By Jim Nolt

There are, as Carl Sagan probably said, billions and billions of people in the world. I think I would have enjoyed meeting Sagan, but my fortunes did not extend that far. I wonder how many people I have actually met. Very few, I suppose, when compared to the total of the world. But then the value of a circle of friends is not determined by its size but rather by the quality and variety of the people within it. And there is where I have had very good fortune… especially within the subset of friends within that circle… the subset I call the FOG… Friends of George.

And that brings me to the reason for this piece… for within this subset, among the FOGs, is found one Michael J. Hayde. You might not understand at first, but Michael J. Hayde invariably makes me think of the 1956 classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Oh not because he’s creepy, odd, or without feeling as my statement might suggest. No… to the contrary… Michael is delightfully friendly and generous with his time, energies, and feelings. So why do Michael and Invasion of the Body Snatchers converge within my brain? Well, it’s because I liken the work he’s done through the years in regards to George to the transformation of those extra-terrestrial pods upon landing in Santa Mira. Like the smooth, lifeless first blooms from those sinister pods, we were ignorant of the finer details of George’s life and needed Michael’s research to bring on a transformation. It is Michael who took our relatively formless body of knowledge and drew the age lines, added the fingerprints, and provided life to the story of George Reeves and the Adventures of Superman. Michael is a stickler for detail… and detail is what he gave us in his previous article “Superman Comes to Television” and more recent book, Flights of Fantasy: The Unauthorized But True Story of Radio and TV’s Adventures of Superman.

And it’s not only these major reflections of his research that are invaluable. I can’t tell you how often I’ve called upon Michael’s ability to uncover and remember important facts. I marvel in his ability to catalog those details and provide them when I need answers… even when he might have already provided the same detail to me only a short time before. I’m forgetful, you see, but I’ve never discovered that “quality” in Michael, and for that I am grateful.

And so, Mr. Hayde, I’m very happy and proud to induct you into the George Reeves Hall of Fame. Congratulations, my friend.