UFO Slice

“Mariana UFO Film (1950) from Great Falls, Montana, filmed by Nick Mariana"
The footage shows two unidentified objects captured on daylight color film and was later investigated by the U.S. Air Force.

On the morning of August 15, 1950, Nick Mariana, the general manager of a minor league baseball team in Great Falls, Montana, was at Legion Stadium preparing for a game. Around 11:25 in the morning, Mariana noticed two bright, silvery objects high in the sky.

The objects appeared to be moving together in formation. According to Mariana, they were not traveling like conventional aircraft. They moved smoothly, seemed to rotate or tumble as they traveled, and reflected sunlight as they turned. Mariana’s secretary, Virginia Raunig, was with him at the time and witnessed the same thing.

Realizing something unusual was happening, Mariana ran to his car, retrieved his 16mm Kodak color movie camera, and began filming. He captured approximately sixteen seconds of footage before the objects disappeared from view. The film shows two bright objects moving steadily across a clear daytime sky.

The sighting quickly attracted attention, and the United States Air Force took custody of the film for analysis. The footage was sent to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. At first, the Air Force suggested the objects were reflections from two F-94 jet fighters that were reportedly in the area at the time.

Mariana and Raunig disputed this explanation. They stated that they had seen jets in the sky that day, but the jets looked completely different from what was filmed. The objects in the footage appeared solid and consistent in brightness, not like reflections or glare. Over time, even some Air Force analysts acknowledged that the jet reflection explanation did not fully match the behavior seen in the film.

One of the most controversial aspects of the case emerged when the film was returned to Mariana. He claimed that roughly thirty to thirty-five frames were missing, and that those frames showed the objects closer and with more visible rotation. The Air Force denied removing anything beyond possibly a single damaged frame.

This disagreement has never been resolved. Whether frames were actually removed, lost during duplication, or misunderstood due to the handling process remains unknown.

The film was later reviewed under Project Blue Book and by independent researchers. Analysts generally agreed that the objects were not birds, balloons, or meteors. No conventional explanation fully accounted for the motion and appearance of the objects. The case ultimately remained classified as unidentified.

The Mariana film is historically significant. It is one of the earliest UFO videos ever recorded, filmed in daylight and in color, by a civilian with no apparent motive for hoaxing. It also involved official military analysis and unresolved questions about missing evidence.

Interestingly, the event became part of local history. In 2008, Great Falls renamed its baseball team the Voyagers in reference to the 1950 sighting.

After more than seventy years, the footage is still available for anyone to examine, and the case remains open to interpretation.