considered unexplained.
