• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

German 1950s Alien Photos (Silver Man; Monkey Man; Hoaxes)

Graylien

Graylien

As if!
Joined
Jul 31, 2004
Messages
4,428
Location
Norwich.
Do you recognise this alien? According to a book I have by Jenny Randles, it's a German April Fool's hoax (ah, those wacky Germans), but it seems that she may have confused the photo with a similar one reproduced near the foot of that webpage.

Now, I'm convinced that I've seen the 'monkeyman' photo in a book - or perhaps an old Fortean Times - next to the original untouched photo in which the two uniformed men are actually holding a pram. Has anyone else seen this juxtaposition? Do you have the book? Or did I imagine the whole thing?

Embedded link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20071117022228/http://www.greetingsearthlings.net/mexico-city-mini-man/

Here are the photo and its introductory text from the MIA webpage:

mexico-city-monkey-man.jpg
​

In Faces of the Visitors, Kevin Randle suggests a "Reliability Rating" of zero for the image (meaning, of course, that it is totally unreliable and most probably fake). He does, however, acknowledge some of the rumours and stories that have attached themselves to it:
It seems that several discs were seen in Monument Valley on March 21, 1949. Not long after that, similar craft were seen discharging small cylinders over Mexico City. A small creature was inside one of them. He was captured and turned over to the proper authorities.1
Click to expand...
1. Randle, Kevin, & Russ Estes Faces of the Visitors: An Illustrated Reference to Alien Contact(New York: Fireside, 1997), pgs. 241-242.

NOTE: See later post for a more complete and clear version of this photo.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Even before clicking this thread, I thought it would be this picture.

Yes I have also seen a picture of those two men holding a pram, and next to that a picture of the "alien" which was supposedly a circus artist taking a bow.
 
I'm used to seeing BOTH Greylien's alien (just try saying that five times fast!) AND Longfoot's alien identified as originating in Germany rather than Mexico.

The former has been so identified since I first saw it back during the mid-1950s.

I've seen it given the following "explanations":

1. A wax dummy.

2. An airbrushed photograph of a child.

3. A monkey shaved and painted silver, with a more human profile added.
 
Really, would an alien be wearing galoshes like that?
 
I saw this photo in a book of Unexplained Mysteries as a child. It was not associated with aliens but in the section of winged beasts, sharing pages with Springheeld Jack. Check out the photo and if I'm not mistakn you can see small wings folded behind his back.
 
graylien said:
Now, I'm convinced that I've seen the 'monkeyman' photo in a book - or perhaps an old Fortean Times - next to the original untouched photo in which the two uniformed men are actually holding a pram. Has anyone else seen this juxtaposition? Do you have the book? Or did I imagine the whole thing?
Click to expand...

You didn't imagine it!

I have the 'pram' photo here! But it's gunna take me some time to dig it out! Don't hold your breath just yet! This is gunna take some time! I think it was in an early issue of FT. Oh God!
 
I'm sure that I saw the photo in a paperback in the 1970's. The picture was less grainy (or perhaps it's my memory that is less grainy) and the "creature/alien" was described as a dead alien recovered from a saucer crash site in Germany or Italy in the 1940's.

I know that the book belonged to a boyfriend at uni. who was deeply into ufo's. I had not read much of that genre at the time and found the picture one of the more unsettling ones in the book.

I cannot remember the title but it was not the standard paperback size and maybe a translation of a European book.
 
A more complete photo in the OP appears on page 96 of 'Photographs Of The Unknown' (FT's Rickard/Kelly) with this text...

"...said to show the body of a dead pilot of a UFO which came down near Mexico City in the 1950s. The body was believed to have been sent for examination to Germany, but that was the last anyone heard of it."

Well that would explain the 'European style' clothing of the people in the picture - certainly not Mexican!

I'll scan it later - after my 'search' is over.

EDIT - I'm looking for the 'pram' photo version of the picture here!
 
DougalLongfoot said:
See here:
forteantimes.com/strangedays/ufofiles/348/alien_photography.html
Click to expand...

