the philadelphia experiment interview

Know Before You Go

The Incredible Story of Al Bielek, the Man Who Traveled Through Time and Space

May 10, 2017 by Justin Andress View All On 1 Page

According to popular legend, in 1943, the US Navy undertook secret experiments based out of the port of Philadelphia. These experiments were designed to put Einstein’s unified field theory to practical use by making a naval ship invisible. While conspiracy theorists debate the existence of the Philadelphia Experiment, one alleged survivor of the scientific outing, Al Bielek, maintained that the Navy’s purpose was entirely different. According to Bielek, the true purpose of the Philadelphia Experiment wasn’t invisibility, it was time travel.

In 1990, Bielek claimed that he spent time in two separate periods of the future only to return to the present and tell his story. And that was just the beginning of the fantastic revelations of this totally, completely, absolutely, one hundred percent not fake time traveler. As if someone would make that up anyway.

1. A Peculiar Child

A peculiar child by his own words, Al Bielek was born in 1927 to an otherwise wholesome family. He says his first memory came at a Christmas party when he was just nine months old. He found he was able to fully understand the adults talking in the room around him. Growing up, he says he was known as a “walking encyclopedia,” easily distinguishing himself among his classmates.

The Philadelphia Experiment: actor Michael Paré on the legacy, the sequel and more

Actor Michael Paré talks 1984 time-travelling gem The Philadelphia Experiment

By Calum Waddell 03-09-19 53,240 -->

Despite popular consensus, the Hollywood sci-fi cinema of the 1980s was not always teen-orientated – and the cult endurance of the 1984 time-travelling gem The Philadelphia Experiment is a sure-fire testament to this…

Whilst genre buffs will probably always cherish the summer of 1984 for such established classics as Ghostbusters , Gremlins , Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom and The Last Starfighter , at least one lesser known, but equally ambitious, epic slid out in those hot and humid months to etch its way into sci-fi history. The motion picture in question is The Philadelphia Experiment – debuting in American theatres on 3 August  1984 from the short-lived but aspiring mini-studio New World Pictures (which had previously been run by Roger Corman) and underperforming its way to a gross that was just a touch over $10 million. It had to be a crushing disappointment for a project that was based on a famous conspiracy theory and featured John Carpenter’s name on the credits (as an executive producer) as well as a solid cast, headlined by Brian DePalma regular Nancy Allen and rising star Michael Paré…

“I loved making the movie,” gushes Paré to SciFiNow. “ The Philadelphia Experiment is one of the great pictures on my resume and I am really proud of it. I read the book, by Charles Berlitz, in high school because my brother had given it to me and it had really left an impression. The idea of going into another dimension was a really interesting thing to a young mind and I remember going over it in my head a lot and wondering if it even happened ( laughs ). I felt there was some distant reality– Einstein and Nikola Tesla had explored that sort of thing anyway – you know, alternate lives and dream theories, and I went on to read a lot of that stuff because it enthralled me. A lot of people don’t know this, but Kirk Douglas had starred in a variation on The Philadelphia Experiment before us – it was called The Final Countdown but in that movie they travelled back in time, to before Pearl Harbour. In our version, the idea was that these two sailors would be sent forward 40 years and end up in 1984.”

The entire legend around the so-called ‘Philadelphia Experiment’ stems from the late Morris K. Jessup who was known for his writing on UFOs and interplanetary visitations – most of which was seen as little more than glorified fan fiction by the critics of the era. Nonetheless, Jessup created an enduring myth with claims that a United States naval ship, the USS Eldridge, had been set-up for an invisibility experiment in 1943 – during the height of the Second World War. The author and astronomer would claim that the American government had managed to parlay the latest technology into creating an ocean liner that would be undetectable to enemy radars but had, in a crisis of inter-dimensional proportions, accidentally sent the vessel into an alternate universe.

Whilst few onlookers took the claims seriously, the urban legend was an intriguing one for an era in which Orson Welles had also fooled radio listeners into believing that an alien landing was forthcoming…

“I thought it was a really great idea,” admits Paré. “It was just a stroke of luck that I had been a massive fan of the book. So when this came to me, I said ‘Hey, where do I sign on?’ I really wanted to be part of that story. I even remember when I got the script. I was shooting Eddie And The Cruisers and my manager came to me on the set and said, ‘Hey, there is this new movie that some producers have you in mind for.’ And the director on Eddie And The Cruisers actually got mad that I was getting this pitch for another movie – ‘Hey, keep your mind on this one please,’ you know? [ Laughs ] Anyway, when I was told what it was I said, ‘ The Philadelphia Experiment ? Are you kidding? You have to get me this role!” It was destiny, man [ laughs ]. But filming The Philadelphia Experiment seemed to take forever because we shot it all over America – we went all across the country. It was the longest shoot I have ever been a part of.”

