Howard Menger

From Outer Space to You, by Howard Menger, Clarksburg, WV: Saucerian Books, 1959, 256 pages, illus. LC 59-10057.

Most 1950s-era contactee books follow a familiar script. As an adult the contactee happens upon a flying saucer in a remote area. He meets the occupants who look like normal humans. They take him for a ride, sometimes to other planets. He has been selected because he is unusually receptive. They lecture him on how perfect they are and how badly humans on Earth behave, admonishing us that if we do better, a great future awaits. The contactee is told to endure ridicule and embark on a lecture tour spreading the word. That outline can be used as a summary to describe books by Fry, Adamski, Bethurum, and others.

This book is a little different. It still has some of the outline elements above, but the approach is different and the length is much longer. Howard Menger was first contacted by aliens when he was ten years old in the woods near his parent’s farm. The beautiful blonde woman who sat on a rock told the young Howard how he had been specially chosen and was destined for great things. There were no further contacts for some time. Menger grew up, joined the army, got married, and had a son. He had a brief contact with a beautiful woman in Hawaii, brunette this time, then was shipped to Okinawa to participate in the WWII allied landing. Here he had an additional contact and was told he was being watched over and that his army life was no accident. He was severely wounded at one point and helped along by a nurse who he says was also an alien. The war was soon over. He retuned home to open a successful sign painting business. This is a frustrating time for Menger because he isn’t told a great deal in these encounters.

But then things started heating up. Menger had many contacts in the years following the war, often helping aliens from both Mars and Venus to blend in successfully on Earth. He acted as a Gofer. He would buy them clothing and take it to their meeting house where the women, especially, had trouble walking in high heels and refused to wear bras. He would get them take-out (but only healthy food) and serve as their barber to cut off unfashionable long hair. New aliens would arrive not quite knowing the language; others would depart when their assignment was finished. One gets the impression it was quite a busy time. In fact, Menger was told that aliens mingle among us, helping when they can. They hold jobs and positions in all walks of life. He frequently meets them in restaurants.

Menger was asked to keep this entire issue a secret until the summer of 1957, but parts of it began to leak out. During this time as well Menger attempted to take pictures of the craft with a Polaroid, but most of the pictures turned out fuzzy because of interference from the electromagnetic fields surrounding the crafts. Some of the pictures are reproduced in the book, most in shadowy form that were shot at night.

Half waty through the book there is a dramatic change. Several things happen. First, Menger is getting popular. Lectures he gives at his house are well-attended by the public and reporters. Secondly, Menger reveals that hidden portions of his memory are gradually being unlocked by the aliens. He remembers that he is actually a person from Saturn named Sol du Naro. After a wonderful and fulfilling relationship with a woman from Venus, who is the sister of the first alien he met when he was ten, he traveled to Earth just in time to inhabit the body of a dead one year old named Howard Menger. The body came back to life and Sol do Naro was known as Howard Menger thereafter. He was told he would meet someone special, and that happened during a lecture when he spotted Marla Baxter, a young and strikingly beautiful widow, in the audience. She was actually his reincarnated lover from Venus. Recognizing each other they fell immediately in love (again). Menger left his wife and children and married Ms. Baxter a short time later. During this time also Menger finally was allowed to travel in the saucers. He made trips to the Moon and Venus, the latter of which took half hour round trip. Both have an oxygen atmosphere, as do Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. He, of course, saw many wondrous sites: cities, farms, and strange plants. Wheat on Venus, for example, has grains three times larger than ours. Potatoes grown on the Moon in richer soil are much higher in protein than Idaho spuds.

The personnel narrative portion of the book peters out as the newlywed Mengers embark on a lecture tour and make several appearances on the Long John Nebel radio show, a sort-of Coast to Coast late night show in the sixties. The last few chapters of the book contain a question and answer section, transcripts of some of the radio interviews, and information on a proper diet and the importance of eating good food.

Menger also published a long-play record of alien space music, “Music from Another Planet.” Marla wrote the book, "My Saturnian Lover" about Menger and published it with a vanity press. (New York: Vantage Press, 1958, 71 pages). Menger is still alive and has a very rudimentary web site at www.howardmenger.com. Their latest book is "Threads of Light to you", Ministry of Universal Wisdom, 1999, 147 pages. Both these books are out of print, but may sometimes be found on places like eBay. Some of these older books are hard to find and somewhat expensive. I found the Saturnian Lover book for $50.00 (71 pages), but haven’t picked it up.… (more)