A gremlin is a folkloric creature, commonly depicted as mischievous and mechanically oriented with a specific interest in aircraft. Their origin is found in myths among airmen, claiming that the gremlins were responsible for sabotaging aircraft. In later times, different fantastical creatures have been referred to as gremlins, bearing varying degrees of resemblance to the original gremlins. Flying machine redirects here. ...

The airplane gremlin legend

The word "gremlin" originated in oral use amongst R.A.F. aviators' slang in Malta, the Middle East and India and is said to date to 1923; with the earliest recorded printed use being a poem published in the journal Aeroplane April 10, 1929.^[1] The concept of gremlins as responsible for sabotaging aircraft was popularized during World War II among airmen of Britain's Royal Air Force, in particular the men of the high altitude Photographic Reconnaissance Units (PRU) of RAF Benson, RAF Wick and RAF St Eval. The story attempted to explain the accidents which often occurred during their flights. Gremlins were also thought to have enemy sympathies, but investigation revealed that the enemy also had similar problems, so the gremlins were not taking sides in the conflict.^[2] In reality, the gremlins were a form of "buck passing" or deflecting blame.^[2] Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... RAF redirects here. ... RAF Benson (IATA: BEX, ICAO: EGUB) is a Royal Air Force station near Benson in Oxfordshire, England. ... RAF St Eval was a strategic airbase for the RAF Coastal Command in the second world war (situated in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom). ... Buck passing or passing the buck is the action of transferring responsibility or blame unto another person. ...

An early reference to the Gremlin is in an article by Hubert Griffith in the servicemen's fortnightly Royal Air Force Journal dated April 18, 1942^[3] although that article states the stories had been in existence for several years, and there are later recollections of it having been told by Battle of Britain Spitfire pilots as early as 1940.^[4] Later sources have sometimes claimed that the concept goes back to World War I, but there is no print evidence of this.^{[citation needed]} This article is about military history. ... The Supermarine Spitfire was a British single-seat fighter, which was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries during the Second World War, and into the 1950s. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ...

Author Roald Dahl is credited with getting the gremlins known outside of the air force. He would have been familiar with the myth, having carried out his military service in the 80th squadron of the Royal Air Force in the Middle East. Dahl had his own experience in an accidental crash-landing in the Libyan Desert. In January, 1942 he was transferred to Washington, DC as Assistant Air Attaché. There he eventually authored his novel The Gremlins, in which he described male gremlins as "widgets" and females as "fifinellas". Dahl showed the finished manuscript to Sidney Bernstein, the head of the British Information Service. Sidney reportedly came up with the idea to send it to Walt Disney. Roald Dahl (IPA: ) (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short story author and screenwriter of Norwegian parentage, famous as a writer for both children and adults. ... This article is about arid terrain. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... A military attaché is a military expert who is part of a diplomatic mission. ... Cover of an edition of The Gremlins The Gremlins is a childrens book, written by Roald Dahl, and published in 1943. ... Look up widget in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Fifinella was a female gremlin designed by Walt Disney during World War II, which later became an official mascot for the WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots) and other World War II fliers. ... Sidney Lewis Bernstein (1899-1993) was one of Britains first television barons, the least flamboyant, but probably the most enduringly influential, of the show-business entrepreneurs who won the first independent commercial television franchises in the 1950s. ... For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. ...

The manuscript arrived in Disney's hands in July, 1942 and he considered using it as material for a film. The film project never materialized but Disney managed to have the story published in the December, 1942 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. About half a year later a revised version of the story was published in a picture book published by Random House. The book was republished in 2006 by Dark Horse Comics. Thanks mainly to Disney, the story had its share of publicity which helped in introducing the concept to a wider audience. Issues #33-#41 of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories published between June, 1943 and February, 1944 contained a nine-episode series of short silent stories featuring a Gremlin Gus as their star. The first was drawn by Vivie Risto and the rest of them by Walt Kelly. This served as their introduction to the comic book audience. Cosmopolitan, or simply Cosmo, is a magazine published monthly from New York by the Hearst Corporation. ... // Random House is a publishing house based in New York City. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Walt Disneys Comics and Stories is an anthology comic book that has an assortment of Disney characters, including Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Chip n Dale, Lil Bad Wolf, Scamp, Bucky Bug, Grandma Duck, Brer Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, and others. ... Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr (August 25, 1913 - October 18, 1973), known simply as Walt Kelly, was a cartoonist notable for his comic strip Pogo featuring characters that inhabited a portion of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ...

While Roald Dahl was famous for making gremlins known world wide, many returning Air Servicemen swear they saw creatures tinkering with their equipment. One crewman swore he saw one before an engine malfunction that caused his B-25 Mitchell bomber to rapidly lose altitude, forcing the aircraft to return to base. Critics of this idea state that the stress of combat and the dizzying heights caused such hallucinations, often believed to be a coping mechanism of the mind to help explain the many problems aircraft faced whilst in combat. The North American B-25 Mitchell (NA-62) was an American twin-engined medium bomber manufactured by North American Aviation. ... For other uses, see Bomber (disambiguation). ...

