The Paracast Newsletter
January 5, 2025
www.theparacast.com
Discover the the Secrets of the Mysterious Fred Crisman From Filmmaker Brian Shickley on The Paracast!
The Paracast is released every Sunday and available from our site, https://www.theparacast.com, your favorite podcast app, and the IRN Internet Radio Network. All episodes from 2022, 2023 and 2024 now feature better audio and fewer ads. We are also re-releasing some of our most popular classic episodes.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus a special version of The Paracast with all the ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Episodes for subscribers to The Paracast+ are now released 24 hours earlier. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz introduce a tale about a truly weird character who hung out on the fringes of UFO research with Bryan Shickley. An animator and storyteller, is best known for Fred Crisman: Cave of the Space Nazis, a short film inspired by fan letters sent to Amazing Stories in the 1940s, during the height of the Shaver Mystery. He has interviewed the family of controversial UFO figure Fred Crisman and collaborated with Pacific Northwest historians to adapt Crisman and Shaver’s extraordinary lives into an upcoming tongue-in-cheek serialized audio drama. Crisman’s life had many curious aspects. He was a key figure in the 1947 Maury Island UFO Sighting, where alleged fragments fell from a UFO. Or maybe they were just conventional pieces of metal. The story was the main focus of a book published in 1952, “The Coming of the Saucers,” authored by former Amazing Stories editor Ray Palmer, and the “original” flying saucer witness, Kenneth Arnold. And did Crisman have any connections to the legends that surround the John F. Kennedy assassination? Fred Crisman: Cave of the Space Nazis can be seen at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdvZ007W9DY Bryan’s site: www.fredcrisman.com/
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers: After The Paracast continues to explore the mysterious Fred Crisman with filmmaker Bryan Shickley, creator of Fred Crisman: Cave of Space Nazis . Speaking with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz, Shickley reveals details about Crisman’s mercurial character and the kind of work he did over the years. He will also provide details on the technology behind his animated film. Special! You’ll also hear vintage recordings of Crisman’s voice in his guise as talk show host Jon Gold direct from his lost broadcasts. Over the years, Shickley has interviewed members of Crisman’s family and collaborated with Pacific Northwest historians to adapt Crisman and Shaver’s extraordinary lives into an upcoming tongue-in-cheek serialized audio drama. Among his many weird experiences, Crisman was a key figure in the 1947 Maury Island UFO Sighting, where alleged fragments fell from a UFO. Or maybe they were just conventional pieces of metal. The story was the main focus of a book published in 1952, “The Coming of the Saucers,” authored by former Amazing Stories editor Ray Palmer, and the “original” flying saucer witness, Kenneth Arnold. Fred Crisman: Cave of the Space Nazis can be seen at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdvZ007W9DY Bryan’s site: www.fredcrisman.com/
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. And look for @theparacast on Bluesky Social, Facebook, Threads and X.
Voices of the Past — Revisited
By Bob Zanotti
Jim Moseley, Jack Robinson, Dominick Lucchesi, August C. Roberts, Yonah Fortner, Gray Barker, Andy Sinatra “The Mystic Barber of Brooklyn,” Ivan Sanderson, Frank E. Stranges, Tim Beckley, Alexander McNeil, Bill Daut, Robert Gelfan, and Long John Nebel.
If you don't recognize these names — and even if you do — then you can't afford to miss a very special edition of The Paracast on January 12th. These names were among the pioneers of early Ufology back in the 50's, 60's and 70’s.
Although “The Mystic Barber,” McNeil and Stranges were part and parcel of the fringe elements of the field, the more respectable ones in that group did so much of the early research work and documentation of cases. The other thing they have in common is that they are no longer with us. We have to sadly record the loss of other great, but more contemporary names, recently. It's time to honor them. And we intend to.
Among these heavy-weights in the UFO and paranormal fields were leading personalities in the so-called “New York Circle” whose influence went far beyond New York City. They all knew each other, and many of them met regularly to discuss and debate UFO's and the paranormal. One of the members of that original New York Circle is fortunately still among us, and he went on to keep the Ufology flag flying. He's an old friend from those thrilling days of Ufological yesteryear: Gene Steinberg.
What was it like back then? Well, if you've seen Woody Allen's brilliant movie, “Midnight In Paris”, you'll remember that much of the story takes place at the Paris apartment of Gertrude Stein, the expat American writer, publisher and art collector, who played host to some of the greatest names in literature, music, art and culture in the 1920's. That scene was very similar to what used to go on in the New York Circle of Ufologists and metaphysicians in the 50's, 60's and 70's.
This was a very exciting time in the history of Ufology. Maybe even the most exciting time. In the early days, no one had been to the moon. There were no satellites to speak of. There was no deep space exploration. No probes to outer space and other planets. No International Space Station. No telescopes in space. There was just lively speculation and conjecture and debate. And it was often very lively and even heated at times.
