Seacoast history Blog #110
March 21, 2011  

Whenever I see an alien, I think of Betty Hill. Most of them, like the computer graphic greenie Paul (from the move “Paul”) owe their very existence to the lady from Portsmouth, NH. Betty and her husband Barney all but invented the familiar little green almond-eyed guy that has become an icon of out space fantasies. Their description of the guys who reportedly abducted the couple in the White Mountains in the early 60s set the standard for what has followed in alien movies in the last half century. I'm not talking about the insect Sigourney Weaver alien or the slimy-faced monster in Predator -- but the familiar cateye guy we know so well. (Continued below)

And that includes Paul, the comic extraterrestrial in the new film by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead). Some Ufologist Film Freak will likely prove me wrong, but I think Betty’s bald, big-headed, wide-eyed alien inspired the pop culture version. Sure, there was Area 51 at Roswell in the previous decade, but the alien marketplace really got physical when Betty and Barney claimed to have a close encounter of the Third Kind (long before the Spieberg version captivated America.  

Just look at this picture from the UNH archives that Betty hired an illustrator to produce. I took a photo of that illustration in the Dimond Library at UNH a couple of years ago. No, Paul doesn’t wear a cap like a Nazi, as in Barney’s description of the people who abducted him. But there’s definitely a similarity. I would have loved to take Betty to this flick and listen to her commentary. I’m sure she would have let out a gravely laugh, then explained in detail why the animated Paul was not “authentic” as validated by her own experience – whether real or imagined.  

Skeptics have suggested that Betty’s alien fantasy evolved out of her experience watching sci-fi films. She reportedly saw the 50s movie Invaders from Mars on TV around the time of her alleged “abduction.” That movie featured humans captured and probed aboard a spaceship. I bought a copy on DVD. The leader, however, is very human-looking head floating in a glass jar and the aliens are Frankenstein-like automatons with furry arms. The Hill’s creatures follow the Roswell model, and in doing so, turned them into pop culture icons.   

We don’t know if aliens have ever visited, but we do know that they are here to stay in film. And my guess is that they owe Betty big time. -- JDR 

READ ALSO: Betty and Barney Hill

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