{"id":7779,"date":"2012-09-24T21:01:42","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T01:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=7779"},"modified":"2012-09-24T21:01:42","modified_gmt":"2012-09-25T01:01:42","slug":"i-cant-escape-science-fictioncan-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2012\/09\/24\/i-cant-escape-science-fictioncan-you\/","title":{"rendered":"I can’t escape science fiction—can you?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite parts of a newspaper is the obituaries page. I love seeing how lives are summed up by friends and family (and sometimes, the deceased themselves), how a lifetime can be condensed into paragraphs. And often, I’m reminded that science fiction is everywhere<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Take this obituary that appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post <\/em><\/a>for Evelyn Offutt, who died on September 2 at age 94. It states that, “Her parents divorced when she was young. Fred, a professional athlete, moved to California and made a new life as an actor.” Note the phrasing, how he didn’t just try<\/em> to make a new life as an actor, but he actually did<\/em> make a new life as an actor.<\/p>\n

As you can see below, Evelyn Somers led a fascinating life, but the question I was left with after reading that sentence in her obituary was …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… who was this Fred Somers? (For Somers was Evelyn’s maiden name.) Should I have heard of him? Have you?<\/p>\n

A search for that name on IMDB brings up a Cap Somers<\/a>, born Fredrick Grant Somers, who had “a daughter from his first marriage, Evelyn S. Offutt,” so I know I’ve found the right man.<\/p>\n

Aside from bit parts in many TV Westerns such as Gunsmoke<\/em>, The Big Valley<\/em>, and Bonanza<\/em> as “Boxing Spectator,” “Poker Player.” and “Barfly Who Gets Drink Stolen,” Somers also appeared in Man of a Thousand Faces<\/em>, The Thing from Another World<\/em> (though IMDB lists that one as “unconfirmed”), plus two chapters of the 1936 Flash Gordon<\/em> serial.<\/p>\n

Which means Cap Somers was (sort of) one of us.<\/p>\n

I can’t escape science fiction. Can you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite parts of a newspaper is the obituaries page. I love seeing how lives are summed up by friends and family (and sometimes, the deceased themselves), how a lifetime can be condensed into paragraphs. And often, I’m reminded that science fiction is everywhere. Take this obituary that appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[85],"class_list":["post-7779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}