There was no end to the theories about UFO's and their origin at that time, and there was an equal number of wild contactee stories and sightings. Hollow Earth, deros, disappeared persons, Sasquatch, time travelers and visitors from another dimension, and The Men In Black. These were the products of the Ufological and paranormal thoughts of that time. Definitely not new ideas, as some would have us believe. It has all been done before.
There is so much “reinventing the wheel” in our field today, often by newcomers to the field who have never heard of the great Ufological and paranormal personalities I've mentioned. Little or no credit is given to those who first formulated those theories and ideas. It's time they got the credit and honor that's due them.
It was Kenneth Arnold who first reported seeing “flying disks” near Mount Rainier in the American Northwest, but it was these early pioneers who were gripped by this fascinating new world of UFO's and laid the foundation for their present-day successors. In those early days, they went out on their own and researched and interviewed and reported. There was no internet, no Skype, no Facebook, no WhatsApp; and long distance phone calls were prohibitively expensive. But that notwithstanding, these great pioneers went out and researched and documented the stories on their own time and at their own expense, which was often considerable.
Yes, this was probably the most exciting period in Ufological history, and I would add, a period of almost unparalleled dedication and selflessness in the field. There was very little commercialization. Most of these early researchers sought truth, not profit or fame. They were idealists.
We'd probably rather not be reminded of the fact, but Gene Steinberg and I were part of that great epoch in New York, but in different ways. We knew these people personally and interacted with them on a regular basis. But Gene worked with some of them professionally and up front. He was an active researcher and publisher in the field. For my part, I knew those people as the host of “Coffee Klatsch,” a weekly radio discussion show I hosted on a New York area radio station. These great names were “regulars” on my show, multiple times. In fact, they became the supporting cast in a kind of weekly paranormal radio soap opera.
Coffee Klatsch was tailored along the lines of the legendary, late-night “Party Line/Long John Nebel” show on that pioneer New York talk station WOR, long before Art Bell arrived on the scene. In fact, Art Bell credited Long John with having been his inspiration. L.J., as he was called, was the unequaled father of UFO/paranormal radio. I knew him too, and used to visit the studios of WOR at 1440 Broadway in New York for an occasional brief chat prior to the start of his show at midnight, lasting till five in the morning. The great New York area UFO pioneers I've mentioned were frequent “regulars” on the Long John show, and even sustained it in the early days back in the 50's and 60's.
I'll never forget how I got involved with the New York Circle. A close high school friend of mine in Hawthorne, New Jersey, the late Bill Parris (also featured frequently on my Coffee Klatsch show), was a ham radio operator, as I was (and still am). He told me that he had had a radio contact with an interesting fellow ham in Jersey City: Dominick Lucchesi. They had talked about flying saucers. I should definitely look him up, which I did.
Dom and I talked for a long time on the ham radio – about what else but flying saucers. He suggested I should come to his home for a get-together of local Ufologists. I did, and I'll never forget it. That opened the door. Back to Gertrude Stein in the “Paris of the 1920’s." But now we were in the 60's in New York, talking about UFO's and not The Arts. This will be part of the special Paracast, along with Gene's very personal and unique memories and experiences.
Gene Steinberg and I have a lot of firsthand memories of those great days There are so many stories to be told about that era of Ufology, and we'd like to to share them with you, supported by audio excerpts of those very pioneers. Of course, Tim Swartz is well acquainted with all of this, and will make his own contribution to the show.
Most of those great New York paranormal pioneers are no longer with us. Gene and I are still around, but who knows for how long. We're both pushing 80. We think it's time to remember those great moments in Ufology and the paranormal and share them with you.
Gene and I are very excited about this trip down memory lane. We hope to shed light on the grand past and origins of Ufology, and to make our contribution to it. Please join us!
Bob Zanotti, The Paracast staff announcer, first got interested in UFO’s back in the 50’s as a pre-teen. What got him started was Max B. Miller’s book “Flying Saucers – Fact or Fiction.”
Bob and Gene Steinberg became friends in the 1960’s when Bob hosted a New York college radio talk show called “Coffee Klatsch”, which was devoted to the offbeat and the paranormal. Gene was a frequent guest on the show, as were Jim Moseley and other great names from the New York UFO group, including Dom Lucchesi, Jack Robinson, August C. Roberts and Tim Beckley.
After broadcast journalism studies in New York and Montreal, Bob’s calling led him to Switzerland, where he was a full-time broadcast journalist and presenter at Swiss Radio International, Switzerland’s international shortwave station. During his 32 years with SRI, Bob also produced a number of features involving the paranormal and the esoteric.
