How legend becomes “Urban”…
Written by Jack Finney and published in Collier’s magazine,
this story has had a journey that took it from science fiction short story to
an accepted factual event...all within the space of a few decades. This 1951 story is comprised of a
first-person narrative that describes many different odd and paranormal
“events” in and around New York City, with the most infamous occurrence
comprising the final part of the tale. It
concerns a certain Mr. Fentz who vanishes from 1876, time travelling right into
Times Square…in 1951…and promptly gets himself struck and killed by a taxi cab. The detective working the case can’t for the
life of him figure out why this man is dressed in clothes whose style is 75
years out of date, why the coins in his pocket look brand new and yet have no
date later than ’76, not to mention the paper ephemera with addresses that are
no longer what they were in the 19th century…
It’s a great read, and very progressive within the realm of
fiction…it almost feels like an episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer
Limits or Alfred Hitchcock Presents…in fact it almost feels like a factual
narrative…it feels real, like it happened…but in fact it didn’t. It is simply a figment of Jack Finney’s
brilliant imagination. Over the years,
time-travel believers have taken this last portion of Finney’s story and
declared that it really occurred…some in fact have “proof” that it is a real
event…citing an ephemeral newspaper article that documents this strange event 5
months before Finney’s story hit the racks.
Needless to say…I couldn’t find this “rock solid” piece of
evidence. It might exist…but I’ve never
seen it…
So here we have the makings of an urban legend…tall
tale…balderdash…whatever. Here’s
something that is true…Jack Finney went on to write The Body Snatchers, and that book was made into a string of movies...
You can read the first edition of the story right out of the
September 15th, 1951 issue of Colliers’s Weekly magazine… I’m Scared