Voice from the Gallery, A.
Whereupon, a voice from the gallery shouted
1949-1958? Bimonthly, seasonally (irregular)
Cuyahoga Falls, OH.
Editor: Ralph M. Holland, editor and publisher.
1/1, 1949-1958 (?)
28 issues. 6 pp., 5 cents a copy. Reproduced typescript.

This journal is said to have been originally intended as the vehicle for a serious discussion of Richard Shaver and the Shaver Mystery, and then became a Fortean miscellany, a blog before its time, of excerpts from all over on mysterious happenings (overhand knots in lightship's anchor chain, radioactive snow, Hungarian Water Dogs, hordes of blackfish on the beaches in Florida Keys, polar green gardens near the north pole, the current fad of English women carrying snakes in their handbags, etc.). The journal gloried in the relaxed nature of its offerings:

"Written and published at irregular intervals, as time and available material may dictate (and as the spirit may move me!) for free distribution among certain of my friends who are interested in the by-paths which the Voice travels. A Voice From The Gallery is merely the voice of its editor and publisher, and does not represent any organization, group, or "school of thought". It does not have any idea or theory to sell, and is not attempting to prove anything. While the material appearing herein is written by the editor, unless otherwise noted, it does not pretend to be original. If the source is known, due credit is given. Otherwise it probably comes from so many different sources, and represents the combined thoughts of so many different people, that it would be impossible for me to name them all, even if they were known."

Ralph Merridette Holland (1899-1962), the editor and publisher, was a socialist, engineer and occasional reporter and an avid fan of the science fiction and fantasy of the era, and edited several early fanzines, including The Science Fiction Review, and published Ghu's Lexicon of fan terms. He wrote a popular account for Colliers of the mysterious disappearance in 1876 of Rudolf Fentz and his re-appearance in Times Square in 1952, bewildered and carrying in his pockets objects and papers from 1876. This and other of his reports were republished in his 1953 collection A Voice from the Gallery. (The Fentz mystery was later determined to have been plagiarized from a short story by the sci fi writer Jack Finney.)

The journal escaped the trap of the mere ephemeral because of the curious life of Holland, never disclosed or discussed in the journal. He had a serious interest in the Shaver Mystery, and discussed at length subjects like "Wantong" (the universal language and alphabet revealed by Shaver to underlie all languages), and devoted regular space to UFOs, about which he had a healthy skepticism, especially about George Adamski. He also seriously advocated the "Koch Treatment"— a cure-all system invented by a Detroit doctor who found an oxidizing chemical that, when injected, would revive the body's natural oxydizing function and restore perfect health, and crusaded against fluoride in the water and the dangers of nuclear testing.

For present purposes, Holland is notable because at the same time he was starting this journal he became the channeler of the messages of Borealis Tolano, his wife passed to the "Venusian etheric plane," and other Venusians who explained the origins of the human race in the subterranean breeding program that the Venusians, the Interplanetary Guardians, had started on earth. This account and other channeled messages on UFOs he sent under the pseudonym "Rolf Telano" to Meade Layne at Borderland Science Research Foundation. Holland received these messages as sometimes vague and sometimes very clear memories from the Guardians and from his earlier incarnations on Venus, and recorded them by a hunt and peck automatic writing on a typewriter. On Holland, see Hakan Blomqvist, https://ufoarchives.blogspot.com/2019/06/ralph-holland-and-venusians.html. Three issues are at AFU (Archives for the Unexplained), Norrköpping, Sweden.

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