Copyright 1999-2024 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
January 5, 2025
www.theparacast.com
Discover the the Secrets of the Mysterious Fred Crisman From Filmmaker Brian Shickley on The Paracast!
The Paracast is released every Sunday and available from our site, https://www.theparacast.com, your favorite podcast app, and the IRN Internet Radio Network. All episodes from 2022, 2023 and 2024 now feature better audio and fewer ads. We are also re-releasing some of our most popular classic episodes.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus a special version of The Paracast with all the ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Episodes for subscribers to The Paracast+ are now released 24 hours earlier. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz introduce a tale about a truly weird character who hung out on the fringes of UFO research with Bryan Shickley. An animator and storyteller, is best known for Fred Crisman: Cave of the Space Nazis, a short film inspired by fan letters sent to Amazing Stories in the 1940s, during the height of the Shaver Mystery. He has interviewed the family of controversial UFO figure Fred Crisman and collaborated with Pacific Northwest historians to adapt Crisman and Shaver’s extraordinary lives into an upcoming tongue-in-cheek serialized audio drama. Crisman’s life had many curious aspects. He was a key figure in the 1947 Maury Island UFO Sighting, where alleged fragments fell from a UFO. Or maybe they were just conventional pieces of metal. The story was the main focus of a book published in 1952, “The Coming of the Saucers,” authored by former Amazing Stories editor Ray Palmer, and the “original” flying saucer witness, Kenneth Arnold. And did Crisman have any connections to the legends that surround the John F. Kennedy assassination? Fred Crisman: Cave of the Space Nazis can be seen at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdvZ007W9DY Bryan’s site: www.fredcrisman.com/
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers: After The Paracast continues to explore the mysterious Fred Crisman with filmmaker Bryan Shickley, creator of Fred Crisman: Cave of Space Nazis . Speaking with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz, Shickley reveals details about Crisman’s mercurial character and the kind of work he did over the years. He will also provide details on the technology behind his animated film. Special! You’ll also hear vintage recordings of Crisman’s voice in his guise as talk show host Jon Gold direct from his lost broadcasts. Over the years, Shickley has interviewed members of Crisman’s family and collaborated with Pacific Northwest historians to adapt Crisman and Shaver’s extraordinary lives into an upcoming tongue-in-cheek serialized audio drama. Among his many weird experiences, Crisman was a key figure in the 1947 Maury Island UFO Sighting, where alleged fragments fell from a UFO. Or maybe they were just conventional pieces of metal. The story was the main focus of a book published in 1952, “The Coming of the Saucers,” authored by former Amazing Stories editor Ray Palmer, and the “original” flying saucer witness, Kenneth Arnold. Fred Crisman: Cave of the Space Nazis can be seen at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdvZ007W9DY Bryan’s site: www.fredcrisman.com/
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. And look for @theparacast on Bluesky Social, Facebook, Threads and X.
Voices of the Past — Revisited
By Bob Zanotti
Jim Moseley, Jack Robinson, Dominick Lucchesi, August C. Roberts, Yonah Fortner, Gray Barker, Andy Sinatra “The Mystic Barber of Brooklyn,” Ivan Sanderson, Frank E. Stranges, Tim Beckley, Alexander McNeil, Bill Daut, Robert Gelfan, and Long John Nebel.
If you don't recognize these names — and even if you do — then you can't afford to miss a very special edition of The Paracast on January 12th. These names were among the pioneers of early Ufology back in the 50's, 60's and 70’s.
Although “The Mystic Barber,” McNeil and Stranges were part and parcel of the fringe elements of the field, the more respectable ones in that group did so much of the early research work and documentation of cases. The other thing they have in common is that they are no longer with us. We have to sadly record the loss of other great, but more contemporary names, recently. It's time to honor them. And we intend to.
Among these heavy-weights in the UFO and paranormal fields were leading personalities in the so-called “New York Circle” whose influence went far beyond New York City. They all knew each other, and many of them met regularly to discuss and debate UFO's and the paranormal. One of the members of that original New York Circle is fortunately still among us, and he went on to keep the Ufology flag flying. He's an old friend from those thrilling days of Ufological yesteryear: Gene Steinberg.
What was it like back then? Well, if you've seen Woody Allen's brilliant movie, “Midnight In Paris”, you'll remember that much of the story takes place at the Paris apartment of Gertrude Stein, the expat American writer, publisher and art collector, who played host to some of the greatest names in literature, music, art and culture in the 1920's. That scene was very similar to what used to go on in the New York Circle of Ufologists and metaphysicians in the 50's, 60's and 70's.
This was a very exciting time in the history of Ufology. Maybe even the most exciting time. In the early days, no one had been to the moon. There were no satellites to speak of. There was no deep space exploration. No probes to outer space and other planets. No International Space Station. No telescopes in space. There was just lively speculation and conjecture and debate. And it was often very lively and even heated at times.