Nevertheless, the actor admits to being a little surprised when he realised that, far from the action-packed sci-fi adventure that might have emerged from such a story, The Philadelphia Experiment was instead going to cast Paré as a sailor who, along with his best friend, is swept from 1944 to 1984. Shortly after arrival, his colleague’s health begins falter, whilst Paré begins a romance with a young misfit called Allison (Nancy Allen). Together they fall in love, defy government forces and try and work out exactly what caused an experiment in hi-tech nautical defence systems to create a time-tunnel to the future…

“It is interesting because when I got involved I remember that John Carpenter’s name was on the screenplay,” continues Paré. “That was reassuring and exciting because I had seen The Fog and Halloween , which are great films, but when The Philadelphia Experiment came out he was only credited as one of the producers and I never saw him on the set. Luckily a few years later I did get to work with John, it was on his remake of Village Of The Damned , and I asked him what had happened. He told me, ‘I knew there was a great story there but I did not know how to make it into a movie so I had to walk away from   it…’ So he explained that it got moved onto someone else and John told me, ‘I think that what they eventually did with it worked. By adding the romance, it meant that the story was much easier to tell’. I would say he is right. I mean, I am just a regular guy who gets drafted – I am not even a captain, I am just a sailor – and here I am in 1984 all of a sudden. It would not make any sense if my character arc was to be this strong and confident personality jetting around different time zones. Instead, my direction was to think ‘Why me? Why did this have to happen to me?’ I am not a hero, I am just someone who is in a very difficult situation but finds love out of it. But I know the sci-fi fans still appreciate it – some of them have even told me it’s their favourite film of all time.”

Helmed by English filmmaker Stewart Raffill, whose genre credits also include such cult favourites as The Ice Pirates (1984) and Mac And Me (1988), The Philadelphia Experiment has certainly held up well. Anticipating Back To The Future (1985) with some of its plot strands, including a time-spanning romance, the film also broke ground with visual effects which are as good as anything else of the period and also helped to initiate the very early stages of digital trickery…

“I do remember the ending, which had a lot of effects work, took a long time to film,” mentions Paré. “It was not just the special effects – it was also trying to get the romance right, trying to make the audience tear-up. There had to be that question about whether or not I was going to return to the 1940s or continue my life with Nancy in 1984. We wanted to make people feel like they were going to get their money’s worth with a big emotional conclusion ( laughs ). I recall the ending with Nancy went through hours and hours of different takes.”

However, as the actor also reveals, there were some behind-the-scenes rumblings that, perhaps, The Philadelphia Experiment was not going in a direction that would satisfy a modern audience…

“There were a lot of producers on the movie and the film did go through a number of writers,” states Paré. “When I agreed to do the movie, I remember Stewart telling me that he wanted to make a romantic love story. But there was some behind-the-scenes stuff saying ‘Hey, can you get Nancy to seduce Michael in her stockings and suspenders?’ because this was the actress who had just done Dressed To Kill and she was a sex symbol. But that wasn’t what we were making. I remember when The Philadelphia Experiment came out, some critics said I played a ‘weepie character’. I got called ‘weepie Michael Paré’ ( laughs ). And I was a bit annoyed by that. I didn’t make that choice – the film went in the romantic direction instead of the action direction. That was not necessarily my call, but in the end I think it worked and I am not surprised that it still has such a huge following.”

Indeed, thanks to the success of the film on videotape, audiences eventually had the chance to see The Philadelphia Experiment II . Released into cinemas in late 1993, and without Paré (his role is recast with Brad Johnson. Nope, us either), the film was a flop – unfortunately unable to exploit the fan following that had begun to surround the original…

“The biggest mistake I made in my career was that I never did the sequel,” states Paré. “The director was a friend of mine called Stephen Cornwell. He told me he was going to be doing it and that it would be about my character a few years later, in which another time experiment causes the present day to be very different. I said I was really excited about it and then one of the producers got in touch with me and he offered a fee that I did not think was fair. I said that to him and he really got in my face about it and shouted, ‘This is what you are worth to me’. So instead of going to Stephen and sorting it out that way, I walked away from it entirely. It was a bad move on my part because I loved my character and I would have liked to return to that story.”

