The Paracast Newsletter
September 8, 2024
www.theparacast.com
Hollywood Publicist and UFO Author Dan Harary Talks About Disclosure and Conspiracies 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 are now released 12-24 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 present the return of Hollywood entertainment industry publicist Dan Harary, co-founder and chairman of the Hollywood Disclosure Alliance. This group focuses on bringing together top UFO/ET researchers with Hollywood producers and filmmakers. The goal of the HDA is to ensure accuracy in storytelling with regard to the UAP/ET phenomena within future films, TV shows, documentaries, and books. This episode focuses on such topics as efforts to disclose the UFO secret, the JFK assassination, the mysterious death of Marilyn Monroe, and whether JFK knew the Roswell secret. Harary is also a book author and his latest titles include "My Paranormal Life: Supernatural Stories From a Hollywood Insider" (Bear Manor Media) and "Five" (Genius Book Publishing) a dark-fiction novella. The HDA came together after the release of "After They Came" (Genius Book Publishing), which made an immediate impact within the UFO Research community during 2023. ATC was inspired by a 1970 UFO sighting he had alongside his late father, Jack Harary. Harary believes his dad may have been involved with UFO reverse engineering during his 45 years working as an Electronics Engineer for the U.S. Army at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey. In 2024, Harary became the Host of the Podcast "Live From Hollywood — "It's Paranormal Tonight!," which launched in early 2024 on The UnX Network.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on September 8: Hollywood publicist Dan Harary returns to talk to Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about the creation of the Hollywood Disclosure Alliance, of which he is chairman and co-founder, which was formed after he listened to and was inspired by a lecture from UFO disclosure lobbyist Stephen Bassett. He'll also talk about the main goal of the organization, which is to assure accuracy in presentations on the UFO phenomenon. The discussion also focuses on Harary's paranormal encounters and his book, "My Paranormal Life: Supernatural Stories From a Hollywood Insider." Focusing on pop culture, he'll also talk about his friendship with Monkee Micky Dolenz, and how he was inspired to play the drums after watching their 1960s TV series. In 2024, Harary became the Host of the Podcast "Live From Hollywood — "It's Paranormal Tonight!," which launched in early 2024 on The UnX Network. He made his debut as an author with the popular 2022 Hollywood memoir "Flirting with Fame: A Hollywood Publicist Recalls 50 Years of Celebrity Close Encounters" (Bear Manor Media). Articles about that book appeared in Newsweek, the LA Times, the New York Daily News, the Village Voice, the Hollywood Reporter, on KFI Radio, and in many dozens of other media outlets. Caution: Harary will also briefly discuss his political beliefs.
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.
Are UFO Books Destined to Become Best Sellers Again?
By Gene Steinberg
It’s a rare, very rare instance where a book about UFOs becomes a best seller. I can’t even remember the last time it happened though it appears that Leslie Kean’s 2011 book, “UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record” might have been among them. It was advertised as a “New York Times Best Seller.
Over the years, only a small number of such titles were hot tickets. Books from Major Donald Keyhoe counted, at least his earlier works. Reportedly “The Day After Roswell,” the controversial book from Col. Philip J. Corso and William J. Birnes, published in 1997, also earned lots of sales. According to the Wikipedia entry, “The book appeared on The New York Times Best Sellers List for several weeks, and received both favorable and unfavorable reviews.
My review is very much in the latter category. Although I consider Birnes a friend — he used to be a fairly regular guest on The Paracast — I’ve always had a problem with the Corso book. It’s main claim to fame was the assertion that he became a bagman for the Pentagon in its quest to convince companies to attempt to reverse engineer technology from the wrecked spaceship that purportedly crashed in 1947 in Roswell.
My concerns are pretty basic: The various pieces of alien wreckage Corso allegedly sent around represented technology clearly developed by regular Earth people. I cite the transistor as an example. It was first announced by Bell Labs in December, 1947, a mere five months after the Roswell incident. There’s no way I can accept the claim that the parts on my little transistor radios of the 1950s and 1960s were based, in whole or in part, on parts reverse engineered from an alien spacecraft.
And don’t get me started about night vision goggles.
At any rate, it’s a sure thing that the vast majority of UFO books over the years, regardless of their value, likely didn’t deliver royalties in excess of the original publisher’s advance. If the authors got an advance. These days, smaller publishers aren’t equipped to finance such payments to their authors.