The 1950 Wiesbaden, Germany, photograph shown here, featuring a "little alien" in terrestrial-style clothing but wearing some type of breathing aparatus, was in reality an April Fool's photograph. The "alien" is actually the four-year-old (or so) son of one of the two military officers who also appear in the photograph.

There is a SECOND photo extant showing the child and the officers, with the kid being without the head/face disguise.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
graylien said:
Do you recognise this alien? According to a book I have by Jenny Randles, it's a German April Fool's hoax (ah, those wacky Germans), but it seems that she may have confused the photo with a similar one reproduced near the foot of that webpage.
Click to expand...
I've seen the hoax explanation with mention of pram to both pics as well - it's got "Thunderbird picture" overtones to it. In some weird area of my brain I've always found the monkeyman ever so slightly convincing for some reason, even though the go-go booties and codpiece don't seem all that practical for aerial operations :). The other one looks two dimensional from the start to me, like a not-very-good drawing glued onto a photo.
OldTimeRadio said:
There is a SECOND photo extant showing the child and the officers, with the kid being without the head/face disguise.
Click to expand...
There is - I remember seeing that one as well alongside the "original" by way of comparison. I can't remember the title of the book unfortunately, but IIRC it was an A4 sized colour hard-back, quite possibly a compilation featuring some Brookesmith material.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
WhistlingJack said:
Both of the photos are at the bottom of this page, OTR ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks, Jack. That's where I'd seen the second photo, but I'd already forgotten exactly where.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Was expecting standard blurry picture and wasnt disappointed. Why do UFO people never have a)decent cameras b) any photography skills
Im beggining to suspect some kind of conspiracy here!!!! :rofl:
 
Degrizzzz said:
Was expecting standard blurry picture and wasnt disappointed. Why do UFO people never have a)decent cameras b) any photography skills
Im beggining to suspect some kind of conspiracy here!!!! :rofl:
Click to expand...

'Cos the quality of the UFO photo is inversely proportional to the 'hyper' (meaningless) critical (dis)belief in what it purports to show. The 'better' the photo is the more unlikely it is that it shows something 'real'.
 
graylien said:
Do you recognise this alien? According to a book I have by Jenny Randles, it's a German April Fool's hoax (ah, those wacky Germans), but it seems that she may have confused the photo with a similar one reproduced near the foot of that webpage.
Click to expand...
Actually, in the original picture, it's a monkey. The face is doctored.
 
ghostdog19 said:
Actually, in the original picture, it's a monkey. The face is doctored.
Click to expand...

Poor monkey! People can be SO evil!

I'll find that damned pram photo if it kills me!
 
When photographs of aliens and their craft are too clear people immediately suspect Special Effects.

When the aliens are blurry, however, that's because they are having a hard time remaining materialized and stable in our reality.

But fuzzy spaceships are caused by the cosmochronocromo warp fields created by the fusiomagnetodreadfulocator coils of the hyperstaticogizmobrator drive engines.
 
Frobush said:
Poor monkey! People can be SO evil! I'll find that damned pram photo if it kills me!
Click to expand...
I've seen the images side by side in a crappy UFO magazine that was highlighting something like the ten best hoaxes or something like that. While back now. The only bit in the picture that looked like it remained genuine were the main body. Face and the little booties were added on. They basically shaved a chimp for this exercise, so yeah, poor monkey.

What'd be more amusing would be if the hoax was actually the hoax, in over words it really was an alien but they tried to make it look like a shaved chimp in other pictures and the wrong picture leaked out (whoops, shouldn't say that, people might actually believe that!!!)
 
tilly50 said:
I'm sure that I saw the photo in a paperback in the 1970's. The picture was less grainy (or perhaps it's my memory that is less grainy)
Click to expand...

I actually scanned it in from a book (using a not very expensive scanner) - hence the graininess. Plus the image reproduced there was pretty grainy.

