Speculations about a flying saucer enthusiast and Fortean:
The notice—the only notice—in Doubt is scant, the last name Rockmore attached to an item in issue 36. But I recognize the last name: there’s a Rockmore credited in some other Fortean-inflected writing, by Ivan Sanderson and Desmond Leslie. Elliott Rockmore. And Elliott wrote to Eric Frank Russell about a year earlier. So—we’re going to say that the Rockmore credited in Doubt is Elliott Rockmore.
But then more speculations are needed. Elliott Rockmore is mentioned here and there in science fiction publications and flying saucer ones into the 1950s. But the only bit of biographical information is that he was located in Brooklyn. Not much to go on.
The notice—the only notice—in Doubt is scant, the last name Rockmore attached to an item in issue 36. But I recognize the last name: there’s a Rockmore credited in some other Fortean-inflected writing, by Ivan Sanderson and Desmond Leslie. Elliott Rockmore. And Elliott wrote to Eric Frank Russell about a year earlier. So—we’re going to say that the Rockmore credited in Doubt is Elliott Rockmore.
But then more speculations are needed. Elliott Rockmore is mentioned here and there in science fiction publications and flying saucer ones into the 1950s. But the only bit of biographical information is that he was located in Brooklyn. Not much to go on.
There are records for someone by that name who might have grown up to become the flying saucer investigator. An Elliott Rockmore was born in the Bronx on 8 February 1927—which would make him the right age. His first name, or perhaps middle, may have been Abraham. At least, the person with his social security number used both names. His mother was the former Bessie Pavenick. His father, Nathaniel, at the time of the 1930 census, worked as an “auto access.,” which may have been something like a driver. Both Nathaniel and Bessie had emigrated from Russia (Nathaniel when he was fairly young) and, indeed, lived in an enclave of Eastern Europeans, though they spoke, read, and wrote English. Nathaniel had been in the World War. Nathaniel was about 33 and Bessie 26 when Elliott was born.
Ten years later, and the family had moved out of the City to Hempstead, New York. Nathaniel was working in agricultural research. The census had them as New York natives, which could have been a mistake, or proof of their altering identities. Around 1931, Bessie had given birth to a second son, Ronald. In 1945, Elliott may have followed in his father’s footsteps and served in the military, though seemingly under the name Abraham. (This may have been the given name on his birth certificate, which I have not seen, but Elliott ma have been what he used.) Abraham Rockmore served in the army from 30 June 1945 to 17 February 1947, though I do not know in what capacity. A few months after returning to civilian life, he applied for his social security card, again using the name Elliott.
I do not know what Rockmore did for work or whether he ever married. I do know that in the early 1950s—at the latest—he became involved with the flying saucer-community. Unidentified flying objects had become something of a national sensation in 1947, when Rockmore presumably left the military; since then, they had maintained their popularity though tinged with increasing skepticism by officialdom. In 1951, he started publishing “Flying Saucer Review,” out of Brooklyn, which was a Fortean amalgamation of newspaper reports on flying saucers (though reportedly without Fort’s theorizing glue: a laundry list, then). He tracked down reports in libraries and reportedly gathered more by eschewing subscription payment for clippings: if one sent in material that could be used, one was put on the mailing list. It seems to have circulated among both flying saucer enthusiasts and science fiction fans.
Flying Saucer Review, and its various supplements, seems to have run until 1955—I have not seen any copies. The publication, and his own diligent research, allowed Rockmore to collected a huge file on flying saucers. Some went back at least as far as 1949, which may date his interest or show his research into historical reports; others as far back as 1870. An article in Ray Palmer’s “Mystic” magazine noted that in mid-summer 1952 alone, he gathered between 400 and 600 newspaper reports, “rivaling the Air Forces own files.” In their seminar book “Flying Saucers Have Landed,” Desmond Leslie and George Adamski used “Flying Saucer Review” reports from April 1952 to show how ubiquitous the phenomena was. At the time, Rockmore was using a P.O. box on Wall Street to receive what must have been a burgeoning mail. Another report had his collection as “the biggest file of flying saucer reports in the world.”