One publisher that did, Prometheus Press, gave Jim Moseley and Karl Pflock $4,000, minus the agent’s commission, for “Shockingly Close to the Truth : Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist.” This autobiographical account about Jim’s wild and crazy life was published in 2002.
Jim told me he never received more than his share of the advance. Indeed, the publisher once contacted him asking if he’d buy up some of the unsold copies. He declined.
In my past as a writer of computer books — with a smattering of sci-fi — I actually earned a pretty decent return on some of the titles I wrote in the mid-1990s. But before I could imagine a life of riches, sales of future titles usually didn’t exceed the advances I received. The publishers knew their stuff right down to the smallest dollar.
Some authors find it easier just to self-publish, using Amazon or a similar resource. That way they don’t have to finance an inventory. If a copy is sold, the print-on-demand provider manufactures and ships a copy. Royalties are actually higher per copy than traditional publishers offer. But it only pays off if you sell lots of books.
Into that void comes the latest UFO book to grab lots of sales. As I write this column, former government UAP official Luis Elizondo’s “Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs” sits atop the Times Best Seller list. It has the added prestige of being published under the traditional William Morrow imprint.
Elizondo has been making the cable TV news circuit, with interviews that usually last 10 minutes or so, but we’re hoping he’ll consider more long-form shows like The Paracast.
In a way, the book is a throwback to a simpler time. My copy is the hardcover edition, printed on the same sort of paper as the UFO books I bought in my misspent youth.
I haven’t finished it yet, but I have a few preliminary observations.
First, it’s a speedy read. Elizondo evinces a breezy style reminiscent of Major Donald Keyhoe. I have no idea how much of its smooth prose is the result of his native writing style or the help of an editor or two. I’ll accept that it’s all or mostly him for the sake of argument.
The publisher’s blurb creates the expectation of what’s to come: “The former head of the Pentagon program responsible for the investigation of UFOs — now known as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) — reveals long-hidden secrets with profound implications for not only national security but our understanding of the universe.”
Now as a former government employee with intelligence credentials, the book was reviewed by the military to make sure its contents did not violate national security. In fact, there are brief phrases and passages that are redacted, literally blacked out. Maybe you can infer what is being concealed from time to time, but it’s clear this presentation has a great promotional value.
So, guess what secrets about UAPs Elizondo can’t reveal? In the normal course of events, it might have seemed sensible to simply ditch the redacted words and rephrase these sections so it moves smoothly, but no…
I’ll talk about the book in more detail once I’ve read all of it. But I did learn a few things about Elizondo that I hadn’t heard before, though it’s not that I’ve been watching his career path.
So he reveals, for example, that he became a remote viewer for the Pentagon’s “Stargate” program. I suppose that made him a candidate to get involved in chasing after UAPs in the 21st century.
Shortly after he got the gig working for the DOD’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, strange orbs appeared in his home. His wife and his two daughters witnessed the phenomenon. In a telltale paragraph, Elizondo cites the infamous “hitchhiker effect” that impacts some UFO witnesses.
He also seems to have studied his UFO history, claiming, for example, that the Roswell affair really involved a crashed spaceship, and that four alien bodies were recovered. But he doesn’t make it clear whether he confirmed those details with his Pentagon research or contacts, or was simply summarizing published reports. That’s true for other sightings he writes about.
Overall, though, although it seems he is aware of alternate explanations for the phenomenon, he gives off the impression that he’s mainly an ETH guy. The same holds true for former Defense Department official Christopher Mellon, who wrote the book’s Foreword.
So far the read is pleasant, and I’m encouraged that it’ll be a good book. While it appears more oriented to the general reader who doesn’t have a background chasing after the flying saucers, there’s enough interesting material for the seasoned UFO buff, at least so far.
It’s also encouraging that a book of this sort sits atop the Times Best Sellers list, and also USA Today.
The impact? I’ve been at this game long enough not to guess, but it’s not as if the media has changed. Shortly before I wrote this column, I saw a cable news talking head asking Elizondo about “little green men” with a telltale sneer. You can probably guess which.
Meantime, I wonder about that other UFO whistleblower, David Grusch. He claimed to have the goods about crashed spaceships and alien bodies, but seems to have staged a disappearing act after he allegedly refused to testify about his secrets to Congress in an intelligence facility known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF.
Or maybe Grusch was just another one of those UFO field flashes in the pan.