On the plus side, at least, Paré would get to make a return to the mythology – of sorts – when he agreed to appear in SyFy Channel’s remake of The Philadelphia Experiment in 2012. An inevitably lower budgeted affair, hampered by TV movie production values, the rehash is surprisingly watchable and not quite the disaster that one might expect (which is not say that it should be at the top of anyone’s must-see list)…

“It was cool to be asked to do that,” smiles Paré. “It was only a couple of days on the set and it was fun – but you need a big budget for this sort of story, and I think that showed. The original film is a classic and they tried to do a direct sequel, which was honourable but didn’t work for a lot of the fans, and then they did the TV movie – which was okay. It shows how the original film has lasted and I am sure you will eventually see a proper big remake in the future. I know that when they do that, I’ll be demanding that I get a cameo ( laughs ).”

This article first appeared in SciFiNow issue 162.

The Philadelphia Experiment is available on DVD from Anchor Bay. Get all the latest sci-fi news with every issue of SciFiNow. 

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The Philadelphia Experiment

Background note.

About once every six months, someone asks about the infamous "Philadelphia Experiment." There's always a mention of how they read a book or saw the movie of that name about this mysterious US Navy test in 1943 where a destroyer escort off Philadelphia vanished and then reappeared near Norfolk, Virginia. The descriptions usually include such horrific items such as crewmembers rematerializing half inside the deck and walls of the ship or that they were all discharged as being mentally unstable. The story goes on that the USN had discovered the secret of time travel or teleportation but has then kept it under wraps for almost sixty years.

I do not expect the following article to stop such questions, but hopefully it will save me the effort of having to keep from shaking my head at just how gullible people are.

The Evidence (or the Lack Thereof)

First of all, I suggest a look at the official US Navy explanation of this alleged incident.

And a look at some of the people involved in promoting this story: Skeptic's Dictionary - Philadelphia Experiment .

Assuming that you've read one of these books, did you happen to notice the lack of first person interviews with any of the crew members of the Eldridge? There are only stories that most if not all of the crew - that is, those that survived the terrible incident - were discharged from the Navy as being mentally unstable and unfit for further service.

OK, now think about that. The Eldridge carried about 200 men. After fifty-seven years, the authors were unable to find a single one of these people to interview? How likely is that? Show me a first person interview with a former crewmember who says "yes, I was transported to Norfolk and then back to Philadelphia" and maybe I'll start taking this story seriously. And, I certainly don't mean the stories like "a friend of a brother of a former crewman" sort of psuedo-eyewitness accounts that seem to be accepted as gospel by the authors.

"In March of 1999 fifteen members of the crew of the USS Eldridge held a reunion in Atlantic City. They were a bit bewildered about why of all the ships in the U.S. Navy the Eldridge was chosen for this rumor. Some were getting tired of being asked about it. All denied anything like what was in the Allende story or the Moore/Berlitz book ever actually happened. Quipped former crew member Ed Tempary, as he gave his comrades a smile, 'The only part of the book I think is true is the part about the crew being a little crazy.'" Philadelphia Experiment , from the Museum of Unnatural Mystery

So, you tell me, are these former crewmembers in on the conspiracy? After over fifty years, are they still holding onto the dark, mysterious secret of time travel? Or, are they just ordinary sailors who wish this whole nonsense would just go away?

The real staying power of this story is that it is extremely difficult to prove that something didn't happen. For example:

Can you prove to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hillary Clinton didn't sneak in your room last night while you were asleep and then stared at you for hours? Why not? Doesn't the fact that you can't prove that she wasn't there say that she could have have been there without your knowledge? And, who says that she did it without your knowledge? Isn't true that you are conspiring with the government to hide the fact that Hillary Clinton stared at you? In fact, why don't you just show me your proof that you're not on the government payroll yourself as a paid member of the conspiracy to hide Hillary Clinton's whereabouts from the taxpayers. And, while you're at it, just where were you on the day when Cort Cobain committed his alleged suicide? Oh, really? How about giving us the names of the witnesses to your whereabouts so that they can be added to the list of co-conspirators?

See how easy it is?

