Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree

that the first book I borrowed from the library at age seven was a fantasy novel; that my first poems and stories at age seven were of a fantasy nature. In essence, I was born to be a writer, and probably a fantasy writer predominantly.
    Following a childhood in Brooklyn, combat in Germany in World War II (from which experience he wrote his novel The Beardless Warriors), and college at the University of Missouri (majoring in journalism), Matheson emerged determined to have a writing career. But it didnt come easy. After I got out of college, I couldnt get a job on a newspaper or a magazine, he says. Donald Berwick, an editor at Esquire, suggested that I get a night job and work in the daytime since I wanted to write. So I got a night job typing up address plates for magazines at a place my brother ran, then started writing short stories. Within a few months, I sold Born of Man and Woman.
    Born of Man and Woman appeared in the Summer 1950 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. A gruesome yet sensitive story told first person from the viewpoint of a hideously malformed mutant child kept chained in a basement, it gained Matheson instant notoriety and has come to be recognized as a classic of the field. In succeeding years, Matheson gathered extensive credits, selling to most of the major science fiction magazines, as well as writing numerous film and television scripts. Occasionally, these areas of interest overlapped: what initially brought him out to Hollywood was to adapt his novel The Shrinking Man (Fawcett, 1956) into Universals The Incredible Shrinking Man,.Mathesons stories, particularly his horror stories, were remarkably powerful and their effect was considerable. Writer Stephen King says of Matheson, He was the first guy that I ever read who seemed to be doing something that Lovecraft wasnt doing. It wasnt eastern Europe the horror could be in the Seven-Eleven store down the block, or it could be just up the street. Something terrible could be going on even in a G.I. Bill-type ranch development near a college, it could be there as well. And to me, as a kid, that was a revelation, that was extremely exciting. He was putting the horror in places that I could relate to.
    Mathesons approach to writing was one that suited The Twilight Zone perfectly: To me, fantasy at its best (strictly personal, of course) consists of putting in one drop of fantasy into a mixture which is, otherwise, completely factual, realistic. And, once that drop of fantasy has been put into the mixture, I try to forget that I am writing a fantasy and write as realistic a story as I can, recalling, of course, that the springboard has been some offbeat concept.
    The transition to writing for The Twilight Zone went very smoothly. Chuck and I pitched ideas and then started writing scripts, says Matheson. For a long time it was just the two of us and Rod.
    It should be noted that during the years that Matheson and Beaumont were regular contributors to The Twilight Zone they were also busy writing short stories, novels, teleplays for other series, and screenplays. The films Matheson wrote scripts for during the Twilight Zone years include House of Usher; The Pit and the Pendulum, Master of the World, Tales of Terror, The Raven, The Comedy of Terrors, and (with Beaumont and George Baxt) Bum, Witch, Bum. Beaumonts film scripts include The Intruder, The Premature Burial (with Ray Russell), The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (with David R Harmon and William Roberts), The Haunted Palace, and The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao.
     
    THE LAST FLIGHT (2/5/60)
    Kenneth Haigh
    Written by Richard Matheson
    Producer: Buck Houghton
    Director: William Claxton
    Director of Photography:George T. Clemens
    Music: stock
    Cast:
    Flight Lt. Decker: Kenneth Haigh Major Wilson: Simon Scott General Harper:Alexander Scourby Air Marshal Mackaye:Robert Warwick Stunt Pilot: Frank Gifford Tallman Corporal: Harry Raybould Guard: Jerry Catron Jeep Driver: Paul Baxley Truck