This thread has brought to mind my favourite UFOLOGIST/Charlatan/Con artist, George Adamski. His photo of a real flying saucer was one of the more famous images of its subject throughout the 1950's and later. It was later found to be the top of a 1950's portable drinks cooler.
"George Adamski (17 April 1891 – 23 April 1965) was a Polish-American author who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he displayed numerous photographs in the 1940s and 1950s that he said were of alien spacecraft, claimed to have met with friendly Nordic alien Space Brothers, and claimed to have taken flights with them to the Moon and other planets.[2]
Adamski was the first, and most famous, of several so-called UFO contactees who came to prominence during the 1950s. Adamski called himself a "philosopher, teacher, student and saucer researcher", although most investigators concluded his claims were an elaborate hoax, and that Adamski himself was a charlatan and a con artist.[3]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Adamski
Of course the great pathological liar and con man, Erich Von Daniken made a lot more money money than George. His first book, "Chariots Of The Gods" became a best seller and spawned a cottage industry of similar books throughout 1970's. At one point they formed their own genre. I think I read at least half a dozen. After a while, I was bemused to discover that authors in the genre began quoting each other. Very much like a certain ilk of Biblical scholars.
"George Adamski (17 April 1891 – 23 April 1965) was a Polish-American author who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he displayed numerous photographs in the 1940s and 1950s that he said were of alien spacecraft, claimed to have met with friendly Nordic alien Space Brothers, and claimed to have taken flights with them to the Moon and other planets.[2]
Adamski was the first, and most famous, of several so-called UFO contactees who came to prominence during the 1950s. Adamski called himself a "philosopher, teacher, student and saucer researcher", although most investigators concluded his claims were an elaborate hoax, and that Adamski himself was a charlatan and a con artist.[3]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Adamski
Of course the great pathological liar and con man, Erich Von Daniken made a lot more money money than George. His first book, "Chariots Of The Gods" became a best seller and spawned a cottage industry of similar books throughout 1970's. At one point they formed their own genre. I think I read at least half a dozen. After a while, I was bemused to discover that authors in the genre began quoting each other. Very much like a certain ilk of Biblical scholars.