There was no end to the theories about UFO's and their origin at that time, and there was an equal number of wild contactee stories and sightings. Hollow Earth, deros, disappeared persons, Sasquatch, time travelers and visitors from another dimension, and The Men In Black. These were the products of the Ufological and paranormal thoughts of that time. Definitely not new ideas, as some would have us believe. It has all been done before.
There is so much “reinventing the wheel” in our field today, often by newcomers to the field who have never heard of the great Ufological and paranormal personalities I've mentioned. Little or no credit is given to those who first formulated those theories and ideas. It's time they got the credit and honor that's due them.
It was Kenneth Arnold who first reported seeing “flying disks” near Mount Rainier in the American Northwest, but it was these early pioneers who were gripped by this fascinating new world of UFO's and laid the foundation for their present-day successors. In those early days, they went out on their own and researched and interviewed and reported. There was no internet, no Skype, no Facebook, no WhatsApp; and long distance phone calls were prohibitively expensive. But that notwithstanding, these great pioneers went out and researched and documented the stories on their own time and at their own expense, which was often considerable.
Yes, this was probably the most exciting period in Ufological history, and I would add, a period of almost unparalleled dedication and selflessness in the field. There was very little commercialization. Most of these early researchers sought truth, not profit or fame. They were idealists.
We'd probably rather not be reminded of the fact, but Gene Steinberg and I were part of that great epoch in New York, but in different ways. We knew these people personally and interacted with them on a regular basis. But Gene worked with some of them professionally and up front. He was an active researcher and publisher in the field. For my part, I knew those people as the host of “Coffee Klatsch,” a weekly radio discussion show I hosted on a New York area radio station. These great names were “regulars” on my show, multiple times. In fact, they became the supporting cast in a kind of weekly paranormal radio soap opera.
Coffee Klatsch was tailored along the lines of the legendary, late-night “Party Line/Long John Nebel” show on that pioneer New York talk station WOR, long before Art Bell arrived on the scene. In fact, Art Bell credited Long John with having been his inspiration. L.J., as he was called, was the unequaled father of UFO/paranormal radio. I knew him too, and used to visit the studios of WOR at 1440 Broadway in New York for an occasional brief chat prior to the start of his show at midnight, lasting till five in the morning. The great New York area UFO pioneers I've mentioned were frequent “regulars” on the Long John show, and even sustained it in the early days back in the 50's and 60's.
I'll never forget how I got involved with the New York Circle. A close high school friend of mine in Hawthorne, New Jersey, the late Bill Parris (also featured frequently on my Coffee Klatsch show), was a ham radio operator, as I was (and still am). He told me that he had had a radio contact with an interesting fellow ham in Jersey City: Dominick Lucchesi. They had talked about flying saucers. I should definitely look him up, which I did.
Dom and I talked for a long time on the ham radio – about what else but flying saucers. He suggested I should come to his home for a get-together of local Ufologists. I did, and I'll never forget it. That opened the door. Back to Gertrude Stein in the “Paris of the 1920’s." But now we were in the 60's in New York, talking about UFO's and not The Arts. This will be part of the special Paracast, along with Gene's very personal and unique memories and experiences.
Gene Steinberg and I have a lot of firsthand memories of those great days There are so many stories to be told about that era of Ufology, and we'd like to to share them with you, supported by audio excerpts of those very pioneers. Of course, Tim Swartz is well acquainted with all of this, and will make his own contribution to the show.
Most of those great New York paranormal pioneers are no longer with us. Gene and I are still around, but who knows for how long. We're both pushing 80. We think it's time to remember those great moments in Ufology and the paranormal and share them with you.
Gene and I are very excited about this trip down memory lane. We hope to shed light on the grand past and origins of Ufology, and to make our contribution to it. Please join us!
• • •
Bob Zanotti, The Paracast staff announcer, first got interested in UFO’s back in the 50’s as a pre-teen. What got him started was Max B. Miller’s book “Flying Saucers – Fact or Fiction.”
Bob and Gene Steinberg became friends in the 1960’s when Bob hosted a New York college radio talk show called “Coffee Klatsch”, which was devoted to the offbeat and the paranormal. Gene was a frequent guest on the show, as were Jim Moseley and other great names from the New York UFO group, including Dom Lucchesi, Jack Robinson, August C. Roberts and Tim Beckley.
After broadcast journalism studies in New York and Montreal, Bob’s calling led him to Switzerland, where he was a full-time broadcast journalist and presenter at Swiss Radio International, Switzerland’s international shortwave station. During his 32 years with SRI, Bob also produced a number of features involving the paranormal and the esoteric.
Copyright 1999-2024 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!