In my modest UFO file, I found a link to a blog, "Yankee Skeptic", authored by kittynh (her name is Kitty).
It has this article,
"Who Invented Little Grays? Hollywood or the Hills?", dated 29 July 2013.
Link, https://yankeeskeptic.com/2013/07/29/who-invented-little-grays-hollywood-or-the-hills/
Kitty argues that the Hill's descriptions of "their" aliens doesn't really match our idea of "Grays". She thinks the media coverage/ re-telling of the Hill's experience was more influential than the Hill's actual accounts:
External Quote:
A TV movie "The UFO Incident" was aired in 1975, starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons.
The aliens in the movie looked very much like the typical "little grays" we all know today from movies, TV and novelty store items.
I don't know how much impact "The UFO Incident" had- I was vaguely aware it existed but I've never seen it.
Then again, maybe the minority of people really "into" the UFO mythos at that time would have made a point of seeing it, if they were aware it was on.
Here's a few pics relating to the TVM:
Kitty acknowledges there are differences between these creatures and archetypal Grays. She also mentions the "Outer Limits" hypothesis, a response to Barney Hill's sketch of an alien made under hypnosis in 1964:
Barny's collaborative sketch and the character from the TV show:
The beings
actually described by Betty and Barney Hill in 1961 are worth a quick review.
Ten days after the Hill's journey, Betty had 5 consecutive nights of dreams which she seems to have believed were memories of actual events.
She described the "aliens" as being about 5 feet to 5 ft. 4 inches (152.4 cm to 162.56 cm) tall, in blue uniforms, with long noses, black hair, dark eyes (no indication their was anything
unusual about the eyes IIRC); their skin was "a greyish colour".
They wore blue uniforms and "caps similar to those worn by military cadets".
(From Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_and_Betty_Hill_incident)
Whether she meant the headwear was like a side-cap or a peaked cap I'm not sure. But both are uniform items with origins (probably) in 19th century Europe, becoming very widespread in military and police use in the early 20th century through to today.
The recording, attached, is said to be of Barney Hill, under hypnosis conducted by Dr Benjamin Simon in 1964.
An important caveat: It
sounds authentic to me, but I've no evidence that it
is.
From Internet Archive,
https://archive.org/details/Barney_Hill_Hypnosis_Session_1, "Uploaded by Kameron D Kiggins, obtained from Wendy Connors."
The timings below are approximate, the emphases are mine:
At 15:00 minutes, Barney sees a man looking over his shoulder through the "window" of the UFO;
"...
I think of a red-haired Irishman..."
At 17:15, "..and the evil face-
he looks like a German Nazi" and Barney goes on to describe a black uniform, and a black scarf around his neck draped over one shoulder. Later, Hill says the figure is wearing a black shiny jacket.
18:12, apparently about the "German Nazi", "...his eyes were slanted but not like a Chinee.." (Old, now offensive term for person of "Chinese" appearance).
20:20 Hill becomes distressed, again at 21:10, "his eyes..."
26:00 "...
they're men - all with black jackets...", 26:44 "the eyes are there..."
Back to the blog article "Who Invented Little Grays? Hollywood or the Hills?" from the Yankee Skeptic blog, we read
External Quote:
...in a letter to Marjorie Fish, dated July 12, 1969. (Milne Special Collections, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH)
"Barney and I had a theory that the star that the humanoids were from probably was a colder planet than the Earth. We based this thought on similarities between the humanoids and a group of Indians who live in the Magellan Straights, south of South America. These Indians have adapted to the climate or severe cold by developing fat folds to protect themselves which give the impression of being much like the humanoids. IE, the Indians have very large slant eyes, surrounded by a fat fold which gives the impression of extremely large eyes; their noses are almost ehinct (sic);their lips are difficult to see because they are hidden by another fat fold: Their fingers and toes are very short, but their hands and feet are thick with layers of protective fat."
Also,
External Quote:
This time from a October 20, 1964 letter to "Walter" about a talk given at Phillips Exeter Academy, a private preparatory school in the Concord NH area.
"Last night Barney and I went to Phillips Exeter Academy to hear Dr. Coon, anthropologist, of Harvard, lecture on the 'Races of Man'. He showed several slides, but one of them looked like the people on the space ship. Barney and I both recognized this at the same time! It was the slide of a woman that lives in a very cold climate and showed her physical adaptation to this very cold. I believe she is of Mongolian background, with very distinct slant eyes. Her adaptation is the formation or a fatty substance around her eyes, which causes the appearance of a large eye extending around to the side. Her nose is very small and flat to her face. Her mouth seems distorted by this fatty substance... ... It was surprising to actually see a picture which resembled the men so closely – much better than we could ever begin to do."
(Emphasis added).
I think Kitty /Yankee Skeptic blog might be right to some extent, the aliens in "The UFO Incident" look more like Grays than the descriptions given by the Hills. We never hear UFO enthusiasts saying that Barney Hill witnessed a red-headed Irishman and a German Nazi with a scarf! (I'll pass over Betty's rather strange takes on the features of foreign people).
My general feeling is that the appearance of Grays probably has many sources. The UFO community seem to have arrived at some sort of consensus about what they look like (despite the absence of a single trustworthy photo, of course), and those images get repeated in popular culture- a sort of meme or trope.
A bit like many of us might have a similar mental image of a dragon- essentially a giant quadruped reptile with scaly or leathery wings and a powerful snout full of dagger-like teeth. But no-one's seen a real dragon, and there are many sources, some going back centuries, which perhaps helped shape our imagined beast.
Is there a Davinchi Code sequel about it? Id like to read if so.