I can't comment on your memory. ;)

http://www.greetingsearthlings.net
http://www.fustar.org
 
Here's a reference to our little friend (from Alan Baker's Encyclopaedia of Alien Encounters) that I just posted in the comments section of the relevant entry:
Another German Hoax, also produced in 1950, involved the supposed capture of a diminutive man from Mars, who is shown in the photograph between two trenchcoated "secret service agents". According to the story circulated at the time, the UFO pilot, whose craft had crashed near Mexico City, was sent to Germany for study (why he should have been sent to Germany was never made clear). The Danish Journal UFO-Nyt carefully examined the photograph, and concluded that it was fraudulent, drawing attention to the way in which the alien's tiny hand were held in the agents' closed fists, rather than their thumbs and fingers, as would have been expected. According to UFO-Nyt, the two men were actually holding a pram, which had been painted out of the photograph, to be replaced by the image of the small alien. (p. 188)
Click to expand...
greetingsearthlings.net/mexico-city-mini-man/
Link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20071117022228/http://www.greetingsearthlings.net/mexico-city-mini-man/

No sign of the "before" image though.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Fustar1 said:
No sign of the "before" image though.
Click to expand...

I do have it - but it eludes me! I'm still searching my vast array of silly publications!
 
I saw that picture in the part works the unexplained about 30 years ago and was reported to be real a long with another with 2 usaf staff members both were supposed to be real..... but originally that picture was supposed to be russian not german.....
 
It doesn't look like a monkey to me - proportions too human, especially the legs and feet.

I reckon it's some sort of doll/movie prop/action figure.
 
The proportions are human and the face looks very doctored.

i have 'photographs of the unknown' it very freaked me out when i was a kid.
 
regarding a couple of earlier posts re picture quality...

there is a real problem here in that whenever there is a blurry photo of a ufo or alien the septic sceptics all shout, "that proves nothing, its too blurry." then, whenever a clear photograph is produced the same lot all go, "no that can't be real. it's too clear and must be a fake."

honestly, you sceptics and your damn dogma. when are you going to learn that you cant have your cake and eat it?

just imagine (if you can actually do that) that the ETH was a 100% bone fide reality (i'm not saying it is, just imagine). what proof would it take to actually convince you?

regarding the picture. yes, i remember it well. the really weird thing is that the bloke in the middle is of normal height and lives in cheam but is actually surrounded by giant scatophagous humanoids from the planet chlamydia who view humans as nothing but an endless source of [sustenance]. apparently.
 
I don't think I've ever seen a clear photo of an alleged alien. Does such a thing really exist?
 
my point mainly concerns ufos themselves, but whitley streiber, or however he spells his name, has some fairly clear ones. also there have been a couple out of south america with that vargina (however that's spelt) red alien, i believe.

sorry, its too early in the morning to make much sense. perhaps i'm still dreaming.
 
The only evidence I'd accept would be actually seeing an alien, and physically touching it. (Well, poking it with a stick of some sort.) Even then, if no-one else saw and touched it, I'd believe that I had gone mad. If people were around, I'd believe that they were trying to trick me as part of an elaborate joke or tv stunt. There would have to be aliens running around all over the place, firing laser weapons at stuff, while politicians debated whether or not to go to war with them on Newsnight. But a small part of me would still be thinking "Nah, this must be a hoax of some sort".

On the other hand, doesn't the mind not allow us to see things that it thinks are too stange? I saw a picture of a guy who had a massive hole in his foot near the tendon, and for ages I didn't see it because my brain was filling it in. So perhaps the evidence is around us, and were I to look out the window right now my mind would simply ignore the ufo hovering above the garden.
 
J_Frank_Parnell said:
there is a real problem here in that whenever there is a blurry photo of a ufo or alien the septic sceptics all shout, "that proves nothing, its too blurry." then, whenever a clear photograph is produced the same lot all go, "no that can't be real. it's too clear and must be a fake."

honestly, you sceptics and your damn dogma. when are you going to learn that you cant have your cake and eat it?
Click to expand...
Well, this applies across the board in this neck of the woods. Any picture purportedly showing ghosts, cryptozoological specimens etc will get precisely the same treatment. Indeed, (relatively rare) speculation about other posters can follow precisely the same pattern - they must be a sock/fake to be so credulous/sceptical and the mods know about it and therefore ignore them, or, the mods deny they're a sock/fake, therefore they must be sock/fake or the mods wouldn't bother to deny it.

There's no pleasing some people, basically. Says more about them than about the evidence proferred (but then I would say that, wouldn't I? ;))
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top