Koi UFO Video 057 : Los Angeles UFO 1984 (Olympics)
[DEBUNKED]Koi UFO Video 057 appears to show a large flying saucer, with various different lights, hovering in the night sky over Los Angeles.
This video was filmed during the closing ceremony of the Los Angeles olympics in 1984. Some ufologists, particularly conspiracy theorist Bill Cooper, have claimed that the saucer was under its own power. Several other individuals have posted online that it is difficult to obtain any information about the "UFO" , e.g. stating that if it was a hoax then one would expect some of those involved to have talked about it but in fact they "cant find any info anywhere".
In fact, as detailed below, the UFO was suggested by the Olympic's Director of Ceremonies, Tommy Walker, as a Ceremonies highlight. He requested the construction of a saucer with hundreds of lights on a 50 foot diameter giant saucer. The saucer was designed by John McGraw and John Miles. Bob Gurr (the designer of many of the rides at Walt Disney's Disneyland) was put in charge of the technical side of this "spaceship". Gurr arranged for Broggie-Elliot Company in North Hollywood to build themain flying saucer structure in a contract with UMF. The Olympic's team had a giant military helicopter that was painted black and flew with no lights of any kind. The spaceship was attached to the helicopter on a 100-foot black cable. The spaceship was reasonably light since it was not solid. It had lights in the outline shape of a spaceship with hollow areas between. Against a black sky, the naked eye perceived it as solid. It featured multicolored flashing lights and a giant spotlight that was powered by a small generator inside the spaceship. The spaceship was escorted by two smaller helicopters hovering around the spaceship, to cover up the sound of the big helicopter carrying the spaceship.
Sections below:
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
3. The real background to this video
4. Relevant online discussions
1. The relevant video
Koi UFO Video 057 appears to show a large flying saucer, with various different lights, hovering in the night sky over Los Angeles.
Screen shots from the video are included below for ease of identification:
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
Some ufologists, particularly conspiracy theorist Bill Cooper, have claimed that the saucer was under its own power.
Several other individuals have posted online that it is difficult to obtain any information about the "UFO" , e.g. stating that if it was a hoax then one would expect some of those involved to have talked about it but in fact they "cant find any info anywhere".
For example, one post on the AboveTopSecret.com discussion forum stated the following:
"Apparently, there have been numerous attempts to obtain information regarding this event. I came across a webpage a while back were someone had sent an email to the Olympic committee but was told that they were not allowed information as they were not officially part of their organisation.
What are your opinions on this event? I for one think it’s very strange, but just another esoteric ceremony of theirs. Even possibly a ‘test’ on the public to verify their reactions for a possible future event..."
Another post on the AboveTopSecret.com discussion forum included the following:
3. The real background to this video
In fact, this video shows a "UFO" that was one of the features of the closing ceremonies of the Twenty-Third Olympiad, in Los Angeles in 1984.
As detailed below, the UFO was suggested by the Olympic's Director of Ceremonies, Tommy Walker, as a Ceremonies highlight. He requested the construction of a saucer with hundreds of lights on a 50 foot diameter giant saucer. The saucer was designed by John McGraw and John Miles. Bob Gurr (the designer of many of the rides at Walt Disney's Disneyland) was put in charge of the technical side of this "spaceship". Gurr arranged for Broggie-Elliot Company in North Hollywood to build themain flying saucer structure in a contract with UMF. The Olympic's team had a giant military helicopter that was painted black and flew with no lights of any kind. The spaceship was attached to the helicopter on a 100-foot black cable. The spaceship was reasonably light since it was not solid. It had lights in the outline shape of a spaceship with hollow areas between. Against a black sky, the naked eye perceived it as solid. It featured multicolored flashing lights and a giant spotlight that was powered by a small generator inside the spaceship. The spaceship was escorted by two smaller helicopters hovering around the spaceship, to cover up the sound of the big helicopter carrying the spaceship.
Project designer Bob Gurr wrote an article in 2004 about the project which included the following:
"David L. Wolper Productions inherited the monumental task of Olympic Ceremonies Producer when Walt Disney Productions was unable to proceed just ten months prior to the Olympic games, due to their inability to furnish a budget. Tommy Walker. enlisted as Director of Ceremonies, suggested a flying saucer as a Ceremonies highlight. Since Walker had flown three previous saucers, he knew they always worked."
"In response to Walker's request for a saucer embodying hundreds of of special lights on a 50 foot diameter giant never before attempted, Planview of Hollywood was the winning design bidder and went to work. Designers John McGraw and John Miles contacted many equipment suppliers and formed a team to furnish the generator, controls, and lights for the saucer. This only two months prior to the August 12, 1984 show night. Finally approving McGraws design for production, the Olympics committee, at Walker's direction, drafted a contract with McGraw's Planview Company".
"During the next few weeks, McGraw would call me for advice on a "flying saucer", since we both were working on Michael Jackson's 1984 Victory Tour. Then, with just six weeks to go, McGraw called me while I was with Jackson rehearsing in Birmingham Alabama. He had the Olympic Closing Ceremonies Flying Saucer contract......but said there's not enough time or money for him to do it. He talked to Applied Entertainment Systems (AES), builder of the Jackson Lighting EFX, and then asked me to take on the job. I had airline tickets to England, not wanting to be in Los Angeles during the upcoming Summer Olympics....Aha, a project I can't refuse."