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!
September 8, 2024
www.theparacast.com
Hollywood Publicist and UFO Author Dan Harary Talks About Disclosure and Conspiracies 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 are now released 12-24 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 present the return of Hollywood entertainment industry publicist Dan Harary, co-founder and chairman of the Hollywood Disclosure Alliance. This group focuses on bringing together top UFO/ET researchers with Hollywood producers and filmmakers. The goal of the HDA is to ensure accuracy in storytelling with regard to the UAP/ET phenomena within future films, TV shows, documentaries, and books. This episode focuses on such topics as efforts to disclose the UFO secret, the JFK assassination, the mysterious death of Marilyn Monroe, and whether JFK knew the Roswell secret. Harary is also a book author and his latest titles include "My Paranormal Life: Supernatural Stories From a Hollywood Insider" (Bear Manor Media) and "Five" (Genius Book Publishing) a dark-fiction novella. The HDA came together after the release of "After They Came" (Genius Book Publishing), which made an immediate impact within the UFO Research community during 2023. ATC was inspired by a 1970 UFO sighting he had alongside his late father, Jack Harary. Harary believes his dad may have been involved with UFO reverse engineering during his 45 years working as an Electronics Engineer for the U.S. Army at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey. In 2024, Harary became the Host of the Podcast "Live From Hollywood — "It's Paranormal Tonight!," which launched in early 2024 on The UnX Network.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on September 8: Hollywood publicist Dan Harary returns to talk to Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about the creation of the Hollywood Disclosure Alliance, of which he is chairman and co-founder, which was formed after he listened to and was inspired by a lecture from UFO disclosure lobbyist Stephen Bassett. He'll also talk about the main goal of the organization, which is to assure accuracy in presentations on the UFO phenomenon. The discussion also focuses on Harary's paranormal encounters and his book, "My Paranormal Life: Supernatural Stories From a Hollywood Insider." Focusing on pop culture, he'll also talk about his friendship with Monkee Micky Dolenz, and how he was inspired to play the drums after watching their 1960s TV series. In 2024, Harary became the Host of the Podcast "Live From Hollywood — "It's Paranormal Tonight!," which launched in early 2024 on The UnX Network. He made his debut as an author with the popular 2022 Hollywood memoir "Flirting with Fame: A Hollywood Publicist Recalls 50 Years of Celebrity Close Encounters" (Bear Manor Media). Articles about that book appeared in Newsweek, the LA Times, the New York Daily News, the Village Voice, the Hollywood Reporter, on KFI Radio, and in many dozens of other media outlets. Caution: Harary will also briefly discuss his political beliefs.
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.
Are UFO Books Destined to Become Best Sellers Again?
By Gene Steinberg
It’s a rare, very rare instance where a book about UFOs becomes a best seller. I can’t even remember the last time it happened though it appears that Leslie Kean’s 2011 book, “UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record” might have been among them. It was advertised as a “New York Times Best Seller.
Over the years, only a small number of such titles were hot tickets. Books from Major Donald Keyhoe counted, at least his earlier works. Reportedly “The Day After Roswell,” the controversial book from Col. Philip J. Corso and William J. Birnes, published in 1997, also earned lots of sales. According to the Wikipedia entry, “The book appeared on The New York Times Best Sellers List for several weeks, and received both favorable and unfavorable reviews.
My review is very much in the latter category. Although I consider Birnes a friend — he used to be a fairly regular guest on The Paracast — I’ve always had a problem with the Corso book. It’s main claim to fame was the assertion that he became a bagman for the Pentagon in its quest to convince companies to attempt to reverse engineer technology from the wrecked spaceship that purportedly crashed in 1947 in Roswell.
My concerns are pretty basic: The various pieces of alien wreckage Corso allegedly sent around represented technology clearly developed by regular Earth people. I cite the transistor as an example. It was first announced by Bell Labs in December, 1947, a mere five months after the Roswell incident. There’s no way I can accept the claim that the parts on my little transistor radios of the 1950s and 1960s were based, in whole or in part, on parts reverse engineered from an alien spacecraft.
And don’t get me started about night vision goggles.
At any rate, it’s a sure thing that the vast majority of UFO books over the years, regardless of their value, likely didn’t deliver royalties in excess of the original publisher’s advance. If the authors got an advance. These days, smaller publishers aren’t equipped to finance such payments to their authors.