A Likelier Explanation

My friend Stuart Slade has a much more prosaic explanation for this story:

The experiments that gave rise to the ludicrous stories about the "Philadelphia Experiment" were possibly concerned with optical camouflage using a technology known as counterlighting. In 1941 aircraft were beginning to be used extensively for ASW work. They hit a problem. Because the aircraft being used were relatively low performance, alert lookouts on submarines could spot the aircraft before the aircraft could get close enough to launch an effective attack. This was unfortunate, not from an operational reality point of view (the sub was being forced down so it could no longer track the convoy) but from an aircrew morale point of view. All they saw was the subs getting away. So a whole series of experiments were performed to try and improve the chance of the aircraft getting close enough. One of these involved a trick known as counterlighting. An aircraft is seen as a dark block on a bright background. In fact, what the observer sees is the shadows on the underside of the aircraft contrasting with the bright sky. So, somebody realized, if we can use floodlights to illuminate those shadow areas, the aircraft should be much less visible. This was tried out and proved highly successful. The aircraft equipped with counterlighting arrays were almost invisible. However, the arrays consumed large amounts of electrical power and their drag slowed the aircraft right down and put fuel consumption up. This made the idea impractical. The solution was to use higher performance aircraft (Avengers and Wildcats in place of Swordfish and Liberators in place of Sunderlands) and adopt a new paint scheme copied from seagulls (light grey upper surfaces, gloss white belly). These had the effects required. For all its disadvantages, counterlighting worked well. This inspired people to find applications where the power and drag problems weren't critical. Somebody came up with the idea of using it on ships - particularly on the Arctic Convoy runs. So one destroyer escort was equipped with counterlighting equipment and its effects evaluated. The ship was at sea in normal conditions and being tracked visually and by radar. When the counterlighting floodlights were turned on, those ships that were positioned so the target ship was silhouetted against the bright horizon saw it "apparently" vanish to re-appear when the lights were switched off. Since the ship was under way at the time, this made it look as if she had moved from one spot to another. Its important to note that at no time did the aircraft tracking the ship visually, ships tracking her by radar or those ships not in the correct aspect to her lose contact with her. The experiments showed that counterlighting worked but only in comparatively narrow conditions and it wasn't really a practical technique. It was more or less abandoned (although I have heard that it may have been used by some merchant ships). Note that some of the effects ascribed to the "Philadelphia Experiment" (which was actually held in the West Indies and did not involve the Eldridge) are exactly those one would expect to get from staring straight at a brilliant light. Other bits of history have become associated with the story. One is degaussing, a technique applied to nearly all warships in WW2. In this, the hull of the ship is "wiped" with a high-tension cable that reverses the magnetic field in the hull. This doesn't make the ship "invisible" it flips the mine fuze the wrong way. The effect of a degaussing fades quite quickly so the process has to be repeated regularly. Later many ships had a degaussing cable fitted permanently to them. Ships based in Philadelphia often used to go to Norfolk to bomb up. This was routine and was an astonishingly quick turn-around. This was helped by using a thing called the Inter-coastal waterway. The bits of bodies etc.? Ships were coming back to Philadelphia after taking bad combat damage. In some cases the inside of those ships (that had taken bomb or torpedo hits) looked like a butchers shop. Again, somebody heard horror stories about what ships damaged in combat look like and added it in. Counterlighting has reappeared a couple of times since WW2. Its interesting now because its possible to formulate some composites so they glow when an electrical charge is put across them. This means we can overcome the power consumption and drag problems. It also means that this technology has drifted back into the black world. None the less, its WW2 incarnations are well-documented. Stuart Slade

On 15 January 1951 the USS Eldridge DE-173 was transferred under the Mutual Defense Assistance program to Greece, with whom she served as destroyer escort Leon (D-54).

The Leon was decommed by the Greek Navy in 1991 but she was retained as a training hulk. I don't know if she was eventually scrapped or not.

The Greek sailors were rather amused at the occasional visitor who showed up to examine the ship for evidence of the alleged experiment and were reportedly not above having a few laughs at their expense. As I cannot verify the accuracy of these stories - although I do not doubt that something of this nature did occur - I do not include them in this essay.

Page History

The Philadelphia Experiment

Here's the story: In October of 1943, hundreds of people watched a top secret experiment go horribly wrong. The US Navy, attempting to create a kind of invisibility cloak for ships, accidentally transported the USS Eldridge through time and space, with disastrous consequences for the crew. It's a thrilling tale, but how much of it is true? Tune in as the guys explore the origin of this bizarre legend (and bust some myths about cream cheese along the way).

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• Show Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
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• Published February 12, 2021 at 6:15 PM UTC
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