Airplane gremlins in film

Falling Hare (1943), in which a gremlin torments Bugs Bunny

• In 1943, Robert Clampett directed Falling Hare, a Merrie Melodies cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny. With Disney's film being the inspiration, this short has been one of the early Gremlin stories shown to cinema audiences.^[5] It features Bugs Bunny in conflict with a gremlin at an airfield. The Bugs Bunny cartoon was followed in 1944 by Russian Rhapsody, another Merrie Melodies short showing Russian gremlins sabotaging an aircraft piloted by Adolf Hitler.

Nightmare at 20,000 feet (1963)

• A 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" directed by Richard Donner, featured a gremlin attacking a plane.^[6] This episode was remade as a segment of 1983's Twilight Zone: The Movie.^[7] In the original television episode, the gremlin appears as an almost ape-like creature which inspects the aircraft's wing with the curiosity of an animal and then proceeds to damage the wing. In the movie segment, the gremlin more resembles a troll or a goblin, with green skin and a frightening grin. This incarnation of the gremlin appears to be more intellectual and menacing, and is also shown to be capable of flying.

Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Falling Hare is a 1943 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Robert Clampett, starring Bugs Bunny. ... Bugs Bunny is an animated hare who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Warner Bros. ... Robert Bob Clampett (May 8, 1913–May 4, 1984) was an animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes series of cartoons from Warner Bros. ... Falling Hare is a 1943 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Robert Clampett, starring Bugs Bunny. ... Merrie Melodies end title Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. ... Bugs Bunny is an animated hare who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Warner Bros. ... After Falling Hare turned into a big hit in 1943, Bob Clampett made another Wartime cartoon involving gremlins, called Russian Rhapsody a Merrie Melodie, released to theaters on May 20, 1944. ... Hitler redirects here. ... Image File history File links This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... Image File history File links This is a screenshot of a copyrighted website, video game graphic, computer program graphic, television broadcast, or film. ... “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” is an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone. ... The Twilight Zone title. ... “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” is an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone. ... Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg on April 24, 1930) is an American film director and also producer through the production company, The Donners Company, he and his wife, producer Lauren Shuler-Donner, own. ... Twilight Zone: The Movie was a 1983 movie produced by Steven Spielberg as a theatrical version of The Twilight Zone, a long-running early TV series. ...

Different varieties of Gremlins

As is not uncommon with folkloric creatures in fiction, the nature of Gremlins differs greatly depending to the setting. Creatures named Gremlins are encountered in various forms of video games, fantasy literature, role playing games etc. Many of these Gremlins encountered in popular culture have little in common with the original critters from the air force legend other than their name.

A famous example is the 1984 movie Gremlins and its 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. The gremlins in these movies had nothing obvious to do with aircraft in particular, although they were portrayed as adept at subverting or sabotaging mechanical systems; more explicit connections between the films' Gremlins and those of folklore were drawn in the novellizations however. For other uses, see Gremlin (disambiguation). ...

In fact, the creatures of this movie are named "gremlins" because the protagonist, Billy Peltzer, recalls a speech by his friend, Murray Futterman, about the legend of gremlins. Thus, noting the similarities, he names them "gremlins".

A gremlin as seen in the movie Gremlins.

Another example of gremlins in popular culture in on the episode of Charmed named "The Power of Three Blondes" where two little blue creatures Paige referred to as gremlins start sabotaging things at her new temp job. Image File history File links Gremlin_eating_cookie. ... Image File history File links Gremlin_eating_cookie. ... For other uses, see Charm. ... The Stillman Sisters become the new Charmed Three in The Power of Three Blondes // Episode of the popular U.S. television series, Charmed Episode Number: 4 Season: 6 Production Code: 4301115 Airdate: October 12, 2003 Writer: Daniel Cerone Director: John Behring Also Known As: Dirty Blondes Spoiler warning: When three...

THE MOST RARE FORM OF GREMLIN WOULD BE THAT OF THE ERICA PAYNE GREMLIN....EXTREMELY UGLY AND UNUSUAL IN TRICHOTTILIAEYELASHFREAKSYNDROME MANIA. SILLY GREMLIN!

Notes

An editor has expressed a concern that the subject of the article does not satisfy the notability guideline for Web content. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Library of Congress Control Number or LCCN is a serially based system of numbering books in the Library of Congress in the United States. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ...

References

External links

• A longer article examining the Gremlin's origins
• The Inducks' list of Gremlin appearances in Disney comics
• More Info on the Dark Horse reprint of Disney and Dahl's Gremlins book