In Appreciation of Wendy Connors and Her Faded Discs Archive

 

A revealing source of information concerning events usually categorized under the term “UFOlogy” is the Faded Discs Archive of Wendy Connors.  I’ve learned that Wendy retired from active participation in Ufology three years ago.  A message from Wendy posted at ufoupdateslist.com on March 17, 2007 included, “. . . I began to beat the drum for researchers to begin organizing the history of Ufology for future generations.”
 
Wendy commented about her Audio History of Ufology Series CDs, “If you haven’t paid attention to them, you should.  They are a gift to you from many researchers and organizations, combined to give you a part of the history of Ufology you can’t read on the Internet.”
 
A brief biography of Wendy Connors may be read at www.ufoevidence.org.
 
When I was extensively researching this field several years ago, Wendy’s help immensely benefitted me.  The first disc to be released was entitled “Ufology: A Primer in Audio 1939-1959."  The disc’s 100 recordings have an approximate total running time of eight hours.  Other disks would present interviews on such themes as ‘contactees,’ British and Australian cases, and “High Strangeness” with a combined running time of hundreds of hours.
 
In addition to making these recordings available to me for a modest cost, Wendy put me in touch with another UFO archivist to obtain a photocopy of a hard-to-find publication.  An inquiry about the availability of a tape recording of any of Orfeo Angelucci’s interviews brought a response from Wendy that she would send me a copy of a lecture by him that was soon coming her way and she did so without any charge.
 
When I mentioned in an October 10, 2006 Email to Wendy that it was amazing that she’d been able to obtain some of these interviews and commented about other hard-to-find recordings, she replied: “One of the problems with the early material is that it was recorded on wire.  Due to the expense, many recordings were recorded over and the material was lost, plus the wire that still exists has rusted.  I still have tons of material I haven’t even had a chance to go through yet . . . .”
 
John Hayes of www.ufoinfo.com has commented, “The Faded Discs Archive is now in the public domain and no longer produced.  Please note that I do not have any details of how it can be obtained.”
 
If the discs are no longer being offered and are in the public domain, I hope that the researchers who have the existing discs with MP3 files will make them available on the Internet in the future.