Film has been called many things: a world of fantasy, a ribbon of dreams, a magic carpet. Yet it takes more than dreams and fantasy to lift an audience above its daily cares. It takes craftsmen: lots of them.  Actors and actresses; producers, directors and writers; occasionally cinematographers have been celebrated for their skilled manipulation of the magic carpet. But there are others who more often go unsung, their work taken for granted: behind-the-scenes crewmen such as camera operators, lighting adjusters, sound men, prop men…and special effects men.  Except on awards night, most of these pros remain in the shadows.

Fortunately, we have a happy exception.  Among the craftsmen who brought The Adventures of Superman to vivid life, one name has risen to a prominence equal to any of the show’s writers and directors: Thol ‘Si’ Simonson, the man who, beginning in 1953, made George Reeves fly.

To be sure, Superman had been flying for a year: Reeves on a makeshift (and uncomfortable) rig that looked like a diving board under his costume, and stuntmen lifted by wires.  All of these effects passed muster because television screens were still mostly 12” or less in diameter.  But anyone with an ounce of foresight knew that this would change; if the show was to have future value, the work would need to improve.

Thol Simonson was an anonymous effects man who’d labored without screen credit for Paramount and R.K.O. when a colleague at the latter studio, cameraman Hal Stine, recommended him for TAOS.  Simonson looked at what had been done before, was told the horror stories of wires snapping and breakaway doors not giving way, and tasked with creating effects that would not only look more convincing but wouldn’t put the star’s health in jeopardy.

Audiences that have closely examined the second season of TAOS, and beheld Simonson’s results, know that he succeeded beyond anyone’s reasonable expectation.  To watch Reeves swoop toward and above us as he heads for the rogue meteor in “Panic in the Sky,” or smash through a concrete wall and preempt an execution in “Five Minutes to Doom,” or take Judy Ann Nugent’s Anne Carson “Around the World with Superman,” is to see a flesh-and-blood Superman, not a CGI imitation, carry us away on film’s magic carpet.  That nearly all the flying for this season was accomplished in just two days’ time speaks to Simonson’s skill and passion.  In the show’s later years, when time and money were both tightened, ‘Si’ still turned out solid work, as witness the invisible Superman fight in “The Phantom Ring” and the impressive shower of sparks from the Man of Steel’s hand in “The Man Who Made Dreams Come True.”  No wonder producer Whit Ellsworth saw to it that Simonson’s salary increased each year.

It was Simonson’s nature to strive for perfection.  The man worked hard and played hard; his off-screen passion was yacht racing, and he won several trophies with his 40’ Largo cruiser during the 1950’s and ‘60’s.   Simonson held the rank of Commodore for the Hollywood Yacht Club in 1955 (and his son Randy did so 52 years later), and was also a member of the Long Beach Yacht Club.  Today, the Southern California Cruiser’s Association awards a Thol Simonson Team Trophy to the club having accumulated the most points during their annual contest.

But ‘Si’ Simonson, as the Superman cast knew him, will always be held in esteem for his contribution to TAOS; for creating effects that were, as one writer put it, “charged with more energy than a bowl of Sugar Frosted Flakes.”  Jack Larson has said he learned the hard way that not every special effects man was as skilled as Simonson, and his sole advice to the producers of “Superman: The Movie” (1978) was to add ‘Si’ to their crew.  But by then Simonson was retired from film and racing, and content to sail and enjoy his leisure.

Today, most of the TAOS craftsmen have left us.  All the producers and directors are gone, as are many of the writers, cameramen and others.  Nearly all the guest villains, plus John Hamilton and Robert Shayne, are gone…and fifty years later, admirers feel the loss of George Reeves more keenly, not less.  Fortunately, the 98-year-old Simonson today resides in Arizona with one of his two sons; proud to have been part of such an iconic series and touched that his work is remembered so fondly by its followers.