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. Edgar Rice Burroughs referred to the 'green men of Mars' and 'green Martian women' in his first science fiction novel A Princess of Mars (1912), although at 10 to 12 feet (3.0 to 3.7 m) tall, they were hardly 'little'.

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. įolklore 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. In his historical satire A History of New York (1809), American author Washington Irving described Lunatics (or men from the moon) as 'pea green', in contrast to the 'white' inhabitants of Earth. 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, although exactly when the term was first applied to extraterrestrial aliens has been difficult to pin down. Other media then followed suit.Įxtraterrestrials in Arthur Leo Zagat's novel Drink We Deep depicted as little green men on the cover of the January 1951 issue of Fantastic Novels. Employing journalistic licence and deviating from the witnesses' accounts, The Evansville Courier used the term 'little green men' in writing up the story. 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 4 feet (1.2 m) in height. Today, these creatures are more commonly associated with an alleged alien species called greys, whose skin color is described as not green, but grey.ĭuring the reports of flying saucers in the 1950s, the term 'little green men' came into popular usage in reference to aliens. The term is also sometimes used to describe gremlins, mythical creatures known for causing problems in airplanes and mechanical devices. Little green men is the stereotypical portrayal of extraterrestrials as little humanoid creatures with green skin and sometimes with antennae on their heads.

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