By this point, Rockmore was moving in decidedly Fortean circles. He contributed to the Spring 1953 science fiction ‘zine “Destiny” (from Portland). Other contributors to that issue included the Forteans Lilith Lorraine, George Wentzel, and Ralph Rayburn Philips, as well as the occasional historian of Forteana Sam Moskowitz. Rockmore’s contribution was the article “Who Knocks at My Door.” I have not seen the issue, though, so cannot say more about it, but it seems to speculate on the forces behind the flying saucers, judging by the title. He also advertised for more information. A February 1954 issue of the Delaware “Morning News” included a letter written by him requesting newspaper and eyewitness reports of the aerial phenomena. He called himself the director of “Flying Saucer Researchers,” and used a P.O. Box in Brooklyn.
In 1954, Rockmore co-founded the well-regarded Civilian Saucer Investigation-New York (CSI-NY or just CSI), with Marilyn Feiffer (a Bronx housewife, as reported in one recollection) and Ted Bloecher, who had come to flying saucers after a 1952 flap. Bloecher was a subscriber to Rockmore’s “Flying Saucer Review,” which is how they got into contact. The initial meeting occurred in 1954. There’s a letter from 1953 recounting the CSI’s first public meeting, but this seems to be a mis-dating, as it contradicts contemporary reports. That letter was written by pilot W. J. Hull. According to Hull, the meeting took place in April 1953 and featured Adamski, one of the earliest UFO contactees, whose book with Leslie had just come out. Supposedly, Rockmore—then acting president of CSI, but otherwise apparently overwhelmed by non-UFO duties—took a dim view of Adamski.
The public meetings came to host Forteans, and the CSI expanded to tie together various strands of what John keel later called the “The Flying Saucer Subculture.” According to Bloecher, Ivan Sanderson spoke at one of CSI’s meetings—and he and Rockmore seemed to make some kind of connection. Later, when Sanderson took a road trip across America, Rockmore provided him with a list of Fortean phenomena arranged by states that he could investigate (even as Sanderson was undertaking the trip to write a conventional natural history). Ernest Dickhoff also gave a talk, on missing persons. He was another Fortean. Meanwhile, CSI recruited an editor at True magazine, which had published some of the first flying saucer stories, and Isabel Davis, an influential early flying saucer enthusiast.
Apparently, though, CSI was also the beginning of the end of Rockmore’s flying saucer involvement. Accounts vary as to why he dropped out, but agree that his end came in 1955. Bloecher speculated that one of Rockmore’s problem was CSI’s public meetings attracted a large number of “loonies.” Jerome Moseley and Karl T. Pflock had a different theory. “Poor Eliot [sic] seems to have been scared right out of saucer research” by the idea that the whole field might be a piece of communist propaganda. “He did have other, personal difficulties that caused him to curtail his saucing activities now and again,” Moseley continues, gnomically, in their book “Shockingly Close to the Truth.” “However . . . I’m quite sure he was persuaded by our mutual friend [Charles Samwick] that saucer clubbing could abet the evil schemes of the Masters of Deceit. So it was that, during the summer of 1955, Rockmore left ufology forever.” Moseley was in CSI at the time, so has some creditability. There’s also Jim Keith’s 1997 book “Casebook on the Men in Black,” which has it that Rockmore may have been intimidated out of UFO research by these legendary figures.
Elliott Rockmore—or Abraham Rockmore—the one born on 8 February 1927, who may or may not have been the same Elliott—or Eliot—Rockmore involved in UFO research, died on 22 April 1988. He was 61.
*****************
As far as can be determined from available evidence, Rockmore’s interest in Forteana was constrained to aerial phenomena, particularly flying saucers. How he came to Fort is not hard to guess: as soon as flying saucers made the news, reporters and Forteans connected the phenomena to reports gathered by Fort. Indeed, Moseley’s ‘zine Nexus made frequent reference to Fort.
