THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: SECRET LIFE OF NEIL ARMSTRONG

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40 years ago astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon and instead of making millions telling of his incredible landing on July 20, 1969 he became a virtual recluse in a small Ohio town!

The most famous astronaut in the world, 78, now leads an intensely secretive existence in bucolic Indian Hill, receiving mail under another name and is rarely seen in public. 

Every five years Armstrong joins fellow moon men Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins at a White House reception to commemorate man's greatest achievement in exploration and then once agains vanishes from media glare.

 "He's a very withdrawn individual," his barber Marx Sizemore said.  "I cut his hair for five years and he never mentioned that he was Neil Armstrong."

When asked about the moon shot by the stylist, Armstrong looked down.

"He was more interested in talking about golf," Sizemore divulged. "He's just a very private person who can't stand to be the center of attention."

After the historic landing, the three moon men were lauded around the world in parades and by teeming crowds of well wishers for practically a full year.  And then Neil just seemed to disappear.

"I was an engineering student at the University of Cincinnati when he showed up there in 1973 or 74 to teach in the Aerospace Engineering department," former student Mike Shannon told The ENQUIRER . "He had an office in our building, curiously it was the only office without a name tag. We all met him casually and he was very interested in NOT talking about his adventures on the moon. There was an implicit understanding among everybody there that he was not to be treated as anything but another professor."

Years later, Armstrong moved to Indian Hill after marrying his second wife Carol in 1994 and the couple spend much of their time in seclusion where the ex-NASA superstar receives his posts under the name Andy Knight – the name of his wife's first husband.

"He's just like everybody else," another neighbor said.  "He doesn't demand any special treatment."

Long time pal John Zwez, former curator of Ohio's Armstrong Air & Space Museum revealed Neil's elusive appeal.  "He took the quiet approach and I think people respect him for that."

 "We were really very privileged to live in that thin slice of history where we changed how man looks at himself and what he might become and where he might go," Armstrong himself said in 2001.