Twilight Zone Fun Facts
Submitted for your approval, a nypost.com headline straight out of The Twilight Zone: “Man fills bowling ball with father’s ashes — then bowls perfect game.”
Speaking of which, I learned something interesting about a writer who was not credited for the three episodes he contributed to the iconic series: Living Doll, the one in which Telly Savalas is terrorized by his stepdaughter’s Talky Tina; The New Exhibit, in which Martin Balsam preserves wax museum figures of murderers; Queen of the Nile, in which Ann Blyth is an actress who doesn;t age. They were originally attributed to Charles Beaumont, who was suffering simultaneously from Pick’s Disease (premature aging) and early-onset Alzheimer’s. He passed away at 38 in 1967. The three scripts were actually written by Jerry Sohl. He and other writers ceded credit and earnings to help pay Beaumont’s medical bills. Sohl also contributed four scripts to Alfred Hitchcock Presents, three to the original Star Trek, and two to The Invaders. His Wiki profile lists 24 novels and two works of non-fiction. He also has at least partial credit on five screenplays, none of which I recall. He passed away at 88 in 1982… George Clayton Thomas also came to the aid of Beaumont with The Prime Mover, the episode in which Buddy Ebsen manipulates dice with his thoughts. He also wrote an episode each of Star Trek and Hitchcock. He also wrote the novels Ocean’s Eleven, adapted to the big screen in 1960, and Logan’s Run, co-written with William F. Nolan, adapted in 1976. He passed away at 86 in 2015… John Tomerlin wrote Number 12 Looks Just Like You, the one in which 19-year-olds undergo an operation to look like Pamela Austin, Richard Long or others Marilyn Manson would dub the beautiful people. He contributed one script to Thriller, and at least one to five other series. He wrote at least six novels… Oceo Ritch did not receive credit for Dead Man’s Shoes, in which a homeless man played by Warren Stevens wears the shoes of a dead gangster and sees his life transformed, and Static, an adaption of one of his short stories, in which Dean Jagger’s radio picks up programs from decades earlier. I found very little info on him. He has one acting credit: The Intruder (1962), which starred William Shatner in a story about race. Ritch passed away at 59 in 1981. Here’s a publicity still from one of the #12 episode:
In the novel I’m reading I came across a word I doubt I’ve ever used verbally, and definitely not in my writing, although I’ve long been familiar with it: “aplomb,” defined as “self-confidence or assurance, especially when in a demanding situation.” The definition and pronunciation seem at odds.
There was a bit less wind and a much warmer temperature than yesterday on this gorgeous afternoon. My thanks to Lynn and local porter Robert, who each donated a handful of books, and to the gentleman who bought two hardcovers in Russian; and to the woman who purchased Chasing Destiny by Eric Jerome Dickey and Little Green: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley.
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