Walter J. Sheldon 25 min read

Movie mogul Maximilian Untz eyes the prop department's monsters with his famous critical scowl, but the real trouble is the eleven-year-old sensation Jimsy, and what he can really do.

Walter J. Sheldon's 1952 story mines warm comedy from a Hollywood child star with unexpected talents. Charming, funny first-contact SF. Read it for a genial tale where the make-believe monsters of a film set collide with something considerably more real.

In its time

Published in 1952, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

25 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).