"I inherited the technical side of the mad venture, while Dave Schweninger, President of AES, attempted to pull together the remains of McGraw's suppliers. Only two days into my engineering of the flying saucer structure, AES went bankrupt and the project died....but only momentarily. I thought the wild scheme was so clever, we should not let it really die. Since I had my own company, GurrDesign, Inc., I could operate along with McGraws suppliers. Tom Baker of UMF Systems near Culver City was a big enough firm to contract with the Olympics Committee, who by this time were totally spooked with two contract failures with time rapidly running out. UMF then contracted GurrDesign, I hired a handful of AES victims and away we went".
"I asked the Broggie-Elliot Company in North Hollywood if they would build my main flying saucer structure in a contract with UMF. Sherry Peck of Daniel Flannery Productions, the Ceremonies Lighting Designer, coordinated everyone as I danced daily with the now reluctant McGraw suppliers since I needed instant technical interface and they wanted to see money before doing anything. Somehow everyone believed in the job and trusted that the money would be forthcoming from the Olympics Committee. I'll bet they were exasperated beyond words by then".
"Anyway, the wild contraption I envisioned got drawn up and built at a furious pace, based on a lot of trust amongst the players. The thing was to be 50 feet in diameter, carry a lot of equipment, but must be light enough to be carried by a Bell 314 big-lift Helicopter. So I made an outer ring of welded aluminum truss sections all pulled together by cables to a center triangular frame. This was inspired by the extremely light construction of the 1930's Hindenburg Zeppelin. The saucer looked like a slice out of the Hindenburg turned sideways".
"The center frame would carry the 90 KVA 208 3 phase gas turbine generator furnished by Alturdyne of San Diego and the show control unit built by Knute Skjoneberg of Newport Beach. We used (360) 600 watt Ray Lites supplied by TMB Associates, a Pichel Industries 7K Xenon searchlight, plus a whole bunch more lighting gizmos totaling (432) items using 238,200 watts....but not all at once! The wiring alone stretched 1.5 miles. The whole deal had to be portable to fit in (2) 20' stake trucks with no single part heavier than 142 pounds so we could stick it together by hand. The really big chunks, which need a forklift, were the 1,160 generator and the 328 pound Xenon power supply. Total ready-to-fly weight was 3,689 pounds".
"... we did the flying saucer job in just five weeks start to finish".
The producer of the opening and closing ceremonies, David L Wolper, wrote an article in 2009 about the "moment of sheer wonderment" created by the "UFO" about how this project. He wrote that the saucer "weighed 2 tons and was 52 feet in diameter fully covered with fabric". His article included the following details:
"Now, 25 years later, people still ask me, "How did you get the spaceship to fly?" Well, finally here's the secret".
"First, we had a giant military helicopter that was painted black and flew with no lights of any kind. Against the night sky it was invisible".
"Attached to the helicopter on a 100-foot black cable was the spaceship. The spaceship was reasonably light since it was not solid. It had lights in the outline shape of a spaceship with hollow areas between. Against a black sky, the naked eye perceived it as solid".
"It featured multicolored flashing lights and a giant spotlight that was powered by a small generator inside the spaceship. The light show was operated by remote control from the big helicopter".
"We had two smaller helicopters hovering around the spaceship seeming to escort it to the Coliseum, but they were really there to cover up the sound of the big helicopter carrying the spaceship".
"Since no one could see or hear the giant helicopter or see the black cable attached to the spaceship, it looked as if it were flying in on its own power".
"I'm sure there were some flying saucer addicts who wanted to believe it was real. I hope they did; it would prove that we successfully accomplished our grand illusion".
Anyone that still thinks that the "UFO" was, or might have been, an alien spaceship might like to attempt to explain the "alien" that was seen after the UFO at the end of the closing ceremony, pictured below. Was this just a coincidence??
That "alien" can be seen at the end of the longer footage from the closing ceremony embedded below:
That "alien" was George Bell (born 1957), the former tallest man in the United States at 7 feet 8 inches. He previously played basketball with the Harlem Wizards and Harlem Globetrotters show teams. Bell was featured on the AMC show Freakshow, throughout its two seasons. In an interview for the show, he revealed that he had appeared as an alien who landed on top of the L.A. Coliseum at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. A website associated with that AMC show includes the following relevant question and answer:
Q: You appeared in the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as the alien who landed on top of the L.A. Coliseum. How did you land that gig?
A: A friend of mine who is also tall — he’s 7′ 5″ — was called, and he didn’t want to do it. So he forwarded my name to them, and the Olympic committee contacted me to do the part. I was working with this big producer, David Wolper. He did the ceremony. It was really exciting. That was my first theatrical project, so it was pretty frightening, but I was able to do it. I’ll never forget it.
4. Relevant online discussions
Relevant discussions on the AboveTopSecret.com forum include the following:
2007 (November) discussion entitled "Los Angles 'UFO' 1984 Olympics"
2007 (November) discussion entitled "Olympics Games Los Angeles 1984 Closing Ceremony"
2007 (November) discussion entitled "City of Angels (LA): Esoteric UFO Ceremony 1984"