By 1951, Rockmore was scouring Fort for such reports, and hunting down the references. On March 26, he wrote to Russell (it’s worth noting he spelled his name in the letter Elliott) asking if he could help. The New York libraries did not have good runs of English papers, and Rockmore had come across a couple of references to them in Fort—on pages 630-3 and 515). These came from events in 1909 and 1913. He thought Russell might either have the articles and offer them for sale or could put him in touch with someone who could make copies. Rockmore noted that he wanted not just the articles cited by Fort, but complete coverage of the events. He offered to pay with a check, money order, or goods—valued by English correspondents in those strapped post-War days.
No response survives, but I very much doubt Russell could do much to help Rockmore.
The only other time Rockmore came to the attention of the Fortean Society, as already mentioned, was in Doubt 36, from April 1952—coincidentally the month highlighted by Desmond and Adamski. The credit was a generic one, listing Rockmore among a collection of members who had sent in data. Among the contributed clippings were 158 items on flying saucers and, in all probability, it is to this class that Rockmore’s mail belonged.
Beyond that: everything is dark.
Ten years later, and the family had moved out of the City to Hempstead, New York. Nathaniel was working in agricultural research. The census had them as New York natives, which could have been a mistake, or proof of their altering identities. Around 1931, Bessie had given birth to a second son, Ronald. In 1945, Elliott may have followed in his father’s footsteps and served in the military, though seemingly under the name Abraham. (This may have been the given name on his birth certificate, which I have not seen, but Elliott ma have been what he used.) Abraham Rockmore served in the army from 30 June 1945 to 17 February 1947, though I do not know in what capacity. A few months after returning to civilian life, he applied for his social security card, again using the name Elliott.
I do not know what Rockmore did for work or whether he ever married. I do know that in the early 1950s—at the latest—he became involved with the flying saucer-community. Unidentified flying objects had become something of a national sensation in 1947, when Rockmore presumably left the military; since then, they had maintained their popularity though tinged with increasing skepticism by officialdom. In 1951, he started publishing “Flying Saucer Review,” out of Brooklyn, which was a Fortean amalgamation of newspaper reports on flying saucers (though reportedly without Fort’s theorizing glue: a laundry list, then). He tracked down reports in libraries and reportedly gathered more by eschewing subscription payment for clippings: if one sent in material that could be used, one was put on the mailing list. It seems to have circulated among both flying saucer enthusiasts and science fiction fans.
Flying Saucer Review, and its various supplements, seems to have run until 1955—I have not seen any copies. The publication, and his own diligent research, allowed Rockmore to collected a huge file on flying saucers. Some went back at least as far as 1949, which may date his interest or show his research into historical reports; others as far back as 1870. An article in Ray Palmer’s “Mystic” magazine noted that in mid-summer 1952 alone, he gathered between 400 and 600 newspaper reports, “rivaling the Air Forces own files.” In their seminar book “Flying Saucers Have Landed,” Desmond Leslie and George Adamski used “Flying Saucer Review” reports from April 1952 to show how ubiquitous the phenomena was. At the time, Rockmore was using a P.O. box on Wall Street to receive what must have been a burgeoning mail. Another report had his collection as “the biggest file of flying saucer reports in the world.”
By this point, Rockmore was moving in decidedly Fortean circles. He contributed to the Spring 1953 science fiction ‘zine “Destiny” (from Portland). Other contributors to that issue included the Forteans Lilith Lorraine, George Wentzel, and Ralph Rayburn Philips, as well as the occasional historian of Forteana Sam Moskowitz. Rockmore’s contribution was the article “Who Knocks at My Door.” I have not seen the issue, though, so cannot say more about it, but it seems to speculate on the forces behind the flying saucers, judging by the title. He also advertised for more information. A February 1954 issue of the Delaware “Morning News” included a letter written by him requesting newspaper and eyewitness reports of the aerial phenomena. He called himself the director of “Flying Saucer Researchers,” and used a P.O. Box in Brooklyn.