One publisher that did, Prometheus Press, gave Jim Moseley and Karl Pflock $4,000, minus the agent’s commission, for “Shockingly Close to the Truth : Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist.” This autobiographical account about Jim’s wild and crazy life was published in 2002.
Jim told me he never received more than his share of the advance. Indeed, the publisher once contacted him asking if he’d buy up some of the unsold copies. He declined.
In my past as a writer of computer books — with a smattering of sci-fi — I actually earned a pretty decent return on some of the titles I wrote in the mid-1990s. But before I could imagine a life of riches, sales of future titles usually didn’t exceed the advances I received. The publishers knew their stuff right down to the smallest dollar.
Some authors find it easier just to self-publish, using Amazon or a similar resource. That way they don’t have to finance an inventory. If a copy is sold, the print-on-demand provider manufactures and ships a copy. Royalties are actually higher per copy than traditional publishers offer. But it only pays off if you sell lots of books.
Into that void comes the latest UFO book to grab lots of sales. As I write this column, former government UAP official Luis Elizondo’s “Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs” sits atop the Times Best Seller list. It has the added prestige of being published under the traditional William Morrow imprint.
Elizondo has been making the cable TV news circuit, with interviews that usually last 10 minutes or so, but we’re hoping he’ll consider more long-form shows like The Paracast.
In a way, the book is a throwback to a simpler time. My copy is the hardcover edition, printed on the same sort of paper as the UFO books I bought in my misspent youth.
I haven’t finished it yet, but I have a few preliminary observations.
First, it’s a speedy read. Elizondo evinces a breezy style reminiscent of Major Donald Keyhoe. I have no idea how much of its smooth prose is the result of his native writing style or the help of an editor or two. I’ll accept that it’s all or mostly him for the sake of argument.
The publisher’s blurb creates the expectation of what’s to come: “The former head of the Pentagon program responsible for the investigation of UFOs — now known as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) — reveals long-hidden secrets with profound implications for not only national security but our understanding of the universe.”
Now as a former government employee with intelligence credentials, the book was reviewed by the military to make sure its contents did not violate national security. In fact, there are brief phrases and passages that are redacted, literally blacked out. Maybe you can infer what is being concealed from time to time, but it’s clear this presentation has a great promotional value.
So, guess what secrets about UAPs Elizondo can’t reveal? In the normal course of events, it might have seemed sensible to simply ditch the redacted words and rephrase these sections so it moves smoothly, but no…
I’ll talk about the book in more detail once I’ve read all of it. But I did learn a few things about Elizondo that I hadn’t heard before, though it’s not that I’ve been watching his career path.
So he reveals, for example, that he became a remote viewer for the Pentagon’s “Stargate” program. I suppose that made him a candidate to get involved in chasing after UAPs in the 21st century.
Shortly after he got the gig working for the DOD’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, strange orbs appeared in his home. His wife and his two daughters witnessed the phenomenon. In a telltale paragraph, Elizondo cites the infamous “hitchhiker effect” that impacts some UFO witnesses.
He also seems to have studied his UFO history, claiming, for example, that the Roswell affair really involved a crashed spaceship, and that four alien bodies were recovered. But he doesn’t make it clear whether he confirmed those details with his Pentagon research or contacts, or was simply summarizing published reports. That’s true for other sightings he writes about.
Overall, though, although it seems he is aware of alternate explanations for the phenomenon, he gives off the impression that he’s mainly an ETH guy. The same holds true for former Defense Department official Christopher Mellon, who wrote the book’s Foreword.
So far the read is pleasant, and I’m encouraged that it’ll be a good book. While it appears more oriented to the general reader who doesn’t have a background chasing after the flying saucers, there’s enough interesting material for the seasoned UFO buff, at least so far.
It’s also encouraging that a book of this sort sits atop the Times Best Sellers list, and also USA Today.
The impact? I’ve been at this game long enough not to guess, but it’s not as if the media has changed. Shortly before I wrote this column, I saw a cable news talking head asking Elizondo about “little green men” with a telltale sneer. You can probably guess which.
Meantime, I wonder about that other UFO whistleblower, David Grusch. He claimed to have the goods about crashed spaceships and alien bodies, but seems to have staged a disappearing act after he allegedly refused to testify about his secrets to Congress in an intelligence facility known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF.
Or maybe Grusch was just another one of those UFO field flashes in the pan.
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!