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Little green men is the stereotypical portrayal of extraterrestrials as little humanoid-like creatures with green skin and sometimes with antennae on their heads. The term is also sometimes used to describe gremlins, mythical creatures known for causing problems in airplanes and mechanical devices. Today, these creatures are more commonly associated with an alleged alien species called greys, whose skin color is described as not green, but grey. During the reports of flying saucers in the 1950s, the term "little green men" came into popular usage in reference to aliens. In one classic case, the Kelly-Hopkinsville sighting in 1955, two rural Kentucky men described a supposed encounter with metallic-silver, somewhat humanoid-looking aliens no more than in height. Employing journalistic licence and deviating from the witnesses' accounts, many newspaper articles used the term "little green men" in writing up the story. ==Extraterrestrial definition== Usage of the term clearly predates the 1955 incident, for example, in England reference to little green men or children dates back to the 12th century green children of Woolpit, though exactly when the term was first applied to extraterrestrial aliens has been difficult to pin down. Folklore researcher Chris Aubeck has used electronic searches of old newspapers and found a number of instances dating from around the turn of the 20th century referring to green aliens. Aubeck found one story from 1899 in the ''Atlanta Constitution'' about a little, green-skinned alien, in a tale called ''Green Boy From Hurrah'', "Hurrah" being another planet, perhaps Mars. Edgar Rice Burroughs referred to the "green men of Mars" and "green Martian women" in his first 1912 science fiction novel ''A Princess of Mars'',〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Chris Aubeck website summarizing search for early use of little green men term )〕 though at 10 to 12 feet tall, they were hardly "little." However, the first use of the specific phrase "little green man" in reference to extraterrestrials that Aubeck found dates to 1908 in the ''Daily Kennebec Journal'' (Augusta, Maine), in this case the aliens again being Martians.〔 In 1910 (or 1915), a "little green man" was allegedly captured from his crashed spaceship in Apulia, in south-east Italy. Green aliens soon came to commonly portray extraterrestrials and adorned the covers of many of the 1920s to 1950s science fiction pulp magazines with pictures of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon battling green alien monsters. The first documented print example specifically linking "little green men" to extraterrestrial spaceships is in a newspaper column satirizing the public panic following Orson Welles' famous War of the Worlds Halloween broadcast of October 31, 1938. The column by reporter (Bill Barnard ) in the Corpus Christi ''Times'' the next day begins, "Thirteen little green men from Mercury stepped out of their space ship at Cliff Maus Field (airport ) late yesterday afternoon for a good-will visit to Corpus Christi" and ends with, "Then the 13 little green men got in their space ship and flew away."〔Corpus Christi ''Times'', November 1, 1938, page 1, available at electronic newspaper archives of (Ancestry.com )〕 The familiarity with which the term was used suggests that this probably wasn't the first instance where it was applied to extraterrestrials in spaceships. In 1946, Harold M. Sherman published a pulp science fiction book entitled "The Green Man: A Visitor From Space". The cover illustration was of a normal-looking and proportioned human being, albeit with a green skin. Nationally syndicated columns by humorist Hal Boyle spoke of a green man from Mars in his flying saucer in early July 1947 during the height of the brand new flying saucer phenomenon in the U.S. that started June 24 after Kenneth Arnold's famous sighting and the Roswell UFO incident. However, Boyle did not describe his green Martian as "small". Marvin the Martian was a Warner Brothers cartoon character dating from 1948. Marvin was a small humanoid character with big eyes and usually dressed in a mostly green uniform. Movie-goers of that period would have been familiar with the small, green-suited cartoon Martian. In 1951, a science fiction book titled "The Case of the Little Green Men" was published by Mack Reynolds, telling of a private detective hired to investigate disguised aliens living among the human population. As he was being hired, the detective referred derisively and familiarly to the aliens in the flying saucers being "little green men". The cover illustration is notable for depicting the LGM with the classic antennae sticking out of the head. Mack Reynolds would go on to write the first Star Trek novel in 1968 (Mission to Horatius).〔(Cover illustration );(Excerpt of book & author background )〕 By early 1950, stories began circulating in newspapers about little beings being recovered from flying saucer crashes. Though largely considered to be hoaxes, some of the stories from the sources about little aliens eventually made it into the popular 1950 book, ''Behind the Flying Saucers'' by Variety magazine columnist Frank Scully.〔(Scifipedia: ''Behind the Flying Saucers'' )〕 A witness reporting a flying saucer sighting to a Wichita, Kansas newspaper in June 1950 stated that he saw "absolutely no little green men with egg on their whiskers."〔Wichita ''Eagle'', June 30, 1950, reproduced in USAF Project Blue Book report ()〕 Similarly, electronic searches show that "little green men" was specifically used in reference to science fiction and flying saucers by at least 1951 in the ''New York Times'' and ''Washington Post'' (in the Post, a book review of a mystery/Sci Fi novel called "The Little Green Man"), and 1952 in the ''Los Angeles Times'' and the ''Chicago Tribune'' (the Tribune mocking flying saucer reports using a "little green man with pink polka dots"). The next example of the ''New York Times'' using the term dates from 1955 in a book review of a sci-fi satire called ''Martians, Go Home''. The Martians were obnoxious "little green men" whose appearance was "true to prophecy." In a later example, following a nationally publicized flurry of UFO sightings in November 1957, syndicated Washington columnist Frederick Othman wrote: "New Flying Saucer Epidemic On. All over this land again are flying saucers... No little green men have climbed out of these celestial vehicles so far, but in another couple of days I wouldn't be surprised..."〔Example column in Austin (Texas) ''Statesman'', November 9, 1957; referenced at (Ufoupdates )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「little green men」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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