In 1954, Rockmore co-founded the well-regarded Civilian Saucer Investigation-New York (CSI-NY or just CSI), with Marilyn Feiffer (a Bronx housewife, as reported in one recollection) and Ted Bloecher, who had come to flying saucers after a 1952 flap. Bloecher was a subscriber to Rockmore’s “Flying Saucer Review,” which is how they got into contact. The initial meeting occurred in 1954. There’s a letter from 1953 recounting the CSI’s first public meeting, but this seems to be a mis-dating, as it contradicts contemporary reports. That letter was written by pilot W. J. Hull. According to Hull, the meeting took place in April 1953 and featured Adamski, one of the earliest UFO contactees, whose book with Leslie had just come out. Supposedly, Rockmore—then acting president of CSI, but otherwise apparently overwhelmed by non-UFO duties—took a dim view of Adamski.
The public meetings came to host Forteans, and the CSI expanded to tie together various strands of what John keel later called the “The Flying Saucer Subculture.” According to Bloecher, Ivan Sanderson spoke at one of CSI’s meetings—and he and Rockmore seemed to make some kind of connection. Later, when Sanderson took a road trip across America, Rockmore provided him with a list of Fortean phenomena arranged by states that he could investigate (even as Sanderson was undertaking the trip to write a conventional natural history). Ernest Dickhoff also gave a talk, on missing persons. He was another Fortean. Meanwhile, CSI recruited an editor at True magazine, which had published some of the first flying saucer stories, and Isabel Davis, an influential early flying saucer enthusiast.
Apparently, though, CSI was also the beginning of the end of Rockmore’s flying saucer involvement. Accounts vary as to why he dropped out, but agree that his end came in 1955. Bloecher speculated that one of Rockmore’s problem was CSI’s public meetings attracted a large number of “loonies.” Jerome Moseley and Karl T. Pflock had a different theory. “Poor Eliot [sic] seems to have been scared right out of saucer research” by the idea that the whole field might be a piece of communist propaganda. “He did have other, personal difficulties that caused him to curtail his saucing activities now and again,” Moseley continues, gnomically, in their book “Shockingly Close to the Truth.” “However . . . I’m quite sure he was persuaded by our mutual friend [Charles Samwick] that saucer clubbing could abet the evil schemes of the Masters of Deceit. So it was that, during the summer of 1955, Rockmore left ufology forever.” Moseley was in CSI at the time, so has some creditability. There’s also Jim Keith’s 1997 book “Casebook on the Men in Black,” which has it that Rockmore may have been intimidated out of UFO research by these legendary figures.
Elliott Rockmore—or Abraham Rockmore—the one born on 8 February 1927, who may or may not have been the same Elliott—or Eliot—Rockmore involved in UFO research, died on 22 April 1988. He was 61.
*****************
As far as can be determined from available evidence, Rockmore’s interest in Forteana was constrained to aerial phenomena, particularly flying saucers. How he came to Fort is not hard to guess: as soon as flying saucers made the news, reporters and Forteans connected the phenomena to reports gathered by Fort. Indeed, Moseley’s ‘zine Nexus made frequent reference to Fort.
By 1951, Rockmore was scouring Fort for such reports, and hunting down the references. On March 26, he wrote to Russell (it’s worth noting he spelled his name in the letter Elliott) asking if he could help. The New York libraries did not have good runs of English papers, and Rockmore had come across a couple of references to them in Fort—on pages 630-3 and 515). These came from events in 1909 and 1913. He thought Russell might either have the articles and offer them for sale or could put him in touch with someone who could make copies. Rockmore noted that he wanted not just the articles cited by Fort, but complete coverage of the events. He offered to pay with a check, money order, or goods—valued by English correspondents in those strapped post-War days.
No response survives, but I very much doubt Russell could do much to help Rockmore.
The only other time Rockmore came to the attention of the Fortean Society, as already mentioned, was in Doubt 36, from April 1952—coincidentally the month highlighted by Desmond and Adamski. The credit was a generic one, listing Rockmore among a collection of members who had sent in data. Among the contributed clippings were 158 items on flying saucers and, in all probability, it is to this class that Rockmore’s mail belonged.
Beyond that: everything is dark.
